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Can community organizations benefit from corporate rebranding? The literature shows that rebranding in the not-for-profit sector flounders for two major reasons. The first is the failure to develop robust and ambitious revisioning of the brand, and the second, failure to get sufficient buy-in from staff and other stakeholders, often because of imposed top–down brand changes. The current study aims to guide an organization through an actual rebranding process, using best practice corporate rebranding principles and practices. Action research is a novel research method to investigate not-for-profit corporate rebranding. This method guides a systematic and dynamic corporate rebranding process, embracing multiple stakeholder groups. A major achievement is the articulation of a values-based corporate rebrand, with grounding in actual brand experiences. Active involvement throughout the co-redevelopment of the corporate brand achieves total stakeholder buy-in. The action research process requires researchers to guide the rebranding process, while stakeholders guide the content of the rebranding.

The emergence of the satellite cities as feeder cities to major metropolises is a phenomenon of increasing urbanization. Workers and students travel to the major city, returning on mediocre public transport or congested highways. Problems in some satellite cities range from deficient local employment opportunities, to social and cultural activities, and economic development. Concurrent local unemployment and higher crime rates suggest that citizens experience stresses. These factors affect the citizens' brand experience and identity. Conversely, self-sustaining cities associate with strong economic and social roots. The developing city branding research domain has yet to address stressed satellite cities' branding. The study's purpose is to develop the nature of a stressed satellite city brand profile. This quantitative study examines two stressed satellite cities, developing a common stressed satellite cities brand profile. The findings develop a common stressed satellite city brand profile, facilitating policies addressing stressed satellite cities' problems.

The premise of segmentation theory is that different segments each have a discrete customer profile and behavioral characteristics. At a conceptual level, the recent branding literature recognizes that different sub-cultures or segments could experience different meanings of an organization's brand. However, few quantitative studies address the issue. The current paper combines branding and segmentation theory and offers a new perspective on whether all segments have the same brand meaning. A leading discount retailer, Wal-Mart, is the focus of this Canadian-based investigation. Two segments of Wal-Mart customers are the basis of the study — one segment preferring Wal-Mart and one less attached. The research quantifies the two networks of brand meaning that the two segments associate with the Wal-Mart (corporate) brand. Empirically, brand morphing of the corporate brand occurs, with different brand meanings across the two segments.

City branding is a relatively new area of academic research in marketing. Earlier research focuses on city brand images and particularly the contrast in brand image between cities. Essentially that attention reflects the interest of policy makers in developing sound competitive brand positions, with the aim of achieving a competitive advantage. The current paper shifts the focus to explaining the brand attitudes that residents have of a particular city. What are the key antecedents (city attributes) influencing city brand attitudes? The paper reports on a quantitative survey of a sample of 878 residents of the Gold Coast City. The findings show that the major antecedents are social bonds, a sun and surf brand personality, and creative business. Safety, nature and cultural activities are also influential attributes. Apart from insight into how city brand attitudes are shaped, the paper provides a framework for public policy intervention to improve the urban environment.

Retail development and activity in transition economies is the context for this paper. The paper examines if differences exist in how retailer brand attitudes and store loyalty are realized across cultures. The objective is to contrast the Estonian situation with that of a typical Western country, Canada. Retail service quality (personal service and store organization), pricing and location express retail marketing strategy. This article focuses on retail marketing strategy. The article examines if the same structural model of the brand formation process applies to both cultures. To make the comparison meaningful, the article describes a study covering discount or low-price department stores. Confirmatory factor analysis tests the equivalence of constructs across cultures, and structural equation modeling with AMOS software was used to estimate the overall model of retailer brand formation. Retail service quality is a pivotal variable in the brand formation model.

Not a lot is known about direct selling and especially the newer forms of direct selling, such as multi-level selling and Internet selling. What drives the effectiveness of these systems? The current study takes up one specific aspect of this question by comparing the effectiveness drivers from an Eastern country (China) and a Western country (Australia). Are these drivers different or similar between countries? To operationalize this question, we use a study of direct selling in China by Luk, Fullgrabe, and Li (1996) as our benchmark. We replicate this study in Australia, making a few minor adaptations and some minor extensions, and we compare the effectiveness drivers in the two countries. The study concludes that in each country both product elements and relationship elements affect direct selling effectiveness, but in relative terms, relationship elements are relatively more important in China. This finding is consistent with other studies comparing Western and Eastern cultures. In China the elements of relationship marketing are more coherent and form a holistic configuration known as guanxi. In Australia there are several separate dimensions (reciprocity, trust, friendliness, and good personal relationship) of direct selling relationship marketing. Cultural differences seem to be the main reason for this contrast between the samples from the two countries.