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Outlines a new approach for managing brands that brings the process into line with recent advances in the management of flatter, customer‐facing organizations. Argues that the traditional marketing and brand‐building approach, characterized by a narrow, product‐focussed selling proposition, no longer adds sufficient customer value. As a result, a gap has arisen between the value offered by the brand and the value expected by its customers. The factors which contribute to this value gap are discussed in the context of the changing customer and the changing organization where customer value is increasingly generated by business processes traditionally outside the remit of brand management. Introduces a management tool, the Unique Organization Proposition (UOP) to bridge this value gap by integrating the company’s core business processes into a visible set of credentials that adds customer value through the supply chain. Identifies and discusses the ways in which the UOP links with each of five core business processes. In conclusion argues that if marketers are to regain their role in the heart of the value‐adding process, they must lead in the management of the UOP and relegate their traditional brand engineering tools to an appropriate place in the overall UOP architecture.

The authors offer the viewpoint that a requirement to put the value of intangible assets like brands on a company's balance sheet may be in prospect – and that such a requirement would benefit businesses.

Brands and elements of brands like a package can be valued, the authors assert, and describe an experiment to value the Gateway “cowbox” package. In the study, 61 university students saw identical ads for a computer, except that half saw one with a generic name, half with the name Gateway, and half of each of these two subgroups saw a “cowbox,” the other half no package.

The box did not influence the price respondents who saw the Gateway name in their ad said they would expect to pay for the computer. However, the box's presence in an ad for the “no‐name” computer boosted the expected price from $515 to $648.

If one brand element has a measurable value, investors have a right to know that value. The same applies for the brand as a whole. Furthermore, managers benefit from directing marketing dollars to the promotion of valuable brand elements, to associate them in the public mind with their brand.

The development of online brand communities employed by marketers to maintain consumer relationships and brand building is increasing. This study aims to explore how value co-creation practices can cultivate consumers' brand loyalty.

Using partial least squares modeling, the hypotheses testing involves the utilization of and data collection from 599 Chinese consumers who actively engage in brand communities in China.

Value co-creation practices in brand communities cultivate consumers' affective commitment and psychological brand ownership, which in turn can further contribute to consumers' brand loyalty.

By offering a more comprehensive insight into how affective commitment and psychological brand ownership act as intermediaries between value co-creation practices and consumers' brand loyalty, this research enhances the existing knowledge on value co-creation and brand management.

The term ‘strategy’ is one of the most frequently used terms in business, and its application in marketing is particularly common. Company strategy, market strategy, marketing strategy, sales strategy, promotion strategy, distribution strategy, low pricing strategy – it would take a long time to list all of them. Although this term is so commonly in use, its definition is not as straightforward and it can be interpreted in different ways. In comparison with tactical decisions, strategy is much more significant for an organisation as it brings long-lasting consequences. It is implemented by higher level managers on a regular basis, and it is based on external, often subjective information, so decisions – especially at the time they are made – are difficult to evaluate.

Taking into consideration the fact that strategy refers to a long-term rather than a short-term period, strategic decisions serve as the basis for undertaking operational activities. However, marketing refers to the market and the competition. It is possible to claim that marketing strategy is trying to find an answer to the question to which path an organisation should follow in order to achieve its goals and objectives. If, for example, a company has a goal to generate a profit of PLN 1 million by selling 100,000 pieces of a product, the market strategy should answer at least the following two questions:

1. Who will be our target group, for example, who will purchase the 100,000 pieces of the product?

2. Why is it us from whom a potential buyer should purchase the product?

Who will be our target group, for example, who will purchase the 100,000 pieces of the product?

Why is it us from whom a potential buyer should purchase the product?

The target market will be defined if a reply to the first question is provided. The second question identifies the foundations of competitive advantage. These two issues, that is, target market and competitive advantage are the strategic marketing issues. You cannot change your target group unexpectedly while competitive advantage is the basis for changing decisions regarding prices, promotions and sales.

This chapter describes the measures of marketing activities which refer to strategic aspects and testify a company’s market position – the measures of the performance of target groups and competitive advantage. Readers’ attention should be also focused on the indices that are less popular in Poland and, therefore, may be underestimated. It seems that some of them, for example, the index of marketing resources allocation and the marketing risk index, provide a lot of valuable information and, at the same time, make it possible to show the value of marketing investments. Their wider use in the near future is only a matter of time.

Both American and International Accounting Standards lead to the invisibility of most brand values in financial statements, as these standards recognize only those brands acquired externally either through a purchase or a merger. Nonetheless, over the last several decades, it has become increasingly evident that company value is primarily driven by intangible assets such as brands and other intellectual property. As such, in a knowledge-based economy, it is increasingly important for companies to develop these assets. Empirical evidence produced by prior research also demonstrates that brand values are market value relevant, that is, knowledge about their existence and value is important to investors. Consequently, and in tangent with the increased use of fair value measurements based on projected future cash flows, we argue in this chapter that it might be time to end the invisibility of brands.

With the development of tourism industry, online travel agencies (OTA) have gradually become an important channel for tourism product supplies and sales. Some OTAs provide consumers with a platform for tourism guidance and online travel sharing. They not only satisfy some tourists’ desire to share their experiences but also provide reference for more consumers to choose travel products. This process is the process of value co-creation by customers and online travel companies. This study is conducted under DART theory, a theoretical framework of value co-creation composed of four dimensions, namely dialog, access, risk-assessment, and transparency. Brand equity is divided into four aspects: brand loyalty, brand awareness, customer perceived value, and brand image. This study uses the structural equation model to investigate the impact of customer value co-creation behavior on brand equity of online travel enterprises and interprets the process and mechanism of customer value co-creation behaviors for online travel business brand equity, which provides more efficient strategies and methods for platform interaction and value co-creation.

This paper focuses on the role of manufacturer brands for resellers within retail channels. This topic is important because of the strategic value of manufacturer brands and the increasing influence of resellers within channels of distribution. Much of the branding research emphasizes a customer-brand knowledge perspective; however, emerging perspectives suggest that brands are also relevant to other stakeholders including resellers. In contrast, channels research recognizes the manufacturer sources of market power, but does not consider the impact of manufacturer “push and pull” strategies within channels. Existing theoretical frameworks, therefore, do not address the reseller perspective of the brand. As a result, the research approach is a multi-method design, consisting of two phases. The first phase involves in-depth interviews, allowing the development of a conceptual framework. In the second phase, a survey of supermarket buyers on brands in several product categories tests this framework. Structural equation modeling analyzes the survey responses and tests the hypotheses. The structural model shows very good fit to the data with good construct validity, reliability, and stability. The findings show that manufacturer support, brand equity, and customer demand reflect the manufacturer brand benefits to resellers. A key contribution of this research is the development of a validated scale on manufacturer brand benefits from the point of view of a reseller. This research shows that the resources that relate to the brand, not just the brand name itself, create value for resellers in channel relationships.

The translation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) values in customer awareness and engagement with the CSR values with the corporate brand is a key challenge for UK retailers. This chapter examines the incorporation of CSR in the core brand discourse of Marks & Spencer (M&S), focusing on the interrelationship between CSR reporting and brand heritage.

Using Fairclough’s (1989) method of critical discourse analysis, this chapter reports on the key discourses around CSR to emerge from annual reports of M&S in the period from the 1940s to 2010s.

Findings identify how messages relating to CSR are shaped and presented to stakeholders, noting the textual patterns that emerge in the M&S discourse. Patterns included a substantial reliance on relational values, the strategic adoption of expressive values toward specific groups (employees, suppliers), and textual cues such as metaphor and over-wording as a means to draw out links to M&S brand heritage.

The chapter highlights how we, as academics, need to consider both (a) the evolution of CSR reporting and how this reflects brand messages over time and (b) how CSR reporting is becoming integral in brand positioning for UK retailer brands.

In dealing with archival materials, it is necessary to be selective and this can limit the range of textual patterns that might be articulated in the discourse analysis.

Limited research to date has examined the integration of CSR and brand heritage in organizational discourses. This study offers an in-depth examination of how this integration of CSR messages in brand communication has evolved for M&S – one of the United Kingdom’s foremost retail brands.

The chapter aims to consider current approaches to brand management and brand value assessment with substantive analysis of the positions of Russian and foreign scientists.

Considering the numerous definitions outlined in scientific and educational literature, the author's definition of the term ‘brand’ is given; the history of development and current approaches to the definition and identification of the role and importance of branding in large international and domestic companies are analysed; attention is focused on the features and stages of branding in companies. Particular attention is paid to the essence and relationship of strategic company management and brand valuation.

The authors reveal proactive branding as a transition from unbranded goods to consumer loyalty. A matrix of brand strategies is drawn up. Professional marketing standards for entrepreneurs are systematised. The management of the brand's life cycle in the matrix ‘profitability – the cost of the brand’ is proposed.

The authors define prospects and provide recommendations for improving the practice of brand management and brand value assessment, making it possible to increase the effectiveness of strategic marketing business management.