企业网络营销策略的面对机遇和挑战品牌管理的特殊的问题[外文翻译].docVIP

标题：E-marketing Strategy of Challenges and Opportunities Facing Brand Management: An Introduction to the Special Issue 原文：Investor Expectations and Brand Equity Brand managers may be subject to the whims of skittish investors devoted to quarterly earnings statements. Unprecedented levels of merger and acquisition activity on Wall Street in the late 1980s, often involving leveraged buyouts, loaded buying companies and their managers with heavy debt. Squeezed by pressure from investors and lending institutions, brand managers have felt pressures to ( 1) produce short-term cash flows to meet debt coverage; ( 2) produce steady, predictable growth in earnings; and ( 3) justify how and why they expect investments in marketing strategies to add value to the company. They have responded in predictable ways to enhance short-term cash flows. First, brand prices increased faster than inflation across many product categories, increasing the vulnerability of national brands to growth by private labels of similar quality. This led to Marlboro Friday (April 2, 1993), when Philip Morris dramatically reduced prices to stave off competition from lower-priced cigarettes and set a precedent for other firms (Giles 1993). Second, as noted, brand managers have increased reliance on trade and consumer discounts while reducing spending on advertising. Because of slow decay in the short term, cuts in advertising have fallen straight to the bottom line. Advertisings share of the marketing budget has shifted downward from over 60% to less than one-third (Landler, Schiller, and Therrien 1991). Some marketers maintain that advertising builds long-term profitability through image differentiation, whereas promotions dilute brand value by focusing on price and discounts rather than a products distinctive features and benefits. Others question the long-term value of advertising (always difficult to measure precisely) and focus on the visible ability of promotions to affect sales. Boulding, Lee, and S