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This paper aims to explore the rationale, the process and the outcomes and risks of place branding in rural China.

An in-depth case study analysis, including interviews, has been conducted.

Place branding in the case of China is practiced and dominated through administrative entities by using subsidies and regional development programs to coordinate, organize and promote local agricultural resources. Although this government-led place branding has effective effects on rural development, it is unsustainable and unstable because it lacks sufficient market and stakeholder participation.

The effectiveness of place branding in China has been examined and proved.

The government’s role in place branding in China should be adjusted. The government should position itself as a service and auxiliary role. Simultaneously, it should strengthen market-oriented operations and stakeholder participation in place branding.

This paper is one of the first contributions to examine the impact of place branding as a rural development policy tool in China, and the in-depth case study examines and proves the effectiveness of place branding in rural China.

This paper aims to explore Chinese hoteliers' perspectives on co‐branding between hotels and products of other industries or sectors.

A survey with both structured and open‐ended questions was distributed to 300 Chinese hotel executive level hoteliers attending the 2009 International Forum on China Hotel Brand Development.

The results of the 72 surveys indicate benefits as well as drawbacks for both hotels and their potential co‐branding partners in the Chinese hospitality industry, the most important being the lack of brand awareness for both Chinese and Western brands.

The paper contributes to the existing literature by adding the Chinese hospitality industry context into the much studied Western industry context: the research is timely given the position and significance of the Chinese market in the world tourism arena.

This article reviews and discusses issues in the translation of international brand names to Chinese, and provides a framework for international brand managers who want to expand into China. Linguistic differences between Chinese and English are wide and deep, making translation of brand names difficult. Cultural context, pronunciation, written vs. oral language, and the meaning of characters are just a few examples of such difficulties. We discuss four global product‐naming strategic alternatives available to country/brand managers, along with their usage. The four approaches include (1) dual extension, (2) brand meaning extension, (3) brand feeling extension, and (4) dual adaptation. We also provide examples of brands utilizing the different approaches.

The aim of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for nation branding based on the concepts of co‐branding and perceived fit, and to apply these concepts to discuss the type of nation brand that China may develop and how this brand relates to individual destinations through brand architecture.

Branding is a deliberate process applied to the shaping of a nation's image and reputation on the global stage, in the heightened global competition for ascendancy. The paper reviews selected literature of national identity and nation branding to identify models, techniques and prior research that informs nation branding. This paper examines national branding and nation building from the perspective of international tourism promotion and development.

The formation of the Chinese national identity is the result of a complicated historical progression, as well as current national aspirations, and the process of globalization and the introduction of the market system. Branding the nation in the globalised world is a strategy or tool in the competition for attention and wealth, as well as a tool of self‐affirmation. Nation brands are more complex to develop and less tangible than corporate brands.

The paper identifies that value of examining nation branding as a form of co‐branding, with the related concepts of perceived fit, brand architecture as well as existing techniques.

This paper aims to understand employees’ perceptions of human resources management functions and how these affect brand performance, and the indirect influence of human resources management functions when mediated by job satisfaction in branded hotels in China. Hotel human resources functions, specifically organizational career management, and internal branding in hotels in mainland China were examined. The mediating effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between organizational career management and internal branding on brand performance was also examined.

A survey of hotel supervisors and middle managers in mainland China yielded 510 valid questionnaires for data analysis. Structural equation modeling was used to empirically test the relationships between human resources management functions (organizational career management, internal branding and job satisfaction) and brand performance in four- and five-star hotels in China.

The structural equation modeling results showed strong support for the mediating effect of job satisfaction on the relationships between organizational career management, internal branding and brand performance. Interestingly, although internal branding significantly affected brand performance, organizational career management alone did not.

The main limitation was the use of a convenience sampling method, which means respondents may not represent a sufficiently broad sample of hotel employees. Future studies are encouraged to explore internal branding and hotel career management using a probability sampling method.

The findings offer new insights and directions for hotel human resources managers to improve brand performance, either through promoting internal branding itself, or by enhancing organizational career management, internal branding and employees’ job satisfaction to achieve brand performance.

This is the first empirical study to analyze hotel management employees’ perceptions of the relationships between hotel human resources management, employees’ job satisfaction and hotel brand performance in China. The findings demonstrate the usefulness of applying human resources management functions to hotel branding.

The purpose of this paper is to monitor the changes of delivery of city branding advertisements in China and to try to find a tendency of city branding ads in the delivery for the future.

The quantitative research methods used in this paper study the advertisements with city image messages in 13 China Central Television (CCTV) channels that appeared between the year of 2007 to 2010 – a total of 320,653 advertisements. This paper is based on several data sets: advertisement producers, regional distribution of producers, advertisement time slots, types of advertisings, and other such categories. In addition, they have also studied city branding advertisings from international producers in terms of channel selections, program choices, and media outlet choices and so forth.

Through an analysis of quantity and total duration of city image advertisements, it can be concluded that first‐tier cities have been reducing the broadcasting of city image ads domestically yearly, and third‐tier cities are proving to be a significant power in producing city branding advertisements. Significantly, the eastern littoral region has surpassed the central and west region both in the duration and in growth rate of city branding advertisements. Moreover, between 2007 and 2010, a total of nine foreign cities have produced city branding advertisements on CCTV channels. Unlike cities in China, international cities have scattered their ads widely across different periods of one day.

Finally, based on analysis of advantages and disadvantages in city image advertisements strategies applied by those advanced cities at home and abroad, this author hopes this study can offer some scientifically based reference point for other cities.

Based on analysis of advantages and disadvantages in city image advertisements strategies applied by those advanced cities at home and abroad, this study tries to offer some scientifically based reference point for other cities.

To examine the state of health of branding in China, focusing on the performance of major Chinese enterprises in creating brands (as distinct from brand names), sustaining them in the huge domestic market and expand them into global markets.

The study begins with a historical review of the development of marketing in China, discusses the transition from price competition to branding in the domestic market, and explains the role of government in the process. Thereafter, case histories describe, analyse and discuss the routes to internationalisation followed by taken by six of China's biggest brands.

Modern Chinese companies are large and successful as manufacturers, but uncertain about the relative merits of branding and global marketing versus continuation as OEMs for established global brands. If they do have international ambitions, they seem unsure about strategy, or even about where to look for precedents and advice. Many initiatives have met with comparative failure; only one, the Lemovo‐IBM merger, seems to offer a blueprint for success, but has been in operation only since 2005. Many lessons remain to be learnt, applied and tested.

Six case histories, however well chosen, cannot be considered a definitive picture of the Chinese approach to international brand marketing. The findings are nevertheless highly indicative.

International marketing strategists are obliged to have an interest in China, by virtue of the simple fact of its size and dynamism. Several of the companies discussed are the largest of their kind in the world. Despite the limitations noted, the actual and potential conclusions to be drawn from the findings reported here are therefore a significant contribution to the body of applicable knowledge.

Whereas many authors have studied Western brands in China, little has been known about the potential of Chinese brands in the West.

Although the concept of branding has been considered extensively in products and services, branding in Chinese is a relatively emerging phenomenon. This paper aims to present the enlivenment of branding in Chinese within the cross‐strait markets of Taiwan and Mainland China, which underlies various ideologies.

This study primarily reviews literatures of brand and brand name translation, defines the essentiality of brand naming, and outlines the branding strategies for entering cross‐strait markets. Furthermore, this study validates the using of substantially interpreted brands that support the authors' four developed propositions.

This study compares substantially interpreted brands in cross‐strait markets with a reference to commonly used translation methods. The results illustrate interesting ideologies among cross‐strait markets and can help managers achieve global brand recognition.

Since China and Taiwan share the same Chinese culture, the qualitative method proposed by the present authors is more applicable to practitioners who are eager to pursue branding in cross‐strait markets. Thus, the relevant techniques may not be applicable to people less familiar with Chinese culture.

The qualitative case study provides an advisable method for branding in Chinese. The results of this study can provide greater understanding of the various ideologies in cross‐strait markets, as well as help managers achieve global brand recognition.

The various ideologies from branding is complex, especially for those involved with linguistic essentials. Previous research has mainly focused on managerial‐based branding and customer‐based branding. This paper extends the interest into enlivening inspirations.

This paper aims to examine the unique Chinese context by analyzing the city labels (e.g. smart city and eco city) used by Chinese local governments at or above the provincial capital level to represent themselves (adopted city labels) and the developmental pathways they actually pursued (adopted developmental pathways).

The authors compared the city brand choices to those anticipated based on their geographic and economic contexts (predicted city labels and developmental pathways) as well as the directives outlined in national planning documents (imposed city labels and developmental pathways). The authors identified ten main categories of city labels used to designate themselves and establish the frequency of their use based on municipal plan documents, economic and geographic data and national plan documents and policy reports, respectively.

The authors discovered that both local economic development and geographic factors, as well as top-down administrative influences, significantly impact city branding strategies in the 38 Chinese cities studied. When these models fall short in predicting adopted city labels and pathways, it is often because cities favor a service-oriented reputation over a manufacturing-focused one, and they prefer diverse, multifaceted industrial images to uniform ones.

The originality and value of this paper lie in its contribution to the academic literature on city branding by developing a predictive model for brand development at the municipal level, with explicit attention to the national-local nexus. The paper’s approach differs from existing research in the first cluster of city branding by not addressing issues of stakeholder involvement or adoption and implementation processes. Additionally, the paper’s focus on the political power dynamics at the national level and urban governance details at the municipal level provides a unique perspective on the topic. Overall, this paper provides a valuable contribution to the field of city branding by expanding the understanding of brand development and its impact on the socioeconomic environment.

This study examined the effects of perceived brand localness (PBL) and perceived brand globalness (PBG) on consumer behavioral intentions (CBIs) (PI – purchase intentions, PP – price premium and WOM – word of mouth) via brand authenticity (BA). Additionally, this study considered the moderating impact of uncertainty avoidance (UA) and the control variable brand familiarity (BF) in emerging markets (EMs), specifically from China and Pakistan contexts.

This study scrutinized 1,638 responses (China, n = 804 and Pakistan, n = 834) from consumers who used discussed local and global brands. The proposed hypotheses were evaluated using the PLS-SEM technique.

The findings indicated that the PBL and PBG favorably impacted BA, which significantly affected CBIs in both EMs. Specifically, PBL strongly influenced BA in China, whereas PBG strongly affected BA in Pakistan. The direct effects of PBL and PBG supported CBIs (PI, PP and WOM) in Pakistan. Likewise, PBL was significant on PP and WOM, whereas PBG was significant on PP in China. In Pakistan, UA had a significant moderating impact on PBL and BA. Similarly, UA acted as a positive moderator between BA and CBIs (PI and WOM) in Pakistan but was not supported in China.

This study examined only two EMs. Future studies may examine emerging vs developed markets. Theoretically, PBL and PBG are important brand signals associated with brand authenticity that communicate to mitigate information asymmetry in EMs. Likewise, brand authenticity was recognized as a positive signal that effectively corresponds to CBIs (in terms of their PI, PP, WOM) by fulfilling brand promises in both EMs. Additionally, UA was proved an effective moderator, improving consumer perceptions of brand authenticity about local brands and increasing PI and WOM toward perceived authentic brands in Pakistan.

This research revealed important recommendations to help local and global managers in developing and executing several branding strategies in EMs (China and Pakistan). Practically, by improving the brand's localness and globalness, local and global managers may successfully position their brands to influence consumers' perceptions in EMs. Similarly, brand authenticity is a vital positioning tool for managers that favorably influence consumer behavior. Additionally, managers can segment and target their markets by classifying high and low UA consumers, particularly in Pakistan.

Following signaling theory, this is the first study that contributes toward CBIs in EMs via brand authenticity and considering cultural factors (uncertainty avoidance) from the domestic and international branding perspectives.