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Developing intellectual capital and knowledge management measuring systems are two fast growing research areas. Many companies are striving to be known as knowledge organizations and have started measuring and analyzing organizational intellectual capital indicators based on what has been reported in the literature. Very little effort has been made to standardize the measurement and reporting of these indicators with most organizations using very general components. This article discusses a research study that sets out to gain an understanding of management attitudes to the measurement of intellectual capital. The study was conducted with 36 top management participants with at least 20 years of experience in a service‐related industry in Australia. This research investigates the relationship between the perception of the importance of measuring intellectual capital indicators and the level of understanding of these indicators. The strategic implications of understanding the measurements are also discussed within the context of the attitude of top management.

The main research question of the paper is to determine whether technology nowadays is overcome by customer preferences and needs. In particular, the role of the brand is to be analysed with respect to its influence in shifting customer preferences from the technical performances (tangible elements) to the emotional/symbolic ones (intangible elements).

Consumer behaviour was analysed by interviewing a random (but well stratified) sample of mobile phone users in order to study their consumption style and the motivations underlying the buying process in order to understand, on the one hand, the variables that influence people in the usage of mobile phones and, on the other, those that influence firms in launching new products, both from a technological point of view and from a marketing one.

The findings show various dimensions that are relevant in consumer minds when considering decisions regarding technological products. Brand attitudes do relate positively to consumer intention to use (purchase) specific mobile phones over others.

The study, though exploratory, has underlined the importance of brand and the dualism between marketing and technology in the adoption and diffusion of technological products. Certainly, the analysis has some limitations, but it provides an initial perspective into understanding brand issues. Future research should focus on the effects of the cooperation between mobile operators and mobile manufacturers.

This paper provides an analysis of the brand attitude and perception tested and viewed through user eyes.

The purpose of this paper is to consider whether the affective components of brand association influence the key stakeholders of business‐to‐business (B2B) brands. The aim is to demonstrate the importance of branding to organisations involved only in B2B markets by testing three hypotheses: that the customer's affective brand associations predict satisfaction with the company; that customer and employee affective brand associations correlate, and; that the better the training employees believe they receive, the stronger their affective brand associations and the higher their satisfaction with the organisation.

The paper uses a survey of the customers (280) and employees (367) of two construction companies involved only in B2B markets using a multidimensional measure of corporate brand personality. Structural equation modelling and regression are used to test the hypotheses.

Customer satisfaction is predicted by corporate brand personality. The customer view correlates significantly with the employee view. The quality of training in turn helps predict the employee view and their satisfaction.

Building affective associations with a pure B2B brand is an effective way to increase customer satisfaction. This in turn appears to depend on the employee view which depends, inter alia, on their view of the quality of training they receive. Further work is required to identify other factors that may influence the employee view of a B2B brand and how the employee view influences the customer view.

Few studies in B2B marketing are of companies involved only in B2B markets, despite the large number of firms and the volume of business that is conducted in this sector. The study demonstrates both the influence of a strong brand image in B2B marketing but also how customers might acquire such an image.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework to help business marketers with online and traditional retail channels (multi‐channel retailers) to find the optimal branding strategy and market structure in order to maximize their profits.

A game‐theoretic model is developed to determine the optimal branding strategy and market structure for the dual‐channel stores of a multi‐channel retailer.

The paper demonstrates that an optimal branding strategy and market structure exists for the dual‐channel stores of a multi‐channel retailer. When a retailer uses multiple channels in parallel to sell its product, the optimal branding strategy is to employ as large as possible brand differentiation between the dual‐channel stores, particularly when the price is less sensitive for consumers and the market base size is larger. Furthermore, it is also found that the optimal market structure is the Stackelberg mode, especially when the product brands between the two channels are less differentiated.

The present study assumed that all information is known to both the online and traditional channels of a multi‐channel retailer. However, information could be incomplete. It is recommended that future research explore the value of product brand differentiation under incomplete information settings.

The paper provides a very useful model framework, branding strategy, and market structure for business managers who are using or planning to use multiple channels to sell their products.

This paper fills a conceptual and practical gap for a structured analysis of the current state of knowledge about multi‐channel branding strategies. The paper provides practical and solid advice and examples demonstrating the application of product brand differentiation strategies for business managers.

After the sale of a primary product, firms often have the opportunity to sell ancillary products or services in support of the primary brand. These add‐ons or services may be offered in a generic or in a branded form. The aim of the this paper is to study the demand for add‐on services in the mobile communications industry and to detail a methodology that can be employed to make this assessment.

A field experimental design approach using two‐brand manipulations, four‐price points and six content applications was employed. The study was fielded at a mall intercept facility in a major urban center. Interviews with 389 mobile phone users between the ages 18‐31 were conducted.

Results extend brand equity theory into the context of ancillary product sales and demonstrate that branded ancillary services can command a price premium and are less sensitive to price increases than unbranded alternatives.

Given the growth of demand for non‐voice mobile services, proliferation of such services and the global competition in the industry, marketing managers are under constant pressure to differentiate while achieving revenue goals. This study provides a methodology for managers to calculate the price premium that branded ancillary services may provide over unbranded alternatives and, hence, estimates the worth of potential brand partnerships.

This study extends brand equity theory by recognizing an overlooked scenario: offering branded versus generic ancillary services after the sales of the primary products, through which firms can leverage brand equity benefits.

This paper aims to provide a theoretical analysis of contemporary brand communication for technology products, focused on how the human body functions as a metaphorical and communicative device, to shed insight into how technological brands make their products understandable, tangible, and attractive in interesting ways.

An interdisciplinary conceptual review and analysis focuses on issues of metaphor and the body in marketing research and social theory. This analysis is discussed and applied to the communication of technological brands.

The paper argues that to successfully communicate technological brands requires interdisciplinary insights in order to understand consumption contexts. It proposes an analytic framework for practice and research focused on visual communication for technology brands and products, and demonstrates how advertising both creates and contributes to culture.

Researchers need to understand that a sole focus on the advertising system needs to be supplemented by an understanding of how the symbol of the body in technology advertisements is reflective and productive of meaning in socio‐cultural discourse.

Brand researchers need to add to the prevailing advertising as persuasion model to encompass representation and culture in brand communications. The paper contributes to understanding how basic visual forms, such as the human body, are employed in technology product marketing. It challenges marketers and researchers to broaden their conception of branding and marketing communications to one more consistent with an image economy.

The purpose of this paper is to design and test a model for the internal anchorage of a business‐to‐business brand via corporate brand orientation.

Data from 261 usable responses to a questionnaire distributed in the German business‐to‐business sector, were applied to model estimation by the “soft modelling” partial‐least‐squares regression technique.

The structure of the brand orientation model is supported by the results. The findings demonstrate the positive influence of brand orientation on market and economic performance. Smaller business‐to‐business companies exhibit lower levels of brand orientation than larger counterparts, to their strategic disadvantage. Line of business and management type had no influence on brand orientation in this survey.

Business‐to‐business brand managers now have empirically‐based evidence for the benefits of intensive implementation of brand orientation. The associated four‐level conceptual model of the phenomenon offers them an enhanced understanding of the process, procedures and probable outcomes. It can be used for management control as well as strategic planning and implementation.

The paper is the first empirical study to examine the internal aspects of branding in the business‐to‐business sector, and one of the first large‐scale surveys that is not industry‐specific to analyse the link between brand management and company performance.

The goal of this paper is to understand the relationship between advertising spending and the volume and valence of publicity, and assessments of corporate brands (opinion, value and reputation).

Two studies examine major multi‐national companies as brands by bringing together five unique industry datasets to understand the connection between the assessments of the corporate brand and marketing communication activity. Discriminant analysis is used to study the differential impact of advertising and publicity on corporate brand attitude and value.

Publicity and advertising volume are important drivers in differentiating between firms with lower and higher brand evaluations. Overall, publicity valence, in and of itself, had little effect outside of the volume of positive and negative stories. Further, the role of prior corporate reputation works in conjunction and has unique effects that influence the communication activities of firms with high and low brand attitudes and value. The valence of publicity matters least for firms with strong prior reputations. Instead volume dominates for these firms. For lower reputation firms, the mix of communication that distinguishes stronger and weaker performance is more complex with both publicity valence and publicity and ad volume playing slightly different roles in the two studies.

The findings suggest that companies with different levels of brand evaluation (opinion and value) have distinct marketing communication profiles which can be labelled communication footprints. Further, this relationship is moderated by prior corporate reputation. Firms seeking to change stakeholder evaluations must pay particular attention to both the overall volume of publicity received, as well as the ratio of positive to negative publicity volume. Advertising spending plays an important supportive role in these evaluations.

The study adds to the understanding of the communication signals that influence corporate branding. Specifically, it brings together a unique set of industry data to investigate the influence of marketing communication activities on brand opinion and value. Further, the findings contribute to the discussion of the role that company publicity and volume play in developing the corporate brand.

Reporting the value of intellectual capital (IC) in the disclosure process for stakeholders has focused largely on the construction of indicators determined by the companies. This paper reports a study conducted with the investment community to determine the information they need to assist them in making investment decisions. This research project sets out to answer what are the perceptions towards strategic capital information required to assist in decision making and what are perceived as the most important or critical strategic management capital and strategic marketing capital indicators. More specifically, the study addresses the inter‐relationship between the knowledge of indicators and the perceived importance of disclosing the information on these indicators.