Branding and Sustainable Competitive Advantage: Building Virtual Presence

295 Pages·2011·0.6 MB·English

by  Avinash Kapoor

Branding and Sustainable
Competitive Advantage:
Building Virtual Presence
Avinash Kapoor
Management Development Institute, India
Chinmaya Kulshrestha
Management Development Institute, India
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Branding and sustainable competitive advantage: building virtual presence / Avinash Kapoor and Chinmaya Kulshretha,
editors.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: “This book explores the processes involved in managing brands for long-term sustainable competitive advan-
tage, helping readers better understand the importance of consumers’ perceptions in brand management”--Provided by
publisher.
ISBN 978-1-61350-171-9 (hbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-61350-172-6 (ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-61350-173-3 (print & perpetual
access) 1. Branding (Marketing) 2. Brand name products--Management. 3. Product management. I. Kapoor, Avinash. II.
Kulshretha, Chinmaya, 1976-
HF5415.1255.B72 2012
658.8’27--dc23
2011031126
British Cataloguing in Publication Data
A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.
All work contributed to this book is new, previously-unpublished material. The views expressed in this book are those of the
authors, but not necessarily of the publisher.
To my mother Dr. Gyan Kapoor, my Brother Vivek Kapoor, my wife Namita, and my son Akshat for
their continued love and support and encouragement.
Avinash Kapoor
To my beloved parents Mrs. Indira Kulshrestha and Dr. N. K. Kulshrestha for their blessings, and to
my husband Shailendra and my son Yashmit for their unflinching support.
Chinmaya Kulshrestha
Editorial Advisory Board
Jaideep Motwani, Seidman College of Business, USA
Ashok Kumar, Seidman College of Business, USA
Ralf Wagner, University of Kassel, Germany
Richard Feinberg, Purdue University, USA
Harsh Diwedi, University of Rajasthan, India
Arvind Kalia, Rajasthan Patrika, India
J.C. Kapoor, Management and IT consultant, India
List of Reviewers
Jaideep Motwani, Seidman College of Business, USA
Ashok Kumar, Seidman College of Business, USA
Ralf Wagner, University of Kassel, Germany
Richard Feinberg, Purdue University, USA
Harsh Diwedi, University of Rajasthan, India
Arvind Kalia, Rajasthan Patrika, India
J.C. Kapoor, Management and IT consultant, India
Rajesh Pillannia, MDI, India
Soumendu Biswas, MDI, India
Avinash Kapoor, MDI, India
Chinmaya Kulshrestha, MDI, India
Table of Contents
Preface .................................................................................................................................................viii
Acknowledgment ...................................................................................................................................x
Section 1
Branding and Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Chapter 1
Is Being Perceived as Sustainable a Means to Achieve a Differential Advantage? ................................1
Avinash Kapoor, Management Development Institute (MDI), India
Chinmaya Kulshrestha, Management Development Institute (MDI), India
Chapter 2
Are Strong Brands a Source of Competitive Advantage in the Virtual World? ......................................4
Piyush Sharma, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Chapter 3
Taking Public Health Learning Global through Branding and Identity Management ..........................24
Shalin Hai-Jew, Kansas State University, USA
Section 2
Strategic Branding Decisions
Chapter 4
Exploring Key Issues in Destination Branding .....................................................................................47
Piyush Nangru, Great India Rural Tours, India
Vaibhav Rustagi, ITC Ltd, India
Manish Makhija, HCL Technologies, India
Lubna Nafees, IMT, India
Omkumar Krishnan, IMT, India
Chapter 5
Branding Strategies for Digital TV Channels .......................................................................................57
Margherita Pagani, Bocconi University, Italy
Chapter 6
Between Physical and Virtual Reality: The Case of Benetton Brand, “A Company that
is Born from Ideas” ...............................................................................................................................69
Annamaria Silvana de Rosa, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
Elena Bocci, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
Chapter 7
Branding and Sustainable Competitive Advantage in Indian Politics: Brand Rahul Gandhi ...............96
Avinash Kapoor, Management Development Institute (MDI), India
Chinmaya Kulshrestha, Management Development Institute (MDI), India
Section 3
Consumers and Brands
Chapter 8
Brand Engagement and Brand Loyalty ...............................................................................................121
Ronald E. Goldsmith, Florida State University, USA
Chapter 9
The Brand Stakeholder Approach: Broad and Narrow-Based Views to Managing
Consumer-Centric Brands ...................................................................................................................136
Jonathan A. J. Wilson, University of Greenwich, UK
Chapter 10
Brand Obsessed Society: Branding Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev in India .............................................161
Chinmaya Kulshrestha, Management Development Institute (MDI), India
Avinash Kapoor, Management Development Institute (MDI), India
Section 4
Digital and Virtual World
Chapter 11
GeoFree BrandComms: Building and Sustaining Virtual Brand Communities .................................177
P. Raj Devasagayam, Siena College, USA
Dana A. VanDen Heuvel, Pheedo, Inc., USA
Chapter 12
Enhanced Social Presence Through eBranding the Consumer in Virtual Communities ....................189
Robert Pennington, Fo Guang University, Taiwan
Chapter 13
E-Branding and Institutional Web Sites: The “Visiting Card” of the
Municipalities of Rome and Paris .......................................................................................................207
Annamaria Silvana de Rosa, Sapienza University di Rome, Italy
Elena Bocci, Sapienza University di Rome, Italy
Massimiliano Picone, Sapienza University di Rome, Italy
Compilation of References ...............................................................................................................248
About the Contributors ....................................................................................................................274
Index ...................................................................................................................................................279
viii
Preface
Brands help to build sustained relationships with the consumers. Strong brands lend endurance and
permanence to an organization and protect it from the market turbulence and uncertainties. Given its
strategic role, the selected chapters examine and develop a critical understanding of the processes in-
volved in building and managing brands for gaining long-term sustainable competitive advantage. The
book provides an insight into the world of sustainable and competitive branding through thirteen chap-
ters divided into four sections.
In section one, “Branding and Sustainable Competitive Advantage,” the first chapter discusses whether
being perceived as sustainable is a means to achieve a differential advantage. Whereas, the second
chapter on “Are Strong Brands a Source of Competitive Advantage in the Virtual World?” highlights
the importance of customer education and employee training to prevent the erosion of brand image and
loyalty on one hand, and improve perceived service quality and customer satisfaction on the other, for
companies using offshore outsourcing of customer services.
Finally, the third chapter, “Taking Public Health Learning Global through Branding and Identity
Management,” explores potential methods for online branding and identity management. This chapter
addresses an environmental scan of the global public health environment and work implications of the
global branding, along with the engagement and the maintenance of the brand over time.
In section two “Strategic Branding Decisions,” the first chapter, “Exploring key issues in Destination
Marketing,” discusses and presents an analytical framework to effectively communicate the competi-
tive advantage of destinations and market them as brands. The second chapter, “Branding Strategies
for digital TV Channels,” analyses the impact of digitalization on TV marketing strategies focusing on
the role of brand as a loyalty-based resource, available to digital television networks to create a sustain-
able competitive advantage. The third chapter, entitled “Between Physical and Virtual reality: the case
of Benetton Brand,” identifies the organizational dynamics of the Benetton Company and presents a
perspective theory that seeks to analyze the connections between social representations and corporate
communication.
Further, the fourth chapter, “Branding & Sustainable Competitive Advantage in Indian Politics:
Brand Rahul Gandhi,” discusses and analyses Rahul Gandhi as a brand to find a match between brand
identity, brand personality, and consumer perception in terms of benefits sought and influence of activi-
ties undertaken by him. The chapter concludes that there should be a sustainable synergy between the
leader and the party to avoid brand equity dilution.
In section three, “Consumers and Brands,” the first chapter, “Brand Engagement and Brand Loyalty,”
states brand engagement from theoretical, managerial, and methodological perspectives. The theoretical
component describes types and levels of engagement and emphasizes their antecedents and consequences.
ix
The managerial component briefly describes management interests in branding and brand loyalty and
the relation of brand engagement to loyalty. Finally, the methodological component briefly describes
how to operationalize the engagement concepts. Similarly, the second chapter, “The Brand Stakeholder
Approach: Broad and Narrow-based views to managing consumer-centric brands,” presents a dynamic
collaborative process of creation of brands seeking to engage consumers in new and innovative ways
in order to gain authenticity.
Finally, the third chapter, “Brand Obsessed Society: Branding Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev in India,”
explores the value propositions, and the sustainable key differentiators to analyze the brand status and
brand strategy of spiritual beacon Baba Ram Dev. The chapter concludes that, a strong synergy between
image and identity of Brand Baba Ramdev results in strong personality that offers him a competitive
advantage to get across to the consumers.
In section Four, “Digital And Virtual World,” the first chapter, “GeoFree BrandComms: Building and
Sustaining Virtual Brand Communities,” presents the use of Weblogs (Blogs) and related technologies as
strategic tools in building GeoFree BrandComms and posits the applications of GeoFree BrandComms
in Web-based marketing strategies that find their basis in strong brands and loyal customers.
Further, the second chapter, “Enhanced Social Presence Through eBranding the Consumer in Virtual
Communities,” discusses that brands have become an important mode of consumer communication,
identifying and distinguishing consumers as social objects within consumer market culture. In addi-
tion, eBranding affords consumers the necessary tools to represent themselves by communicating their
roles and relationships in virtual consumer culture environments for transfer to actual consumer culture
environments.
Finally, the third chapter, “E branding and Institutional Websites: the Visiting Cards of the Munici-
palities of Rome and Paris,” presents the analysis of the municipal web sites of two historical capitals,
Rome and Paris, considered as the Visiting Cards these two cities offer citizens and tourists. In sum, the
chapter offers guidelines for web professionals and institutional communication managers.
Avinash Kapoor
Management Development Institute, India
Chinmaya Kulshrestha
Management Development Institute, India