Mats Urde

PhD in brand strategy (Ekonomie doktor i varumärkesstrategi)

Associate professor, Reader (Biträdande professor, Docent)

I am associate professor in strategic brand management at Lund University, School of Economics and Management (part time) with teaching and research. I also work as brand strategy consultant.

Teaching:

At the university I am head of the course Strategic Brand Management (BUSM03). This specialized course covers key perspectives and question within the branding area, such as corporate branding, brand portfolio structure, and different types of branding (business-to-business, business-to-consumer, service and retail branding). The course was among the first of its kind in the Nordic universities and business schools when introduced and designed in 1989. I also act as a tutor for students and doctorate candidates within the field of management of brand. I lecture on MBA and executive programs.

Brand orientation as area of research:

Brand orientation means that brands become a hub for the strategy process. Brand orientation (title of my PhD dissertation, 1997) is a mindset. In principal, a corporate brand can’t be stronger in the market than it is internally, within the organization. The identity of the brand must engage the whole organization and affect all processes, behavior, and communication. The goal in a brand-oriented organization is to create, develop, and protect brands as valuable resources and as sustainable competitive advantages.

Business experience:

There is a common ground for brands as products and brands as organizations but there are also important differences. I have experience from these two worlds through working with Proviva (functional foods consumer brand cases) Nicorette (OTC pharmaceutical brand), Filippa-K (fashion), Scandinavian Airlines (corporate service brand), E.ON, Trelleborg, Metso, and the Volvo Group (business-to-business corporate brands), and Copenhagen Stock Exchange, the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, and the Swedish National Symphony Orchestra (organisational brands).

Examples of major proprietary work that I have been responsible and/or contributed to are the Ericsson Corporate Trademark Book, the Volvo brand policy, ABS Corporate brand book, Thule brand book, Akzo Nobel management training program, Metso and Cargotec corporation brand policy, and a Case study for Volvo Bus. I find the cross-fertilization between my work as a consultant and my role as a researcher and lecturer to be of importance.

Executive programs and speaker:

I lecture and lead workshops nationally and internationally on the management of brands. I have given lectures on five continents at universities, business schools, and business specific programs (e.g. Volvo Business Program and Akzo Nobel Brand Program) at management and executive levels.

I also give presentations on specific brand strategy related topics as a speaker at conferences and company events. I view this as yet another fruitful way to build and share knowledge between academia and business, and vice versa.

Research projects

1.1 Brand orientation (1997)

In my doctoral thesis (1997) I argued for a new corporate approach (mindset) towards brands: brand orientation. The aim was to examine how an organization’s approach to brands can (1) ideally, help to build and protect brands as strategic resources or (2) in the worst case, result in loss of distinctiveness and trademark degeneration (a brand that has lost its distinctiveness may become a common word forming part of the language). In the worst-case scenario, the corporation loses its exclusive right (ownership) to the trademark, which thereafter is free for all to use. What happens in the process where values and meaning are created was one of the intriguing questions of my thesis. Words such as dynamite, windsurfer, vespa, insulin, and gramophone are examples of successful brands which have eventually degenerated. Today, leading brands such as Google, iPod, and Rollerblade are often used to describe a type of products or services, that is, they are showing signs of loss of distinctiveness.

The concept of trademark degeneration is both a key and a gate to a range of fundamental questions related to brands and the management of brands. In the case studies Nestlé (Nescafé), Tetra Pak (Tetra Brik), DuPont (Teflon), and Pharmacia (Nicorette) I examined how brands are built and how they may be lost. My research called for the integration of legal, semantic, semiotic, marketing, communication, and strategic theory.

In retrospect, I view the main contributions of my thesis as the brand orientation approach and its conceptual framework, the process of the creation of meaning and value (and loss of the same), and the corporation’s value foundation. For me, as a researcher, finding a methodological approach was and still is of value and importance.

1.2 Research project: Brand orientation, corporate branding, and core values (1998–2001)

The aim of this research project, following my doctoral thesis (1997), was to focus on the internal identity and value foundation of corporate brands. In my article in the Journal of Marketing Management (1999) I argued for a more brand oriented approach with brands as strategic resources and as a point of departure for business strategy. In my article in the European Journal of Marketing (2003) I continued my long-term quest for “the value of values”. From an extensive field study of Volvo using multiple longitudinal embedded cases (the Volvo corporation and its five business areas), I systematically explored the role of the corporate core values in the brand building process: from mission to internal brand identity. I coined this process as the core value-based corporate brand building process, taking into account both the internal side and the external side of the process. The literature review in this article focused on categorizing different types of values: values related to the organization, values summing up the brand (core values), and extended/customer values. In this way I also deepened the theoretical and empirical support for the framework I put forward. The Volvo case illustrates the close link between business strategy and brand strategy.

In retrospect, the articles on the mindset of brand-oriented organizations (1999) and core value based corporate brand building (2003) were a contribution to the emerging field of corporate branding, especially focusing on the importance of internal branding. In the international scholarly discussion these two articles are cited as inspiration to research projects (both qualitative and quantitative). A journal special issue on brand orientation is planned for 2009.

1.3 Research project: Monarchies as corporate brands (2001–2005)

The study of the Crown as a brand began in 2000 when I participated in a televised discussion in Sweden on the economic value of monarchy. My line of argument was that a Crown is a symbol for a nation and a symbol is not so different from a brand. Following this discussion I took the initiative to form an international trio of researchers (Professors J.M.T. Balmer, Brunel University, UK, and S.A. Greyser, Harvard Business School), with intellectual interests in corporate branding, to pursue the topic of the Crown as a brand. This turned out to be the beginning of three years of intellectual thinking and fieldwork.

We decided to focus upon (but not restrict ourselves to) the Western European constitutional monarchies. We were granted access to the Swedish Royal Court and interviewed senior members of the Court as well as the Royal Family. We also conducted interviews with others whose knowledge and experience informed our perspectives on monarchies and how they are managed. We also undertook considerable research in the literature regarding monarchies from a range of disciplines beyond management. It soon became apparent to us that examining the Crown through the lens of corporate branding had the potential to offer meaningful insights for comprehending the institution of the monarchy and the associated area of its management. Our primary motivation was in the intellectual challenge of applying corporate branding scholarship to an examination of the ancient, enduring institution of monarchy – an institution we consider analogous to corporate brands.

We first published working papers at Harvard Business School (2004) and Bradford University (2005), “to get a stake in the ground”, and later, longer articles in the Journal of Brand Management (2007). A commentary on communication dimensions, incorporating performance assessment, appeared in the European Journal of Marketing (2006).

In retrospect, this study was a unique opportunity to explore the limits of key concepts within the field of corporate branding. Core concepts in our field of research, such as managed visibility, willingness-to-support, core-values, and vision were examined in this very different context. The research question also called for a truly multiple perspective literature review as illustrated, for example, by the discussion of “The Conceptual Evolution of the Crown” (2006, p. 142). That the research trio represented different research traditions and came from different countries contributed, we think, to the range of perspectives in our treatment of the phenomena of monarchies. Our names appear in alphabetical order on these principal publications to reflect the fact that we all contributed equally.

We have presented the outcomes of our research on monarchies at conferences (both academic and more practice-oriented). Our articles have been quoted in the international research debate and beyond. The so-called “5-R model” on managed visibility is used in practice. Among the challenges related to this study was to handle the media interest “beyond curiosity” in the research project. One of the decisions we took was to self-fund the research to underline our objective position on monarchies as constitutional institutions.

1.4 Research project: Heritage and brand identity (2005–2006)

The purpose of this research project was to explore, investigate, and define heritage as a part of corporate brand identity. The goals were to uncover heritage and to understand better how to activate, nurture, and protect heritage in the process of corporate branding.

We first recognized the value of heritage when we studied monarchies as corporate brands. This led us (Urde, Greyser, and Balmer) to seek and study other brand situations where heritage seems to play an important role and adds value. The approach we used to develop the concept of heritage brands is multiple case-design, asking primarily “how?” and “why?” questions. We also used multiple sources of evidence: literature study (broad approach), archival studies, case examples from practice, and interviews.

We found heritage brands to constitute a distinct branding category with its own set of defining criteria and a specific approach for effective management. We described five quantifiable elements that define what we term a brand’s heritage quotient. We also presented our view of the brand stewardship necessary to manage brands with heritage. Our primary focus was on corporate and other organizational heritage brands, but we also refer to the relevance of heritage to product and service branding.

In retrospect, this research project on heritage and brand identity constitutes a broadening and deepening of our work related to “monarchies as corporate brands”. We went from a relative limited target audience for our findings (constitutional monarchies) to the much broader one of brands with heritage. We also illustrated and suggested applications for our research findings in business and non-business settings. A comparison of key concepts between monarchies and corporate brands (2007, p. 17) is one example of the cross-fertilization and links between the two research projects. The article on heritage is quoted in academic discussion and an international research and practitioner conference on the subject is in the planning stage.

1.5 Research project: Uncovering a corporate brand’s track record on core values (2006–2008)

The aim of this research project was the uncovering of a corporate brand’s core values (in review process for the International Journal of Management and Decision Making). Following up on one key aspect of heritage, track record, I set out to explore ways to uncover a corporate brand’s core values. The approach is to identify patterns of core values that are (1) perceived externally by customers and non-customer stakeholders and (2) rooted internally within the organization.

All established corporate brands have track records. They may vary in length and continuity. All established corporate brands have core values making up the backbone of their brands’ track records – whether they are defined or not. The core values may also vary in number, in the degree to which they are rooted internally, and in the extent to which they are perceived by the outside world.

The study of the track records of Volvo, IKEA, IBM, and Scanpump gives insights into core values and how they evolve. Four categories of core values emerge, termed true, aspirational, potential, and hollow. The management implications of “how to build true corporate values and avoid hollow ones” are discussed using the core value grid and examples from the case studies.

This research project integrates, further develops, and links in particular the concepts of track record and core values. The time dimension and dynamics of the identity of a brand are illustrated and discussed, inspired by the findings of the projects on monarchies and heritage. My earlier and continuous work on core values is further elaborated, deepened, and broaded. The main managerial contribution, in my view, is the core value grid, which uncovers values such as true, potential, aspirational, and hollow.

1.6 Research project: Corporate brand stewardship (ongoing)

In my ongoing research I focus on corporate brand stewardship, following up on thoughts and findings from the projects on both monarchies and heritage. The framework in use is the core value grid (which is to be quantified). My reasoning is that, in principle, a corporate brand cannot be stronger externally than it is internally. Rooted core values with track records supporting a brand promise represent the essence of a corporate brand, guiding internal and external corporate brand building and management. Hollow core values risk undermining the foundation of the corporate brand. The aim of this ongoing project is to explore the role of leadership and values using an academic approach with managerial implications.

Selected publications

Balmer J.M.T., Greyser S.A., and Urde, M. (2004) “Monarchies as corporate brands,” Harvard Business School, Working Paper Series 05-002.

Balmer, J.M.T., Greyser, S.A., and Urde, M. (2006) “The Crown as a corporate brand: Insights from monarchies,” Journal of Brand Management, Vol. 14, Nos. 1/2, pp. 137–161.

Greyser, S.A., Balmer, J.M.T., and Urde, M. (2006) “The monarchy as a corporate brand: Some corporate communications dimensions,” Journal of Brand Management, Vol. 40, Nos. 7/8, pp. 902–908.

Melin, F. and Urde, M. (1991) Varumärket – en hotad tillgång, Liber Ekonomi, Malmö.

Melin, F. and Urde, M. (1999) “Starka varumärken – vägen till framgångsrik internationalisering,” in Exporthandboken, Industrilitteratur, Jönköping, pp. 176–199.

Melin, F. and Urde, M. (2003) “Starka varumärken – nyckeln till framgång på morgondagens marknad,” Dagens industri Business-to-Business Pocket, Kristianstads boktryckeri, pp. 231–236.

Urde, M. (1994) “Brand orientation – a strategy for survival,” Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 18–32.

Urde, M. (1997) Märkesorientering [Brand Orientation], Doctoral thesis, Lund University Press, Lund.

Urde, M. (1999) “Brand orientation: A mindset for building brands into strategic resources,” Journal of Marketing Management, Vol. 15, Nos. 1–3, pp. 117–33.

Urde, M. (1999) “Varumärken – vår tids symboler” [Brands – symbols of our time], in Nationalencyklopedin, Bra Böcker Bokförlag, Malmö, Vol. 24, pp. 206–207.

Urde, M. (2002) “The Tetra Pak case: Trademark protection and branding,” in Identity – On Marks, Signs and Symbols, Eds. Holger, L. and Holmberg, I., Swedish National Museum, Raster Publisher, Stockholm, pp. 227–235.

Urde, M. (2003) “Core value-based corporate brand building,” European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 37, Nos. 7/8, pp. 1017–1040.

Urde, M. (2009) “Uncovering the corporate brand’s core values”, Management Decision, Vol. 47, No. 4, pp. 616-638.

Urde, M., Greyser, S.A., and Balmer, J.M.T. (2007) “Corporate brands with a heritage,” Journal of Brand Management, Vol. 15, No. 1., pp. 4-19.

 

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