An empirical documentation of positioning practices used by global brands

Diese Diplomarbeit versucht das Problemfeld komplexer Positionierungspraktiken zu untersuchen indem sowohl existierende Positionierungsklassifikationen als auch momentan angewendete Positionierungsstrategien untersucht werden. So wird anhand bestehender Literatur eine allgemein anwendbare und all umfassende Positionierungstypologie entwickelt, welche mit Hilfe einer empirischen Analyse von Print-Werbung vervollständigt wird. Außerdem werden aktuelle Positionierungspraktiken innerhalb der empirischen Studie untersucht. Das Ergebnis der konzeptuellen und der empirischen Analyse war ein die Komplexität aktueller Positionierungsstrategien reduzierendes Klassifikationsschema, das sowohl aus bestehenden, bereits als veraltet geltenden, und modernen Positionierungsalternativen besteht. Außerdem verdeutlichte die empirische Studie sehr wohl, dass es nicht nur zwischen Gütern und Dienstleistungen, sondern auch in den unterschiedlichen Produktkategorien verschiedene Positionierungspraktiken gibt. Schließlich ist es möglich Empfehlungen für zukünftige erfolgreiche Positionierungsmöglichkeiten abzugeben.This thesis seeks to address the issue of complex positioning practices by investigating both – existing positioning classification schemes and currently applied positioning alternatives. On the one hand it builds upon existing literature and classification schemes and seeks to derive a generally applicable and all encompassing positioning typology. On the other hand an empirical analysis of positioning alternatives as depicted in print advertisements seeks to ensure that no state-of-the-art positioning element is left out from the typology and that outdated alternatives are abject. Within the empirical study it is further investigated if marketers show certain patterns in positioning across various product categories or markets. Analyses of existing positioning classification schemes and current positioning alternatives from print advertisements resulted in the development of a complexity-reducing positioning classification scheme. It was revealed that both positioning alternatives from outdated, hence, incomplete typologies as well as positioning elements not yet included in any classification are currently applied by marketers. Thus, the empirical investigation of print advertisements allows concluding that usage patterns of positioning alternatives vary in frequency and way of execution between goods and services, furthermore across different product categories and markets. The findings also allow giving recommendations to optimize impact of future positioning

Corporate image or social engagement: Twitter discourse on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in public relations strategies in the energy sector

Social media have opened up new opportunities for the creation of innovative public relations strategies focused on establishing and cultivating relationships with stakeholders on the basis of meaningful dialogue. Consideration of the interrelation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and public relations highlights new areas for exploration and engagement. Both the dialogical and semantic perspectives reveal the performative and conversational aspects of social media. In general, both the linguistic panorama of CSR and digital media as part of a PR strategy open new possibilities for a dialogical, interactive, meaningful relationship strategy for corporate image management. Based on the linguistic approach to CSR and the Communication Management Approach, this paper explores the linguistic use of Twitter as a primary dialogical strategy to effectively enhance interactive dialogue-based relationships with the stakeholders of the top 50 companies in the energy sector based on tweet data from 2016. Semantic analysis was conducted by advanced text mining and clustering techniques on 3042 tweets monitored in 2017 that contained the leading CSR-related hashtags and keywords. The results demonstrated that the top energy companies apply a defensive and symbolic perspective, mainly for branding purposes. The corporate discourse dominates over a meaningful conversational strategy to foster interaction with stakeholders around sustainability issues on Twitter. The study reveals a homogenized interrelation between CSR, social media, and public relations. The results reveal a tendency for isomorphy in the communication models applied by the companies in the energy sector. Furthermore, similarities in semantics and thus strong tendencies to mutually mimic dialogical strategies are also observed. The semantic narrative built around the brand indicates a limited orientation towards CSR and sustainability. As such, it does not contribute to the creation of a dialogical interaction and meaningful relationships with multiple stakeholders on Twitter, in the high-risk sector represented by the energy industry

Brand mimicry of luxury brands

This research extends the theory of mimicry from the discipline of biological and natural sciences to the luxury brand context. Three brand mimicry scales namely Wicklerian-Eisnerian, Vavilovian and Pouyannian mimicry were developed and validated. A conceptual model is developed to test the influences of the three types of brand mimicry across four categories of luxury products. The findings provide academics, practitioners and policy makers with valuable insights into mimicry in the luxury brand industry

Statistical methods for fine-grained retail product recognition

In recent years, computer vision has become a major instrument in automating retail processes with emerging smart applications such as shopper assistance, visual product search (e.g., Google Lens), no-checkout stores (e.g., Amazon Go), real-time inventory tracking, out-of-stock detection, and shelf execution. At the core of these applications lies the problem of product recognition, which poses a variety of new challenges in contrast to generic object recognition. Product recognition is a special instance of fine-grained classification. Considering the sheer diversity of packaged goods in a typical hypermarket, we are confronted with up to tens of thousands of classes, which, particularly if under the same product brand, tend to have only minute visual differences in shape, packaging texture, metric size, etc., making them very difficult to discriminate from one another. Another challenge is the limited number of available datasets, which either have only a few training examples per class that are taken under ideal studio conditions, hence requiring cross-dataset generalization, or are captured from the shelf in an actual retail environment and thus suffer from issues like blur, low resolution, occlusions, unexpected backgrounds, etc. Thus, an effective product classification system requires substantially more information in addition to the knowledge obtained from product images alone. In this thesis, we propose statistical methods for a fine-grained retail product recognition. In our first framework, we propose a novel context-aware hybrid classification system for the fine-grained retail product recognition problem. In the second framework, state-of-the-art convolutional neural networks are explored and adapted to fine-grained recognition of products. The third framework, which is the most significant contribution of this thesis, presents a new approach for fine-grained classification of retail products that learns and exploits statistical context information about likely product arrangements on shelves, incorporates visual hierarchies across brands, and returns recognition results as "confidence sets" that are guaranteed to contain the true class at a given confidence leve

CHORUS Deliverable 2.1: State of the Art on Multimedia Search Engines

Based on the information provided by European projects and national initiatives related to multimedia search as well as domains experts that participated in the CHORUS Think-thanks and workshops, this document reports on the state of the art related to multimedia content search from, a technical, and socio-economic perspective. The technical perspective includes an up to date view on content based indexing and retrieval technologies, multimedia search in the context of mobile devices and peer-to-peer networks, and an overview of current evaluation and benchmark inititiatives to measure the performance of multimedia search engines. From a socio-economic perspective we inventorize the impact and legal consequences of these technical advances and point out future directions of research

Standardisation in international retailing: transferring store brand image

There is common theme within the literature that a store represents the tangible and intangible values of the company's commercial and retail organisational philosophy. Given this, it could be considered as a brand, with all the associated competitive advantages that correspond to this entity. Operationally, a store's brand competitiveness can be viewed from the image it transmits and the impact it has in the minds of consumers. However, as markets and consumer tastes vary between countries, there have been calls for further inquiry into how the domestic store brand image, with its inherited competitive advantage, can be transferred abroad. A means for achieving this is via a standardised transfer strategy. In the international marketing literature, standardisation is referred to as the identical offering of the entire marketing mix in several different countries. Likewise, within the context of retail intenationalisation, standardisation is defined as the faithful replication of a successful domestic store concept abroad. Despite all the citations found within the wider literature on international retailing the notion of standardisation lacks of clear definition when concern upon the transfer of store brand image. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to provide an insight into the debate of store brand image standardisation in international retailing. From the limitations identified in the existing literature, a new research framework is proposed for examining store brand image standardisation. The framework includes the conventional 'Store Image per se' comparative process, where examination is undertaken from a store image attribute perspective between markets. In addition, two new elements are introduced. First, the comparative process of 'Relative Marketplace', where a comparison of the domestic and foreign store image is conducted within their relative markets. Second, the 'Store Image Dimension perspective', where the two comparative processes, 'Store Image per se' and 'Relative Marketplace', are examined after the store image attributes have been aggregated into broader dimensions. This proposed framework was employed to examine the store image transferability of the Spanish limited line food discounter DIA. Through a pluralist methodological approach of both qualitative and quantitative methods, a shopper survey was conducted in Spain (the home market) and Greece (a host market) to measure the company's store brand image between and within its marketplaces. From the juxtaposition of the three components of the proposed framework, the results indicate that store brand image standardisation should be examined from an 'Absolute,' and 'Relative' standpoint. Moreover, depending on the standpoint undertaken to examine the transfer of the store brand image, standardisation can be conceptualised in three ways. 'Absolute Standardisation': A standard to be applied by faithfully replicating the store's domestic image into a host market; 'Core Standardisation': A standard to be secured by faithfully replicating the store's domestic unique selling proposition, that satisfies the needs of global markets while maintaining intact the company's entire concept; and 'Relative Standardisation': A standard to be achieved by faithfully replicating the store's domestic positioning into the host market. It is argued that these three aspects of store brand image standardisation should not be viewed as distinctive concepts, but rather as a transitional process of two ends of the same continuum

Personal branding and career success : an empirical investigation

Knowledge about personal branding, the development and sustaining of a personal brand and the link between personal branding and career success did not exist in a scientifically structured manner. The purpose of this study was to understand what the elements of personal branding are and what it takes to develop a personal brand in the corporate environment. It was also important to identify whether personal branding is key to career success. The systematic literature review procedure was used to identify, analyse and critically evaluate both empirical studies and popular literature relating to personal branding. The current body of knowledge was ill defined and a six step model detailing how to develop and maintain a personal brand was developed as a result of a content analysis of the available popular literature. A measure of a complete personal brand within the workplace was subsequently developed. In this study, the hypotheses of a possible relationship between personal branding and career success (performance appraisal score, 360 leadership evaluation and talent board placement) were tested. It was found that talent board placement was statistically significant and practically related to personal branding. The study was the first to provide a measurement tool as well as empirical evidence on the relationship between personal branding and career success and, as such contributed significantly to the body of knowledge. This study also opened avenues for further research.Daar was min kennis oor ’n persoonlike handelsmerk, die ontwikkeling en handhawing van ’n persoonlike handelsmerk, en die verband tussen ’n persoonlike handelsmerk en loopbaansukses in die wetenskaplike domein beskikbaar. Die doel van hierdie studie was om die elemente van ’n persoonlike handelsmerk te begryp, asook om te bepaal wat dit behels om ’n persoonlike handelsmerk in die korporatiewe omgewing te ontwikkel. Dit was ook belangrik om te bepaal of ’n persoonlike handelsmerk deurslaggewend is tot loopbaansukses. ‘n Sistematiese literatuuroorsig is gedoen om empiriese studies asook gewilde literatuur oor ’n persoonlike handelsmerk te identifiseer, te ontleed en krities te evalueer. Gegewe beperkte akademiese kennismateriaal, en na aanleiding van die inhoudsontleding van die beskikbare gewilde literatuur, is ’n sesstapmodel ontwikkel om aan te dui hoe ’n persoonlike handelsmerk ontwikkel en gehandhaaf kan word. Na aanleiding hiervan is ’n instrument ontwikkel om ’n person se handelsmerk omvattend in die werkplek te meet. Dit is gevolg deur hipoteses van ’n moontlike verband tussen ’n persoonlike handelsmerk en loopbaansukses (prestasiebeoordelingtelling, 360-leierskapevaluasie en talentplasing) te toets. Die studie het bevind dat ’n persoonlike handelsmerk statisties beduidend en prakties relevant is tot talentplasing. Hierdie navorsing lewer ’n omvattende meetinstrument vir die meting van ’n persoonlike handelsmerk, asook empiriese bewyse rakende die verhouding tussen ’n persoonlike handelsmerk en loopbaansukses. Die studie maak in dié opsig ‘n beduidende bydrae tot die gebrekkige akademiese kennismateriaal wat oor hierdie onderwerp beskikbaar is.Ulwazi nge-branding yomuntu siqu, ukuthuthukiswa kanye nokuqhubekela phambili kwe-brand yomuntu siqu kanye nokuxhumana phakathi kwe-brand yomuntu siqu kanye nokuphumelela emsebenzini bekuyizinto ebezingahlelekile ngendlela yesisayense. Inhloso yalolu cwaningo bekuwukuqondisisa ukuthi ngabe iyini imikhakha ye-branding yomuntu siqu kanye nokuthi yini okudingekayo ukwenza ibrand yomuntu siqu emkhakheni wezamabhizinisi. Bekubalulekile nokubheka ukuthi ngabe i-branding yomuntu siqu isemqoka kangakanani ekuphumeleleni emisebenzini. Inqubo yokubuyekeza imibhalo ngendlela ehlelekile iye yasetshenziswa ukuphawula, ukuhlaziya kanye nokuhlola izifundo ezinobufakazi ezenziwe kanye nemibhalo edumile maqondana ne-branding yomuntu siqu. Imikhakha yolwazi ekhona ibingachazekile kahle, kanti kuye kwalandelwa imodeli yezinyathalo eziyisithupha echaza imininingwane ngokwenza kanye nokugcina i-brand yomuntu siqu, iye yenziwa ngakho-ke kwase kuhlaziywa ingqikithi yemibhalo edumile ekhona. Kwenziwe i-brand yomuntu siqu ephelele emkhakheni wezemisebenzi. Kulolu cwaningo, kuhlolwe i-hypotheses yobudlelwane phakathi kwe-branding yomuntu siqu kanye nokuphumelela emsebenzini (amaphuzu ohlolo lokusebenza ngendlela efanele, uhlolo lobuholi obungu 360, kanye nokubekwa kwebhodi yamathalente endaweni efanele) kuye kwahlolwa. Kutholakale ukuthi ukubekwa kwebhodi yamathalente endaweni efanele yinto esemqoka ngokwamastatistiki kanti futhi kuhambisana ne-branding yomuntu siqu. Ucwaningo belungolokuqala ukuhlinzeka ngethuluzi lokukala kanye nocwaningo obunobufakazi obubambekayo ngobudlelwane phakathi kwe-branding yomuntu siqu kanye nokuphumelela emsebenzini, kanti-ke, lokhu yikho okuye kwaba nomthelela obabalukile kulwazi. Lolu cwaningo luvule imikhakha lapho okungenziwa khona ezinye izinhlobo nemikhakha yocwaningo.Business ManagementDB

Video tolling integrated solution

Trabalho de projeto de mestrado, Engenharia Informática (Engenharia de Software) Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2020A indústria de cobrança de portagens foi instituída no século VII com o intuito de financiar e auxiliar na manutenção de vias públicas através do pagamento de taxas correspondentes ao seu uso. Contudo, o advento do uso massificado de veículos automóveis, e consequente aumento do tráfego, obrigou à adaptação desta indústria aos tempos modernos, tendo sido introduzida uma filosofia de livre trânsito complementar à tradicional paragem para pagamento. A adoção deste tipo de medida foi possível graças ao desenvolvimento de tecnologias de reconhecimento ótico de caracteres, que permitem a identificação da matrícula, aliados ao uso de identificadores registados para cada veículo. Porém, a ausência de paragem implica também a existência de infrações de condutores que circulem com matrículas obscurecidas ou de difícil leitura. Deste modo, é desejável o uso de métodos complementares de auxílio à identificação dos veículos, caso do reconhecimento da marca e modelo dos mesmos (MMR). Os sistemas de reconhecimento ótico de caracteres com o objetivo de identificar matrículas são já implementados nas soluções concebidas pela Accenture para os seus diversos clientes na área, tornando estes novos métodos complementares numa adição interessante à robustez dos mesmos, de modo a reduzir custos adicionais relacionados com a identificação manual de matrículas através das imagens captadas. O presente trabalho visou então, em primeira instância, o estabelecimento de uma prova de conceito com um modelo arquitetural que permitisse a integração de um sistema de reconhecimento de marca e modelo de veículos com os sistemas informáticos previamente desenvolvidos e que se encontram atualmente em uso por parte dos clientes. Para este modelo foi também estabelecido um conjunto de requisitos, tanto funcionais como não funcionais, com o intuito de minorar, tanto quanto possível, perdas no desempenho e fiabilidade dos atuais sistemas por consequência da introdução deste novo componente de MMR. Os requisitos foram definidos fazendo uso de uma versão modificada do modelo de qualidade FURPS, segundo as boas práticas definidas pela equipa de desenvolvimento do Centro de Excelência de Tolling (TCoE) da Accenture Portugal. Adicionalmente, os requisitos definidos foram sujeitos ao estabelecimento de prioridades segundo as regras MoSCoW. A captura de imagens de veículos em movimento e consequente classificação oferece desafios inerentes à sua complexidade, pelo que foram também efetuadas considerações sobre os fatores de variabilidade que devem ser tidos em conta aquando da conceção de um sistema MMR. Estes fatores foram classificados segundo três áreas principais: propriedades inerentes ao sistema de captura de imagens (RSE), propriedades do evento de captura da imagem, e propriedades do veículo. A arquitetura proposta para um eventual sistema que possa ser passível de integração com os existentes faz uso da arquitetura dos mesmos, organizando-se em quatro camadas, a saber: acesso a dados (camada inferior), gestão e regras de negócio, avaliação de resultados e aumento da base de conhecimento disponível, e correspondência (camada superior). Para a elaboração da presente prova de conceito, foram deste modo escolhidas tecnologias que permitem a integração com os sistemas Java previamente existentes sem despender demasiado esforço adicional nessa integração. Deste modo, foram utilizadas bibliotecas Python para o uso de OpenCV, que permite o processamento de imagens, e Tensorflow para as atividades relacionadas com machine learning. O desenvolvimento da prova de conceito para estes sistemas envolveu também o teste de hipóteses quanto ao modo mais vantajoso de reconhecimento da marca e modelo dos veículos propriamente dita. Para este efeito, foram equacionadas três hipóteses, que se basearam no uso de dois datasets distintos. O primeiro conceito abordado consistiu em fingerprinting de imagens associadas a um dataset desenvolvido na Universidade de Stanford, contendo 16185 imagens de veículos automóveis ligeiros em variadas poses, que podem ser divididas segundo 49 marcas e 196 modelos distintos, se for considerada a distinção dos anos de comercialização dos mesmos. Para o efeito, foi usado o modelo de características AKAZE e testados três métodos distintos para efetuar as correspondências: força bruta com teste de rácio descrito na literatura (para dois rácios distintos, 0,4 e 0,7), força bruta com recurso a função de cross-check nativa das bibliotecas usadas, e FLANN. A pertença de uma imagem a determinada categoria foi então ditada pelo estabelecimento de correspondências entre os seus pontos-chave e os pontos-chave das imagens do dataset, testando vários algoritmos de ordenação para aumentar as probabilidades de correspondência com uma imagem pertencente à mesma classe. Os resultados obtidos demonstraram, no geral, precisões relativamente baixas, sendo que nenhuma ultrapassou os 20% para o reconhecimento da marca ou modelo dos veículos. Contudo, dos ensaios efetuados, dois destacaram-se ao conseguir atingir 16,8% de precisão para a marca e 11,2% para o modelo. Estes ensaios tiveram, de resto, características em comum, sendo que, em ambos os casos, foi utilizado o método de força bruta com rácio de 0,4. Os métodos de ordenação de resultados foram, todavia, diferentes, sendo que num dos casos foi usado o valor máximo de pontos-chave em comum (MV) e no segundo um rácio entre este número de pontos em comum e o número de pontos-chave existentes (MR). De entre ambos, o ensaio que recorreu ao método MR foi considerado estatisticamente mais significativo, dado possuir um valor do coeficiente de correlação k de Cohen mais elevado em relação a MV. Os parcos resultados obtidos através deste método levaram à tentativa de adoção de uma abordagem diferente, nomeadamente no que tocava à seleção das imagens que deviam ser comparadas, uma vez que os fatores de variabilidade identificados na análise se encontravam demasiado presentes nas imagens do dataset de Stanford. Deste modo, a grelha do veículo foi identificada como região de interesse (ROI), dados os padrões distintivos inerentes à mesma e a presença do logotipo identificador da marca à qual pertence o veículo. O objetivo desta nova abordagem residia na identificação desta ROI de modo a proceder à sua extração a partir da imagem original, aplicando-sedepois os algoritmos de fingerprinting anteriormente abordados. A deteção da ROI foi efetuada com recurso a classificadores em cascata, os quais foram testados com dois tipos de características diferentes: LBP, mais rápidas, mas menos precisas, e Haar, mais complexas, mas também mais fiáveis. As imagens obtidas através da identificação e subsequente recorte foram depois analisadas segundo a presença de grelha, deteção da mesma ou de outros objetos, bem como o grau de perfeição da deteção efetuada. A determinação da ROI a recortar foi também avaliada segundo dois algoritmos: número total de interseções entre ROIs candidatas, e estabelecimento de um limiar de candidatos para uma ROI candidata ser considerada ou rejeitada (apelidado de min-neighbours). As cascatas foram treinadas com recurso a imagens não pertencentes ao dataset de Stanford, de modo a evitar classificações tendenciosas face a imagens previamente apresentadas ao modelo, e para cada tipo de característica foram apresentados dois conjuntos de imagens não correspondentes a grelhas (amostras negativas), que diferiam na sua dimensão e foram consequentemente apelidadas de Nsmall e Nbig. Os melhores resultados foram obtidos com o dataset Nsmall, estabelecimento de limiar, e com recurso a características Haar, sendo a grelha detetada em 81,1% dos casos em que se encontrava efetivamente presente na imagem. Contudo, esta deteção não era completamente a que seria desejável, uma vez que, considerando deteção perfeita e sem elementos externos, a precisão baixava para 32,3%. Deste modo, apesar das variadas vertentes em que esta deteção e extração de ROI foi estudada, foi decidido não avançar para o uso de fingerprinting, devido a constrangimentos de tempo e à baixa precisão que o sistema como um todo conseguiria alcançar. A última técnica a ser testada neste trabalho foi o uso de redes neuronais de convolução (CNN). Para o efeito, e de modo a obter resultados mais fiáveis para o tipo de imagem comumente capturado pelos RSE em contexto de open road tolling, foi usado um novo dataset, consistindo de imagens captadas em contexto real e cedidas por um dos clientes do TCoE. Dentro deste novo conjunto de imagens, foi feita a opção de testar apenas a marca do veículo, com essa classificação a ser feita de forma binária (pertence ou não pertence a determinada marca), ao invés de classificação multi-classe. Para o efeito, foram consideradas as marcas mais prevalentes no conjunto fornecido, Opel e Peugeot. Os primeiros resultados para o uso de CNN revelaram-se promissores, com precisão de 88,9% para a marca Opel e 95,3% para a Peugeot. Todavia, ao serem efetuados testes de validação cruzada para aferir o poder de generalização dos modelos, verificou-se um decréscimo significativo, tanto para Opel (79,3%) como para Peugeot (84,9%), deixando antever a possibilidade de ter ocorrido overfitting na computação dos modelos. Por este motivo, foram efetuados novos ensaios com imagens completamente novas para cada modelo, sendo obtidos resultados de 55,7% para a marca Opel e 57,4% para a marca Peugeot. Assim, embora longe de serem resultados ideais, as CNN aparentam ser a melhor via para um sistema integrado de reconhecimento de veículos, tornando o seu refinamento e estudo numa solução viável para a continuação de um possível trabalho nesta área.For a long time, tolling has served as a way to finance and maintain publicly used roads. In recent years, however, due to generalised vehicle use and consequent traffic demand, there has been a call for open-road tolling solutions, which make use of automatic vehicle identification systems which operate through the use of transponders and automatic license plate recognition. In this context, recognising the make and model of a vehicle (MMR) may prove useful, especially when dealing with infractions. Intelligent automated license plate recognition systems have already been adopted by several Accenture clients, with this new feature being a potential point of interest for future developments. Therefore, the current project aimed to establish a potential means of integrating such a system with the already existing architecture, with requirements being designed to ensure its current reliability and performance would suffer as little an impact as possible. Furthermore, several options were considered as candidates for the future development of an integrated MMR solution, namely, image fingerprinting of a whole image, grille selection followed by localised fingerprinting, and the use of convolutional neural networks (CNN) for image classification. Among these, CNN showed the most promising results, albeit making use of images in limited angle ranges, therefore mimicking those exhibited in captured tolling vehicle images, as well as performing binary classification instead of a multi-class one. Consequently, further work in this area should take these results into account and expand upon them, refining these models and introducing more complexity in the process

Economic Development in the Contemporary Global Environment: The Role of Place Branding as a Tool of Local Economic Development in Ontario, Canada

Over the past three decades, place branding has emerged as a strategy for local economic development for municipalities in Canada and globally, as communities seek to (re)assert themselves in a dynamic global economic market. Due to the infancy of the research domain – as it has only been in the last 15 years that place branding has received critical academic attention – there are several major lacunae within the existing scholarship: (i) current research is primarily focused on Europe; (ii) research has mainly focused on nation branding and the largest urban centres, so place branding within ‘typical’ municipalities is not well understood; (iii) there are few testable models or hypotheses that have been developed; (iv) most is conducted through one-off case studies, and therefore it is difficult to make generalizations or conclusions; and (v) most place branding privileges tourism attraction as the context of study. To expand existing research, a mixed-method approach was adopted drawing on statistical, spatial, and qualitative methods to explore the breadth and depth of the place branding issue in Ontario. Statistical analysis was used to examine the usage and message of place branding in Ontario’s municipalities (n = 414). Spatial analysis examined the underlying spatial pattern of the place brands, and attempted to find potential locations for municipal collaborations. Finally, in-depth interviews were conducted with key stakeholders connected with place branding process to gain insight into the background, rationale, process, and utility of place branding. The results of the three phases of research show that place branding is occurring in a majority of Ontario’s municipalities (in well over 90% municipalities). The distribution of place brands show that they are not random, and that municipalities with similar brands tend to cluster together, providing an opportunity for inter-regional collaborations. Finally, the results show that municipalities are using similar approaches to ensure economic advancement and that place branding is seen as critical component of local development. The findings call for the inclusion of place branding as a local strategy for economic growth; however, it requires readjustment in the brand positioning to allow greater effectiveness in attraction of target audiences

Brand associations as a design driver

This thesis presents an exploratory study over the constructive parameters of an 'emerging' brand through consumer associations. Streams of research for brand study, academic and business practice, were brought together to provide a robust basis. A number of challenges apparent in the communication processes between brand, offering (product or service) and the consumer were recognised. The aim of this research was to investigate the possibility of extending and adapting existing techniques in brand management and consumer perception to provide a theoretical framework supporting consumer associations as a design driver for the development of an'emerging' brand's experience. A sustainable holistic brand experience requires including the voice of the consumer. This has not been deployed accurately previously although there is a shift to this direction by organisations. As consumers do not always say what they actually mean, the use of visual and verbal means for understanding their associative parameters is desirable. The method of picture-aided recognition, with passenger interviews in Greece and U. K. was used. Equally important is the implementation of these findings and preferred characteristics to company communications and the offering provided through a selective semiotic analysis and use of the variables in the design process. A case study methodology, incorporating interviews, observational methods along with enabling and projective techniques were used to triangulate findings and provide an in- depth understanding. This research provides a framework linking the offering, the brand and the consumer along with presenting practical applications. This is a support system on how an organisation could organise the basis of constructing an 'emerging' brand from its 'driver' brand to initiate its sustainable value. Such a system is targeted to the brand management departments of organisations and the design departments or external agencies responsible for the visual manifestation of the brand's appearance to the outside world.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo