Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Brand new ventures? Insights on start‐ups' branding practices

Brand new ventures? Insights on start‐ups' branding practices Purpose – This paper aims to shed light on the specificity of branding approaches for young companies for the reason that branding is a crucial activity for the survival and success of a newly established firm as it facilitates finding and maintain customers. Design/methodology/approach – Adopting a case study methodology, mainly through in‐depth interviews with CEOs and communication managers, 15 of the largest and most successful start‐up companies of Switzerland were analyzed. Findings – The paper establishes an overview on the current practices and rational of the brand building activities choices, and on the emblematic pitfalls regarding branding of new ventures. It suggests that young companies should not be forced to compare their branding strategies to multinational firms and proposes a framework and key guidelines for start‐up branding. Research limitations/implications – Given that this study focuses specifically on Switzerland, the findings might not be fully applicable to different economic situations. Nevertheless analyzing the biggest start‐ups of a single country allows salient comparisons of the approaches towards branding within the same environment. Practical implications – The proposed framework and guidelines can be relevant for future entrepreneurs and brand consultants, to orient and better motivate their decisions toward branding creations and development for new and young ventures. Originality/value – This research investigates branding issues that are specific for newly created companies, in order to support them in making informed decisions on branding activities, a crucial activity for the survival of start‐ups, given their lack of resources and fundamental need to find and maintain clients. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Product & Brand Management Emerald Publishing

Brand new ventures? Insights on start‐ups' branding practices

Download PDF
11 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/brand-new-ventures-insights-on-start-ups-branding-practices-UjhoyoFdbn
Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
1061-0421
DOI
10.1108/10610421011068595
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to shed light on the specificity of branding approaches for young companies for the reason that branding is a crucial activity for the survival and success of a newly established firm as it facilitates finding and maintain customers. Design/methodology/approach – Adopting a case study methodology, mainly through in‐depth interviews with CEOs and communication managers, 15 of the largest and most successful start‐up companies of Switzerland were analyzed. Findings – The paper establishes an overview on the current practices and rational of the brand building activities choices, and on the emblematic pitfalls regarding branding of new ventures. It suggests that young companies should not be forced to compare their branding strategies to multinational firms and proposes a framework and key guidelines for start‐up branding. Research limitations/implications – Given that this study focuses specifically on Switzerland, the findings might not be fully applicable to different economic situations. Nevertheless analyzing the biggest start‐ups of a single country allows salient comparisons of the approaches towards branding within the same environment. Practical implications – The proposed framework and guidelines can be relevant for future entrepreneurs and brand consultants, to orient and better motivate their decisions toward branding creations and development for new and young ventures. Originality/value – This research investigates branding issues that are specific for newly created companies, in order to support them in making informed decisions on branding activities, a crucial activity for the survival of start‐ups, given their lack of resources and fundamental need to find and maintain clients.

Journal

Journal of Product & Brand Management – Emerald Publishing

Published: Aug 24, 2010

Keywords: Brands; Business formation; Entrepreneurialism; Small to medium‐sized enterprises; Switzerland

References

  • Managing Brand Equity
    Aaker, D.
  • Building Strong Brands
    Aaker, D.
  • Brand Leadership
    Aaker, D.; Joachimsthaler, E.
  • Branding as competitive strategy for demand management in SMEs
    Abimbola, T.
  • Brand, organization identity and reputation: SMEs as expressive organizations. A resources‐based perspective
    Abimbola, T.; Kocak, A.
  • Brand, organisational identity and reputation in SMEs: an overview, Guest editorial
    Abimbola, T.; Vallaster, C.
  • The Power of Corporate Communication
    Argenti, P.; Forman, J.
  • Corporate identity and corporate communications: creating a competitive advantage
    Balmer, J.; Gray, E.
  • Corporate brands: what are they? What of them?
    Balmer, J.; Gray, E.
  • A study of entrepreneurial brand building in the manufacturing sector in the UK
    Boyle, E.
  • PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences
    Breakenridge, D.
  • Exploring start‐up event sequences
    Carter, N.M.; Gartner, W.B.; Reynolds, P.D.
  • E‐marketing Excellence: Planning and Optimizing your Digital Marketing
    Chaffey, D.; Smith, P.R.
  • From Brand Vision to Brand Evaluation
    de Chernatony, L.
  • Would a brand smell any sweeter by a corporate name
    de Chernatony, L.
  • Modelling the components of the brand
    de Chernatony, L.; Dall'Olmo Riley, F.
  • Creating Powerful Brand
    de Chernatony, L.; McDonald, M.
  • What's in a name? Reputation building and corporate strategy
    Fombrun, C.; Shanley, M.