My research has concentrated on exploring branding in the university context and in particular on examination of the factors affecting the conceptualisation and management of brands, with a view towards identifying brand values applicable to the specific qualities of higher education. This, it is envisaged, will contribute to knowledge in terms of advancing understanding of a gap in the literature (the lack of research conceived specifically for branding educational organisations) as well as informing practice in what is a contemporary and sometimes contentious topic

This dissertation describes the creation of a new integrated Information Technology (IT) system that assisted in the collection of data about the behaviour of website visitors as well as sales and marketing data for those visitors who turned into customers. A key contribution to knowledge was the creation of a method to predict the outcome of visits to a website from visitors’ browsing behaviour. A new Online Tracking Module (OTM) was created that monitored visitors’ behaviour while they browsed websites. When a visitor converted into a customer, then customer and marketing data as well as sales activity was saved in a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system that was implemented in this research. The research focused on service websites. The goal of these websites was to promote products and services online and turn enquiries into offline sales. The challenge faced by these websites was to convince as many visitors as possible to enquire. Most websites relied on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising for traffic generation. This research used PPC advertising to generate traffic. An important aspect of PPC advertising was landing page optimisation. The aim of landing page optimisation was to increase the number of visitors to a website who completed a specific action on the website. In the case of the websites investigated in this research the action consisted of completing and sending an enquiry form from the websites. The research looked for meaningful commonalities in the data collected by MS CRM and the OTM and combined this with feedback from the collaborating company’s sales team to create two personas for website visitors who had enquired. Techniques for improving landing pages were identified and these led to changes to landing pages. Some of these changes were targeted at a particular visitor persona. The effect of changes made to a landing page was measured by comparing its conversion rate and bounce rate before and after the changes. Behavioural data collected by the OTM was then analysed using a data mining engine to find models that could predict whether a user would convert based on their browsing behaviour. Models were found that could predict the outcome of a visit to a service website.

A recent topic of academic interest within corporate reputation is the use of stories to build reputation. However, there is little empirical research in this area. This thesis investigates how stories are used as a corporate identity cue and the influence of stories on audiences (particularly organisation members), in order to bring insight into the role and significance of stories in corporate reputation management. The empirical study was conducted in two stages. The first stage involved content analysis of corporate history stories identified from the websites of 200 organisations in the for-­profit and non-profit sectors. The second stage involved case studies of two organisations in the UK energy industry, with qualitative and quantitative data collected using semi-structured interviews, documentary research, and observation research. The findings indicate that corporate stories can be used as a corporate identity cue by conveying reputation platforms which express corporate personality. However, the extent to which platforms are conveyed through corporate stories varies, indicating that the use of stories as a corporate identity cue is also variable. Using impression management theory to interpret corporate stories indicates that stories can influence audiences’ impressions of an organisation, and organisation members’ thinking, feelings, and behaviour. These findings bring new insight to the impression management literature, as well as supporting the existing literature. However, the findings indicate that stories need to be perceived as relevant and credible in order for stories to influence organisation members. Also, limited awareness of stories by managers and a lack of training in using stories are likely to limit the use of stories in corporate reputation management. The thesis contributes to the corporate story literature by developing a framework illustrating how corporate stories act as a corporate identity cue and influence audiences. Guidance is also provided for managers regarding the use of corporate stories as part of corporate reputation management. Future research should build on this study by investigating corporate stories from the perspective of a wider range of stakeholder groups, and in other industry and organisational contexts.

Whilst advertising creativity has received attention in the past, the process of advertising creative development has attracted less attention and to date only a limited number of studies have examined this area. Moreover, there is limited empirical evidence on the process within advertising agencies themselves. The aim of this study was to explore the creative development process within advertising agencies and provide evidence of the contextual factors which influence the process. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 advertising agency account management personnel from London based advertising agencies to explore their experience of the advertising creative development process. The results provide evidence that whilst a high degree of customisation takes place, a number of generic stages exist within the creative development process and the study identified a number of previously unreported stages. In addition to the process stages, the study provides evidence of the influence that the client-agency relationship, the provision of resources, the nature of the advertising task and the nature of creativity itself has on the creative development process. The study concludes that the process of creative development within advertising agencies is influenced by a number of factors, including the length, style and stage of the client-ad agency relationship, the level of client involvement, client-ad agency conflict, the provision of resources, the nature of the advertising task and creativity. It was also concluded that strong social bonds do not exist between clients and their agencies. Whilst the small sample size limits the generalisability of the findings, the study makes a valuable theoretical contribution in the area and will benefit researchers and others study advertising processes. In addition, the study offers advertising practitioners, both within the U.K. and in other markets, the opportunity to appraise current practice. The study contributes to both our knowledge of the creative development process and the contextual factors which influence the process and also to our understanding of business-to-business relationships. The study identifies a number of areas that warrant further research and provides a framework of the creative development process which it is hoped will be used as a basis for further examination and qualification.

Although the Internet has become a global medium, which companies use to access individuals worldwide, it is argued in this thesis that cultural issues still need to be taken into account when designing Web sites. In fact, international marketers agree that culture in terms of consumers‘ values and beliefs remains a significant constraint for reaching international consumers. Professional analysts and designers generally agree that well-designed user interfaces improve the performance and appeal of the Web and help in reaching large numbers of consumers across cultures. Therefore, one way of improving the user-interface is by paying attention to users' culture, which means developing culturally adapted Web sites. The Web localisation literature addresses the users' ultural concerns by utilising some of the popular cultural models like those of Hofstede and Hall; however these tools are not appropriate for handling the cultural values affecting the online behaviour of consumers. Effective Web localisation can be achieved through an appropriate cultural framework that incorporates the cultural values that affect the online behaviour of consumers. This thesis introduces the electronic cultural adaption framework or E-CAF, as a structure for adapting local Web interfaces. The E-CAF, constructed for the travel domain, uses six cultural dimensions derived from the observation of behaviour and identifies unique cultural variables that affect online consumer behaviour. The E-CAF is constructed using grounded theory methodology and is then evaluated as a tool for adapting local Web interfaces. This includes discussing the applicability of the E-CAF as a tool for identifying online marketing strategies suitable for targeting consumers across cultures and using the E-CAF to assess and evaluate the cultural adaptation of three Egyptian local travel interfaces. Finally, the E-CAF is utilized as a means for developing questions that can help designers to collect the clients' designing requirements. This helps the designers to build an effective local interface based on an understanding of each client‘s special design requirements.

Packaging plays a key role in product success within the highly competitive food and drinks sectors of the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry. However, relatively little has been written about packaging in the marketing management literature. The majority of published research focuses on the marketing communications aspects of packaging. As a result, whilst there is substantial literature revealing the significance of packaging in purchasing decisions and perceptions of the product, its role in product development and the creation of new opportunities has been largely overlooked. Against this background, the research examines the management of packaging development within the FMCG industry: in particular, the food and drinks sectors. The purpose of the study is twofold: to examine how the development of a new product’s packaging is managed and integrated into the new product development (NPD) process of firms; and to explore how firms in the industry manage the opportunities that new packaging development may provide. The research finds that in their packaging development, most firms focus on ‘skindeep’ issues, such as the development of the label, and aesthetic modifications to the body of the packaging, such as changing the colour of a bottle. The analysis reveals three distinct levels of packaging development and argues that the development of new packaging formats and genuine packaging innovation is being overlooked by firms. The framework developed from the research reveals that the orientation of packaging development (skin-deep, aesthetic body modifications, or technological format change) is influenced by internal packaging capability, perceptions of the production process, the role of buyers, and concerns over the impact of changes on the product’s retailing. This in turn impacts on the role of the consumer and suppliers in development. This study contributes to the existing literature by providing new insight into the relationship between packaging development and NPD. The framework generated contributes to the existing stage based models of NPD by revealing that previous research has largely failed to analyse packaging development at the level of technological and format change. The findings also have implications for firms, identifying a need to re-examine their packaging development activities, to ensure that these address all three levels; not merely ‘skin-deep’ packaging.

Over the past ten years, mainly as a result of developments in digital technology and social media, academics and practitioners have become more interested in communities. The number of studies investigating online brand communities (OBCs) has been increasing with most attention being paid to the characteristics, functions and benefits associated with OBCs. However, an important aspect of OBCs has been overlooked, which is the contribution of social capital to the communities and the impact on brands. This research seeks to fill this gap by developing an understanding of social capital in order to assist marketers to utilise OBC more effectively. This study investigates the use of social capital in two ways: firstly, to examine the presence of social capital in OBCs; and secondly, to examine the potential impact of social capital on brand knowledge. Accordingly this study is deductive in nature, using a web-survey approach. Thirty-five Volkswagen consumer-initiated OBCs were involved in the survey which was selected from www.Xcar.com in China. This study finds that both social capital and brand knowledge constructs have a high level of reliability and validity, which indicates their presence within consumer initiated OBCs. Further, a significant causal relationship is found between social capital and brand knowledge. In particular, each dimension of social capital exerts differential effects upon brand knowledge. The findings are an original contribution to social capital theory and OBC studies and they are also important for brand owners and community leaders who wish to develop and implement OBC strategies.