Since time immemorial company’s interaction with its customers plays a vital role in co-creation of values and shared lifestyle. Similarly, for Japanese department stores passing through the declining stage of the life cycle, strategy based on maintaining relationships is important for renovating their business models. This study examines the importance of “Retail Brand Community” for Japanese department stores, considering from the perspective of Brand community and Social Identity Theory.

본 연구는 국내 유소년 축구클럽 브랜드 아이덴티티, 가치, 충성도 간의 구조적인 모형과 효과 성을 검증하여 축구클럽들이 효율적인 브랜드 전략을 수립하는 기초자료를 제공하고자 했다. 따라서 서울, 경기도, 충청도 지역 유소년 축구클럽 회원의 학부모들을 표본으로 선정했으며, 372부의 자료를 최종분석 에 활용했다. 자료처리는 SPSS(ver. 21.0) 프로그램으로 빈도분석, 신뢰도를 검증하는 내적일관성을 실시했 다. 또한 AMOS(ver. 20.0) 프로그램으로 확인적 요인분석, 상관분석, 구조방정식 모형분석, 효과성과 유의 성을 검증하는 붓스트랩 BC법을 적용했다. 연구결과 첫 번째로 국내 유소년 축구클럽 브랜드 아이덴티티 는 가치에 영향이 있는 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 국내 유소년 축구클럽 가치는 충성도에 영향이 있는 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 국내 유소년 축구클럽 브랜드 아이덴티티는 충성도에 영향이 있는 것으로 나타났다. 마지 막으로 국내 유소년 축구클럽 브랜드 아이덴티티 및 충성도 간의 가치는 부분매개효과가 있는 것으로 나타 났다.

Introduction In the last years, luxury has experienced a multiplicity of transformations from different perspectives. The opening up of the fast-growing economies to luxury has disrupted its essence and identity by bringing in a stratification of the levels in luxury, an expansion of customers’ segments and a new mode of operationalization for luxury brands: the digitalization of luxury. However, luxury brands identity should still be characterized by their rarity, originality and exclusivity. Luxury capitals and their urban ecosystem represent a significant space where luxury brands had and still have anchored their essence, customer experience and all those values that represent their identity. Luxury industries are threatened by a progressive loss of mystique, market analysts say, as consumers search for something more than aesthetics and shallow status symbols (Boston Consulting Group, 2010). Consequently, luxury brands should rely more consistently on their heritage and history, in order to strengthen their appeal (Atsmon et al, 2012). In-store experience is increasingly important in luxury markets (Atsmon et al, 2012) and the shopping destination plays a key role. In fact, besides being an instrumental occasion for getting the needed products, the shopping experience becomes an end valued for its own sake (Rintamaki et al, 2007, p. 628). As a result of the changing context and new priorities, this research will focus on the case study of one main French luxury brand – Christian Dior – and will explore how the brand has capitalized on the local “brandscape” effect of Paris as a luxury city to reinforce the brand heritage and keep its own identity in “turbulent times”. The results of this study are preliminary ones at this stage but they already provide an overview of how the brand has capitalized on the brandscape orientation. Theoritical Development In order to understand how Christian Dior has capitalized on the local “brandscape” effect of Paris and reinforce its brand heritage, this article will first review the main concepts of brandscape and brand heritage. Brandscape City branding literature has overlooked the role of individual brands that, being somehow associated with the city, contribute to city brand building (Pasquinelli, 2014). In city branding literature, a variety of geographical units may be relevant for brands, especially at a smaller scale: the ‘region of origin’ or the ‘city of origin’ (as in this article) may turn out to be of much greater significance. However, the geographical fragmentation of global value chains caused the breakdown of the ‘origin’ into a set of geographical associations (Insch and McBride, 2004), such as the “Made in”, “Designed in”, “Assembled in” and “Headquartered in” (Papadopoulos, 2011). Consequently, origin will not simply be the geographical context where the product is manufactured. Rather, the brand origin becomes ‘the place, region or country where a brand is perceived to belong’ (Thakor and Kohli, 1996, p. 26). The origin is, thus, a matter of perception and, in addition to the physical or material attachment to the place of production, other spatialities may add value to product brands, such as the ‘usage context’ (Gerr et al, 1999), in relation to specific situations and rituals of consumption. In this perspective, rather than a simple and static place–product identification, there is a need to look at the process of constructing geographical associations, where spatial circuits of value and meaning are activated in the production, circulation, consumption and regulation of product brands (Pike, 2009, 2010, 2011). Consequently, cities may become the host of these spatial circuits and, because of their nature in a globalized economy, they play a distinctive role in the ‘local origination’ of product brands, helping local firms to construct globally competitive brands (Pike, 2011). Brand heritage A brand is often represented by s a set of functional attributes and symbolic values, branding being the process of associating the attributes with the product in order to add value to it (Hakala et al., 2011). According to Kapferer (2004), a brand’s success is based on its saliency, differentiability and intensity, and on the trust attached to the associations. In addition to these, Davis (2000) underlines the role and accumulation of experiences in brand recognition. Brand preference ultimately depends on what the brand means to the customer and on the impact of its emotional effect, in other words on its place in the heart (Ballantyne et al., 2006). Related to the same idea, brand attachment is characterized by a strong linkage or connectedness between the brand and the self (Kleine and Kleine, 1993). In this context, brand heritage is one of the associations that marketers can use to differentiate their brands from those of their competitors, ultimately helping them to create a unique image for the offering (Keller and Lehmann, 2006). For Aaker (1996), heritage is a key component of brand equity and this heritage represents an essential value for the customer and other stakeholders (Keller and Richey, 2006). The main advantages of brand heritage is as a matter of fact to add stability, familiarity, sincerity and differentiation (Merchant and Rose, 2013) in order to bring authenticity (Fionda and Moore, 2009; Kapferer and Bastien, 2008), and to reduce purchasing risk (Steewart-Allen, 2002). In difficult times, consumers become less confident in the future and wish to protect themselves from the hazards of the outside world and as a result it increases the interest in brands with a heritage: skillfully exploited, they can evoke past events (Brown et al., 2003) and reassure the consumer. The word heritage is generally associated with inheritance: something transferred from one generation to the next. As a concept, therefore, it works as a carrier of historical values from the past (Nuryanti, 1996). But the concept of heritage is different from history (Urde et al. 2007) and retro (Wiedmann et al. 2011). Heritage corresponds to different meaning. On the corporate perspective, heritage is defined as “all the traits and aspects of an organization that link its past, present, and future in a meaningful and relevant way” (Burghausen and Balmer 2014b, p. 394). This link between the different time strata, called omni-temporality, is a cornerstone of corporate heritage (Balmer 2011). Finally, Banerjee (2008, p. 314) describes the four pillars of the heritage of a brand as its history, image, expectancy and equity. History represents its rich and eventful past, the image "an after effect of the brand communication and positioning based on the perceived benefits by consumers”. Brand expectancy refers to the physical and emotional benefits that consumers receive from the brand. Finally, equity comprises two subsets: a homogeneous and heterogeneous set of competencies that facilitate progression and give advantages over the competition. With the exception of its history, the elements of the brand's heritage in Banerjee’s description (2008) are difficult to measure. Methodology In order to provide specific responses from the field, the empirical research methodology chosen follows the case analysis method (Yin, 1984). Following Yin (1984) case study approach and guidelines, a unique emblematic and successful case study is proposed to be analyzed in its unicity. Data reported will be authorized when required or based on primary evidence from public sources such as online, offline media, press, and advertisement and communication campaigns. The research data collection process has started with a pilot work in order to be oriented by experts in the field with respect to the coherence of the research covered. A focus group has been created and has provided indications to build a guideline for the empirical data collection. As a result, it has been decided to start the empirical data collection through an analysis of public sources on a 2 years timeframe. The length of the public sources analysis is related to the need to provide a consistent evaluation of the brand positioning heritage. The following empirical data will be concentrated on interviews with Christian Dior brand in a timeline of 2 months in order to have access to diverse sources of information and to integrate data necessary to build a coherent case study. The interviews are going to be carried in Paris headquarters and in the diverse flagship stores in Paris. Paris as location of data investigation and collection has been decided in relation to its central role in the research questions of the paper and in the historical development of the brand. Christian dior as a successful case of fashion city brandscape and heritage Christian Dior French New Look appeared in 1947 during the first Christian Dior couture fashion show in Paris. At the time, the Paris couture trade was in a precarious state. What it needed was excitement, and Christian Dior delivered it in a collection of luxurious clothes with soft shoulders, waspy waists and full-flowing skirts intended for what he called flower women. ‘It’s quite a revelation, dear Christian Dior’ pronounced Carmel Snow, the editor of US magazine Harper’s Bazaar. ‘Your dresses have such a New Look.’ And here it was: the New Look dresses were born. Dior brand is specifically embedded on the name of the founder, fashion designer of the brand, very inspired by the atmosphere and history of Paris : “ The air of Paris is really the air of couture” (Dior, 2011). The logo itself reminds the founder of the brand. Its simplicity and elegance reinforce the brand identification for consumers; in the logo, it is possible to find the sophistication and elegance representative of the personality of its creator. The company has made efforts to keep the same values promoted by its original founder Christian Dior. Indeed, Dior was primarily a female brand. Dior’s company is also synonymous of dreams. The designer always wanted to reach the excellence in every pieces he created and it’s on the same motto that the company has reached the success known today. Though earlier Dior focused only on women, it diversified into products for men under the brand of Dior Homme, and for children under the brand of Baby Dior as well as other products lines such as parfumes and cosmetics with the same aspect of perfectionism. Preliminary results and conclusion In order to evaluate Christian Dior relationship with the urban environment -Paris-, a first collection of on line data has shown the following. Christian Dior bought his first couture house in Paris in 1946 after working for Robert Pigue and Lucien Lelong. His first house, 30 avenue Montaigne, was the place where the Dior Label would flourish. Considered as one of the greatest couturiers of this century, Christian Dior never ceased to develop his image and fame around the "great Parisian chic", anchored in the mythical and symbolic history of the famous "light city". His latest exhibition at the “Musée des Arts Décoratifs” celebrating the 70th anniversary of Maison Dior, says a lot about this position. The brand strategy has always been in fact, to bring beauty by respecting the tradition and heritage of the company. In this environment, Dior shows the implementation of a very specific brand communication policy. As in the following examples, the ad is always really elegant and sophisticated with quite often the appearance of a famous person being the “muse” of the brand. And the story always takes place in Paris and is illustrated by short anecdotes in the heart of the capital, next to its most famous monuments such as the Eiffel Tower. The logo is also present in a simple way, reflecting the strength of the brand with a clear recognition and association with French luxury and high quality products. If these ways of communicating remain more classical, where the consumer can easily rely on the values of the brand with a “dream” touch, the real power of Dior’s brand is the way it communicates on the brand itself and its history. The continuation of our research will consist in deepening these preliminary results by analyzing supplementary data coming from public sources and interviews led with Dior's brand.

Introduction Understanding political brands is a pertinent concern for the British Crown Dependency of Guernsey. Guernsey is a Channel Island, part of the British Isles yet not a member of the European Union. In addition, Guernsey currently has a nonpolitical party system and all thirty-eight Members of Parliament [otherwise known as Deputies] are independent figures. Further, deputies stand as individuals, and members often form informal alliances repeatedly referred to as collections of constantly changing coalitions of support or ‘quasi-political parties’ Guernsey is set to hold an island-wide referendum by March 2018 on the island’s electoral process, moving from seven constituencies to one island-wide constituency. The Guernsey Government believe the 2018 referendum will impact the way Members of Parliament are elected and envisage the creation and introduction of ‘political parties’, or formal alliances in anticipation for the 2020 General Election. The creation and introduction of political parties [political brands] on Guernsey would be unprecedented to the current-historic political environment of a non-party system structured by independent, individual politicians. Further, it is unknown whether the creation and introduction of political ‘party’ brands would have the same appeal, benefits and success compared with independent ‘individual’ political brands. This presents a unique opportunity for the proposed piece of research, which will have an impact as to whether political parties [political party brands] are desired by Guernsey’s elected representatives and Guernsey citizens-voters, and if so, how will new political parties be created and conceptualised. However, in order to address this we need to frame the study within the sub-discipline of political branding. The application of commercial branding theory to politics is nothing new (O’Cass and Voola 2011; O’Shaughnessy and Baines 2009; Rutter et al. 2015). There is a shared understanding that political parties, pressure groups, politicians, candidates and campaigns can be conceptualised as ‘brands’ (Guzman and Sierra 2009; Needham and Smith 2015; Peng and Hackley 2009; Pich et al. 2016; Scammell 2015; Smith 2009). Further, the sub-discipline of political branding has become a ‘critical’ and ‘priority’ issue that warrants continued attention (Speed et al. 2015). The application of branding to politics has been described as the most appropriate way to understand the political ‘product’ and a mechanism to frame the deconstruction process to understand the political promise put forward by political actors (Scammell 2015). Political brands are complex, multi-layered entities which are often difficult to unbundle (Lees-Marshment 2009; Lock and Harris 1996; Phipps et al. 2010). Further, political brands are powerful tools used as a short-cut mechanism to deconstruct the rational and irrational elements of the political offering (Scammell 2015). This is reinforced with continued calls for future research to focus on generating deeper insight into how political brands are developed and understood particularly in new settings and contexts (Needham and Smith 2015; Nielsen 2016; Ormrod and Henneberg 2011; Pich and Dean 2015; Scammell 2015; Speed et al. 2015). Subsequently, the objectives of this study are to: - Investigate how current non-party political brands create, develop and communicate their brand identity from the perspective of elected representatives - Explore how current non-party political brand image is understood from the perspective of Guernsey voters - Ascertain whether elected representatives and Guernsey voters desire political ‘party’ brands for the 2020 General Election. Theoretical Background Political brands can be considered a trinity of elements including the party, leader and policy (Butler et al. 2011; Davies and Mian 2010; Pich and Dean 2015; Speed et al. 2015). The trinity of elements need to ensure clear identification and differentiation from political competitors (Ahmed et al. 2015; Nielsen 2016; O’Cass and Voola 2011; Smith 2008). In addition, effective political brands should be strong, appealing, trustworthy, offer resonance, act as a decision making driver which in turn will support strategy development and build awareness in the mind of voters-citizens (Ahmed et al. 2015; Baines and Harris 2011; O’Cass and Voola 2011). However, the existing literature has tended to focus on ‘party’ political systems and overlooked political brands from non-party political systems where all candidates and politicians are independent candidates and representatives. Nevertheless, what about other typologies of political brands like in non-party systems? In addition, the existing body of knowledge has not explained how political brands exist or develop without the ‘party’ element from the trinity. This proposition is supported the demand for more depth and understanding on political brands especially non-party ‘individual’ political brands [elected representatives] (French and Smith 2010; O’Cass and Voola 2011; Peng and Hackley 2009; Scammell 2015). Despite the calls for more research in this area, there are a few studies that have investigated ‘individual’ political brands. More specifically, studies have focused on politicians or candidates from political ‘parties’ in terms of brand personality, equity, identity or image and often compared ‘corporate’ and ‘individual’ political brands (Cwalina and Falkowski 2014; De Landtsheer and De Vries 2015; Milewicz and Milewicz 2014; Smith and Spotswood 2013; Speed et al. 2015). For example, Smith and Spotswood (2013) comparatively considered the brand equity of the UK Liberal Democrat Party from a corporate and individual-local perspective. Smith and Spotwood (2013) highlighted that successful political brands whether corporate or local-individual) communicated clear expectations, focused values, believable promises to constituents, which is often easier at a local rather than national level. Further, Smith and Spotwood (2013) argued that successful corporate political brands would depend on consistency between corporate and local-individual political brands. However, the work by Smith and Spotswood (2013) was developed from speeches, articles and other discourse rather than from the personal perspective of internal stakeholders. Therefore, more depth and understanding from a multi-stakeholder perspective would reveal greater insight into the individual-local political brand particularly in non-party contexts. Existing political branding research primarily adopts either an internal (Busby and Cronshaw 2015; Cwalina and Falkowski 2014; de Landtsheer and Vries 2015; Milewicz and Milewicz 2014; Smith and Spotswood 2013) or external perspective to frame studies (French and Smith 2010; Peng and Hackley 2009; Phipps et al. 2010). More specifically, research devoted to an internal ‘brand identity’ perspective directs its attention to the political party, candidate or politician. Brand identity can be conceptualised as the current intended projection formulated and communicated by the brand’s creator with the aim of attempting to establish a desired identity in the mind of the consumer (de Chernatony 2007; Kapferer 2008). Further, brand identity can be seen as a useful approach to generate a deep understanding from an internal standpoint and capture the ‘central ideas of a brand and how the brand communicates these ideas to stakeholders’ (de Chernatony 2007:45; Ross and Harradine 2011; Saaksjarvi and Samiee 2011). In contrast, research focusing on an external ‘brand image’ perspective considers the political offering from a citizen-voter orientation (Needham and Smith 20015; Nielsen 2016; O’Cass 2001). Brand image can be considered as the current-immediate associations perceived and formulated in the mind of the consumer, which is often out of control of the brand’s creator (Nandan 2005; Rekom et al. 2006). In addition, brand image is externally created, and manifested through unique associations and perceptions, experiences and expectations linked to physical and intangible elements of a brand (Bosch et al. 2006a; Nandan 2005). Therefore, future research should attempt to capture insight into how political brands develop and communicate identity and how political brands are understood from an internal [revealed by the politician] and external perspective [revealed by the voter] (Baines et al. 2014; Needham and Smith 2015; O’Cass and Voola 2011; Pich and Dean 2015). However, how can we actually comprehend current political brand identity and political brand image? One study that explored an ‘internal-relational orientation’ of several individual political brands was the work by Pich and Dean (2015). Pich and Dean (2015) explored the internal brand identity of UK Conservative Party politicians prior the 2010 UK General Election with the support of Kapferer’s brand identity prism (Kapferer 2008). Further, the work by Pich and Dean (2015) not only revealed the complex related yet distinct nature of individual political brands and their relationship with their ‘corporate Conservative Party’ political brand but also demonstrated the problematic nature of applying the brand identity prism in its original form to deconstruct the internal orientation of a political brand. Pich and Dean (2015) concluded with a revised framework known as the ‘political brand identity network’ and challenged future studies to consider this as a workable tool to understand individual political brands from an internal-relational perspective. However, Pich and Dean (2015) concluded that the ‘political brand identity network’ could also support the understanding of external brand image. Therefore, could the ‘political brand identity network’ aid the exploration of internal political brand identity and external political brand image of non-party political brands? Responding to this gap in the body of knowledge, this research will explore the internal brand identity of an ‘individual’ political brand from the perspective of elected representatives and investigate the external brand image of non-party political brand from the perspective of Guernsey voters. In addition, this study will assess the operationalisation of the ‘political brand identity network’ put forward by Pich and Dean (2015). Further, responding to the challenge from Pich and Dean (2015), this study will assess the usability of the political brand identity network to understand non-party political brand identity and political brand image. This will address the limited development of ‘appropriate models’ and frameworks that can be used to assist political entities in understanding their offering and support strategy development (Nielsen 2015; O’Cass and Voola 2011; Ormrod 2011; Scammell 2015). Confusion and advancement can be addressed by building on existing research by assessing existing models and frameworks in comparison with new settings and contexts (Nielsen 2016; O’Cass 2001; O’Cass and Voola 2011; Ormrod and Henneberg 2011; Scammell 2015; Speed et al. 2015). Research Design As this study aims to explore non-party political brands from a multi-stakeholder perspective, a qualitative interpretivist approach is adopted (Creswell 2007; Welch et al. 2011). This is consistent with the calls across the political branding discipline for more exploratory empirical research (French and Smith 2010; O’Cass and Voola 2011; Peng and Hackley 2009; Scammell 2015). This study will involve two stages. Stage one involves twenty-one semi-structured interviews with current elected Deputies. Deputies from across the eight districts of Guernsey namely; Vale, Vale-West, St Sampson, St Peter Port-North, St Peter Port-South, South East, West and Castel (www.gov.gg) have been selected. Interviews will last between 60-90 minutes and will be conducted by the researchers from March 2018-May 2018. Stage two involves twelve focus group discussions with Guernsey citizens-voters. Focus group discussions will be organised according to voter age group following the conventional approach adopted by research organisitions such as YOUGOV and IPSOS-MORI to explore political brand image. More specifically, this study will adopt purposive sampling framework and Guernsey citizens will be grouped from 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64 and 65+ and each group will serve to frame each focus group discussion (Gillham 2005; Malhotra and Birks 2003). Focus group discussions will be conducted July-September 2018. Pilot interviews and focus group discussions were conducted in October 2017 to assess the usability of the interview-focus group schedules and aided developmentrefinement (Gillham 2005). The ‘political brand identity network’ (Pich and Dean 2015) serves as a conceptual framework to provide some structure the interviews-focus group discussions and be incorporated into the interview-focus group schedules (Gillham 2005; Zikmund 2003).Transcripts from the semi-structured interviews and the focus group discussions will be thematically analysed with the support of Butler- Kisber’s (2010) two-stage analytical approach. Findings The findings from stage one of the study will generate insight on how current nonparty political brands create, develop and communicate their brand identity from the perspective of elected representatives. For example, the findings will highlight how non-party political brands create-develop communication strategies and tactics, the significance of individual political personality as a tool to provide differentiation and whether personal values are used to characterise the brands (Ahmed et al. 2015; Nielsen 2016; O’Cass and Voola 2011; Smith 2008). The findings from stage two of the study will reveal how current non-party political brand image is understood from the perspective of Guernsey voters. For example, the insights linked to political brand image will reveal consistencies and incoherencies with communicated identity and awareness of communication strategies-tactics, personality characteristics and personal-cultural values of Deputies (Pich and Dean 2015). Stage two will also reveal understanding as to whether Guernsey citizens-voters desire political ‘party’ brands. This will address the third objective of the study. This in turn will highlight the ideal conceptualised political brand for Guernsey developed from a multi-stakeholder perspective. Discussion This study will also reveal the relationships between current Deputies and constituents, personal-working relationships with stakeholders across government departments and understanding of attitudes and opinions of political issues such as the introduction of parties. This in turn will introduce first-hand accounts of current non-party political brand identities. In addition, this stage will reveal if the ‘party’ dimension is the only missing element from the triad and provide understanding of the relevance of the ‘policy’ and ‘leader-politician’ dimensions (Butler et al. 2011; Davies and Mian 2010; Pich and Dean 2015; Speed et al. 2015). Further, this study will provide understanding into the relationships between voters and Deputies and highlight the perceptions, associations and imagery Guernsey voters ascribe to non-party political brands (Bosch et al. 2006a; Nandan 2005). This research will also reveal understanding as to whether Guernsey citizens-voters desire political ‘party’ brands. This in turn could result in a reconceptualization of political brands, which extends the political brand triad (Butler et al. 2011; Davies and Mian 2010; Pich and Dean 2015; Speed et al. 2015). Further, a revised definition could be tailored to the unique setting of island communities and this could have implications to other jurisdictions with non-traditional political brands. Finally, the applied findings will address the challenge put forward by Pich and Dean (2015) to assess the usability of the ‘brand identity network’ as a mechanism to explore internal political brand identity and external political brand image. This will go some way in addressing the limited number of ‘appropriate frameworks’ than can be used to assist researchers to understand brands and develop strategies to address any inconsistencies or misalignment between communicated identity and understood image (Nielsen 2015; O’Cass and Voola 2011; Ormrod 2011; Scammell 2015; Speed et al. 2015). Conclusion Subsequently, this study will seek to understand how independent elected representatives currently create and develop political brand identity and explore how Guernsey voters understand political brand image of non-party brands. Further, the findings will highlight a contribution to practice. For example, this study will reveal implications of the introduction of political ‘party’ brands to the prospective of an island-wide voting environment from the perspective of internal [Deputies] and external [citizens-voters] stakeholders. This research will offer internal political stakeholders insight into the perceptions, attitudes and opinions of external citizensvoters in terms of prospective political ‘party’ brands, desired configuration of political ‘party’ brands and highlight whether political ‘party’ brands have a role to play in the reformed electoral process on Guernsey. Further, the findings will offer internal political stakeholders the opportunity to design, create and develop their political brands in line with the wants and needs of the electorate, which in turn should strengthen political engagement, maintain personal relationships between politicians-voters and allow for the establishment of a tailored approach to political brand management in non-traditional political environments. Further, the findings will have a direct impact on the debate as to how Guernsey’s electoral process develops following the 2018 Island Wide Referendum and legislates prior the 2020 Guernsey General Election. The findings will also have implications beyond non-party systems of government for example it may offer existing party-systems of government practical methods and initiatives to strengthen voter engagement and develop stakeholder relationships across jurisdictions and constituencies. This study will also contribute to academic theory. For example, the addressed objectives will offer the researchers an opportunity reconceptualise political brands particularly in non-traditional contexts based on deep insight from the perspectives of citizens-voters, which in turn will allow the sub-discipline of political branding to advance-develop as an area of study (Needham and Smith 20015; Nielsen 2016; O’Cass 2001; Pich et al. 2016; Scammel 2015). In addition, this study will address explicit calls for future research in this area by outlining how independent political brands exist or develop without the ‘party’ element from the trinity assess the applicability of the ‘trinity’ concept to new jurisdictions. Finally, this study will assess the applicability of the ‘political brand identity network’ (Pich and Dean 2015) as a tool to explore internal political brand identity and external political brand image of non-party political brands from a multi-stakeholder perspective.

While there is broad agreement on the importance of an identity-oriented brand understanding and management, there is a high degree of disagreement as regards the definition of the brand identity construct. In the scientific discussion, a definition seems to prevail, in which the brand image that exists among the customers is contrasted with the brand identity which is either only associated with the within the brand company existing picture of the brand (self-image) or at least additionally with the brand’s meaning and goal. Falling back on very different research traditions in the field of the development of an identity theory, it is shown that the construct of brand identity should be understood in a much more comprehensive sense in order to fully unleash its heuristic power. In addition, it seems imperative to take into account that strong brands can become a kind of "personality sui generis", the further development of which cannot only be determined by the company which once brought the brand onto the market. The specific brand identity is much more subject to many social influences involving a huge variety of social actors. Against this background the idea of brand management needs reform, and should be re-conceptualized more in the sense of an attempt to channel all relevant social influences in a targeted manner. In this contribution, a corresponding approach of identity-oriented brand management is presented and illustrated by examples from the fashion sector. This is mainly due to the fact that the identity development of fashion marks depends to a great extent on numerous social influences and influencers.

The market for luxury is changing with new competitors to the market, more modest growth, and new types of customers (Kim and Ko 2012, Ko, Phau and Aiello 2016) as well as the ubiquity of digital marketing channels (Okonkwo 2009). Moreover, social media has transformed the logic of fashion marketing by providing new ways of engaging, interacting, and connecting with customers (Dhaoui 2014) as well as enabling consumers to participate in branding process (Burman 2010). As a consequence, also luxury brands need to develop experience-based marketing strategies that emphasise interactivity, connectivity and creativity (Atwal and Williams 2009). What is more, despite of growing importance of social media marketing in luxury industry, extant research on the topic still remains quite limited (Ko and Megehee 2012). While the previous studies have well documented the benefits of luxury marketing on social media (Kim and Ko 2012, Kim and Ko 2010, Brogi et al. 2013, Kontu and Vecchi 2014, Godey et al. 2016), and their implications on luxury brand management (Dhaoui 2014, Larraufie and Kourdoughli 2014), and even co-creative marketing practices (Choi, Ko and Kim 2016, Tynan, McKehnie, and Chuon 2010), no studies to this date have looked at co-creation from consumer-perspective. This article provides a novel perspective on luxury branding, by following the resource-based theory of consumer (Arnould, Price and Malshe 2006) to study the brand identity as co-created in social media. To do this, visual frame analysis (Goffman 1974, Luhtakallio 2013) is applied on consumer generated images downloaded from Instagram feed of brand exhibition staged by luxury brand Louis Vuitton. Based on the analysis, a typology of co-created brand identities is proposed. The findings indicate that in the branded exhibitions, consumers co-create brand identity by utilising resources available in the experiential brandscape by taking and posting these objectifications of brand on social media (Presi et al. 2016) and in so doing create symbolic/expressive, and experiential/hedonic value (Tynan et al. 2010). Theoretically, this article provides a novel perspective on luxury brand as co-created and in so doing, demonstrates the dynamics of firm-consumer co-creation. What is more, to extend the emerging stream of visual analysis of luxury (Kim et al. 2016, Freire 2014, Megehee and Spake 2012), an application of novel is demonstrated in the article. Managerially, this explorative study provides new insights on luxury marketing in social media by suggesting that branded experiences should be designed in a manner that engages the consumer to actively use the resources available to them. The financial implications of this shift are also significant as according to McKinsey study, three out of four luxury purchases are influenced by social media (Hope 2016)

There has been an increasing trend of using code-switching to enhance ad persuasion among local and global brands. Ads that include two or more languages are referred to as code-switched ads (Luna and Peracchio 2005a; 2005b). It is noted that previous studies investigating code-switched ad effectiveness have focused on bilinguals, not monolinguals. Due to the emerging use of code-switching in ads in monolingual markets, more research efforts are required to understand its effectiveness and boundaries among the monolinguals. The purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating role of consumer local-global identity in the effectiveness of code-switched ads among monolinguals. Two experiments were conducted and the results confirmed our hypothesis that consumer local-global identity moderates the effect of code-switched ads. The results indicated that congruence between consumer local-global identity and code-switching enhanced persuasiveness. In addition, the mediating effect of ad involvement was identified. These findings provide managerial implications for marketers.

The Salvatore Ferragamo Company, founded in 1938 by Salvatore Ferragamo in Florence, is very well known for creation and production of ladies shoes but has a leading role in the whole international luxury market. The company history is ancient and started before 1927, when Salvatore Ferragamo, leaving California, came back to Italy and got to Florence. At that time, Salvatore Ferragamo was already famous in the United States for having created the craftmade footwear for the American actresses. Called ‘The shoemaker of the stars’, Salvatore Ferragamo, very well known at that time, decided to come back to Italy to live and work in Florence , because of its great artistic and handicraft tradition. Since the beginning, the founder was significantly inspired in his work by the local culture. Palazzo Spini-Feroni, which is the company headquarters, is also a symbol of the city history and of the Italian traditional lifestyle. Since the founder’s death in 1960, Salvatore Ferragamo’s wife, Wanda Miletti Ferragamo, and their six children, headed the company. They have extended the Company business getting to complete collections lines either for men and women from “head to toe”, enhancing the distribution in more than 90 countries. The Company is nowadays one of the most important luxury group in the world, resulting from a perfect combination of tradition and innovation, of territorial anchorage and global projection, of handmade craftsmanship and ability to communicate and market-making, of technology and entrepreneurship. The values the founder believed in and the Company heritage, testified by the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo activities, further of being very important at intellectual and social level for Italian culture, represent an important asset of the brand identity. This is the ground on which it has worth to establish the brand’s challenges since the past and it is possible going onwards. This is a perfect example of a “Renaissance” case in fashion and marketing field.

New professions, highly specialized in web communication, have therefore emerged lately, such as: blogger, copywriter, social media manager, especially in the fashion industry, where every detail is meaningful and consequently every word inevitably matters. The aim of this paper is to investigate the strategies used by luxury fashion brands on social media to construe their brand identity and build up global awareness. The empirical study presented is based on the analysis of a corpus of posts retrieved from internationally renowned luxury fashion brands’ Facebook fan pages selected according to an official global top list of luxury brands. Social networks are nowadays one of the most efficient tools to make a brand globally successful and luxury fashion brands owe their popularity to them, although at the beginning they were suspicious towards those media of communication (Okonkwo, 2010: 4). This was due to the fact that mass media, by definition, are characterized by features like wide accessibility and volatility that do not match with the peculiar exclusive, unique and timeless nature of luxury goods (Okonkwo, 2010: xviii). The following table (Table 1) compares luxury features with the Internet ones in order to show that they are two opposite worlds that do not share none of their characteristics. The presence of luxury online is then a paradox itself, this is due to the fact that the features attributed to luxury that can be summarized into the word “exclusiveness” do not match with the main characteristics of Internet that is a “mass” medium of communication where the main idea is that one formula fits all. The clear contrast between the features attributed to luxury and Internet is evident in the oppositions reported: for instance we have “niche clientele” versus “mass availability” to emphasize that luxury itself cannot satisfy everyone’s desire if it aims to maintain its status and in any case it is not a short time process (Rambourg, 2014); then “exclusivity” versus “mass accessibility” is to highlight the fact that luxury cannot be accessible to everyone; and the extremely relevant difference between luxury products that must or at least give the idea to be “made-to-measure” versus the “one-formula-fits-all approach” and “mass appeal”, typical of the mass media of communication, that distinguishes the use of Internet, where what you share is designed to be widely accessible from luxury that represents uniqueness and exclusiveness. The study conducted will try to identify if luxury brands have overcome this channel conflict and later investigate their performances on social media particularly focusing on the construction of the content. The analysis of the data will be run by taking into consideration marketing literature review, and the use of theoretical frameworks based on genre analysis, corpus linguistics and discourse analysis. Furthermore the analysis will be done with the support of statistical linguistic softwares Wordsmith and Wmatrix, and it will show how luxury fashion brands shape brand identity online through words. The results will offer an overview on the construction of content particularly used to rely on storytelling, heritage marketing, and “glocalization” strategies. Moreover, interesting insights will draw the attention to the specific strategies used to target different markets (Hollensen, 2007: 220-221) while taking into consideration the cultural differences and at the same time emphasizing the features directly connected to the “Made in” identity of the brand. A further section will focus on the interplay between different semiotic systems employed to construe the brand identity online, and on some examples of strategies specifically designed for emerging markets and created through transmedia communication (Jenkins, 2006). The evidence gathered, which also sheds light on the use of pronouns and verbs to stimulate the users’ engagement in brands’ life and in the production of the content, can provide interesting insights into web communication. Further interdisciplinary researches combining different approaches will develop significant strategies particularly interesting for the training of new professional profiles involved in the design of marketing strategies.

Consumers today are not passive recipients of a constructed brand identity that is communicated towards them. Instead research suggests that the consumer is in fact an active part in constructing brand meaning. Salzer-Mörling and Strannegård (2004) held that brand managers are confronted with the fact that they are not the owners of the brand who can actively manipulate brand images in the minds of passive consumers. The importance of consumption activities and how these play a part in the development of meaning has been demonstrated by authors such as Wallendorf and Arnould (1991), who interpreted the consumption rituals of Thanksgiving and explored the linkages and cleavages between consumer ideology and consumer practice. Arnould and Price (1993) investigated the relationship between client expectations and satisfaction and concluded that the narrative of the rafting experience (multiday river rafting trips in the Colorado River basin was the empirical context for their article) rather than relationships between expectations and outcomes was central to its evaluation. Belk and Costa (1998) showed the creation of fantasy consumption enclaves through processes of inventing and mythologizing tradition, and Peñaloza (2001) investigated consumers‘ cultural production processes at different levels and concluded that consumers negotiate meanings and that business activities and specific references are significant for consumers in providing authenticity. In later research it is argued that brands belong to and are created within groups, communities or tribes (e.g. Brown, Kozinets and Sherry Jr., 2003), or that consumers are actively creating brandscapes (Thompson and Arsel, 2004) neo-tribes (Cova and Cova, 2002), the concept of brand communities (Muniz and O‘Guinn, 2001; McAlexander, Schouten and Koenig, 2002; Muniz and Schau, 2005; Algesheimer, Dholakia and Herrmann, 2005), subcultures of consumption (Schouten and McAlexander, 1995), and brand cultures (Schroeder and Salzer-Mörling, 2006). Muniz and O‘Guinn (2001) emphasized the triangular relationship between consumers and the brand and consumer relationships. McAlexander, Schouten and Koenig (2002) broadened this perspective by studying customers´ relationships with a branded product and related marketing agents, institutions as well as other customers. In their view, consumers socialize around brands, which are defined as brand objects, but they still consider brand meaning as being developed first by marketers. Related to the brand community is the concept of ‘neo-tribes‘, examined by Cova and Cova (2002), who hold that a tribe is not necessarily a brand community, since brand communities are explicitly commercial, whereas tribes are not. However, when a tribe is organized around a same passion of a cult-object it exhibits many similarities with a brand community (p. 603). Alongside the concept of brand community research has viewed the consumer-producer dichotomy in new ways of co-production: the customer as co-producer (Wikström, 1996; Vargo and Lusch, 2004), the reversal of consumption and production (Firath and Venkatesh, 1993), the consumer role in production and consumption (Firath and Venkatesh, 1995), consumers as customizers and producers (Firath, Dholakia and Venkatesh, 1995), customers as active co-creators of experience (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2000), the concept of customerization (Wind and Rangaswamy, 2000). Bendapudi and Leone (2003) viewed customer co-production in the construction of goods and ser-vices and claimed that consumer co-production extends to meanings as well and that consumers are not ―just passive receptacles of brand identity projected by marketers; they are active co-producers of brand meanings (p.26). They called for more attention to the implications of consumer co-produced marketing images given the empowerment of consumers through the Internet. Kozinets et al. further (2004) introduced the notion of ―interagency where consumer and producer interests are embedded in one another. Quinton and Harridge-March (2010) investigated relationships in online communities and the potential influence of consumer generated communication in online discussion fora on wine. This paper views consumer generated communication on luxury brands online and its impact on luxury brand image. With the growth of the Internet and brands’ use of it so has consumer initiated sites grown. Consumer communities and brand communities are today an active participant in the creation of brand value and brand meaning. However there is still a gap in the empirical research on consumer-generated communication and how this type of communication impacts brand image. A conceptual framework for consumer community communication is presented and three empirical examples of consumer-generated communication and its impact on brand image are presented. The approach is a qualitative online study. Consumer community sites show clear examples of information, distribution and conversation aspects. This study shows that information seeking is the most prevalent in the impact on brand image. The strength of this research lies in its qualitative nature with consumer interviews and online observations of consumer-generated brand communication. Given the exploratory nature of this research the online material had to be systematized during the course of the work and could not be chosen based on a set of criteria or evaluation methods already established.

This research used an experimental design in an effort to assess the influence of brand gender and salespeople on the attitudes toward brands according to the males' gender identity traits. The study used a three-way split-plot experimental design, and data were analyzed by t-tests, and ANOVA. The subject of this research was men in their 20s and 30s, and a total of 178 people were selected through convenience- sampling. The findings are as follows: first, masculine male consumers preferred masculinity fashion brands; however, androgynous consumers preferred brands that reflect androgyny. Second, there were no differences in brand attitude according to the gender of the salesperson for the masculinity group, but the androgynous group estimated the brands as better when the salesperson was female. Third, there were no differences in the brand attitudes among consumers according to gender of the salesperson for the Galaxy; however, for Solid Homme, brand preference was stronger when the salesperson was a woman. Fourth, the influence of brand gender and salesperson gender on brand attitudes differed according to the gender of the consumer. Therefore, apparel companies must clearly understand the characteristics of consumer gender identity and execute proper marketing strategies in order to induce stronger positive attitudes toward their brands. Moreover, apparel companies should perceive that brand gender and the gender of the salesperson can consequently encourage brand preferences.

This article aims to explore the interactive roles of types of primed identity (local versus global identity) and types of ad framing on brand evaluations. The authors designed 2 experiments in which each experiment followed a 2×2 between-subject design. The empirical results showed that a gain-framed ad induced more positive emotional responses than a loss-framed ad, and the positive affective responses lead to more favorable brand evaluation. Furthermore, the results showed that there were interactive effects of primed identity and types of advertisement frame on brand evaluation. In the additional analysis, the results showed that when people with local identity were exposed to the gain-framed ad, they would engage in a higher level of integration processing than those in the control group, which in turn induced more favorable evaluation to the local brand. That is, the integration processing mode played a mediating role between the interaction (local id priming × ad frame) and the local brand evaluation. However, in the case of global brand evaluation, the integration processing mode did not play such a mediating role.

As multinational brands have made inroads into domestic food service industry, and its recognition has been high to consumers, This research has tried to examine the general identity of brand, their recognition, and re-purchase behaviors. The purpose of this study is to inquire into how the brand value by brand identity was caused by recent development of food service industry, and how it had an effect on the purchase behaviors of them. In particular, factors of general identity have a significant effect on the revisit and purchase intention, as the image and ads of family restaurant among brand property factors of family restaurant showed an significant effect on the revisit intention. This study was made with priority given to the brand identity as four brand factors such as product brand, organizational brand, community brand and design brand based on the confidence. Results found that the community brand and design brand had a significant difference on purchase intention. Consequently, it has been suggested that the marketing strategies to make the brand identity strong have to be established with various brand enhancement tactics in the food service industry.

On Oct of 2001, Hyundai Card which got into the credit card business late with its acquisition of Diners Card had a big success with competitive credit card product as the distinction of design and shape was introduced in card design not only was with the credit card proper ability of the payment for goods. As result of success of Hyundai card design facts, other credit card companies released the designed credit card through benchmark of Hyundai card but it was not effective as much as Hyundai card. Therefore, this study is to investigate the success facts of design through analysis of the identity of Hyundai brands design and the mutual relation, the distinction of design makes a product rivalry, is analyzed

Today, consumer needs are diversified, continually changing and differentiated. Under the market conditions of unlimited competition to satisfy those needs, businesses focus on relationship-building with customers, as well as on quality of Services. As a result, in this era of consumer-centered brand marketing, brand identity is surfacing as a competitive edge that a company can benefit from for a long time : this is related to the fact that people want to know why a consumer selects and purchases a certain brand out of so many others.

본 연구는 (사)반딧불 나눔복지재단의 브랜드 아이덴티티 디자인 개발에 대한 연구로 2018년 05월 ~ 2018년 09월까지 진행된 브랜드 아이덴티티 디자인 개발 사례를 대상으로 한다. 브랜드란 제품을 판매하는 기업이나 개인이 소비자에게 특정 이미지를 주고, 경쟁자가 제공하는 서비스, 재화와 차별화하기 위해 만든 심벌, 이름, 디자인 등의 항목이나 또는 이들의 조합을 말한다. 오늘날 소비자 인식을 방해할 정도의 많은 브랜드 속에서 소비자들에게 긍정적이고 지속가능한 상징적인 의미로 기억에 남기 위해서는 경쟁사와 구별되는 브랜드 이미지가 요구된다. 이렇듯 소비자가 해당 브랜드를 떠올릴 때 가장 먼저 그릴 수 있는 시각적인 이미지가 브랜드 디자인이며, 기업은 타경쟁사와 차별적이면서도 기업의 철학을 담은 브랜드를 구축해야 한다. 이에 본 연구는 사회적기업인 나눔복지재단의 특징과 유사사례들을 철저히 분석하고, 선행연구를 통해 장기적인 관점에서 반딧불 나눔복지재단이 타 나눔복지재단과 차별화된 브랜드 아이덴티티를 개발할 수 있도록 목표를 설정했다. 특히 반딧불 나눔복지재단을 상징하는 모티브를 가지고 디자인 이미지를 표현하고 구성하였다. 이를 통해 새롭게 제작된 브랜드 아이덴티티의 차별성이 선호도 등 긍정적인 결과로 도출되었다. 본 연구를 통해 반딧불 나눔복지재단의 브랜드 아이덴티티 구축을 시작으로 이러한 사회적 기업이 운영목표를 성취하고 공동체 활성화에 기여할 수 있기를 바란다.

Purpose - Current study aimed at investigating the symbolic and evaluation relevance to global luxury brands as the causes of inducing social identity verification, and also explored whether the social identity verification will affect the attitude toward the brands. Research design, data, and methodology - 323 questionaries from Chinese consumers were used to test hypotheses by structural equation model of AMOS 22.0. Results - First, social identity verification positively affected on the brand attitude. Second, both the symbolic relevance and the evaluation relevance positively affected on social identity verification. Third, the mediation roles of social identity verification were identified. Social identity verification played a full mediation role in the effect of the symbolic relevance on the brand attitude, and played a partial mediation role in the effect of the evaluation relevance on the brand attitude. Conclusions - This study could contribute to the advancement of theory concerned with the roles of consumers’ social identity verification which induces positive attitude toward the global luxury brands. Global brand managers in China should try to search ways by which consumers can feel both the symbolic relevance and evaluation relevance to their luxury brands, and should make efforts to improve the symbolic relevance and evaluation relevance to their brand.

현 사회는 빠른 속도로 발전하는 네트워크 기술로 인하여 지역 간, 나라 간의 경계가 모호해져 가고 있다. 글로벌 사회로 빠르게 변모하고 있는 시점에서 대한민국의 수도 서울의 정체성 확립이 어느 때보다 중요하다. 또한 서울 방문 외국 관광 객이 2,000만 명 시대를 대비하여 도시 브랜드 정체성을 강화할 필요가 있다. 따라서 본 논문은 시민들의 자긍심 고취와 타 도시 대비 경쟁력 제고를 위한 브랜딩 과정의 공감과 확산에 도움이 주고자 한다. 이를 위해 TCCS분석인 Trend, City, Competitor, Stakehoder 4가지로 나누어 분석하고 이를 통해 서울시의 키워드를 도출하고 그에 따른 브랜드 정체성을 제 시하고자 한다. 그 결과, 키워드는 ‘공존하는’, ‘열정적인’, ‘트랜디한’, ‘배려있는’, ‘여유있는’으로 도출되었으며 이로 인해 서울시는 서로 다른 요소들이 공존하며, 열정적인 시민과 트랜디한 문화를 경험할 수 있는 배려와 여유가 있는 도시, 공존 의 철학으로 열정적이면서도 여유와 배려가 있는 트랜디한 도시, 열정적이며 트랜디한 문화를 이끌어가면서도 공존의 정심 으로 배려와 여유를 놓지 않는 어울림의 도시로 나타났다. 이러한 결과를 토대는 나타난 서울시의 정체성은 다양한 디자인 분야의 컨셉을 도출하거나 시민 참여를 유도하는 이벤트를 개최할 때 유용한 자료로 활용되었으면 한다.