Brand development in a small service company : a case study at Infologigruppen

Branding has today a central role in marketing. Branding has in theory been focused on brands of large corporations and consumer goods. The situation of branding in this study differs from the traditional view. In this case is branding studied from the perspective of a small company offering services for an industrial market. The key concepts of the study are identity, image and positioning. The aim is to find how the concept applies on a small company brand, but also how the company will benefit from the brand development. The study is limited to brands that already exist, excluding building of a completely new brand. The branding strategies considered means further development of a present brand with consideration to the existing customer relationships. The existing customer group has to be considered since the brand is already established. The research approach is explorative and qualitative. The study is conducted by a case study at Infologigruppen, an IT-consultant firm located in Norrbotten. Infologigruppen is representative for the brand situation described above, a small local company offering industrial services. The research method is interviews from both identity and image perspective. The results indicates that the theoretical benefits and advantages from branding can be applied only to a limited extent in this case, the brand is of most benefit in the communication with new customers. Functional positioning seems to have a great influence on the composition of identity and image. Further, brand development is in this case not limited by existing customer relationship in any significant way.Validerat; 20101217 (root