Branding in Emerging Markets

Brand marketing strategies include brand development, brand licensing, online branding, constituting brand communities, brand advertisement and communication, and brand promotion. Brand licensing has emerged as a challenging activity for most consumer-focused multinational companies. This function is defined as the leasing of a brand name to a company other than the owner of the brand. For example, a company located in Europe could lease its brand name to an American company willing to manufacture and market products according to the standards and terms of references of the leasing company and pay royalty for leasing the brand name. Brand licensing has emerged as a well-established business due to the popularity of virtual brand management platforms in reference to both the patents and the trademarks. Trademark licensing has been historically carried out in American business, largely beginning with the rise of mass entertainment such as the movies, comics, and, later, television. Mickey Mouse’s popularity in the 1930s and 1940s resulted in an explosion of brand licensing for toys, books, apparel, and souvenirs of the Walt Disney Company. This process accelerated as movies and later television became a staple of American business.