Editorial

Citation

Leventhal, R.C. (2007), "Editorial", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 16 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpbm.2007.09616daa.001

Editorial

A question that is constantly being asked in the marketplace is “what is the value of a brand?” We know that a brand name provides a manufacturer with the vehicle to build a company image, helps to reduce price comparisons, and may help to expand their (current) product line. But the other part of this situation relates to the importance of the brand name to the consumer and what benefits might be attributed to this brand. Brand names are important when competitive products may look alike. Does the brand name allow the consumer to recognize a certain quality or reliability when he/she sees the product in its retail setting? And also just as important, is whether a particular brand name can attract the consumer’s attention to a new product (or perhaps a brand extension), which might provide the manufacturer with a possible competitive advantage, and perhaps better control in terms of greater success in the marketplace. These are but a few of the elements that should be considered when marketers are trying to determine the “true value” of a brand name.

Florin, Callen, Mullen and Kropp present us with an overview of what they perceive to be eight mega-trends that are currently influencing the consumers’ world and, in turn, how marketers deliver brand messages.

Beldona and Wysong present research that examines the concept of store brands. The author presents several tactics a retailer can adopt to maximize a store brand’s personality. This might include deciding which categories to invest in when developing a store brand’s personality and also strongly considering the concept of “brand personality”.

Hankinson, Lomax and Hand posit that since staff is vital to successful re-branding, especially in the not-for-profit sector where restricted budgets may limit reliance on external marketing, it is important to understand the impact of re-branding on staff. The authors study the effect of time on staff knowledge, attitudes, and behavior, as well as the interaction of time with seniority, tenure and level of support for re-branding. Overall, organizations need to constantly re-evaluate the outcomes on a regular basis to ensure that staff retains new knowledge, remain positively motivated, and maintain their recently adapted behaviors over time.

Chen investigates the impact of parallel importation on brand equity in both high and low product involvement arrangements. The results of this study show that source channel (that is authorized goods versus “gray” goods) has a significant impact on brand equity, consumers are most concerned about the difference in “perceived quality” between gray goods and authorized goods, and sourcing channel stimuli are found to have more powerful effects than product involvement on consumer evaluations of brand equity.

Logman has developed a consistent framework that allows the brand manager to detect both innovation/growth opportunities as well as risks. Too many times a firm focuses its branding efforts in terms of how that firm perceives the marketplace. The author presents an approach in which growth and innovation are seen in terms of customer value. This would allow a brand manager to detect potential opportunities and risks at a very detailed level.

In this issue you will also find a most interesting case study, an interesting commentary in our Beyond product’s brand management section, a book review, and our Pricing strategy & practice section.

Richard C. Leventhal