品牌定位外文文献.docx

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文献信息

标题:

ClarifyingtheBrandOrientationConstructforBusiness-to-BusinessSector

作者:

Anees-ur-Rehman,Muhammad

出版物名称:

InternationalJournalofBusinessandManagement

卷:

9；期:

12；页:

62-73；页数:

12；出版年份:

2014

ISSN:

18333850

（完整文献，请到XX文库）

ClarifyingtheBrandOrientationConstructforBusiness-to-BusinessSector

Anees-ur-Rehman,Muhammad

Abstract

Purposeofthisconceptualarticleistoclarifyscopeandproposemodelofbrandorientationinbusiness-to-business（B2B）sector.BrandorientationwasfirstintroducedbyUrde（1994）.Toauthor'sknowledge,Baumgarth（2010）istheonlyarticletoproposeandempiricallytestbrandorientationconstructinB2Bcontextinnearly20years.Nootherstudyoffersexplanationtoconceptualizebrandorientationforindustrialsupplier'sperspective.Thisarticleaddressesfollowingquestions.HowbrandorientationisrelevantinB2Bsector?

AndhowbrandorientationcanbeconceivedandoperationalizedbyindustrialsupplierinB2Bsector?

Itextensivelyreviewsthebrandorientation,industrialmarketingandstrategicmanagementliteraturetouncoverelementsofbrandorientationinindustrialcontext.Modelhasthreeinterdependentlevels（mindset,managementandperformance）,andeachlevelisembeddedintointernalandexternalenvironmentofindustrialsupplier.

Keywords:

brandorientation,B2Bbranding,B2Bmarketing,branding

1.Introduction

Brandorientationisallaboutcreating,developingandprotectingbrands.TheoriginofbrandorientationcanbetracedtothearticleofUrde（1994）.Sofarthisconcepthasbeenappliedtovariouscontextsincludingnonprofit,place,smallbusinesses,publicandconsumersector（Baumgarthetal.,2013）.Mostofthesearticlesreportedpositiveeffectofbrandorientationonbrandstrengthandrelatedcompany/organizationalperformance.

BrandingstrategiesinB2Bsectorwasquiteunpopularsubjectforscholarsbefore2007（Keränenetal.,2012）.Onlyinrecentyears,practitionersandacademicsrealizedtheneedtoadvancetheunderstandingofbrand'sroleininter-organizationaltransactionsbecauseastrongbrandisoftenassociatedwithseveralstrategicbenefits（Leek&Christodoulides,2011;Glynn,2012）.Tomakebrandstrongerneedsabrandcentricapproachlikebrandorientation.ApplicationofbrandorientationinB2Bsectorisnearlynonexistent.Toauthor'sknowledge,Baumgarth（2010）istheonlyarticletoproposeandempiricallytestbrandorientationmodelinbusiness-to-business（B2B）context.Healsoreportedpositiveeffectofbrandorientationonmarketingandcompanyperformance.

ThisarticleacknowledgestheneedtoclarifythebrandorientationconstructthatfitaccordingtothecharacteristicsofB2Bmarkets.Therefore,basedonextensiveliteraturereviewofstrategicmanagement,brandorientationandindustrialmarketing,thisarticleoffersaclarificationandinformationtoreducethebarriersinimplementingbrandorientationinB2B.Researchquestionsare.

1）HowbrandorientationisrelevantinB2Bsector?

2）HowbrandorientationcanbeconceivedandoperationalizedbyindustrialsupplierinB2Bsector?

BecausetheprominentcharacteristicofB2Bvalueexchangeisrelational（Hadjikhani&LaPlaca,2013）,thereforearticlemakesanotionthatbrand'sprimaryroleisrelationshipdevelopmentwithinandoutsideofacompanyinB2Bsector.Inaddition,drawingfromstrategicmanagementprocess（Slateretal.,2006;HoferandSchendel,1978）,articleconsidersmindset,managementandperformanceareessentialandinterdependentlevelofbrandorientationconstructs.Therefore,brandorientationmodelhasthreelevels（mindset,managementandperformance）andeachlevelisembeddedintointernalandexternalenvironments.

2.LiteratureReview

2.1BrandOrientation

Brandisasymbolicrepresentationofcompany（orproduct）values.Accordingtobrandorientation,brandprovidesastrategicplatformtoconsolidateuniquesetofvaluestonotonlysatisfycustomerneedsbutalsotomanageallinternalandexternalactivities（Urdeetal.,2013）.Forbrandorientedcompaniesbrandisnotanunconditionalresponsetocustomerneeds,asinmarketorientation（Urde,1999）.Therefore,itisaninside-outapproach.

Brandorientationis"anapproachinwhichtheprocessesoftheorganizationrevolvesaroundthecreation,development,andprotectionofbrandidentityinanongoinginteractionwithtargetcustomerswiththeaimofachievinglastingcompetitiveadvantagesintheformofbrands"（Urde,1999,p.117）.BridsonandEvans（2004,p.404）definedas"thedegreetowhichtheorganizationvaluesbrandsanditspracticesareorientedtowardsbuildingbrandcapabilities".Brandorientationconsiders"brandasaresourceandstrategichub"where"thecoreofthisorientationiscustomersatisfactionwithinthelimitsofthecorebrandidentity"（Urdeetal.,2013,p.14,16）.

WongandMerrilees（2005,p.157）definedas"theextenttowhichthemarketingstrategyandactivitiesarecenteredonthebrand".Baumgarth（2010,p.656）definedas"specifictypeofmarketingorientation,whichisdistinguishedbythehighrelevanceaccordedtobrandingbytopmanagement".WongandMerrilees（2007,p.400）defined"brandorientationisassociatedwiththeuseofthebrandtointegrateallaspectofmarketingandoperations,instillingagreatconsistencythatachievessynergiesacrosscomponentofmarketingandmanagement".

Thisstudyisconsideringbrandorientationatcorporatelevel,notproductlevel.Becausecorporatebrandnameisthereflectiontothevaluesonwhichacompanystands.Industrialbuyersarealsomoresensitivetocorporatebrandimage（Beverlandetal.,2007）.

2.2BrandOrientationinB2BSector

MajorityofliteratureseekingapplicationofbrandinB2Bcontextisnotmorethanadecadeold（LeekandChristodoulides,2011;Glynn,2012;Keränenetal.,2012）.Byandlargethesearticleshaveevaluatedtheeffectofbrandoncustomer'sbuyingprocess（Baumgarth,2010）.Theyhavefoundthatindustrialsupplier'sbrandscanproducecustomer'sloyalty,reducerisk,repeatpurchase（Leischnig&Enke,2011;Walleyetal.,2007）.Attractnewcustomers,effectivelytargetandpositionproductsforcleardifferentiation（Blomb?

ck&Axelsson,2007）;transfersproductsknowledgetocustomer（Guptaetal.,2010）;andearnpremiumprices（Persson,2010）;imageconsistency,positioning,effectivecommunication,legalprotection,uniquenessandvaluesolutiontocustomers（Michelletal.,2001）.

However,thereislimitedtheoreticalexplanationforabrandstrategywhichisalignedwiththecharacteristicsofB2Bsector（Glynn,2012;Leek&Christodoulides,2011）.SowhatmakesB2Bsectordifferent?

HadjikhaniandLaPlaca（2013）reviewedB2Bliteratureforlast100yearsandconcludedwithtwodimensions.B2Bliteratureisfundamentallyatug-of-warbetweeneconomicandbehavioraltheories.Economictheoriesseemarketingprocessasforfinancialgains,butbehaviortheoriesemphasizemoreonmutualbenefits（includingfinancialbenefits）bydevelopingstrongrelationships.However,authorsobservedashiftofinterestfromeconomictheoriestobehaviortheoriesinlasttwodecades.

Therefore,basedonthebehavioralschoolofthought,thisarticleisproposingthatcorporatebrandofindustrialsupplierisresponsibletostrengthenrelationshipbetweensupplierandexternalentities（Kuhnetal.,2008;Vallaster&Lindgreen,2011;Hadjikhani&LaPlaca,2013）.Theoretically,relationshipsareimprovedwheninter-organizationaltradeismutuallybeneficial.Inthiscase,industrialsupplierscanproducevalues,whicharecommunicatedthroughbrand,toattractexternalentities.Butatthesametimeinternalenvironmentofanorganizationshouldalsobehaveandperformaccordingtothesebrandvalues,becauseindustrialsuppliersmaynotabletodeliverpromisedvaluestoexternalentitiesiftheyarenotproducedinside.Inasense,brandbecomesthebridgebetweeninternalandexternalenvironment.Thus,astrongbrandisonewhichhasdevelopedrelationshipwithinternalandexternalactorsusingthescholarshipofstrategicmanagement（e.g.brandorientation）（Hadjikhani&LaPlaca,2013;Leek&Christodoulides,2012）.Earlierarticlehastakenbrandorientationasinternalanchorage（Baumgarth,2010）.

Viewingfromthelensofbehavioral（relationship）perspective,thisarticleconsiderbrandorientationinB2Basstrategicmanagementapproachwhichusesbrandvaluestodeveloporfacilitaterelationshipofindustrialsupplierwithitselfandexternalstakeholders.

2.3InternalandExternalEnvironment

Internalenvironmentofacompanyiscomposedofallthoseelementswhichfallwithinitsdirectcontrolorownership（Barney,1991）.Theseelementsincludeorganization'sassets,capabilities,knowledge,processesetc.TliisarticleusestheclassificationbyHuangandTsai（2013）andthereforeinternalenviromnentconsistsoforganizationalresources,organizationalcultureandorganizationalstmcture（showninFigure1）.

Organizationstmctureisthehierarchyoforganization.Forexamplethedepartments,chainofcoimnand,degreeoffonnalization,inter-functionalcoordination,etc.Organizationresourcesrefertothosecapabilitieswhichareusedasinputtoproductspecificvalueasoutput.Employee,financesandmanufacturingtechnologyaretypeoftheseresources（Baumgarth&Schmidt,2010;Veloutsou&Taylor,2012;Guptaetal.,2010）.Organizationalculturedealswiththenonnsandbehavioroforganization'smembers.Suchashowstronglytheybelieveandbehaveaccordingtovisionoftheorganization.

Externalenvironmentisacomposedofthoseentitieswhichexistsoutsidethelegalownershipordirectcontroloforganization.Thisarticlehascategori