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Abstract
The possible brand evolution process is suggested by Goodyear (1996)s. It consists of six stages, namely unbranded goods, brand as reference, brand as personality, brand as icon, brand as company, and brand as policy. However, the Goodyear model is just a general and conceptual model. This study considered the case of Indian e-retail Company, Flipkart. The results of this case study indicate that there are three brand evolution stages existing in the companies in the retail industry context. The authors found that the sequence of the brand evolution stage model in the e-retail industry context is brand as identity, brand as reference, and brand as personality. For the e-retail companies, the author found the brand evolution stage model and suggests that three stages are followed Unbranded stage, brand as a reference and brand as a personality. The e-retail companies may not experience the brand as an icon, a company and policy.
Keywords: Brand Evolution, Identity, Reference, Personality.
1.Introduction:
A brand is a distinguishing name and/or symbol (such as logo, trademark, or package design) intended to identify the goods or services of either one seller or a group of sellers, and to differentiate those goods or services from those of competitors. Time perspective brand interpretation emphasizes the evolving nature of branding. Though lots of studies have been done on brand, however, most researchers have paid more attention to consumer brand management (Simoes and Dibb, 2001; Rajagopal and Sanchez R, 2004). Few studies have discussed branding strategy in an industrial context from a process perspective. The Goodyear (1996) brand evolution stage conceptual model suggests a new avenue for viewing branding strategy from a process perspective. The Goodyear conceptual model proposes brand evolution comprises six stages,namely unbranded goods, brand as reference, brand as personality, brand as icon, brand as company, and brand as policy.
India is one of the fastest growing & emerging economies of the world, having a very huge consumer base & a big mass connected to internet approx 100 million. The Ebusiness trend have been catching up in the country with the increasing rate of local & domestic firms using the E-business model to do business which is very different from traditional way of doing business in India.
E-retailing is one of the...