Brand identity absorbance and its effect on marketing collaboration: A case study of a Finnish consumer electronics company

Abstract

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objective of this study is to gain more understanding on the importance of selling the brand to the company's own employees, especially how it has an effect on the internal management matters, and in my case, the marketing management and collaboration of the headquarters and market subsidiaries. My secondary objective is to gain broader understanding on multidisciplinary research by problematizing the shortage that seems to exist in combining main theories of multinational management and marketing disciplines.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY

A theoretical framework presents primarily the correlation of employees' interpretation of the brand identity with the marketing collaboration between the headquarters and the market subsidiaries. Secondly, it presents brand renewal process; recontextualization, semantic fit, and semiotics of foreignness; global integration, local responsiveness and worldwide innovation; and organizational form and holding company ownership to have an effect on the primary correlation. This framework is tested on a qualitative case study in a Finnish consumer electronics company with the research method of in-depth interviews.

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

This case study indicates that there is correlation between the brand identity absorbance and the success of global marketing management and collaboration. The better the employees interpret the brand identity, the better they are able to modify the marketing for their own markets without modifying the brand identity. As a secondary finding, all of the additional four concepts of the theoretical framework have an effect on the success of the marketing collaboration. In addition, two supplementary concepts seem to have a significant effect on the marketing collaboration. These are the role of the personal relationships between the headquarters and subsidiary managers, and the highly important role of communications.