miércoles, 14 de mayo de 2008

Leslie de Chernatony and Industrial Branding

As I wrote in a previous post tomorrow we coorganize with AZK Komunikazioa the third edition of Branding Conference. This year we have as a lecturer Leslie de Chernatony, one of the most remarkable expert in branding arena worlwide. Just have a look to his publications.

Today he is coming from London and we will have the pleasure to meet him. These days I have been reading one of his most famous book: Creating powerful brands. It is a very interesting book, where he and his colleague Malcom MacDonald speak us about the importance of the branding in different areas, like services, industrial markest or internet. I am especially interested in Industrial Branding and professor De Chernatony give us some useful insights. For example, he refers to the variables that predicts the success of a relationship between buyer and seller. These are:

- Commitment: The desire and effort of both parties to continue the relationship.
- Trust: The belief that each partner will act in the best interest of the other,
- Cooperation: complemetary actions taken to achieve mutual beneficial outcomes
- Mutual goals: the degree to which partners share goals,
- Interdependence and power: the degree of power balance between partners, which determines the degree of dependence of one partner on another
- Perfomance satisfaction: The degree to which firms can meet or exceed the expectations of the partner
- Structural bonds: systems, such as shared technology, interlinking the two companies so closely that it becomes difficult to end the relationship
- Comparison level of the alternatives: The number of choices a company has, among available high-quality outcomes.
- Adaptation: The degree of modifications one company undergoes to accomodate the needs of the partner
- Non retrievable investments: The amount of resources a company commits specifically to that relationship.
- Shared technology: the degree to which one partner uses the technology contributed by the other partner to the relationship
- Social bonds: the degree of personal relationship that develops between firms.

Of course, these factors have different importance depending on the stage in the relationship. These stages are,

1.- Search and selection of an appropiate partner
2.- Definiton of the purpose of each partner, so that a satisfactory balance of power can be developed,
3.- Setting boundaries, which consider where each partner´s organization ends and the hybrid exists and when they can make legitimate claims on each other
4.- Creating value, which consider the processes which will add greatest value to each partner and the best way to share the value
5. Maintaning the relationship, when both parties strive for the long-term survival of their bond.

These insights are mainly based on a research done by IMP Group member, D. Wilson, and published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science in 1995. Here the reference:

Wilson, D. (1995): An integrated model of buyer-seller relationships, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 23, 335-45.

I wonder: Do you have any question for Mr. De Chernatony?

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