Brand Alignment:Developing a Model for Competitive Advantage
The role of brand has evolved considerably and has attracted increasing attention in the 21st century as a key component for the development of competitive advantage. This research evaluated the extent to which brand is being adopted as a mechanism to ali
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How do organisations ensure synergy between brand and the corporate strategy? How do organisations ensure that the internal brand is synchronised with the external brand? What methods and approach will enable the alignment of internal and external brands and the achievement of the strategy? Why should existing brand equity theory and practice incorporate the brand alignment measure?
x x An assessment of the above allowed for the extraction of new ideas through theory triangulation and an innovative approach to the development of new theory in this area, with the formation of appropriate management models. A case research approach was adopted and examined four South African companies, some of which had international ties. Two were support cases and two were contrast cases. Similarly, two cases were from the manufacturing and resources sector, whereas the other two were services organisations. Both within case and cross case analysis was conducted (Yin 2003:13) spanning a total of 69 individual interviews across the four cases.
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Respondents at each site were selected by means of purposive sampling, along with snowball sampling. Site-specific respondents varied across the cases in terms of organisational roles, but generally stemmed from a wide range of disciplines and from senior management to executive level. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted in order to collect direct accounts of brand alignment experiences from the respondents. Observation at each case site also enabled context in the writing up of cases. The triangulation made possible by multiple data collection methods provides stronger substantiation of constructs and hypotheses (Yin 2003:14) and a series of analytical methods were considered across the qualitative research process (Miles and Huberman 1994:9). Instruments included an interview guide and schedule of questions emerging from the brand alignment thinking. A contact summary form was used as a practical means of performing a first run data reduction and enabling the capture of thoughtful impressions and reflections. The focus in the contact summary fell on the primary concepts, questions and issues emerging from each interview at the respective case site. A document summary form was used in instances where documents such as brochures, annual reports and strategy presentations were gathered from the site. These forms placed the document in context, indicated its significance and provided a summary of it. A case analysis form was utilised to record salient impressions at each site, supporting or alternative explanations, the determination of next steps in the data collection process, and implications for coding. Atlas.ti software was utilised for analysis of within-case and cross-case assessment. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The business architecture model posited by Venter (2006:396) describes organisational architecture as ‘an integrated strategic response which draws together key dimensions of the organisation and facilitates the formulation, alignment and implementation thereof’. T
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