The new frontiers of Brand Engagement

The main problem in today's economies appears to be the overcapacity of most production sectors, where it is the customers, and not the products, that are in short supply; in other words, the real problem today is demand and not supply. Savvy companies need to develop brands that precisely define promises and at the same time work to deliver and realise them, always looking for new value to add to what they deliver to the customer, thus fuelling customer satisfaction. The brand strategies of companies operating in international markets today tend to be increasingly affected by the globalisation phenomenon. In the past, companies operating in such markets were inclined to develop different strategies in relation to the country in which they were called upon to compete. Today, however, they tend to develop marketing policies aimed at the growth of global brands, i.e. linked to the same positioning in all markets. It is a matter of affirming and developing, on a global level, positive brand attitudes. All the activities that the company implements contribute to the creation of the brand image, not only actions strictly related to the corporate product, but also choices that closely relate to the corporate brand, such as, for example, corporate choices with a view to environmental sustainability and support for society. The advantage of benefiting from a global image does not only refer to the important economies of scale that result from an integrated brand management. Managers regard the global image as an essential advantage for the brand management itself. In recent years, the debate on the role of innovation in branding policies to interface with the market has been reinvigorated. In fact, it is precisely from the growing interest shown by both the academic and managerial worlds that various strands of study have taken off, from which emerges the attempt to integrate and criticise the founding theory. The crowded commercial scenarios of the contemporary scene, together with intra-trade competition11 and the progressive spread of specialised production know-how, have led to a natural updating of the concepts of brand and quality.