21st-Century perspectives on global brands
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HUGO BOSS. The authors focus their investigation on leading international fashion group HUGO BOSS in the Australian market, examining the perception gap that exists for the HUGO BOSS brand in terms of its brand identity in that particular foreign market. Having provided background information concerning the worldwide luxury market and specifically the Australian domestic market for luxury goods, a company profile of HUGO BOSS is given. The authors’ research methodology comprised a face-to-face mall intercept survey conducted in Perth, Australia, from which it emerged that there exists a divergence between the company’s global identity of being a creative and innovative leading fashion group, offering an array of brands and labels for varied target groups and the brand’s image in Australia of being mainly a producer of high-quality business suits for men. Future research is suggested in order to provide an aid to managerial judgment in terms of defining and dealing with brand image inconsistencies across cultures. A wider, more encompassing perspective on the phenomenon of global branding is taken by Johansson and Ronkainen in their study of the esteem of global brands. Their study investigates the proposition that the more globalised a brand is, the higher the esteem that it enjoys in terms of consumer perceptions. The proposed linkages between globality and esteem are tested against data from eight
䉷 HENRY STEWART PUBLICATIONS 1479-1803 BRAND MANAGEMENT VOL. 12, NO. 5, 316–318 JUNE 2005
EDITORIAL
countries, data that are drawn from Landor Associates’ global surveys of brand strength, which measure familiarity, esteem and perceived quality for several thousand brands worldwide. The authors acknowledge that there does not exist a universally agreed measure of ‘globality’ but take as their working definition of the globality of a brand the number of countries within which a brand is marketed, together with the level of sales and penetration in those countries. A tentative conclusion of the study is that there does indeed exist a correlation between greater global reach and higher esteem, although more research is required to confirm or contradict this finding. One of the major driving forces behind economic globalisation has been the internet, and Ibeh, Luo and Dinnie examine this issue in their study on the e-branding strategies of internet companies. Presenting some preliminary insights from a survey of internet companies based in the UK, the authors ask if e-brands are synonymous with global brands. Some of the internet companies examined have taken major steps towards internationalising their ebrands, responding appropriately to the localisation/adaptation challenges that are faced by both online and offline global brands. A review of the international e-branding literature suggests that such adaptation/localisation imperatives are as valid in marketspace as they are in the physical international environment, since factors such as language, symbols, colour and consumer preferences often do not translate across
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