B2B Brand Management

Product Information

Data were analysed through both qualitative and quantitative approaches to complement the results. First, we followed an inductive approach by employing thematic analysis to process the data. Following the guidelines for the thematic analysis process (Attride-Stirling 2001; Braun and Clarke 2006), we explored qualitative data in detail. Starting with data cleaning and detailed reading, we identified codes from text, analysed and examined text and codes and then induced codes into various themes and patterns that reflect the nature of the data. The qualitative approach discovered a number of themes and patterns. We further grouped and categorised the themes, and excluded some themes that are irrelevant to the study and yet to meet the objective of this research. After a series of analysis, coding, recoding, grouping and regrouping, we formed a list of categories that are in line with brand management literature, including brand orientation, branding impediments, branding architecture, and branding communication.

Strebinger, A. 2014. Rethinking brand architecture: A study on industry, company- and product-level drivers of branding strategy. European Journal of Marketing 48(9/10): 1782–1804. Miles, M.B., and A.M. Huberman. 1994. Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook, 2nd ed. London: Sage. Candi, M., and K.B. Kahn. 2016. Functional, emotional, and social benefits of new B2B services. Industrial Marketing Management 57: 177–184. Gromark, J., and F. Melin. 2013. From market orientation to brand orientation in the public sector. Journal of Marketing Management 29(9–10): 1099–1123.We have been practicing branding in the domestic market. The Chinese market is big enough. We will continue exploring the international market. We used to be export-oriented; now we will redirect part of our attention to the domestic market for branding. (M6)

Subject Index........................................................................................ 351 Chohan, U.W. 2017. What is one belt one road? A surplus recycling mechanism approach. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2997650. Accessed July 8, 2018. The existing studies on B2B branding and branding impediments are amorphous and inconsistent, without a comprehensive framework to support. There is limited research to provide an overview of how brand impediments interact with other aspects of brand management; for instance, whether the different brand impediment affects a firm’s adaptation in branding strategy in the industrial environment. B2B brand architecture Kassarjian, H.H. 1977. Content analysis in consumer research. Journal of Consumer Research 4(2): 8–18.

What is branding?

Digital brand management or online brand management takes traditional brand management principles and applies them to customer experiences across multiple digital mediums. The success of global brands such as Apple and Coke hinges on their militant commitment to consistency across multiple channels: their products and branding are immediately recognizable to the consumer, who knows exactly who these brands are and what they represent. Bridson, K., and J. Evans. 2004. The secret of a fashion advantage is brand orientation. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management 32(8): 403–411.

Ohnemus, L. 2009. B2B branding: A financial burden for shareholders? Business Horizons 52: 159–166. Strategic branding adaptation encompasses brand orientation, communication and architecture application. Some of our findings are in line with the existing literature; for instance, the three types of brand orientation in the minimalist, moderate and coordinated brand orientations aligns with Wong and Merrilees ( 2005). We further confirmed that the corporate branding strategy is the most popular branding strategy applied in B2B SMEs, supporting the earlier research by Aspara and Tikanen ( 2008), and Kotler and Pfoertsch ( 2006). We found that the level of brand orientation determines a firm’s branding practice. ‘No-competencies’ and ‘novice competencies’ branders show a low level of branding orientation, resulting in a less active and more conventional communication approach. The majority of firms in these two categories are smaller size and practice in assembly and mass production business. An increasing level of brand orientation in the ‘awareness competencies’ brander shows a progression in brand communication. The ‘achievement competencies’ branders have a high level of brand orientation; they are larger size and more active in and committed to branding. The progression in brand competence partially relates to a firm’s business nature and size. Brand competence firms mainly are those who have developed a sizeable business scale, and their business nature requires them to develop a distinctive brand to compete in the market. Mitchell, R., K. Hutchinson, and S. Bishop. 2012. Interpretation of the retail brand: An SME perspective. International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management 40(2): 157–175.

On reviewing the transcripts, we observed three categories of brand orientation, which is in line with previous research (see Wong and Merrilees 2005; Khan and Ede 2009; Mitchell et al. 2015). These are (1) a minimalist orientation with a low level of brand orientation and little or no desire to brand; (2) a moderate orientation when firms have developed a good awareness of branding; and (3) a coordinated brand orientation whereby firms incorporate branding into their business activities. A minimalist brand orientation Urde, M. 1999. Brand orientation: A mindset for building brands into strategic resources. Journal of Marketing Management 15: 117–133. The evolutionary perspective considers the multifaceted nature of a brand is channelled via an evolution from a functional stance to a value-added level (de Chernatony 2009). A brand’s functional stance is equivalent to the product paradigm level and serves the purpose of differentiation and positioning by focusing on brand identifiers (Louro and Cunha 2001). The competitive perspective regards ‘brand’ as a unique competitive advantage positively affects the perceived quality of products and services in both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) markets (Cretu and Brodie 2007; Aaker 1991; Lee et al. 2017). The managerial perspective of a brand originally emerged from consumer markets (Bendixen et al. 2004). A few studies have attempted to relocate consumer-based branding theories to the B2B context, such as applying the Aaker brand equity model and Keller’s customer-based brand equity (CBBE) model in B2B contexts (e.g., Kuhn et al. 2008; Biedenbach and Marell 2010; Viardot 2017).