Branding the nation: Towards a better understanding

This paper aims to clarify some misunderstanding about nation branding. It examines the origins and interpretations of the concept, and draws a comparison between nation branding and commercial branding. A new definition is offered that emphasises the need to shift from “branding” the nation to nation image management

Friends with Benefits: Social Coupons as a Strategy to Enhance Customers’ Social Empowerment

Businesses often seek to leverage customers’ social networks to acquire new customers and stimulate word-of-mouth recommendations. While customers make brand recommendations for various reasons (e.g., incentives, reputation enhancement), they are also motivated by a desire for social empowerment—to feel an impact on others. In several multi-method studies, we show that facilitating sharing of social coupons (i.e., coupon sets that include one for self-use and one to be shared) is a unique marketing strategy that facilitates social empowerment. Firms benefit from social coupons because customers who share spend more and report greater purchase intentions than those who do not. Furthermore, we demonstrate that social coupons are most effective when the sharer’s brand relationship is new versus established. For customers with an established relationship, sharing with a receiver who also has an established relationship maximizes potential impact. Together, these studies connect social empowerment to relationship marketing and provide guidance to managers targeting social coupons

Regional differences in portion size consumption behaviour: Insights for the global food industry

Abstract: Given the influence of globalization on consumer food behaviour across the world, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the theoretical discourse around food portion size as a global consumption-related symbol and its underlying socio-economic drivers for food industry strategy. Overall, 25,000 global food consumers were surveyed across 24 countries to elicit insight on portion size consumption behaviour as well as consumer perception on eating and drinking small portion size within selected socio-economic classes. The data was quantitatively analysed to answer the pertinent research objectives. In 20 out of the 24 global markets surveyed, large food portion size was statistically established as a prevalent consumption-related symbol. The paper found that there are regional differences in portion size food consumption behaviour, and further disparities exist across age, gender and income status in 24 countries covering all regions, including Australia, China, Mexico, South Africa, United Kingdom and United States of America. The outlined food industry implications reveal that adaptation and standardisation strategies are still relevant in global food and nutrition strategy as revealed by the variations in the preference for food portion sizes across various countries of the world

Methods and strategies for involving older adults in branding an online community: the miOne case study

This paper presents the methods and approaches used in the process of branding an online community for older adults, by actively involving them in its development. It starts by presenting a synthesis of the literature available on the naming and branding processes, the older adults’ characteristics, and relevant participatory design methods used. Then, it presents the participatory branding process, mainly supported by a focus group workshop held with 10 older adults aged 50 and over. The participation of the older adults allowed us to embed their values and identity into the generation of a more familiar brand name, positive values and clearer messaging. Although additional testing with different focus groups is required (e.g. other age range, different ICT skills, or literacy), the results imply that the brand resonates with the target audience.This work was supported by FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia), COMPETE 2020, Portugal 2020 and EU through the European Regional Development Fund – the project SEDUCE 2.0 nr. POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031696.publishe

Culture and branding

This chapter provides an extensive review of academic research on the culture and branding interface that has been conducted since 1990s. We present a structured analysis of the major findings on how the changing landscape of culture influences how brands are perceived, provide managerial insights, discuss conflicting issues in the literature, and highlight some directions for future research. Specifically, we elaborate on how the cultural context and culturally sensitive consumer segments affect branding practices, and how consumer-brand relationships are shaped by culturally relevant values