Future of BrandsResearch TeamObjectiveExamine how brands and branding will change over the next 10 years and how this change will impact on shopping places. Background to the researchBranding is a major part of modern business life and, some might argue, modern life in general. Brands can be created by accident or design and have immense power to shape consumer attitudes and behaviour. |
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Creating and maintaining brands requires a great deal of resource but is an essential part of a product differentiation strategy. A profusion of brands colour our shopping places and increasingly shopping places themselves are seeking to brand themselves. For all this, the retail property industry has never really ‘got to grips’ with the application of ‘branding technology’. Some of the more analytical research suggests, as might be expected, a clear relationship between the quantity of brands within a centre and the power of that centre to attract consumers. Other research suggests that brands create ‘clone towns’. In other words there may be a tension between retailer brands and place brands.
More generally, brand analysts report that consumer brands themselves are changing subtly, over time. More than ever, brands are required to be authentic. Failure to deliver on a promise inherent in a brand can result in almost instant brand destruction. Thus managed shopping centres can more easily brand themselves and preserve their brand than town centres due single ownership and coordinated management. The emergence of ‘democratic’ citizen brands is one avenue shopping place branding might pursue although ‘anti-brand’ trends are also of interest.
This project will examine the ways in which brands enhance (and detract) from retail areas at all of the levels that they operate and will cover place brands, retailer brands and product brands.