Umbrella branding of regional product concepts: Marketing and inter-organizational challenges in implementation of the Fjord Norway Brand

Branding has been recognized as the management philosophy and the critical agenda for the Executive Board in most industries worldwide (de Chernatony, 2001). However, the knowledge and use of the branding strategic option is to some extent limited in many Norwegian industries (MMI, 2001), and particularly in the primary producing industries. Especially limited is knowledge on how businesses in remote geographical regions can establish brand alliances and networks of corporations across industries, which c ontribute to profile the individual businesses as well as the region as a whole. Such regional brand alliances can be an efficient means to develop integrated brand concepts, which support the promotion of a range of regional companies, goods and services . In order to change this situation, a close cooperation between researchers and brand alliance partners from divergent industries is needed to develop, distribute, and implement such knowledge and skills. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to: (1) Develop more knowledge on the area of regional umbrella branding in general, and on the processes and factors underlying the implementation and management of regional umbrella brand alliances more specifically. (2) Distribute and help implementing these results within and across industries, with particular focus on agriculture, fisheries and tourism.