Brand orientation: Past, present, and future

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Journal of Marketing Management Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjmm20

Brand orientation: Past, present, and future a

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Carsten Baumgarth , Bill Merrilees & Mats Urde a

Berlin School of Economics and Law, Berlin, Germany

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Department of Marketing, Griffith Business School, Australia

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Department of Business Administration, Lund University School of Economics and Management, Lund, Sweden Published online: 02 Sep 2013.

To cite this article: Carsten Baumgarth, Bill Merrilees & Mats Urde (2013) Brand orientation: Past, present, and future, Journal of Marketing Management, 29:9-10, 973-980, DOI: 10.1080/0267257X.2013.817768 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2013.817768

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Journal of Marketing Management, 2013 Vol. 29, Nos. 9–10, 973–980, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2013.817768

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Brand orientation: Past, present, and future The articles in this special issue contribute to the advances and development in the scholarship of brand orientation. They encompass a wide range of sub-topics, and collectively offer a unique insight into the still-emerging concept and new paradigm of brand orientation. In the process, they show how researchers across the world are contributing to the advancement of theory and practice. Our open-minded Call for Papers yielded fruitful cross-fertilisation and innovative perspectives. This special issue can thus be claimed to be a milestone in the enhanced understanding of the concept of brand orientation, and we are delighted to have had the privilege of being its Guest Editors.

Past: The genesis of this Special Issue As essential background to the contributions collected here, we would like to remind you of an article by one of us in the Journal of Marketing Management, ‘Brand orientation: A mindset for building brands into strategic resources’ (Urde, 1999), which was one of the first to challenge the paradigm of market orientation. There, brand orientation was defined as ‘an approach in which the processes of the organisation revolve around the creation, development and protection of brand identity in an on-going interaction with target customers with the aim of achieving lasting competitive advantages in the form of brands’ (p. 117). The new concept challenged one that had been a paradigm in the field of management for more than 50 years, during which managers had been exhorted to ‘stay close to the customer’, to ‘put the customer at the top of the organisation chart’, and to define the purpose of a business as the creation and retention of satisfied customers. Placing the customer at the centre had since become something of a mantra for many theorists and practitioners. For the international companies studied in Urde (1999), market orientation constituted a requirement of competition; that is, a necessity for simply being able to exist in the marketplace. Nestlé, Nicorette, Volvo, DuPont, and Tetra Pak were examples of companies with an orientation that could not be subsumed under the label of market orientation. The wants and needs of customers were no longer perceived to be the only natural basis for the company’s marketing strategy – or more precisely its brand development strategy. In these brand-oriented organisations, the objective is – within the framework of the brand – to create value and meaning. The brand had become a strategic platform for interaction with the target group and was thus not limited to being an unconditional response to what was demanded by customers at any given time. The case histories showed managements striving to develop and protect their brands as strategic resources by acting within the room for manoeuvre allowed by the brand identity. The mission and the vision of the firm set an overall direction for the core-value-based development of its brand. Calling into question such edicts as ‘the customer is always right’, ‘everything for the customer’, and the ‘the only valid business purpose is satisfied customers’ was © 2013 Westburn Publishers Ltd.

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at the time highly controversial in academic circles but less so among practitioners. Naturally, the wants and needs of customers were not ignored, but were not allowed to be the sole drivers of brand development and identity. This is a strategic issue for those firms characterised by motives for their brands that go beyond the satisfaction of customers’ wants and needs. Prioritising the brand in the organisation gives it integrity in relation to customers’ wants and needs and to the actions of competitors, but also in internal strategic processes. The experiences reported in the case studies demonstrated that integrity and brand competence are essential for the creation, development, and protection of brands that have an identity and not just an image. Urde’s Journal of Marketing Management article concluded, with respect to the strategic and operational implications of a brand-oriented approach, that: For organisations that have lived in the belief that they produced and distributed products, with brands only equal to names or labels, brand orientation might likely lead to a new conception of reality. It is no longer only a question of innovative products, clear positioning, and attractive image, but also of identity, integrity, core values, and mission. The organisation’s values, attitudes, visions and general approach to brands make a difference – a world of difference. Learning to see intangible values and symbols as resources is a necessary step in brand orientation. We must accept the notion that a company’s foremost assets can consist of something other than iron, bricks, and mortar. (Urde, 1999, p. 132)

When the three of us started our collaboration in 2010, we saw the opportunity and the necessity to explore, compare, and integrate brand orientation and the classical market orientation further. The intent was to go beyond the ‘tug of war’ between the two paradigms and, rather open-minded, explore other possibilities and combinations of brand orientation and market orientation. Before this time period, all of us conducted research separately on brand orientation. Mats Urde (1994, 1997, 1999) together with Frans Melin (1997) established the concept of brand orientation and developed the theoretical foundations. Bill Merrilees and his co-author Ho Yin Wong conducted qualitative and quantitative research on brand orientation in different sectors (Wong & Merrilees, 2005, 2007, 2008). Carsten Baumgarth developed, on the basis of the general corporate culture model by Schein (2004), a brand orientation model and tested this model in the media (2007), art (2009), and business-to-business sectors (2010). We described the former as an inside-out, identity-driven approach that sees brands as the hub of an organisation and its strategy; the latter is, on the other hand, an outside-in, image-driven approach. Superficially, brand orientation and market orientation appear to be two separate strategic options. Synergistic combinations of the two are, however, possible, and yet had not been explored in previous theories, nor discussed as part of branding practice and philosophy. The specification of a new type of orientation – a hybrid between brand and marketing orientation – was among the key outcomes of our study. The paper describing it articulates typical trajectories for evolving that orientation and thereby facilitating a more dynamic view (Baumgarth, Merrilees, & Urde 2011; Urde, Baumgarth, & Merrilees 2013).

Present: Overview of the special issue At the end of 2011, the Call for Papers for the Special Issue was published in the Journal of Marketing Management. The intent was to have a synopsis of


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current knowledge in one outlet. Overall, 31 papers were submitted to this special issue. In a first step, we selected 15 papers for the review process. More than 40 reviewers supported our special issue with their time, constructive comments, and thought-provoking ideas (thank you very much!). On the basis of the first and second round of reviews, we finally selected seven papers for this special issue (acceptance rate 22.6 %). We would like to thank all authors for their submissions. The seven articles we present to you here admirably reflect the variety and breadth of current research into brand orientation. The first four examine diverse approaches to the complex implementation of brand orientation in relation to leadership and management, providing insights into the internal aspects of brand orientation and an organisation’s processes. The three articles that follow them broaden our understanding of brand orientation into different contexts, for example not-for-profit and the public sector. In the first article, Punjaisri, Evanschitzky, and Rudd study the role of leadership in building brand capacity among employees who interact with customers, to improve their service recovery performance. Brand-specific transactional leadership was found to be ineffective in fostering brand-building behaviour, but brand-specific transformational leadership did powerfully influence trust in the corporate brand, brand identification, and ultimately service recovery performance. It is concluded that leaders are clearly a critical apex of any brand-orientation system (see also the brand leadership studies of Merrilees & Frazer, 2013; Morhart, Herzog, & Tomczak, 2009; Vallaster & De Chernatony, 2006). The second article by Wallace, Buil, and De Chernatony likewise starts with managers’ brand mind-sets and their views about the relationship between market and brand orientation. The emphasis is on managers’ perceptions about the role of brand values as resources in creating a brand orientation. A large-scale study of front-line employees examined the degree of agreement with brand values, and the differences in brand ‘buy-in’ across employee clusters. The study provides tentative support for the Urde et al. (2013) hybrid market and brand-orientation approach, though with managers being closer to the brand end of the spectrum and employees closer to the market-orientation end. The contribution by Ndubisi and Matanda examines the influence of employee perceived goal congruence, specifically its moderating effect on the link between internal branding and internal customer orientation on person–organisation fit. This article is a cross-over with the contribution by Wallace, Buil, and De Chernatony and deepens our understanding of internal branding and internal brand strength (see also Baumgarth & Schmidt, 2010), which could be seen as the ‘micro perspective’ of brand orientation. Next, Gyrd-Jones, Helm, and Munk study the extent to which the existence of ‘functional silos’, associated with different managerial mind-sets, contributes to the failure of new-brand strategy. This challenging analysis transports us to the ‘dark side’ of brand orientation, where the outcome can be failure rather than success. In the distinct second batch of articles in this Special Issue, brand orientation is explored in different contexts by way of case studies. The first of those, by Kerr, Clarke, and Baxter, enhances our understanding of multiple identities by considering ‘place branding’, a complex context involving many relevant stakeholders. The authors focus explicitly on internal stakeholders, the ‘voices from within’ (see also Merrilees, Miller, & Herington, 2009), demonstrating how valuable such

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longitudinal case studies can be in assessing changes to place identities and the internal effectiveness of brand implementation. Gromark and Melin next study the migration of the brand-orientation concept into the public sector, which the authors describe as a courageous move to make at the time. They find that while market orientation has definite advantages in that sector, it concentrates too much on the customer, is myopic, lacks true interaction, is mechanistic, and places too much emphasis on economic values. Brand orientation is suggested as an interesting alternative, providing a holistic and balanced perspective (see also Reid, Luxton, & Mavondo, 2005; Reijonen, Laukkanen, Komppula, & Tuominen, 2012; Urde et al., 2013). Lastly, Lee turns our attention to the non-profit sector. This study of re-branding in that context (see also Miller & Merrilees, 2013) offers a first-hand view of the complexity encountered in balancing and maintaining relationships with various stakeholders, especially with respect to the aligning of image and identity, stakeholder access and dialogue, and the balancing of market requirements against organisational identity.

Future: Suggestions for further research Neither the perceived importance of brands nor the interest in brand management shows any sign of diminishing among practitioners or academics. In principle, we think that brand-orientation research could be focused on: (1) the paradigm, mind-sets, approaches, and drivers; (2) leadership and management of brands; and (3) performance, measurement, and implementation (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 Brand orientation as a field of research with related concepts, processes, and frameworks illustrated by cases.

Leadership and The paradigm, management of mindsets, brands approaches and drivers Brand orientation

Performance, measurement and implementation

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Cases studies of brand orientation in different contexts We view case studies as an important source for better understanding of the relevance of brand orientation for business and not-for-profit organisations. A first suggestion for future research derives from the non-profit sector in brand-orientation research in practice: see for example the fifth, sixth, and seventh articles in our selection. Other articles by Ewing and Napoli (2005), Hankinson (2001, 2002), and Napoli (2006) also illustrate this prevailing focus. The logical conclusion is that the specific characteristics of non-profit organisations, such as different corporate goals and a greater emphasis on the corporate culture, are well matched to brand orientation. If that is so, then analysis of brand orientation in such other non-profit sectors as the arts (Baumgarth, 2009; Evans, Bridson, & Rentschler, 2012), public health, charities (Keller, Dato-on, & Shaw, 2010), political parties, universities, places and destinations (Hankinson, 2012), or churches (Mulyanegara, 2011) could be a potentially fruitful direction for further research. A second suggestion is to continue the exploration of brand orientation in the business-to-business context. Surprisingly enough, there are few recent case studies on the business-to-consumer companies that typically are associated with a strong market-oriented approach.

Exploring and developing brand orientation by cross-fertilisation We likewise detect strong potential for the integration of brand orientation into management theories and models, for example that of corporate social responsibility (see Baumgarth & Binckebanck, 2011; Fan, 2005; Kitchin, 2003). This particular application of brand management is characterised by the heightened relevance of trust, transparency, and credibility. A brand promising corporate social responsibility which lacks these fundamental attributes runs the risk of ‘greenwashing’ and consequently intense negative stakeholder reactions. The internalisation of the brand philosophy in the company should reflect this ‘inside-out’ approach to brand orientation. The concept of brand authenticity (see, e.g., Beverland, 2005, 2009; Grayson & Martinec, 2004) is likewise based on internalisation of the brand philosophy throughout the whole company or organisation. Given the supposition that authentic brands are based on a high level of brand orientation, future studies might usefully analyse the extent to which that is true.

Leadership and management in brand-oriented organisations We find the managerial aspects of brand orientation to be essential for the new paradigm’s relevance for practice. Articles in the existing literature as well as some in the selection presented here have discussed the relationship between brand orientation and internal brand management. Whereas the latter focuses on the single employee, the former is a more holistic and corporate culture concept. A useful avenue of further research would therefore be the influence of brand orientation on such single constructs in the literature of internal brand management as brand commitment, brand involvement, or brand supportive extra-role behaviour (Baumgarth & Schmidt, 2010; Urde, 2003). It might also be rewarding to analyse the influence of such internal brand-management measures as leadership, internal

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communication, or human resource management on the development or fortification of brand orientation. The further integration of brand orientation with strategic brand management, including the management of different types of brands in different brand strategies, will be a necessary step in the development of the paradigm.


Performance, measurement, and operation of brand orientation We would also recommend a deeper analysis in future of the impact of brand orientation on company performance. Many existing studies have examined this relationship already (e.g. Ahmad & Iqbal, 2013; Baumgarth, 2010; Wong & Merrilees, 2008), but their findings could have been subject to key-informant bias (e.g., Homburg, Klarmann, Reimann, & Schilke, 2012). Since only one study has so far investigated the contribution of brand orientation to ‘objective’ corporate performance (Gromark & Melin, 2010), further research should aim to explore the relationships between brand orientation and such objective performance indicators as profit or turnover, stock prices, or other independent measures.

The paradigm, mind-sets, approaches, and drivers Lastly, we would advocate a deeper and broader analysis of the relationship between brand orientation and market orientation (and other strategic orientations, such as innovation, learning, or cost orientation). We have developed a conceptual framework for the relationship of both those strategic orientations (Baumgarth et al., 2011; Urde et al., 2013), but an empirical test is missing so far. The theoretical positioning of brand orientation in relation to, for example, corporate marketing would represent a relevant contribution forwarding the understanding of the paradigm and the mind-sets associated with it. These five proposals for future research confirm that brand-orientation research can indeed be an ongoing field of theoretically and practically useful research. If the brand-orientation paradigm were to attract as much academic attention and interest as the marketing orientation, and be accorded as much relevance in theory and practice, then the future opportunities for researchers would look very bright indeed. We sincerely hope that this Special Issue will stimulate many new research projects focusing on brand orientation.

References Ahmad, N., & Iqbal, N. (2013). The impact of market orientation and brand orientation on strengthening brand performance: An insight from the beverage industry of Pakistan. International Review of Management and Business Research, 2, 128–132. Baumgarth, C. (2007). Markenorientieurng von Medien: Konzept, Ausprägungen und Erfolgsbeitrag am Beispiel von Fachzeitschriften [Brand orientation of media products: Framework, current status and success contribution discussed by business media]. Medienwirtschaft, 4, 6–17. Baumgarth, C. (2009). Brand orientation of museums: Model and empirical results. International Journal of Arts Management, 11, 30–45. Retrieved from http://www.jstor. org/stable/41064996


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Baumgarth, C. (2010). Living the brand: Brand orientation in the business-to-business sector. European Journal of Marketing, 44, 653–671. doi: 10.1108/03090561011032315 Baumgarth, C., & Binckebanck, L. (2011). A management-oriented approach towards CSR branding: Conceptual framework and case study-based evaluation. Proceedings of the Communicating Social Responsibility – CSR Communication Conference, Amsterdam (CD). Baumgarth, C., Merrilees, B., & Urde, M. (2011). Kunden- oder Markenorientierung: Zwei Seiten einer Medaille oder alternative Routen [Customer or brand orientation: Two sides of a coin or alternative routes]? Marketing Review St Gallen, 28, 8–13. doi: 10.1007/s11621-011-0014-4 Baumgarth, C., & Schmidt, M. (2010). How strong is the business-to-business brand in the workforce? An empirically-tested model of ‘internal brand equity’ in a business-tobuiness setting. Industrial Marketing Management, 39, 1250–1260. http://dx.doi.org/10. 1016/j.indmarman.2010.02.022 Beverland, M. B. (2005). Crafting brand authenticity: The case of luxury wine. Journal of Management Studies, 42, 1003–1029. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2005.00530.x Beverland, M. B. (2009). Building brand authenticity: 7 habits of iconic brands. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Evans, J., Bridson, K., & Rentschler, R. (2012). Drivers, impediments and manifestations of brand orientation: An exploratory study. European Journal of Marketing, 46, 1457–1475. doi: 10.1108/03090561211259934 Ewing, M. T., & Napoli, J. (2005). Developing and validating a multidimensional nonprofit brand orientation scale. Journal of Business Research, 58, 841–853. http://dx.doi.org/10. 1016/j.jbusres.2003.09.012 Fan, Y. (2005). Ethical branding and corporate reputation. Corporate Communications, 10, 341–350. doi: 10.1108/13563280510630133 Grayson, K., & Martinec, R. (2004). Consumer perceptions of iconicity and indexicality and their influence on assessments of authentic market offerings. Journal of Consumer Research, 31, 296–312. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/422109 Gromark, J., & Melin, F. (2010). The underlying dimensions of brand orientation and its impact on financial performance. Journal of Brand Management, 18, 394–410. doi: 10.1057/bm.2010.52 Hankinson, P. (2001). Brand orientation in the top 500 fundraising charities in the UK. Journal of Product and Brand Management, 10, 346–360. doi: 10.1108/10610420110406040 Hankinson, P. (2002). The impact of brand orientation on managerial practice: Quantitative study of the UK’s top 500 fundraising managers. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 7, 30–44. doi: 10.1002/nvsm.165 Hankinson, G. (2012). The measurement of brand orientation, its performance impact, and the role of leadership in the context of destination branding. Journal of Marketing Management, 28, 974–999. doi: 10.1080/0267257X.2011.565727 Homburg, C., Klarmann, M., Reimann, M., & Schilke, O. (2012). What drives key informant accuracy? Journal of Marketing Research, 49, 594–608. doi: 10.1509/jmr.09.0174 Keller, E. W., Dato-on, M. C., & Shaw, D. (2010). NPO branding: Preliminary lessons from major players. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 15, 105– 121. doi: 10.1002/nvsm.361 Kitchin, T. (2003). Corporate social responsibility: A brand explanation. Journal of Brand Management, 10, 312–326. doi: 10.1057/palgrave.bm.2540127 Melin, F. (1997). Varumärket som konkurrensmedel [The brand as a competitive tool] (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Lund, Sweden: Lund University Press. Merrilees, B., & Frazer, L. (2013). Internal branding: Franchisor leadership as a critical determinant. Journal of Business Research, 66, 158–164. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. jbusres.2012.07.008

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Carsten Baumgarth Berlin School of Economics and Law, Berlin, Germany Bill Merrilees Department of Marketing, Griffith Business School, Australia Mats Urde Department of Business Administration, Lund University School of Economics and Management, Lund, Sweden