Asian Brands and the Shaping of a Transnational Imagined Community

Abstract

We investigate how brand managers create regional Asian brands and show how some of them are attempting to forge new webs of interconnectedness through the construction of a transnational, imagined Asian world. Some branding managers are creating regional brands that emphasize the common experience of globalization, evoke a generic, hyper-urban, and multicultural experience, and are infused with diverse cultural referents. These types of regional Asian brands contribute to the creation of an imagined Asia as urban, modern, and multicultural. Understanding this process helps one to appreciate the role of branding managers in constructing markets and places.

Determinants of the Success of Global and Local Brands in Latin America

“…Third, global firms routinely modify global brand strategies in individual country markets to balance cost-reducing standardization and relevance-maximizing localization (Cayla & Eckhardt, 2008;Rigby & Vishwanath, 2006;Spielmann & Delvert, 2014). Therefore, further research using brand level data (e.g., branding strategies, advertisement investment) could complement this study.…”

The state of the art: from country-of-origin to strategies for economic development

“…Regional branding, however, tends to be facilitated by a more homogeneous cultural background and identity. In fact, regional branding seems to have a stronger relationship with the land as a metaphor for identity (Cayla and Eckhardt 2008), because regions are much more homogeneous in terms of human and natural factors in contrast to countries.…”

“…Further, as it creates a positive image of the region to achieve marketing goals, regional branding has the potential to enhance a region's identity and ethos by functioning as a cultural intermediary (Bourdieu 1984) creating a form of collective and regional consciousness (Cayla and Eckhardt 2008).…”

Understanding marketing innovativeness in Asia: a research agenda

“…Recent studies (e.g. Cayla and Eckhardt 2008;O'Cass and Siahtiri 2013) have started to bring insights into inter-country brand innovativeness. However, such efforts are still fragmentary, and lack theoretical focus.…”