Corporate re-branding: From normative models to knowledge management
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WENDY LOMAX is Professor of Brand Marketing at Kingston University. She is the Head of the School of Marketing at Kingston Business School. She combines this with research interests in branding and word-of-mouth communication, where she has published extensively. Her practitioner background spans several bluechip companies in diverse industries, including Ford Motor Company, Fisons, United Biscuits and Beechams (now Glaxo Smith Kline). She is a frequent presenter at conferences and aims to narrow the gap between academics and practitioners.
MARTHA MADOR is a Principal Lecturer in Strategic Management at Kingston University, where she has worked since 1992. Her research interests include the interface between the public and private sectors, including quasi-privatisations and strategic decision making. Martha is currently on secondment to WestFocus, a 7 university consortium in London and the South-East. WestFocus works with entrepreneurs and businesses in the region to develop entrepreneurial capability, interaction between universities and knowledge transfer with external organisations. Martha leads the Entrepreneurship Centre, which aims to spread the spirit of enterprise to the students and staff of these institutions as well as to entrepreneurs and smaller businesses in the region. Entrepreneurship Centre programmes are focused on helping to transfer knowledge of and capability in entrepreneurship from the substantial knowledge base within the universities.
Keywords
Abstract
corporate re-branding; knowledge management; branding; corporate branding; strategic management; intuition
Corporate re-branding has seen extensive activity in recent years, with many organisations treating a name change as a prerequisite to image transformation. But little in the public domain examines the experience of this costly process. This qualitative study examines seven UK-based organisations that have re-branded in the past five years. The sectors are diverse, ranging from energy to charity. Depth interviews conducted with senior managers captured their experiences of re-branding. The aim is to understand better the complex and infrequent process of re-naming, in order to help others undertaking a re-branding process. A normative approach is tested against the reality of the process. Key issue areas are identified for managers re-branding their organisations. A matrix-based typology is also developed, mapping changes in brand name against changes in brand values, which may be used to identify the branding choices being made. It is proposed that both strategic decision making and knowledge management perspectives offer useful insights into effective management of the process.
Journal of Brand Management (2006) 14, 82–95. doi:10.1057/palgrave.bm.2550029
INTRODUCTION
Wendy Lomax Kingston Business School, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
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Recent years have seen many high-profile corporate name changes. These reflect the dynamic nature of markets: firms need to change, often radically, to address the expectations of custom
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