This paper investigates the impact that seven marketing activities namely event sponsorship, celebrity endorsements, advertising, distribution exclusivity, store atmospherics, brand websites and brand’s social media have on the brand equity of Haute Couture Brands. Globalization, high disposable income, economic prosperity and an increasing demand for luxury labels has contributed to the flourishing demand for Haute Couture Designer labels. The fashion calendar in India is full of Luxury and Haute Couture events throughout the year, thereby providing exhaustive purchase options for the affluent Indian consumer and exacerbating the market competition. This study attempts to assess the consumer based brand equity of Haute Couture Labels and apprehend their salience in the domestic market

The rise of social media and the emergence of globalization has changed the relationship between brands and consumers. The aim of this paper is to discuss how is this relationship affected by user generated content (UGC) and user generated brands (UGB). Consumers tend to look for products and brands in order to construct and sustain their social self. In this regard, the brand can define a person with respect to others. The brand constitutes a vital entity in the consumer's mind, acting as an enlivened partner in a relationship, and contributing to the initiation, maintenance, and destruction of the consumer-brand bond. In this context, the paper insists on the idea of brand personality, as developed by Jennifer Aaker (1997), connecting it to consumer culture studies. The research is based on a set of semi-structured interviews with 10 advertising creatives working at some of the most important Romanian advertising agencies. The investigation instrument used was the computer-assisted interview (CASI). The results point in the direction of a constructed brand personality, promoting an active and involved consumer. Advertisers have the power to define brands personality, inviting users to create content as well. The meaning of the brand is linked with the culture in which a particular sign is decoded. Advertisers give people hints of who is the brand, what is its core activity, its cultural references, set of values or personality traits. Brands have a personality and by communicating it, the character is build up gradually. In fact, brands tend to build a reflection or an image of the consumer which it seems to be addressed through the advertising messages.

Increasing market competition, changing consumer behaviors, and exponential technology advances, threat of commoditisation and voicing stakeholders mean brand face lots of challenges in contemporary market situation. This strategic communication model is a complementary solution to brands to deal with those challenges in future market with developing interactional relationships and end-to-end respond with all internal and external stakeholders of brands in virtual space as a collective platform. This communication model gives competitive advantage for brands engage with transparent marketing concept and provide strategic communication opportunity to engage with stakeholders and to face a crisis situation of brand in a constructive manner.

This study investigates how professional sports organizations are using socialmedia to develop long-term relationships with supporters. Professional sports clubs are important businesses with large communities of followers which present an ideal context to better understand the potential that social media have to help forge strong bonds withfans. This qualitative comparative case study uses relationship marketing as the base theory and semi-structure interviews as the method of data collection. The interviews were performed with key marketing and communication personnel of the St. Louis Rams (Rams) of the National Football League (NFL) and the LA Galaxy (Galaxy) of Major League Soccer (MLS) in order to gather valuable insight into this phenomenon. The findings indicated that both clubs are using social media to introduce key elements and constructs of relationship marketing, which, in accord with theory, are critically important to the development of enduring relationships with the fandom. The findings showed as well that the St. Louis Rams and the LA Galaxy utilize social media as a customer service and data collection tool in their attempt to better understand supporters’ needs and preferences to help them deliver a more effective message and forge strong and lasting relationships with supporters, also known as their fandom.

Many traditional communication media have incorporated with sender, message, channel, and receiver which identifies as one-way communication. But in modern communication media, “Feedback” is incorporated and changed the linear model of communication into two-way communication process, establishing a dialogue between the sender and the receiver. With the development of the Internet itself reinforces Two-way communication and allows users to create and exchange User Generated Content using Social media more interactively. In contemporary social media are growing phenomena in Sri Lanka and many brands are using social media as a brand communication tool. This study focuses on the impact of two-way communications of social media and how Telecommunication brands in Sri Lanka utilize Social media as a communication tool to create an effective stakeholder engagement towards the brand.Data was gathered mainly through qualitative interviews and online content analysis from the social media of selected leading telecommunications brands in Sri Lanka, Mobitel , Dialog , Etisalate , Airtel and Hutch . It analyzed their Facebook pages, twitter accounts, YouTube channels and corporate blogs. A semi-ethnographic approach was taken in analyzing the contents. The Findings claimed that two- way communication potential of social media has impacted on brand communication more effectively, productively and created more authentic relationships than traditional one way communication media in Sri Lanka. Social media have also affected both consumers and brands influencing corporate communication, public relation and consumer behavior with its two-way communication mechanisms. Keywords: Social media, Two-way communication, brand communication.

La seconda edizione del Congresso Dantesco Internazionale si terrà a Ravenna dal 29 maggio al 1° giugno 2019. Il file offre informazioni e contatti.