Summary
This report discusses findings from Millward Brown's Top 50 Most Valuable Chinese Brands study, which is being used by advertisers to quantify the financial impact of their brands to revenues. Brand strategy is seen by the market research firm as being crucial to building value in China. Generally, in order to boost brand value, marketers are advised to be clear about positioning, stand out from rivals and deliver "brand experiences" that live up to the brand's promise. Value is also a key concern of Chinese consumers. The report also includes closer analysis of the Chinese beer market.

Summary
The nature of luxury is constantly changing and this makes it difficult to formulate a universal definition of luxury brands. The current paper aims to enrich the understanding of luxury brand meaning from a consumer perspective. In particular, this paper investigates consumers’ perceptions of luxury brands based on the extent to which they associate various attributes to luxury brands. A large-scale survey in the Flemish part of Belgium reveals three facets of luxury brand meaning: an expressive facet that refers to the exclusivity of luxury brands, an impressive-functional facet that refers to premium quality and an impressive-emotional facet that refers to extraordinary aesthetic aspects. In addition, the current study distinguishes three consumer segments (i.e. impressive, expressive and mixed segment) that differ from each other for the importance they attach to these facets of luxury brand meaning. The impressive segment associates luxury brand meaning with both impressive-functional and impressive-emotional facets, while the expressive segment associates luxury brand meaning with the expressive facet, rather than with impressive facets. The third segment, mixed group, thinks both expressive and impressive facets of luxury brand meaning need to be present before a brand can be categorised as luxury brand. In addition, the current study extends previous segmentations by providing a detailed profile of the segments. In particular, this study shows that the views are differentially related to both individual difference variables and various aspects of individual well-being (i.e. self-esteem and negative affect).

Summary
Can event marketing contribute to brand equity? A field study with consumers participating in different types of events (trade shows, street events, pop-up shops and sponsored events) indicates that event attendance has a positive impact on brand equity. Our analysis reveals that brand experience, an antecedent of brand attitude, mediates the relationship between pre-event and post-event brand equity in all types of events. Brand attitude, on the other hand, mediates this relationship only in some cases (trade shows and street events). Implications of the results for event theory and practice are discussed.

Summary
Philips, the domestic appliance and personal care company, wanted to identify, understand and assist its most enthusiastic customers - "superpromoters" - in India. Philips is used as a case study to illustrate how superpromoters can help a brand grow in terms of revenue and reputation; can motivate employees; can help a brand make strategic and tactical decisions; are ideal co-creators. The authors found most companies don't have much information on their most enthusiastic customers, hence they suffer superpromoter blindness. The study encourages more brands to engage with and listen to their superpromoters.

Summary
Through an example in the beer category in China and India, this research paper shows how a people-centred approach, using precise drivers of brand growth, combined with predictive abilities to anticipate market share can deliver strong business outcomes from research. Brand growth is achieved through different options including optimisation of brand positioning, portfolio management, repositioning, brand stretching and innovation. This report criticises standard brand equity research, claiming that it is unable to effectively answer how a company can make brands meaningful to people and how meaningful brands can grow a business. The people-centric methodology proposed in this paper deconstructs human needs into four layers that on average explains 85-95% of brand choice, then supports this with a psychological model, which ensures that all decisions are made with consumer motivation at the centre. Then to determine the direction of a brand's growth, it identifies the brand's current Attitudinal Equity (a measure of the strength of consumers' psychological relationship with the brand) and focuses on growing it.

Summary
This paper argues for a careful consideration of how the notion of brand works in Asia and what is distinctive about these Asian contexts. It discusses what brands are and what their purpose is and questions several received wisdoms that have been inherited from a Western perspective, where even the word "brand" conveys a different meaning to those used in Asia. A brand's "personality" and abstract values are of less relevance and interest than its functional benefits and concrete impressions in Asia, while the context in which it is seen and experienced has greater importance than in the West. In China and Japan, TV advertising spots are much shorter than in the West, so reach and awareness is more highly valued and without the time to tell complex brand stories, innovation has come to be the focus of investment. Western marketers are warned that to focus on brand love in Asia is to risk being overtaken by organisations who concentrate on penetration. Also, energy put into fixing the personality and philosophy of the brand may be better spent elsewhere when Asian consumers are innately less susceptible to abstract values and Asian media vehicles are ill-equipped to develop them.

Summary
This event report provides an update on Coca-Cola's evolving marketing strategy, from creation to execution. Coca-Cola has recognised the need to adapt in order to stay relevant, and has as its guiding aim the need to spread "brand love". Towards this end, it aims to "codify" successful campaigns in one market for replication in others. Content will become more of a focus going forward, with word-of-mouth and virality ("liquid content") the aim. The report also discusses Coca-Cola's marketing push during the 2012 Olympic Games and the brand owner's reaction to the Big Data trend.

Summary
Building a brand in the business-to-business community is about much more than visual cohesion and integrated communications. As for consumer brands, in the B2B arena, products and services are created to 'prove the promise' to the customer and in this sense, brand strategy is the means of executing the business strategy. This article advises that the brand should guide and inspire all areas of the business from talent attraction and retention to new product development and performance development plans. An example of this strategy in action is shown with Balfour Beatty and the evolution of three brands within its Support Services Division.

Summary
This case study from Deutsche Telekom demonstrates the changing nature of communications with its 'Life is for sharing' campaign. It looks at how the campaign has evolved from one big memorable moment to a series of moments in a journey leading up to the latest embodiment, 'Move on'. Starring Hollywood actor Mads Mikkelsen, Move On is a road trip movie which begins in the Netherlands and journeys through Germany and Eastern Europe, with some direction and details of the storyline being decided by Deutsche Telekom customers. The campaign lasted several months from its online launch to its TV premiere. With film roll-out running into this year, the movies and associated media activity will run for almost a year. Initial results are showing total brand fit uplift was on average 10.5% across all markets with purchase intention increased up to 30%.

Summary
This article describes a framework called ValueDrivers, which is intended to help businesses understand how to grow the value of their brands. It proposes that brands maximise their potential for growth by delivering a brand experience that is meaningfully different from others, by determining its purpose. Then brands must amplify that differentiation through findability, credibility, vitality, affordability and extendibility.