How much do corporate brands matter on a commoditized perfectly competing market?

This research explores how the corporate brand strength impacts operating profits on a dry bulk shipping market. Though the brand strength/performance linkage is a proven fact, specific industry structure that is nearly perfectly competitive represents curious model for testing how brand equity works in the unique market context. The intention of this work is to enrich academic knowledge on corporate brand power as well as its’ capability to be essentially a barrier for competition in the market where barriers are non-existent. Practical application can be found in helping dry bulk shipping industry executives to better understand and manage their corporate brand/corporate reputation for better financial performance. The research is based on fundamental brand equity assessment approach with few modifications that are necessary for the research concept and design. The methodology utilizes correlation analysis and tests on sample means. Several important phenomena have been discovered in this study. Though no correlation has been established between corporate brand strength and firm performance, the findings of the research potentially open the gap in our knowledge of how brands work across various market structures. Further exploration of this knowledge area will provide academic and practical insights on brand management in various competitive environments.