The Importance Of Brand Orientation

1 Introduction

For more than 50 years, market orientation has been the dominant strategic orientation available to companies, defining the satisfaction of their customers as the overarching business purpose (Baumgarth, Merrilees, & Urde, 2013). Market orientation is an outside-in approach where it is the brand image, as perceived by customers and non-customer stakeholders, that defines and implements an intended position as starting point and frame of reference (Urde & Koch, 2014). On the contrary, brand orientation, a concept established by Urde (1994) and further developed by Urde (1997, 1999) and Melin (1997), is a new approach challenging the ubiquitous presence of market orientation (Baumgarth et al., 2013). Although being coined back

In fact, a growing number of companies have begun to realize the relevance of brand orientation and the high value their brands provide as assets (Keller, 2013). First, focusing highly on the main purpose of market orientation, i.e. satisfying customer needs and wants, might result in inconsistency and poor management of the brand and the business (Urde, Baumgarth, & Merrilees, 2013). Though it may save the pure existence within the market, it is a certain focus on brand orientation and thus the establishment and perpetuation of powerful brands that provides the ability to compete and generate growth and profitability (Urde, 1994). Second, the two approaches of brand and market orientation are both different and synergetic since they provide hybrid versions that are more likely to occur than pure brand or market orientation. Moreover, companies tend to progress towards these hybrid orientations over time, whilst retaining their former polar position as major component of the new orientation (Urde et al.,

In these contributions, Urde not only provides his definition on brand orientation but moreover identifies initial drivers of its implementation, and develops a conceptual framework depicting the relationships of key brand and business concepts of brand-oriented companies. Between 2001 and 2010, the majority of work focused on advancing the research on brand orientation from an industry-specific perspective, such as the non-profit (see, e.g., Ewing & Napoli, 2005; P. Hankinson, 2001b, 2002) and retail sector (see, e.g., Bridson & Evans, 2004; Evans, Bridson, Byrom, & Medway, 2004), and museums (see, e.g., Baumgarth, 2009). Furthermore, several studies investigated the relationship between brand orientation and other strategic brand- and business-related constructs (see, e.g., M’zungu, Merrilees, & Miller, 2010; Wong & Merrilees, 2007, 2008). Within the last five years, there has been made an even greater progress in this still emerging research area. Antecedents (see, e.g., Balmer, 2013; Evans, Bridson, & Rentschler, 2012; Schultheiss, 2013), conceptualizations (see, e.g., Evans, Bridson, & Rentschler, 2011; Gromark & Melin, 2011; Rentschler, Bridson, & Evans, 2011), outcomes (see, e.g., Bridson, Evans, Mavondo, & Minkiewicz, 2013; Gromark & Melin, 2011;