Many companies seek to position their brands as global players to benefit from favorable quality and prestige inferences. Yet, recent research calls into question whether global brand positioning strategies are invariably beneficial. In many Western markets, the political environment becomes increasingly tense, with nationalism and ethnocentrism on the rise. Against this background, we seek to answer the question: How does political ideology influence the effectiveness of global brand positioning strategies? Do global brand positioning strategies create more value in liberal or conservative environments?

The economic recession and changes in purchasing habits of young adults (aged 18–25) has led to a decline in the sales of Japanese fashion apparel. This younger generation’s choice of fashion items is primarily based on price. They are not devoted to a favourite brand with a frequent purchase history. Thus, developing customer loyalty and strengthening brand value are essential for the fashion industry. This study explores the improvement in fashion companies’ financial performance (FP) through young generation’s behavioural brand loyalty (BBL) from two aspects: social media brand engagement (BE) and loyalty programmes (LPs). This study listed 14 popular Japanese fashion brands which belonged to 14 publicly traded companies in Japan. Further, we surveyed 183 consumers about their brand related behaviours. The findings reveal the positive and negative effects of the same variable (BE and LPs) on the outcome (short- and long-term FP), indicating that not all activities related to BE and LPs boost FP. FP is influenced by various combinations of these causal factors and complex situations, such as consumers’ demographics and shopping characteristics. The results deepen our understanding of brand loyalty formation and the linkage among BE, LPs, and FP in a realistic marketplace, and offer multiple practical solutions to achieve high levels of short- and long-term FP by targeting the right consumers based on their specific characteristics.

INTRODUCTION The term luxury usually defines not a category of products but a conceptual and symbolic set of dimensions. These dimensions comprise values that are strongly related to cultural elements and the wider socio-economic context (Vickers & Renand, 2003). Vickers and Renand (2003) recognised luxury goods as symbols of personal and social identity. Luxury is often used as a social marker, as a social stratification tool to reinforce a hierarchy (Okonkwo, 2010, Kapferer & Bastien, 2009). Due to the subjective nature of the luxury concepts and the complexity to define it, perceptions of luxury brands are not consistent across market segments and geographic locations (Phau & Prendergast, 2000), since they depend largely on each consumer's perception of indulgence. A common denominator between consumers in both Western and Eastern cultures is that the purchase of luxury brands serves to portray individuality and/or social standing (Nueno & Quelch, 1998; Vigneron & Johnson, 2004). Consumption of luxury brands is largely determined by social function attitudes (i.e. self-expression attitude and self-presentation attitude) as consumers express their individuality (e.g., need for uniqueness) and exhibits their social standing (e.g., self monitoring) through luxury brands (Wilcox et al., 2009). It is of growing importance for researchers and managers to understand how consumers' perceptions of value, influences buying criteria and behaviour (Tynan et al., 2010; Wiedmann, Hennigs, & Siebels, 2007). The perception of value by consumers is given a higher importance (Tynan et al., 2010) however the measurement of luxury value is not agreed amongst scholars and practitioners. Vigneron and Johnson (2004) proposed a structure of the luxury concept and presented the “brand luxury index” framework. Wiedmann et al. (2007) offered a conceptual model of luxury value perceptions highlighting four dimensions, namely: social, personal, functional, and financial values. Tynan et al. (2010) have adapted the earlier work by Smith and Colgate (2007) on generic value framework and suggested a conceptual model based on the following concepts: utilitarian, symbolic/ expressive, experiential/hedonic, relational, and cost/ sacrifice value. With the emergence of new concepts and levels of luxury, the measurement of value becomes even harder. According to Unity Marketing (2006) “…‘old luxury’ was about the attributes, qualities and features of the product and much of its appeal was derived from status and prestige. The new luxury consumer defines the category from their point of view. Today’s new luxury consumers focus on the experience of luxury embodied in the goods and services they buy, not in the ownership itself.” Robins and Ricca (2012) propose an alternative perspective on the established ‘new’ vs. ‘old’ luxury dichotomy. According to the authors, the more brands define themselves as belonging to the world of luxury, the more the concept becomes meaningless as luxury becomes ‘massified’. They introduce the concept of Meta-Luxury as a new form of luxury that escapes the cliché of luxury and establishes the “luxury beyond luxury”. In these complex scenarios, luxury brands are on a constant quest to remain relevant and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. According to Beverland (2004) marketers now need to use “a complex combination of dedication to product quality, a strong set of values, tacit understanding of marketing, a focus on detail, and strategic emergence” in order to effectively manage luxury brands. With the recent focus on co-creation of value, luxury brand management has evolved to include dialogue and complex interactions between the brand owner, employee, customers and other social groups and communities (Tynan et al. 2010) making success factors harder to track. Purpose This paper aims to conceptualize a measurement tool that could be used in the evaluation and classification of a luxury brand’s performance and to assess how these dimensions evolve as the brand moves from mature towards more emerging luxury markets. This paper seeks to make a contribution, by providing a systematic review of the definitions of a luxury brand provided by various authors. It seeks to establish patterns and inconsistencies and to summarise them in a performance measurement matrix (the LPM framework) which can be used to identify growth strategies and to support future managerial developments. Design/methodology/approach The methodological approach followed in this paper was to systematically review the academic literature on luxury brands and to reduce the numerous factors cited as components and identifiers of luxury brands to a more manageable number of macro-themes. Through the analysis of the dimensions identified (with a further distinction between ‘new’ and ‘old’ luxury brands), the researchers intended to clarify the key elements of success that impact on brands competitiveness, leading to the definition of the items in the scale. In order to validate the elements, a survey was implemented to identify the most crucial indicators by building on the results of the systematic review. The aim of the survey was to clarify detailed criteria for each of the dimensions in order to construct an effective measurement scale. The scale was tested on four luxury brands selected amongst those perceived as ‘old’ / traditional luxury and ‘new’/emergent luxury. Findings Amongst academics and practitioners there is no common agreement or clear parameters that delineate what luxury is or the strategies such brands employ. This leads to confusion in the definition of the elements that constitute a luxury brand as well as in the brand management process. This paper proposes an alternative measurement scale to the Brand Luxury Index Scale developed by Vigneron and Johnson by focusing on a strategic overview of the performance of luxury brands in the UK market. It attempts to evaluate the performances of key luxury players by using a value-curve approach (Kim and Mauborgne, 2005) as a measurement tool. The value curve is a both a diagnostic and an action tool which captures the current state of play in the market space. The different constituents of the proposed Luxury Performance Matrix (LPM) should be considered when measuring the performance of a luxury brand and its capacity for value creation. The visual representation of the LPM model, allows marketers and brand managers to easily evaluate what aspects and strategic directions should be prioritized. It also allows to capture the brand’s performance across the key competitive factors of the industry and to determine which factors need to be raised above competition as way to increase competitiveness in the marketplace. The Luxury Performance Matrix proposed in this paper represents a major contribution to the measurement and evaluation of the competitive performances of established and ‘new’ luxury brands, in mature and emerging markets. Originality/value The proposed matrix will allow luxury brand managers to assess the current presence in the marketplace and develop more in-depth understanding of the brand’s performance. The findings provide valuable strategic insights for luxury brands operating across emerging and established product/market contexts.

Brands play a critical role as a core asset and the primary driver for corporate growth because of their power of identity and influence on customers’ perceptions in restaurant industry. However, in spite of diverse and dynamically changing recent brand portfolio strategies of restaurants, a study on the effect of brand diversification on financial performance has been rarely conducted in the restaurant industry context. Considering competing viewpoints regarding diversification’s influence on financial performance, the purpose of this study is, therefore, to examine the effect of brand diversification on firm performance of restaurants. The results indicated that brand diversification is positive effect to profitability. Brand diversification seems to be attractive and might be a reasonable growth strategy to expand market power by satisfying diverse consumer needs. Therefore, restaurant managers should be consider in implementing brand diversification strategy especially in dynamically changing trend of brand diversification in the current restaurant industry.

Contact employees constitute an integral part of the consistent delivery of the firm’s brand promise on customers. Although internal brand management research stresses the importance of brand-supporting behaviours on behalf of contact employees during customer interface (Punjaisri et al., 2008), few attempts have been made to identify cognitive or affective routes through which organizations can enhance employees’ internalization of the firm’s brand values and eventually leverage their brand performance, (King and Grace, 2010). This study integrates the fit theory and the equity theory in order to address how the adoption of internal market orientation (IMO) can enhance employee brand performance within an interpersonal service setting through two different routes; by increasing their fit with different aspects of their environment and by enhancing their brand knowledge and brand identification levels. In this context, we examine whether IMO adoption promotes employee-organization fit (E-O fit), employee-supervisor fit (E-S fit) and employee-job fit (E-J fit), brand knowledge and brand identification and assess the joint impact of these variables on brand performance. This study extends present knowledge by illustrating the importance of IMO for several types of employees’ fit with their environment and by offering two different routes, a cognitive and an affective one, through which IMO adoption can promote brand performance. Third, the impact of several types of employees’ fit with their environment on brand performance is explored. To test the conceptual framework of our study we draw evidence from an interpersonal services context and particularly high-elaborate services, acknowledging that employees’ brand performance represents a significant part of customers’ evaluations of the brand within this context. This study delivers a holistic approach of brand performance within an interpersonal service context and clearly suggests two distinct but interrelated mechanisms through which contact employee brand performance can be leveraged. Our results further reveal two complementary routes through which service firms can also improve employees’ delivery of brand-consistent messages. Fostering employees’ fit with their working environment is a prerequisite before top management employs an internal branding strategy so as to reinforce contact staff to act in a brand-consistent way. Enhancing employees’ emotional attachment with the brand will promote their brand performance. Likewise, when acquiring knowledge about the brand and internalising the brand image before customer interactions, employees are expected to boost their brand performance. Although adopting an IMO has no direct influence on brand performance, IMO could strengthen the relationships the employees have with the brand and help them embrace the brand and internalize brand values; two key prerequisites for rendering contact employees as brand ambassadors.

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to explore how advertising for multilevel marketing brands affect the salesperson’s activity including customer-salesperson interactivity, work attitude, and perceived and actual performance after the campaign. Research Design, data, and methodology - This study collects experimental data, survey data, and actual sales data and applies statistical analyses such as factor analysis, t-tests, and a structural equation model. Results - The results show that advertising campaign can enhance a salesperson’s selling activities and provide wide managerial implications to a multilevel marketing firm by filling the gaps for the field of advertising research. Conclusions - Managerial implications include: i) multilevel marketing firms should consider advertising campaigns as a means of changing customer responses because advertising plays a significant role in increasing familiarity with, and knowledge of, attitudes toward the brand, which also helps salespeople interact with customers; ii) multilevel marketing firms should consider brand advertising as a means to support the sales activities of salespeople including sales effectiveness, work attitudes, and perceived performance, and iii) multilevel marketing firms should consider brand advertising as a means to enhance a salesperson’s pride and motivation for selling their brand, which will lead to improved sales performances.

Purpose - The focus of this study is to investigate the structural influences such as brand value, relationship value, market orientation, long-term orientation, and performance. The effects of brand value and relationship value on the differences on transaction performance in b2b was investigated. Research design, data, and methodology - The subject of this study was a liquor and beverage distribution company that deals in b2b. The research hypothesis is based on literature of the preceding research analysis of brand value, relationship value, market orientation and long-term orientation. This study has constructs that was defined operationally by referencing previous studies. Operational questionnaire was used to investigate the target key staff who work in the liquor and beverage distribution company. 178 survey data were used for empirical analysis to prove the hypothesis. This study used structural equation techniques(AMOS) to prove the research hypothesis. Results – The main results of this empirical study were as follows. First, supplier’s brand awareness has a positive effect on market orientation, but did not affect long-term orientation. Brand awareness of suppliers indicates that they are not directly related to long-term orientation. Second, supplier’s brand image has a positive effect on market orientation and long-term orientation in b2b transaction. So, the brand image and reputation of the supplier suggest that it is important for the b2b transaction to have a market orientation tendency or a long-term orientation. Third, supplier’s relationship value has a positive effect on long-term orientation, but does not affect market orientation. Relationship value indicates that they are not directly related to market orientations of the buyer. Fourth, Market orientation has a positive effect on long-term orientation and marketing performance and long-term orientation has a positive effect on marketing performance in b2b. Additionally, the buyers market and long term orientation are important factors in marketing performance in b2b. ’ Conclusions – Based on empirical results, this study confirmed that brand image rather than brand awareness positively influenced long-term orientation as well as market orientation in b2b. Relationship value can be found in transactions, which is important for long-term orientation. Especially, these findings are suggestive in the consumer goods distribution market.