دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی استراتژی های پذیرش رسانه های اجتماعی در شرکت های کسب و کار به کسب و کار - امرالد 2018

Introduction

The expenses attributed to branding efforts has risen over the last decades, estimated to reach USD 559 billion by end of 2017 (Yu, 2017). This exhibits that the competitiveness in the branding sphere has become more intensive where brands cannot afford to remain in status quo. However, notwithstanding these huge expenditures in branding activities, gaps in research persist in the attention given to various areas concerning the application of branding strategy in the B2B sector. This is despite the fact that building strong brands is acknowledged as a crucial part of marketing strategy for B2B enterprises (Seyedghorban, Matanda and LaPlaca, 2016; Leek and Christodoulides, 2011). One pertinent area of research in B2B branding would be brand transformation, a perspective where a collective set of actions and activities are coherently steered to regenerate the engagement experience from the brand, in turn creating value to the customer (Lucarelli and Hallin, 2015). Brand transformation is often practiced when enterprises intend to rejuvenate an existing brand, refresh an old brand, or rebranding an existing brand as a result of a merger or acquisition (Lucarelli and Hallin, 2015; Mininni, 2006). A critical procedure within brand transformation is the repositioning of a brand that encapsulates a radical change involving different stakeholders from internal and external of the organization (Cova and Paranque, 2016). Despite such theoretical claims, there is an inadequacy of case studies of brand transformation practices to support and attest for its positive impact to enterprises and their brands.

Conclusion and Future Directions

Fagerdala is a practical example of a B2B company which demonstrated that a comprehensive and impactful branding initiative involves transformation, often is underlined by an innovation mind-set. This success story of Fagerdala attest that superior brand performance can be achieved through integration of brand orientation and brand innovation (Lee et al, 2016; Merrilees and Miller, 2008). Brand transformation was realised by cutting across all silos within the organization with augmentation of human resources, management processes, stakeholder engagements, brand identity and communications systematically and cohesively (Aaker 2014). The harmonisation of all initiatives across silos was made possible with a single minded focus on the brand promise that is inspired by the essence of the brand. Generalisation of the brand transformation concept and practice entails testing with further research. Recommendation will be to perform more of such case studies that characterise structured brand transformation initiatives across different industry verticals within both B2B and B2C enterprises. This will capture common practices and challenges, particularly at the performative perspective which could be consolidated as best practices for implementing brand transformation. In addition, the nuances in the challenges experienced in aligning different stakeholders and process together which could be specific to certain industry verticals can be captured in future studies. With this, the brand transformation framework at its performative perspective can be made more robust.