Understanding brands as experiential spaces: axiological implications for marketing strategists

摘要

Strategic marketing supports organization-wide efforts to maximize valuable resource utilization to gain a sustained competitive advantage over rivals. Brands are recognized as inimitable superior value creating resources that can play a key role in achieving this advantage. Their effective building and management positively impacts long-term competitive performance when brand loyalty has been achieved. However, strategic marketers are limited in their ability to control brand loyalty because consumers play a significant role in its formation. Brand loyalty sterns from repeated brand consumption experiences that may be cognitive and/or emotional in their value make-up. This article, therefore proposes that firms could gain more control over brand loyalty building by creating experiential brand places (brandscapes) that could house cognitively and emotionally stimulating experiences for consumers. The study discusses the cognitive and emotional potential of brandscapes for cultivating long-term value creation and brand loyalty but notes the risks involved in attempting this.