Abstract
This chapter introduces the role of brand management in emerging markets, thus explaining the concepts of brand management system, corporate branding, brand performance, brand equity, brand awareness, perceived brand quality, brand association, and brand loyalty; the importance of brand strategy in emerging markets; and brand relationships toward effective brand management. Firms in emerging markets should take consideration of their brand management system, corporate branding, brand performance, brand equity, brand awareness, perceived brand quality, brand association, and brand loyalty in order to effectively achieve business success in emerging markets based on the conditions of their organizational structure, environment, and marketing contexts. Developing a good brand relationship is essential for brand management in emerging markets. Firms in emerging markets should recognize the importance of brand constructs (i.e., brand management system, corporate branding, brand performance, brand equity, brand awareness, perceived brand quality, brand association, and brand loyalty) and need to put more marketing efforts in building brand management system in order to enhance the marketing performance and achieve business goals in the global marketing environment.
TopBackground
Branding is a powerful method of distinction (Pappu, Quester, & Cooksey, 2005). Brands play a central role in marketing and have attracted the attention of academics and practitioners over many years (Brodie, Glynn, & Little, 2006; Erdem, Swait, & Valenzuela, 2006). Strong brand names lead competitive advantages (Lee & Back, 2010), increase organizational cash flow, and accelerate liquidity in business (Miller & Muir, 2004), provide premium price, profitability and more loyalty for customers (Madden, Fehle, & Fournier, 2006). Branding supports the opportunity of brand extension (Yasin, Nasser Noor, & Mohamad, 2007). Building brand equity is considered as an important part of brand building (Pappu et al., 2005). Brand equity refers to the incremental utility or added value which brand adds to the product (Chen & Chang, 2008). In addition, brand equity is an appropriate metric for evaluating the long-run impact of marketing decision (Atilgan, Aksoy, & Akinci, 2005). Appropriate management of brand equity enhances: the increase in loyalty, flexible response to price fluctuations, more business support and cooperation, high effectiveness of marketing communications, licensing opportunities, additional opportunities for brand extension, more attraction and support from investors; and the decrease in risk of marketing activity and marketing crisis (VanAuken, 2005), and greater profit margins (Kim & Kim, 2005), thus increasing the ability to attract good employees (DelVecchio, Jarvis, Klink, & Dineen, 2007), and protecting the potential competitors which enter during outsourcing (Lim & Tan, 2009). Furthermore, brand equity is the result of consumers’ perception (Yasin et al., 2007). The concept of brand can be traced back to product marketing where the role of brand and brand management has been primarily to create differentiation and preference for a product or service in the mind of the customer (Knox & Bickerton, 2003). The strong brand actually influences consumer perception; and brand loyalty primarily focuses on marketing mix variables. Brands can be successful when they are closely associated with consumers and are preferred by consumers over unbranded products (Rajagopal, 2009).