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Is the company the only meaningful brand for services?

journal contribution
posted on 2024-11-01, 08:34 authored by Kaleel RahmanKaleel Rahman, Charles Areni, Peter McDonald
Some researchers argue that the company is the brand for services, emphasising the pre-eminence of corporate brand image, whereas others advocate developing strong sub-brands for specific service offerings. This research explores the debate using the open-ended associations elicited by brands in two service categories. The results indicate that within a given industry, the parent company is sometimes the most prominent source of associations, but in other instances the sub-brand dominates. Moreover, in the latter case, the pre-eminence of the sub-brands often reflects specific marketing strategies to differentiate the service from competitive offerings. These results suggest that the failure to develop meaningful sub-brands for services often reflects missed opportunities at product differentiation, rather than any inherent characteristic of the service.

History

Journal

The Journal of Brand Management

Volume

17

Issue

3

Start page

197

End page

206

Total pages

10

Publisher

Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.

Place published

United Kingdom

Language

English

Copyright

© 2009 Palgrave Macmillan

Former Identifier

2006021883

Esploro creation date

2020-06-22

Fedora creation date

2011-11-04

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