Abstract
Marketing has undergone a tremendous transformation in the last few decades amidst environmental and technological changes, and so has the process of branding. Building a brand has been a daunting exercise for the custodians on the local and global scales. This study aims to help in understanding the primary challenges of building international brands. Additionally, this study will help understand the significant methodological and theoretical features of brand management globally. Additionally, the study will offer supportive evidence for an entrepreneurial opportunity for businesses planning to enter the global markets. The researcher intends to use secondary data to achieve the research objectives. Potential data sources include the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation, Development (OECD), and the World Economic Forum (WEF), and published research articles.
It is expected that the project will be completed by the end of April 2021 and will require $200 as the project cost. This study will enable multinational companies to overcome the challenges faced during international branding. Additionally, it will also create new opportunities for primary research established from the findings. The appraisal of the existing literature has revealed numerous findings concerning challenges and processes involved in global branding. First, failure to build global brands has led to the failure of companies such as Gillette, Jaguar, and Arcelor brands. Such brands failed due to several reasons, including poor strategies and failure to address challenges encountered, and limited documentation of the processes, models, and challenges. Second, increasing the value and efficiency of a brand portfolio is vital in dealing with the current, highly competitive business environment. Lastly, there is a need to emphasize branding in modern marketing and understand the process marketers can follow to build global brands successfully.
Introduction
The very commencement of the process of branding is a function of identification led by competition. Therefore, global branding is a degree to which a product is assessed and embraced in a geographical scale; international brands must grow internationally to sustain locally. Generally, the building of brands poses categorical challenges in terms of customization, market share, customer behavior, brand equity, product life cycle, environmental change, communications, licensing, positioning, concepts, and so on. Today’s business is marred with several challenges that are incredibly intense. Therefore people involved in building brands must be potent enough to comprehend the elements of a brand, link the process of brand building with multipronged social-commercial conditions, and take action on the challenges to sustain and empower the value of the brand in the competitive market.
Background
Several decades ago, shipping products from one country to another was a complex undertaking that only big corporations could manage. Later, advancements in transport and technology made it possible for businesses, including smaller ones, to move products quickly across the globe, giving rise to globalization. With increased globalization and saturation in the home market, many brands have shifted attention to the international markets. Today, it is easy for a business in the United States to sell goods in the African, Asian or European markets. Companies such as Coca-Cola, Starbucks, and McDonald’s have set up operations in different parts of the world, thereby building global brands. Research by Nainawat (2015, p. 88) established that building international brands leads to several benefits to a company. First, it enables them to attain economies of scale both in production and supply. Nainawat (2015) also noted that a global brand could help a company to lower market costs when entering a new market. For instance, it is easier for McDonald’s to enter a demand than an unknown brand (Yeu et al., 2012).
Additionally, Nainawat (2015) pointed out that building a global brand creates a premium value for companies due to the favorable association in the consumers’ minds. That way, the company can fix premium prices and achieve optimum profitability. However, succeeding in global markets requires businesses to have a strong brand.
Alam (2016, p.146) defined global branding as the extent to which brand evaluation and adoption occur in the geographic continuum. The author noted that the process of brand building often creates multiple challenges regarding concepts, consumer behavior, positioning, communication, market share product lifecycle, customization, among other issues. Thus, to build a strong global brand, Nainawat (2015) pointed out that brand managers should understand the brand meaning and develop appropriate market products accordingly. The author also noted that marketing managers need to incorporate integrated marketing communication (IMC) in their brand-building activities. Besides, there is a need for marketing managers to have a brand management system that will ensure actions reflect the brand equity concept.
While there has been an increased focus on building global brands, Alam (2016) mentions that the process has been intense and fatal due to multiple challenges. The authors argue that international brand building is a daunting task. Alam (2016) observes that some companies have either been sold or become extinct in building a global brand. Alam (2016) cites the example of Gillette, Jaguar, and Arcelor that failed to construct international brands due to poor strategies and failure to address challenges encountered. Despite the difficulties faced when building global brands, few studies have focused on the difficulties experienced by brand builders. There is limited documentation in the literature of the processes, models, and challenges faced by global brands such as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Toyota and strategies these international brands used to overcome obstacles (Bhattacharya et al., 2020). Increasing the value and efficiency of a brand portfolio remains vital in dealing with the highly competitive business environment. There is a need to emphasize branding in modern marketing and understand how marketers can successfully build international brands.
This study has a more significant potential to enhance the current understanding of branding in international marketing. The study will reveal the crucial role of effective marketing mix strategies in global marketing and branding. This study’s methodological approach will demonstrate the essential role of a market’s image and level of competitiveness in international branding. This study’s value exists in developing a new, practical methodological approach for developing global branding strategies. The global business environment has become more competitive. This study will create opportunities for entrepreneurs who want to venture into the international markets. It will enable entrepreneurs and global brands or firms to enter international markets to develop appropriate brand strategies to make them more competitive.
Research Aim, Objectives, and Questions
Research aim
This study will aim at understanding the major methodological and theoretical features of brand management in the global context. The study will provide supportive evidence for an entrepreneurial opportunity for businesses planning to enter into the global markets. The researcher will build marketing justification through an extensive review of existing market reports, data, and relevant academic literature. The focus will be on identifying key branding issues in the market sector and establish the size and nature of market opportunities. The study will bridge the literature gaps and develop a body of knowledge for brands aspiring to venture into international markets.
Research objectives
Specifically, this research strives to accomplish the following research objectives:
- To consider the role and place of branding in the modern concept of marketing.
- To review and analyze theories and concepts of building international and global branding models.
- To select and classify the main management strategies in the international market.
Research questions
The research question for this research paper is twofold:
- What are the major theories and concepts brands apply when developing international brands and models?
- What are the main challenges and management strategies to overcome these obstacles brands utilize during global branding?
Literature Review
Introduction
Branding involves more than just featuring logos and colors to frame global brands, and there are no limitations in considering the significance of the brand. As a result, branding involves rebuilding, modifying, protecting, maintaining, and constructing the brands wherever required. This literature reviews the key articles that evaluate the processes and challenges involved in the building of international brands. This literature review assumes a description overview format. According to Green and other authors (2006, p.103), a descriptive overview is a synthesis of previously published information and presents a comprehensive view on the issues to be dealt with. Consequently, this study considers this a suitable approach for this project. These main themes covered under the literature review include analysis and insights into the entrepreneurship theory, challenges facing the building of global brands, strategies used in global branding, and existing research gaps about global branding.
The researcher intends to use secondary data to achieve the research objectives. This strategy involves using data that has already been collected by other researchers and stored for public access or upon request. The study will use data from different sources, including industry reports, trade reports, organisations’ reports, and published studies. Potential data sources include the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the World Trade Organization (WTO, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the World Economic Forum (WEF). The study will supplement data from these sources with published work from scholars and scientists on international brand development. These studies will be retrieved from various databases, including Google Scholar, JSTOR, and ProRequest. The study will use descriptive and thematic analysis to analyse data extracted from these sources.
Entrepreneurship Theory
During the 20th century, entrepreneurs developed several successful international brands dealing in the consumer products. Conversely, a small number of independent brands endured the impacts of the merger during the 1980s. Lopes and Casson (2007) highlight the entrepreneurship theory and the development of global brands. Therefore, this evaluation addresses the question of why few independent brands survived by examining the role of entrepreneurship theory in the building of global brands. The entrepreneurship theory is central to this project since entrepreneurship is a vital aspect of economic development, including global economic development. According to Nambisan, Siegel, and Kenney (2018, p.358), an entrepreneur is someone who identifies a business opportunity to create goods and services for consumption. Similarly, an entrepreneur is a risk-taker and works under uncertainty. Entrepreneurship play significant roles in the global markets. It positively impacts the advancements of new technology and transfer to all parts of the world and makes it worthwhile by modifying the local conditions (McKenny et al., 2017, p. 295). Entrepreneurship also creates competition among existing businesses.
With saturation in the domestic market, the intense competition level requires an individual who will identify business opportunities overseas and develop brands that can compete globally (Nambisan, Siegel and Kenney 2018, p.354). Problem-solving is one of the characteristics of entrepreneurship. Challenges brands experience in the global markets require effective problem-solvers able to overcome obstacles and build competing brands. Varying theoretical entrepreneurship assumptions emphasize three key elements of entrepreneurship, including the nature of decision-making frameworks, the characteristics of entrepreneurs, and the descriptions of opportunities within which entrepreneurs function. There are several logical and coherent entrepreneurship theories: Schumpeter’s innovation theory, the need-for-achievement theory, discovery theory, social change theory, social behaviour theory, leadership theory, creative theory, status withdrawal theory, and many others.
Economic entrepreneurship theories have been in existance since the 1700s through the works of Ritchard Cantillon, who described entrepreneurs as risk-takers. Several thinkers have posed justifications for entrepreneurship that emphasize on the conditions of economic and the opportunities generated by entrepreneurship. According to Lopes and Casson (2007, p.561), economics entrepreneurship theories have the tendency to receive significant criticisms for inadequate identification of the dynamics, open nature of market systems, overlooking the distinctive characteristics of the entrepreneurial activities, and restraining the varied settings in which entrepreneurship takes place. The process of entrepreneurship entails the entrepreneurs identifying external opportunities; matching the resources with the opportunities to affect entrepreneurial competencies, procuring external resources, generating continual values, and adopting the entrepreneurial rewards.
Value Creation Theory
According to Mishra and Zachary (2014), entrepreneurial value creation theory observes the processes of entrepreneurship through a two-phase outline- venture formulation and venture monetization. The first stage is the stage of venture formulation, where the entrepreneur discovers an eternal opportunity leveraged by the resources using a mechanism of effectuation. Mishra and Zachary (2015, p. 253) underpin that entrepreneurship opportunity is configured into entrepreneurship competence, which entrenches the resources and the reconfigured opportunities. Subsequently, the entrepreneurial competence developed is not forced to trail the valuable situations of resources detailed by the entrepreneurial resource-based theory. For instance, entrepreneurs will participate in the effectuation during the course of the venture formulation stage within and among their social networks through the bricolage phenomenon. According to Baker and Nelson (2005, p. 356), in the bricolage phenomena, resources are collectively traded and shared, and entrepreneurs use the available resources and try to find help from customers and other entrepreneurs. Consequently, the entrepreneurial competence developed in the initial value-creation stage delivers varied benefit to the entrepreneurs permitting them to proceed to the next stage.
The next stage is known as the stage of venture monetization, where the entrepreneurs may acquire external resources like project capital and strategic unions and construct corresponding vibrant abilities. Danes (2013, p. 5) underscores that the venture’s dynamic abilities that are rooted to the business model design are reconfigured by entrepreneurial competence to bear value creation and adopt the entrepreneurial reward. On the other hand, Mishra and Zachary (2014) detail the two stages of the process of entrepreneurship through the entrepreneurship theory and all the sub-processes involved. The researchers originated 190 testable propositions through the theory of entrepreneurial value creation (Mishra & Zachary 2015, p. 256). Consequently, other thinkers have evaluated other additional propositions when the theory of entrepreneurial value creation is related to a particular entrepreneurial activity or context.
Innovation Theory
The innovation theory was initially proposed by Joseph Schumpeter, where he states that entrepreneurs are typically innovators who introduce new ideas and combinations of theories into the marketing and branding mix. According to Schumpeter, the innovation theory covers five key cases (Śledzik, 2013):
- Introducing new products or new quality products which consumers are not yet within the market.
- Introducing new production methods not so far tested by experiences in the concerned manufacturer branch, which are required to be originated after the discovery of scientifically new methods.
- The inauguration of new markets into which the specific manufacturing branches of the particular countries have not formally entered the processes of branding.
- The takeover of new sources of supply sources of raw materials or partly manufactured products, regardless of whether the sources already exist or whether they first have to be created.
- The justification of the new firm of any industry such as the formation of a monopoly positions or the collapsing of a position of the monopoly. See the figure below.
Critical Evaluation
In Schumpeterian theory of innovation, the key subject is innovation, where Schumpeter formulates a difference between an inventor and an innovator (Parker 2012, p. 380). According to Schumpeter, an inventor is someone who discovers new resources and new methods while an innovator is someone who applies inventions and discoveries to create new combinations. Śledzik (2013), citing Schumpeter (1934), affirms that with the assistance of these new combinations, an innovator produces newer and better goods yielding profits and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, Parker (2012, p. 387) agrees with Sledzik (2013) that in the processes involved in economic development, entrepreneurs have been assigned a vital role to maintain the pace of growth efficiently. Consequently, development requires basic changes, and entrepreneurs carry out the needed changes. Therefore, the development of entrepreneurship results in economic development.
According to Schumpeter’s theory of innovation, entrepreneurship includes independent businesspeople, managers, and executives who undertake innovative functions. Nonetheless, Schumpeter’s innovative theory has several limitations:
- Individuals operating established businesses without performing innovative functions are excluded.
- Innovative entrepreneurs represent the most vigorous types of enterprises. Nevertheless, these types of entrepreneurs are rarely available in developing nations such as India.
- It places too much stress on innovative roles ignoring the organizing and risk-taking elements of entrepreneurship.
- The theory assumes that an entrepreneur is a large-scale businessperson and that the businessperson is someone who creates something new. However, in reality, entrepreneurs cannot create large-scale operations from the inception of the businesses.
- The theory fails to justify why some countries have more entrepreneurship talents than others.
According to Schumpeter (1934), an entrepreneur is not a class in themself like a capitalist and a worker. As a result, he insists that individuals are entrepreneurs only when they actually carry out new combinations and cease to be entrepreneurs the moment they settle down to run the established businesses. Moreover, he asserts that entrepreneurs only exist if the factors of production are combined for the first time. Parker (2012, p.390) underscores that maintaining a combination is not the activity of entrepreneurship. Therefore, the combination theory differs from other theories such as the theory of rent formulation proposed by Ricardo, who incorporated the term “entrepreneurial ability” as an autonomous production factor concerned with profitability. Therefore, this theory fails to offer appropriate solutions to the challenges of entrepreneurship and global branding.
Global Brand Structures
Brand structures are the term used to describe the relationship between a company and its products. Notably, brand structures determine whether a company is dominant, its products are dominant, or both are dominant (Baumann-Pauly et al. 2016, p.31). Generally, global organizations operate with one of the three international brand structures: (1) a dominant company structure, (2) a dominant product structure, or (3) a hybrid structure. These brand structures describe the correlation between companies and the products they generate.
According to Baumann-Pauly et al. (2016, p.34), a company-dominant global brand structure is common among organizations with comparatively limited market or product diversity, such as Nike, Toyota, Shell, and others. In contrast, product-dominant global brand structures are utilized mainly by industrial organizations, such as Pepsodent, Danone, Sprite, Downy, Nestle, and others. The product-dominant brand structures entail companies with multiple local or national brands that have expanded globally by leveraging their brands’ power (Durmaz & Vildan 2016, p.50). The hybrid brand structure is the most used in brand building. Examples of hybrid brand structures include Cadbury dairy milk chocolate, Toyota Corolla cars, which comprise a mix of global, regional, and domestic product-level brands or varying systems for different divisions of products.
Global branding evolves as the companies expand product provisions within their particular countries in most countries. According to Hsu and other scholars (2016, p.272), decisions about expansions are made incrementally without regarding their impacts on the whole coherence or balance of the global brand portfolio. Furthermore, as the presence of the worldwide market evolves and becomes more interconnected, organizations should focus on the coherence of the branding decisions across local markets while formulating effective global brand strategies that transcend national boundaries (Uggla, 2017). Additionally, companies should decide how to manage brands spanning varying geographical needs and lines of products. Companies should create a set of coherent principles to guide the effective utilization of brands in the global market. Subsequently, these principles should describe the organization’s brand architecture by providing guidelines for deciding which brands need to be accentuated at particular levels in the organizations.
Challenges of Building Global Brands
Globalization has offered several opportunities for numerous regional revenue streams. Nevertheless, globalization has also made it a challenges for brands to create effective and required customer experience. Therefore, processes such as IT integration, product launches, and global marketing campaigns all have numerous layers of challenges that must be addressed prior to the planning phases. Building global brands is marred by several challenges, including time horizon, globalization, counterfeiting, innovative ideas, brand loyalty, product quality, market positioning, language and communication issues, and legal and cultural obstacles. Business leaders and brand marketers must overcome these challenges to captivate their international audiences.
Time Horizon
Short or long run brand building campaign is the dilemma faced by time horizon product manager particularly when the organization suffers from short term orientation. Performing on a short-term basis becomes a challenge to such organization managers. As a result, the brand-building principles are undermined by the stalemate between long-term brand-building exercises and promotional schemes intended to build a brand practically and conceptually. According to Krishnamurth (2013), a successful brand building requires an equilibrium between long-term and short-term goals. Therefore, brand building is a process that takes time and requires investment and commitment. For instance, Forbes talks about four months of responsibility on its BrandVoice program, where content campaigns generally grow in the third month.
Globalization
Change is an organization’s external and internal environment bordered by international and local underlying forces, which keep changing in terms of technology, culture, regulations, polity, economy, demographics, firms’ strategy, and other factors. According to Meyer (2017), unforeseen conditions pose unpredictable circumstances to the brand administrators. For instance, the Tsunami earthquake displaced the brand Japan down from the second spot in the chart of the best economy globally. Additionally, global brands like Citibank, A.C. Nielsen, Greyworld, Pepsi, Unilever, and others have adjusted to the consumers requirements. The “one-size-fits-all” strategy does not help leverage global brands. Therefore, global brands need to retain their autonomy while adhering to local feelings.
Innovation
Products and services are considered to be innovative when they are freshly presented to the users who realize the enhancements in hedonism and functionality. Innovation via initiative, creativity, technology, and alliances with competitors and trading partners keeps the organization handling challenges. Fortunately, new technology advancements and innovations have led to better and more recent methods of solving existing complications. Innovation can be part of an organization’s commercial approach for supporting competitive advantage (Shocker, Srivastava, and Ruekert, 1994). The branding process mainly comes from marketing as a critical constituent of a business, which is highlighted by innovative and marketing functions. Subsequently, innovation effectively enhances brand personality if managed well (Bhat & Bowonder, 2001).
According to Flint (2014), building brands is marred with challenges when inconsistent and incoherent practices create brand confusion because of violation of identity. For instance, technological companies such as Samsung, Dell, and Apple in innovative ways met the market challenges effectively. Such companies learned lessons quickly and innovated marketing strategies, thereby beating all the branding challenges globally. Additionally, Micromax innovated its production process, thereby emerging as a market leader by market share in the short run. On the other hand, Motorola and Nokia failed to innovate and anticipate branding challenges on time, thereby slipping lower positions globally.
Counterfeiting of Products
Counterfeiting of products harms businesses, the economy, and the overall population. According to Ahmad and other researchers (2016), counterfeit is the process of infringing the rights or property of any kind, such as copyrights, industrial designs, patents, trademarks, and other rights. On the other hand, Lewis underpins that counterfeit products are not genuine goods. Therefore, any person who creates or sells a counterfeit interest to assume the trademark is guilty and should be charged in a court of law. Samsung lost a considerable amount of money because of its counterfeiting products by Chinese companies. According to Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP), the global value of pirated and counterfeited products is presently valued at 650 billion US$. Increasingly, counterfeiting of goods poses challenges to the brand managers choking the growth of the market in spite of the availability of goods in the prospective markets. Hence, the global market should collaborate with political and regulatory organizations to fight such immense losses.
Products Quality
Quality is a critical aspect in business but can be considerably challenging to define. A simple definition of quality would be; quality is concerned with meeting the needs and expectations of customers. In addition, quality is a intentional opinion via expectations to meet the needs of customers. Litvak and Juraj (2019, p. 41) underpin that quality is a crucial aspect resulting in pleased consumers, economic growth, and profitability of firms. As a result of multidisciplinary scope, certification issues, environmental dynamics, relativity, and subjectivity, businesses are confronted with ever-growing challenges, and quality production of goods and services is a significant endeavor of organization, just like perception. As such, marketers find it hard to achieve quality perception without the tangible claim of the quality base. For example, CitiBank enhanced the efficiency of back-office in the computerization process because the consumer feedback was displeasing. Subsequently, the quality enhancement efforts must resonate with the consumer’s needs (Shahid 2021). Furthermore, in 2000, Toyota could not meet the considerable expectations of the American consumers on its Prius car model, while Lexus had massive success in the same market in the 1980s. Conversely, iconic automotive car brands such as Lamborghini and Aston Martin struggle in the evolving market despite quality brands.
Brand Loyalty
Ideas and stories that the brand express motivates the customers and stimulate them to buy the products. Most purchasers are mainly attracted with the logo and not a firm, and therefore the brand is all about emotions (Pappu and Quester 2016). The most significant problem that marketers face is sustaining the charm of incentives from the enticing corresponding and substitute brands. I addition, brands are a vital aspect in maintaining and sustaining consumer markets as they are the interface between the company and the consumers.
In most cases, consumers develop loyalty and trust in brands and not the company. According to Su and Chang (2018), brand loyalty is one of the critical elements of marketing activities in any firm. Additionally, Su and Chang (2018) underpin that with intensified fragmentation, competition, and sophistication, markets are compelled to concern themselves with the maintenance and development of long-term relationships with their customers and hence seek to adopt marketing relationships. For this reason, the brand loyalty of consumers may be derived from the interaction of customers with the brands, quality service, and brand communication. However, building brand loyalty gets hard when the builder of brands are entrapped between initial purchase and continued purchase through a sense of gain, excitement, authenticity, and awareness (Hemsley-Brown & Alnawas, 2016). Therefore, the consumer needs to be reminded of the incentives and the features for repeat purchases.
Language and Communication
Language involves the use of terms, phrases, and words to communicate information. Companies use words and phrases to communicate with their customers, shareholders, and others. Subsequently, word choices and tones in non-verbal and verbal presentations imply precise meanings, which are strictly controlled and guided by regulatory bodies. According to Mishra, Chakraborty, Rosalin, and Datta (2019, p.83), global brand managers normally outsource to work on language selection to avoid using enigmatic, intimidating, irrelevant, and abusive language to any culture, faith, and country on their copies, brochures, and labels. For instance, the McDonald brand is marketed locally but presents globally. Therefore, the language used for marketing needs to be sensitive to the legal frameworks of any country and society. Moreover, the McDonald Company responds and adapts to the needs of the local communities while retaining minimum global standards.
Marketers experience hard times using the correct language in multilingual and multicultural countries such as India, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, and Ireland. Specifically, packaged goods face more challenges in terms of the language barrier than industrial goods. Similarly, it is vital to consider language in integrated marketing communication in sales promotion, events sponsorship, public relations, and advertising. Furthermore, global marketers need to evaluate several aspects of language: the semantic patterns, the compounding patterns, the tone patterns, the syllable patterns, and the semantic field consisting of semantically related words to designate the features and functions of goods and the regularly used words in branding (Luo and Shenkar, 2017 p.64). In a longitudinal study, Luo and Shenkar discovered that in societies like the Chinese one, naming of brands has a coherent propensity for two-syllable naming with a modifier noun compound structure (p.78). Conversely, advertising and communication strategies used in small countries like Hong Kong, Kuwait, and Haiti being jointly distinctive on systems of value may not be applicable in other countries such as Australia, Singapore, the US, and the UK. Therefore, the influence of culture on language is revealed in the assortment of the fields of semantics and the choice of words for naming brands.
Market Positioning
Market positioning is a concept that involves the ability of a product or a company to influence the perception of a consumer concerning a brand or a product relative to competitors. In other words, it is a process of introducting an image of an entity, firm, brand, and product in the minds of the consumers against the competitors via continuous satisfaction, information, and education. Kuehlwein and Schaefer (2017, p.398) posit that positioning is volatile and sensitive and should be relevant and trendy both locally and globally. There are several examples of companies that have positioned themselves globally in the market (De Mooij, 2018): First, Walmart has revised its positioning and placed itself in the minds of its customers. Secondly, Audi and Tesla position themselves as luxury status symbols. Third, Apple and Microsoft position themselves as tech companies that offer innovative and user-friendly products. Forth, McDonald’s has positioned itself as a place to get cheap and quick meals.
Market positioning is much more than just adding a specialty or a category page on the website, and marketing stakeholders strive to find a position in the minds of consumers in the modern competitive setting. Iyer, Pramod et al. report that global marketing personnel face challenges in branding via market positioning because this process is subjective (2019, p. 25). For example, Nokia controlled the global market with a 50% share of the market but failed to line up its market positioning with the fast and extensive changes at the right time. Consequently, Nokia lost its market share and eventually amalgamated with Microsoft in 2014 for 7.5 billion dollars (Lamberg, Juha-Antti, et al. 2021, p.584). Nokia failed to fix the strategic issues and reposition itself, leading to its demise from the market. Elsewhere, Xenon swiftly changed from the document firm to one that produces more than half its revenues from business services such as handling automated toll payments, processing insurance claims, and call center operations. Therefore, the global builders of brands should tackle positioning blunders to minimize the challenges in terms of double, under, or over positioning.
Legal and Cultural Obstacles
Besides other factors, brands should take into account other implications, such as legal and cultural implications. The cultural, political, and legal implications can all slow down the entity of organizations into new markets or delay a vital and costly launching. Steenkamp underpins that understanding a new market entails comprehensive knowledge of the legal, political, cultural, and language structures (2020, p.18). Consequently, a company may experience expensive delays that could dent the image of the brand if these factors are not considered. The main benefit of globalization is based on the potential to increase the value in the market and build a global brand (Bachmann et al. 2016, p.302). Factors such as new technology, product launches, and marketing campaign integrations provide challenging but exciting experiences for organizations that wish to build global brands. Overlooking these common challenges in the global brand building often results due to missteps in the processes. Therefore, incorporating solutions, technologies, and tools into the planning phase will prevent brands from denting their global images and will assist in capturing coveted global audiences.
Strategies used During Global Branding
Research by Ambavale and Surti (2015) focused on the challenges faced by global brands. According to Ambavale and Surti (2015, p.14), a global brand refers to the products and services that have transcendent cultural and national barriers to develop strong relationships with consumers located in different parts of the world. For instance, the iPhone by Apple Company is a global brand as it is sold in different parts of the world. However, Homburg et al. (2009) highlight broad and systematics approaches used in international branding. On the other hand, Ambavale and Surti (2015, p.16) note that global branding is more appropriate in markets with heavy consumer mobility, such as the airline, hotel, and telecom industries. Ambavale and Surti (2015) identify different ways companies can benefit from global branding. First, a global brand helps a business achieve economies of scale by having operations in different parts of the world. Global branding also reduces marketing costs by making it easy for a business to enter new markets. Besides, global branding creates a premium value in the minds of foreign consumers.
Homburg and other researchers (2009), on the other hand, evaluated the different strategies used in international branding. The authors noted that these strategies fall under three categories. The first strategy focuses on the company’s goal. The second strategy depends on three aspects that include the brand core, benefits, and brand personality. The brand core is the same as brand identity, while the brand personality implies the personal aspect such as logo and name. The third strategy is absorbing. Homburg et al. (2009) point out that creating a global brand is a complex process that entails a deep analysis of the target market and planning of the market entry activities. It involves determining the strategies the company will use to manage the brand in different situations and markets. These activities will influence the choice of the branding strategy to use.
Research by Chabowski and other scholars (2013) focused on studies in the global branding perspective. The author conducted a systematic review to assess the different factors influencing the development of global branding literature. The author concluded that a global brand’s development focuses on five core areas that include brand concept image, brand performance, brand positioning, country of origin, and international branding strategies. Ambavale and Surti (2015, p.17) underpin that the success of global branding depends on how marketers influence these five knowledge areas favourable. A brand that wants to succeed in the international markets and develop a strong brand presence will focus on improving performance, brand concept image, and positioning. Chabowski et al. (2013, p.620) point out that the country of origin is also a vital factor that could determine a brand’s success in the international markets. It is easier for a brand from a country with a strong reputation to succeed in international branding than brands from markets with a weak reputation.
Companies experience challenges when building global brands. Research by Ambavale and Surti (2015, p.15) identified five main challenges global brands experience. First, differences in consumer needs and patterns are the biggest challenge global brands experience. The consumer needs in Western countries may differ from buyers in Eastern countries. According to Ambavale and Surti (2015, p.17), the way consumers react to marketing mix strategies also differ between countries. Variation in product and brand development between nations is another challenge. Other challenges mentioned by Ambavale and Surti (2015, p.18) include the difference in the legal environment and administrative procedures. Ambavale and Surti (2015, p.18) contend that some of these challenges contributed to the failure of Coca-Cola in the 1980s and Pepsi’s struggle and backlash in the Taiwan market.
Other studies have pointed out cultural distance as the biggest challenge brands face during international branding. For instance, Bhattacharya et al. (2020) cited the Hofstede national culture model that defines differences in consumer behaviours between countries. The authors noted that global consumers have turned into variety seekers. This consumer always wants something new to satisfy their changing needs, tastes, and preferences. Citing Tsai (2014), Bhattacharya et al. (2020) pointed out that anxious uncertainty, social exclusion, and absurdity represent the biggest threat to companies that want to build global brands. Bhattacharya et al. (2020) observe that it has become hard for global brands to balance standardization and localization when building a global brand.
The study by Xie et al. (2015, p.58) focused on developing an effective conceptual framework for global branding. The authors based their studies on Chinese consumers and other emerging markets. The study identified a brand-identity matrix and high trust as factors that could better affect building a global brand. The findings by Xie et al. (2015, p.64) reflected previous studies, such as Chabowski et al. (2013, p.18), that brand quality and prestige act as a vital connection between perceived localness and globality. In line with the findings by Xie et al. (2015, p.71), the study by Guo and Hong (2018, p.1) focused on how consumers in developed markets perceive brands from developing economies. Based on identity theory and globalization, the researchers explored consumers’ attitudes towards brands from developing markets. The outcomes reveal that consumers in developed countries have a favourable attitude towards brands from developing economies. This positive attitude plays a vital role in building a global brand among multinational firms from emerging markets like China and India.
Research Gaps
While several studies have focused on global branding, a literature review by Bhattacharya et al. (2020, p.2614) identified several gaps and opportunities for future research. According to Bhattacharya et al. (2020), most global branding literature approaches the issue from the consumers’ perspective. Bhattacharya et al. (2020) highlight the need for studies to review global branding from the perspective of multinational companies’ strategies. Some of the factors that require more analysis, as identified in the study by Bhattacharya et al. (2020), include competitor reactions to strategies used by rivals to develop global brands. The authors also note that most of the studies have concentrated on multinational brands, with minimal focus on small firms. Bhattacharya et al. (2020) raise the need for studies to focus on small brands and identify strategies and challenges they experience building global brands. These gaps lay the foundation for the present research.
Research Design & Methodology
The researcher will use a descriptive research design. This approach aims to accurately describe the research phenomenon. The researcher will focus on describing branding in the global context to identify the management strategies, challenges, and models. Descriptive research will lead to a deeper understanding of the phenomenon. The study will follow the onion framework developed by Saunders et al. (2016). The approach when using this model is to move from the outside to the inside.
The researcher will adopt the positivist research philosophy. This perspective claims that individuals can understand the social world objectively. The researcher plays the role of a scientist or an objective analyst. This approach will allow the researcher to objectively evaluate strategies and approaches used when building global brands. Further, the study will utilise the deductive approach. Saunders et al. (2016) noted that this method begins with the theory before narrowing it down to evidence. The researcher will start with establishing a theoretical foundation for the study before collecting evidence from multiple sources. The deductive approach will lead to the creation of new knowledge and evidence.
Research Strategy and Data Sources
The researcher intends to use secondary data to achieve the research objectives. This strategy involves using data that has already been collected by other researchers and stored for public access or upon request. The study will use data from different sources, including industry reports, trade reports, organisations’ reports, and published studies. Potential data sources include the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the World Trade Organization (WTO, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the World Economic Forum (WEF). The study will supplement data from these sources with published work from scholars and scientists on international brand development. These studies will be retrieved from various databases, including Google Scholar, JSTOR, and ProRequest. The study will use descriptive and thematic analysis to analyse data extracted from these sources.
Ethical Considerations
The researcher will include in the review sources whose consent of the study subjects can be reasonably presumed. The confidentiality and privacy of subjects will be key to an ethical study. The researcher will seek approval before using any data not available publicly. Besides, the study will cite all sources of data and acknowledge the authors. Additionally, the researcher will not manipulate data to favour certain perspectives. The discussion and conclusion will reflect the data extracted.
Study Limitations
Failure to include primary research is the main limitation of this study. The researcher will utilise materials published by other scholars. Data from these sources may fail to answer the research question conclusively. Some of the materials used may also not offer a timely response to the research question. Lastly, the researcher is only limited to data and information available publicly.
Project Plan
This project is expected to cost $200. The funds will be used to access sites and databases that require a subscription. Almost 20% of the funds will go towards printing. The researcher expects to complete this project by the end of April 2021. The table below summarises the project plan.
Risk Management
Having a risk management strategy plays a big role in effective project management. The researcher is likely to experience certain risks during project delivery. The first risk relays to the quality of sources utilised. Failure to identify high-quality sources will lead to failure. The researcher will minimise this risk by developing clear inclusion and exclusion criteria. The researcher will also verify all sources’ reliability and validity to ensure they meet the quality threshold. Second, there is the risk of the research violating the code of practice by failing to seek permission before using certain sources. Although this risk is minimal, the researcher will remain keen on acknowledging and seek permission before using sources that are not available for public use. Last, there is the risk of the study failing to achieve the research objectives on time. The research will minimise or eliminate this risk by developing a timetable and using it to deliver the project on time. This risk is also likely to emerge from scope creep, where the project objectives expand, leading to the need for more time. Thus, the researcher will review the project objectives regularly to ensure that everything is within the project scope.
Findings
This chapter evaluates the primary outcomes from the review of different literature concerning the main themes of the study, including entrepreneurship theory, challenges facing the building of global brands, strategies used in global branding, and existing research gaps about global branding. Branding involves more than just featuring logos and colors to frame global brands, and there are no limitations in considering the significance of the brand. As a result, branding involves rebuilding, modifying, protecting, maintaining, and constructing the brands wherever required. This section reviews the key findings from the literature review chapter that evaluates the processes and challenges involved in the building of international brands.
Entrepreneurship Theory
The evaluation of entrepreneurship theory has revealed several key findings concerning global branding. The findings reveal the effective entrepreneurship theory that can be employed by international brands in their global branding operations. Several entrepreneurs developed several successful international brands in the consumer industries that survived the waves of the merger during the 1980s. Using Lopes and Casson’s work (2007), this section highlights the entrepreneurship theory and the development of global brands. Therefore, this evaluation addresses the question of why few independent brands survived by examining the role of entrepreneurship theory in the building of global brands. The entrepreneurship theory is central to this project since entrepreneurship is a vital aspect of economic development, including global economic development.
According to Nambisan, Siegel, and Kenney (2018, p.358), an entrepreneur is someone who identifies a business opportunity to create goods and services for consumption. Entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in the international markets. First, it contributes to the progression of new technology and transfer to all parts of the world and makes it worthwhile by modifying the local conditions (McKenny et al. 2017, p.295). Second, entrepreneurship creates competition among existing businesses, which compiles individuals to identify business opportunities overseas and develop brands that can compete globally (Nambisan, Siegel and Kenney 2018, p.354). Thirdly, entrepreneurship also is beneficial in problem-solving. Consequently, challenges brands experience in the global markets require effective problem-solvers able to overcome obstacles and build competing brands.
Varying theoretical entrepreneurship assumptions emphasize on three key elements of entrepreneurship, including the characteristics of decision-making frameworks, the characteristics of entrepreneurs, and the quality of opportunities within which entrepreneurs operate. The study reveals several logical and coherent entrepreneurship theories: Innovation theory, price discovery theory, value creation theory, and many others. All these theories have limitations that limit their application in different circumstances and markets. For instance, in the innovation theory, the individuals operating established businesses without performing innovative functions are excluded.
Several thinkers have posed clarifications concerning entrepreneurship that emphasize on the conditions of the economy and the opportunities generated by entrepreneurship. According to Lopes and Casson (2007, p.561), economics entrepreneurship theories have the tendency to get significant criticisms for failing to distinguish the dynamics, open features of market systems, disregarding the distinctive aspect of the entrepreneurial activities, and restraining the varied circumstances in which entrepreneurship takes place. The process of entrepreneurship entails the entrepreneurs identifying external opportunities; matching the resources with the opportunities to affect entrepreneurial competencies, attaining external resources, generating constant values, and adopting the entrepreneurial rewards.
Challenges in Global Branding
The review of the existing literature has revealed several findings concerning challenges encountered in global branding. First, failure to build global brands has led to the failure of companies such as Gillette, Jaguar, and Arcelor brands. Such brands failed due to several reasons including poor strategies and failure to address challenges encountered, and limited documentation of the processes, models, and challenges. Second, increasing the value and efficiency of a brand portfolio is vital in dealing with the current, highly competitive business environment. Lastly, there is a need to emphasize branding in modern marketing and understand the process marketers can follow to build global brands successfully.
Globalization has offered several opportunities for numerous regional revenue streams. Nevertheless, globalization has also made it a challenge for brands to create effective and required customer experience. Therefore, processes such as IT integration, product launches, and global marketing campaigns all have numerous layers of challenges that must be addressed prior to the planning phases. Building global brands is marred by several challenges, including time horizon, globalization, counterfeiting, innovative ideas, brand loyalty, product quality, market positioning, language and communication issues, and legal and cultural obstacles. Business leaders and brand marketers must overcome these challenges to captivate their international audiences.
Factors such as new technology, product launches, and marketing campaign integrations provide challenging but exciting experiences for organizations that wish to build global brands. Overlooking these common challenges in the global brand building often results due to missteps in the processes. Therefore, incorporating solutions, technologies, and tools into the planning phase will prevent brands from denting their global images and will assist in capturing coveted global audiences.
Strategies Used in Global Branding
This study has revealed several pertinent strategies firms use in building global brands in the international markets. From the review of existing literature and scholarly articles, this study evaluates several organizational strategies used to ensure the success of international marketing and advertising in the global market. Therefore, this section focuses its study on how consumers in the developed world perceive brands from emerging markets. This aspect is done by exploring the consumers’ attitudes towards brands from emerging markets based on identity theory and impacts of globalization.
Strategies of global branding are logical if the target consumers are found across different borders of countries and are exposed to products elsewhere. According to Kumaran and Sritharan (2018), global branding strategies are more vital if target consumers are exposed to advertising worldwide. International firms follow different types of strategies to manage their global brands, including brand expansion, brand creation, brand domain, brand reputation, brand affinity, and brand recognition. The findings reveal that consumers in developed countries have a favourable attitude towards brands from emerging markets. This positive attitude plays a vital role in building a global brand among multinational firms from emerging markets like China and India.
Nainawat (2015) pointed out that brand managers should understand the brand meaning and develop appropriate market products accordingly. Globalization is often thought of as a necessary condition for the existence of global brands and Global Consumer Culture (GCC). However, global brands existed long before the transition toward an increasingly integrated world (Ambavale & Surti, 2015). Failure to build global brands has led to the failure of companies such as Gillette, Jaguar, and Arcelor brands. Such brands failed due to several reasons including poor strategies and failure to address challenges encountered, and limited documentation of the processes, models, and challenges. Another outcome of the project is that increasing the value and efficiency of a brand portfolio is vital in dealing with the current, highly competitive business environment. Lastly, there is a need to emphasize branding in modern marketing and understand the process marketers can follow to build global brands successfully.
Conclusion
Global marketing has undergone a serious transformation in the past few decades due to changes in environmental and technological actors, and so has the process of global branding. Brand building has always been a challenging undertaking for the market players on the local and global scales. This study helps in understanding the major methodological and theoretical features of brand management in the global context. Furthermore, this study offers supportive evidence for an entrepreneurial opportunity for businesses planning to enter into the global markets. The study uses secondary data to achieve the research objectives. Potential data sources include the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation, Development (OECD), and the World Economic Forum (WEF), and published research articles. It is expected that the project will be completed by the end of April 2021 and will require $200 as project cost. The results of this study will enable multinational companies to overcome the challenges faced during international branding. Additionally, it will also create new opportunities for primary research based on the findings.
The conception of brand building is a role of identification controlled by competition. Therefore, global branding is a degree to which a brand is evaluated and adopted on a geographical scale; global brands must grow internationally to be sustained nationally. Mostly, the brand building of brands poses categorical challenges in terms of customization, market share, customer behaviour, brand equity, product life cycle, environmental change, communications, licensing, positioning, concepts, and so on. Today’s business is marred with several challenges that are extremely intense and, therefore, people involved in building brands must be potent enough to comprehend the elements of the brand, link the process of brand building with multipronged social-commercial conditions, and tackle the problems to sustain and empower brand value in the competitive economy.
Decisions about the brand building are made incrementally without regarding their impacts on the whole coherence or balance of the global brand portfolio. Furthermore, as the presence of the global market evolves and becomes more interconnected; nonetheless, organizations should focus on the coherence of the branding decisions across local markets while formulating effective global brand strategies that transcend national boundaries. Additionally, companies should decide how to manage brands spanning varying geographical markets and lines of products. Companies should create a set of coherent principles to be used in guiding the effective utilization of brands in the global market. The building of brands poses categorical challenges in terms of customization, market share, customer behavior, brand equity, product life cycle, environmental change, communications, licensing, positioning, concepts, and so on. Today’s business is marred with several challenges that are incredibly intense. Therefore people involved in building brands must be potent enough to comprehend the elements of a brand, link the process of brand building with multipronged social-commercial conditions, and take action on the challenges to sustain and empower the value of the brand in the competitive market.
There are business people who have a undesirable reputation with other workers and employees because of pride or stubbornness. This aspects leads to failure by some entrepreneurs. Although it is essential to take the business seriously, employees who feel unhappy in their work environments are less likely to deliver on their job descriptions. Entrepreneurs are leaders who should impart positivity to their employees. It is challenging to develop and sustain a spiritual life, which we need to overcome. Consequently, it has been proven that unhappy employees are less likely to become productive in their operations. Therefore, it is crucial to nurture our souls through reflections by achieving a meaningful life and being a source of hope to others.
I believe there is a need to emphasize branding in modern marketing and understand how marketers can follow to build global brands successfully. This research has a more significant potential to enhance the current understanding of branding in international marketing. This study’s value exists in developing a new, practical methodological approach for developing global branding strategies. I believe this research will create opportunities for entrepreneurs who want to venture into the international markets. It will enable entrepreneurs and global brands or firms to enter international markets to develop appropriate brand strategies to make them more competitive.
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Appendix: Ethical Form
Confidential
Stage 1 Research Ethics Application Form
Section 1: Details of the Researcher and their Research
N.B. If you are conducting research that involves ‘animals (dead or alive) and significant habitats’, please use the Stage 1 Research Ethics Application Form involving Animals and Habitats (www.aru.ac.UK/research ethics).
Applicants carrying out research with children or vulnerable adults may also need to carry out an online Safeguarding course and submit the pass certificate with their ethics application. Please refer to the Question Specific Advice for the Stage 1 Research Ethics Application Form at the above weblink.
Section 2: Research Ethics Checklist (Refer to Section 3 for an explanation of the colour coding.)
N.B. If you are conducting research that involves ‘animals and significant habitats’, please use the Stage 1 Research Ethics Application Form involving Animals and Habitats (www.aru.ac.UK/research ethics).
You must provide a response to ALL questions. Please refer to the Question Specific Advice for completing the Stage 1 Research Ethics Application Form for guidance.
Please note that the Faculty Research Ethics Panel (FREP) will refer to the Office of the Secretary and Clerk any application where, in the view of the Chair, the proposed research poses a risk of a legal or security-related nature to Anglia Ruskin University. The Chair will seek guidance from the Secretary and Clerk before the FREP decides if the proposed research can be granted ethical approval and/or the nature of any special arrangements which need to be put in place.
Section 3: Approval process
All student applications must be sent to your Supervisor for checking.
Your Supervisor must then forward the application to the SREP/FREP (as appropriate)
FREP = Faculty Research Ethics Panel
SREP = School Research Ethics Panel
Section 4: Project details
Section 5: Data Protection
If your research involves personal data and will be in the European Economic Area (EEA), involve transferring data in or out of the EEA (the EEA includes EU member states and also Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) or accessing ARU servers within the UK.
- You must complete the Research Checklist for Data Protection and confirm that you have done this in Section 6.
- If you have said ‘yes’ to Question 28, you must also complete the Further Data Protection Questions and follow further instructions if applicable. You need to submit this document with your ethics application.
- If your research will not involve the EEA, you need to confirm in Section 6 that you will comply with the data legislation relating to the country you are carrying research out in or transferring data in or out of.
Produced by Corporate Marketing, International & Development Services, ARU 15-16/136/MB Section 6: Confirmation/Declaration statements
Footnotes
- Email for further information.
- As above.
- For any research involving human material, you must contact for further guidance on how to proceed.
- The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act (2015) and Terrorism Act (2006) outlaws web posting of material that encourages or endorses terrorist acts, even terrorist acts that have occurred in the past. Sections of the Terrorism Act also create a risk of prosecution for those who transmit material of this nature, including transmitting the material electronically. The storage of such material on a computer can, if discovered, prompt a police investigation. Visits to websites related to terrorism and the downloading of material issued by terrorist groups (even from open-access sites) may be subject to monitoring by the police. Storage of this material for research purposes may also be subject to monitoring by the police. Therefore, research relating to terrorism, or any other research that could be classified as security-sensitive (for example, Ministry of Defence-commissioned work on military equipment, IT encryption design for public bodies or businesses) needs special treatment. If you have any doubts about whether your research could be classified as security-sensitive, please speak to your FREP Chair.
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