The brand, that point of connection between company and consumer, has become one of the key cultural forces of our time and one of the most important vehicles of globalization. This is a wide ranging survey of the cultural processes of branding.

Brands are everywhere: in the air, on the high-street, in the kitchen, on television and, maybe even on your feet. But what are they? The brand, that point of connection between company and consumer, has become one of the key cultural forces of our time and one of the most important vehicles of globalization. This book offers a detailed and innovative analysis of the brand Illustrated with many examples, the book argues that brands: * mediate the supply and demand of products and services in a global economy * frame the activities of the market by functioning as an interface * communicate interactively, selectively promoting and inhibiting communication between producers and consumers * operate as a public currency while being legally protected as private property in law * introduce sensation, qualities and affect into the quantitative calculations of the market * organize the logics of global flows of products, people, images and events. This book will be essential reading for students of sociology, cultural studies and consumption.

An interdisciplinary history of the campaign to secure international protection of indications of geographic origin, including 'Made in ...' slogans. It will appeal to students of business and economic history, geography, legal history and marketing.

Globalization affects urban communities in many ways. One of its manifestations is increased intercity competition, which compels cities to increase their attractiveness in terms of capital, entrepreneurship, information, expertise and consumption. This competition takes place in an asymmetric field, with cities trying to find the best possible ways of using their natural and created assets, the latter including a naturally evolving reputation or consciously developed competitive identity or brand. The Political Economy of City Branding discusses this phenomenon from the perspective of numerous post-industrial cities in North America, Europe, East Asia and Australasia. Special attention is given to local economic development policy and industrial profiling, and global city rankings are used to provide empirical evidence for cities’ characteristics and positions in the global urban hierarchy. On top of this, social and urban challenges such as creative class struggle are also discussed. The core message of the book is that cities should apply the tools of city branding in their industrial promotion and specialization, but at the same time take into account the special nature of their urban communities and be open and inclusive in their brand policies in order to ensure optimal results. This book will be of interest to scholars and practitioners working in the areas of local economic development, urban planning, public management, and branding.

Recently vilified as the prime dynamic driving home the breach between poor and rich nations, here the branding process is rehabilitated as a potential saviour of the economically underprivileged. Brand New Justice, now in a revised paperback edition, systematically analyses the success stories of the Top Thirteen nations, demonstrating that their wealth is based on the 'last mile' of the commercial process: buying raw materials and manufacturing cheaply in third world countries, these countries realise their lucrative profits by adding value through finishing, packaging and marketing and then selling the branded product on to the end-user at a hugely inflated price. The use of sophisticated global media techniques alongside a range of creative marketing activities are the lynchpins of this process. Applying his observations on economic history and the development and impact of global marketing, Anholt presents a cogent plan for developing nations to benefit from globalization. So long the helpless victim of capitalist trading systems, he shows that they can cross the divide and graduate from supplier nation to producer nation. Branding native produce on a global scale, making a commercial virtue out of perceived authenticity and otherness and fully capitalising on the 'last mile' benefits are key to this graduation and fundamental to forging a new global economic balance. Anholt argues with a forceful logic, but also backs his hypothesis with enticing glimpses of this process actually beginning to take place. Examining activities in India, Thailand, Russia and Africa among others, he shows the risks, challenges and pressures inherent in 'turning the tide', but above all he demonstrates the very real possibility of enlightened capitalism working as a force for good in global terms.

The twin forces of ideological change and the technology revolution make globalization the single most important issue facing executives today. But many companies who have developed a presence in the global market now face the challenges inherent in creating a multinational presence with the demands of the "unglobal consumer" who does not have a "one size fits all" need. Here, HBS Professors John Quelch and Deshpande bring together 13 Harvard Business School professors to discuss these and other problems and benefits encountered by executives in global markets. Topics to be discussed include: operating costs of global advertising and marketing services, global product standards; managing global supply chains; global account management; global brands; global knowledge sharing and performance drivers; managing global customers; and social marketing for global economic development.