Construction of Brand Identity in the Global Village
INTRODUCTION
Globalization propelled two interesting response from the fashion industry: the mixture of differing cultural fashions for some and the insistence on the nationalistic cultural designs on the other. While these surprisingly contrasting results can be dissected on the basis of adaptability and the readiness to accept other cultures, it has led to the emergence of a new worldwide fashion created not only through globalization of the market but more significantly, the materialization of a global fashion industry. This is not a consequence of the institution of industries in countries but the insistence of the people who had opened them through fashion liberation.
The inevitability of globalization primarily rests on the people who had believed in the idea of a borderless society. This in turn had led to the evolution of the cultural fashion industry. Heavily influenced by traditional values and the historical events by a country, the tendency of people is to resist changes that may inadvertently affect or distort that national heritage. However, the trend of moving towards individuality especially by the young people had paved the way of a fashion industry that combines global and national culture. While it is arguable if the evolution of this trend is beneficial for the people of a given country or not, the fact remains that this trend will not die in the near future given the immense demand for a fashion perceived as "in" in the global village.
The concept evolution and leaving the vestiges of the past may alarm fundamentalists in resisting this change however; we should look at it in the perspective that in so doing, we are actually enriching our culture.
For instance, the evolution of the garment industry did not come overnight but a long and winding process to reach what we have today. Predictably, it will continue to do so in the future. Let's take for instance the history of jeans in America
The underwear industry experienced the same development. Popular items included the BVD, boxer, briefs, and t-shirts. "Mail Order Sources" indicates that the Vermont Country Store still sells union suits. Burnham and Inge (1996) discusses radio, advertising, movies, and movie stars who have attracted attention using underwear: Tom Cruise in Risky Business wearing cotton briefs and Richard Gere in Looking for Mr. Goodbar wearing a jockstrap. Joe Boxer offers a humorous look at shorts in 1995. Alison Carter 1992 Underwear: The Fashion History covers garments for men, women, and children from the sixteenth through the twentieth centuries and is well illustrated (Burnham and Inge, 1996). Underwear has been "uncovered," redesigned, and promoted for a new role as outerwear. This can be seen in contemporary sales catalogs--for example: Victoria
This phenomenon will unavoidably lead to the institutionalization of fashion brands worldwide. Further, brand consciousness among people would define the fashion industry in terms of style and social stratification.
THE GLOBAL BRANDING in the VILLAGE
Living the fast lane generates dynamic changes concerning consumer demands in which firms and organizations must adopt to the abrupt changes brought to us by the rising trend in the industry—were going global.
Globalization -- extending a firm's geographical scope conquering global umbrella, reaching out to the international market, altering the national boundaries and attaining a larger scale of consumer patronage.How can one firm rise above the clutter of e-business giants when everything's gone too competitive enough to battle with? In here lie many suggestions from authors and writers on how international brands strategic plan works.
The Brand name—identifies what, who, why and how a product works. How it differs and to whom it differs itself, a tag indicating the totality of the brand identity. It plays a critical role on a firms international marketing strategy, where branding is a key element on the overall success on the construction of a globally competitive brand identity. Strong brands help establish the firm's character and identity in the marker place and develop a solid customer franchise (Aaker, 1996;Kaperer,1997; Keller ,1998).
On the current economic scenario the concept of building strong brands in order rot establish a market position is inevitable and recent. In Addition firms have typically expanded the geographical scope of operations on a piecemeal basis by acquiring companies in other countries or entering into alliances across national boundaries (Douglas Craig, 2002).
A strong brand name can also provide the basis fro brand extensions which further strengthen a firms status in the market place as well as potentially enhancing the brands value (Aaker and Keller 1990) As a Firms move into international markets, a judicious branding strategy provides a means to enhance the firms visibility and integrate strategy across national markets.
The construction of global brand identities -- recently this April 2002 there had been studies presented at the Research In International Marketing Conference, A field study of consumer foods company executives based in Europe (Douglas , Craig and Nijssen 2001) was conducted to fain insights into the construction of a global brand identity and how these were evolving. Of particular interest lie dominant patterns for the construction of a global brand identity and how it varies on a case-to-case basis. These are the factors, which draws the line resulting on the formation of the patterns that concerns the evolving international environment.
The study suggests that a firm's global brand construction can be categorized based on three key dimensions. The level of the brand within the organization, geographic scope (i.e. the number of countries in which the brand is marketed) and the product scope (i.e. number of product on which the brand was used). These three dimensions provide the basis for defining their role in the firms defining their role in the firm's international marketing strategy.
An international brand construction provides the structure and rationale for branding decisions at different levels of organization. In this case construction of brands provides certain principle that guides the effective use of brands so as to develop a strong positional edge.
Let's take a peek on one of the countries most prestigious international brand. Coca cola an established name world wide, Known for its strong brand positioning and branding strategy understanding why coca cola for example succeeded in its quest of leadership lies a certain principle. "The Coke" industry uses a hybrid brand construction a mixed of what we call corporate-dominant and product dominant branding for which it falls. "Coca cola" uses Coca cola "Coke" name for its cola brand worldwide with product variants such as Cherry Coke, Coke Lite, and Diet Coke in some but not all countries. Coca cola –per se serves as a corporate name but also connotes a product name. Dual exposure of the brand together with its corporate name maximizes the use of branding on an international market. In addition its branding strategy various from regional, national and global. These generate a profitable result for Coca cola's managements separating different level of approaches that to an effect produces a personal touch due to the idea pf proximity. In other cases, companies use the corporate name fro some product businesses, but not on others. Mars for example uses Mars name on its ice cream, soft drink and confectionery lines but use the Pedigree house brand for pet food. This intended to create a separate image and character for confectionery and pet food business alike.
Also take into consideration the brand identity doesn't always focuses its attention on brand name. Usually the visual ate the ones being notice. The logo itself speaks for what the product is. They are what we commonly call the signature brands in which we buy for the name it carries. The best examples of which are Phillips makers of "The bulbs that really last", Nike "Just do it", Apple computers and Shell.
Corporate brands rely on the use of the corporate name and logo as well to establish a global brand identity in the market place. Although these firms succeeded on the verge of globalization, one shouldn't rely on the idea of yesterday. A firm's brand architecture is a continuous process. As it enters new countries new markets it will not stop evolving acquired brands are integrated into the whole, new brand extensions on product lines are added and modifications are either evident or obvious to this case.
With the rising media, advertising and promotional cost and the trend towards globalization the brand constructions are subjected to pressures and peak points at both corporate and product level dimension to become more result oriented across international markets. To an extent of an increasing and emerging complex brand structures characterized by corporate endorsement of product brand in order to consolidate branding structure and by extension of strong brands across countries and product businesses so as to achieve cost economies.
Global corporate brands are invariably global in scope unless the company only operated in a limited number of geographic markets or regions of the world, as for example, Kao. At the product business or product group level some brands are global, especially where product division organizes the company. For example, Beiersdorf uses the Nivea brand worldwide for its skin products. Equally, Mars uses the Pedigree brand name for its dog food products worldwide. At the product level, brands are also sometimes global in scope. P&G typically uses the same product brands worldwide, for example, Pantene, Head and Shoulders, Pert Plus and Pampers. Equally, Unilever owns international brands such as Bertolli olive oil and Lipton tea, and has obtained through the acquisition of Best Foods, Hellmann's, Knorr dehydrated soups, and condiments, etc. Equally some brands are national in scope. These are typically at the product level, except in the case of extremely large national markets, such as the U.S. or China, where companies may have product businesses that operate independently or only have operations in that market (for example, Unilever's Stouffer frozen entrees and dinners is only used in the U.S.).
In some instances these brands relate to niche products that are sold in a single or at most two country markets, such as Nestlé's Marmite brand of vegetable extract, which is marketed only in the U.K. and in Australia U.K. and Germany , and Promise in the U.S.
International expansion and consumer needs for reassurance about product quality and reliability are resulting in a shift towards corporate endorsement of product brands. This helps to forge a global corporate identity for the firm as it gathers its products under a global umbrella, thus generating potential cost savings through promotions of global and corporate brands rather than multiple independent.
The firm's international market expansion strategy also impacts patterns of brand architecture and how they evolve (Douglas and Craig, 1996). Firms that have expanded by leveraging domestic corporate or product level brands are likely to have fewer brands and a more coherent architecture than firms that have expanded by acquiring other firms and hence have to absorb these brands into their structure, resulting in a multiplicity of brands at any given level. Equally, firms that have expanded through strategic alliances may have more complex, dual structures. Strong international brands often have high visibility and are prime candidates for brand extensions, especially for entry into new and emerging markets such as Eastern Europe or China China and Malaysia Eastern Europe and so was extended to frozen foods prior to divesture of this division in 1999.Building a clear and coherent brand architecture is a critical component of the firm's international market strategy. A well articulated brand architecture provides guidance for managers and helps ensure that the value of the firm's brands is maximized across markets. Key to the establishment of effective brand architecture is the identification of how brands are used at different levels of the organization and the interrelationship between these different levels (Douglas, Craig and Nijssen, 2001). The geographic scope of each brand and the range of product categories on which a brand will be used also have to be determined. Building this architecture provides a framework to coordinate and harmonize branding strategy across countries and develop a strong and consistent identity for the firm's products in the global market place.
Relatively few firms appear to have established such an explicit architecture developed the principles to guide its construction and management (for a counterexample, see Parsons, 1996). Rather, a firm's brand structure tends to evolve on an ad hoc and piecemeal basis, as new brands are acquired or new products developed. The firm's brand structure is thus continually changing as the firm grows, and must be monitored to ensure that this structure maintains a balance and is both internally coherent and consistent across countries and product markets.
The lack of attention among academics to examining brand architecture and understanding the principles guiding the building of effective brand architecture in an international market setting underscore the importance of further research. First, a better grasp of patterns of international brand architecture and the key components is needed in order to identify relevant issues. Here, an important first step is to identify the role of firm-specific drivers, which account for differences between firms. Furthermore, brand architecture is continually evolving as the firm grows and expands in international markets. Consequently, research into the evolution of these patterns, and trends toward corporate brand endorsement and extension of strategic brands into other product markets and countries should be undertaken. Finally, research is needed on effective mechanisms and procedures for managing brand architecture and assigning custody for strategic brands.
The central role of branding in establishing the firm's identity and building its position in the global marketplace among customers, retailers and other market participants, makes it increasingly imperative for firms to establish a clear-cut international branding strategy. A key element of success is the framing of harmonious and consistent brand architecture across countries and product lines, defining the number of levels and brands at each level. Of particular importance is the relative emphasis placed on corporate brands as opposed to product level brands and the degree of integration across markets. The findings of this exploratory study suggest that there is no one optimal patterns of brand architecture. Each firm has its own unique structure, depending on its prior branding history, mode of expansion, and corporate culture. Further research on these issues is critical, so firms are able to build a strong and coherent identity in international markets and sustain their positional advantage in international markets in the long run.
BRANDING in the FASHION INDUSTRY
The business aspect of global branding discussed above had overwhelmed the fashion industry and had missed the point of creating an international brand- the merging of cultures across countries and industries to fulfill one goal: the expression of individuality and modernity of the people. This is precisely the core issue on why there exists a global branding. More than business the global fashion industry is geared towards the satisfaction of people who wanted to make an impression and as an expression tool. Consumption would be the most crucial factor in the persistence of international brands. This necessity would in the long run define both the continuity and the discontinuity of a global fashion trend.
(To be discussed in detail on Chapter 2)
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