Brand consistency : A case study of Stadium

Sammanfattning: A brand has to communicate to its customers in a consistent way to achieve a strong position and to distinguish from competitors on today’s market. Many companies operate and offer their products and services on the current market in physical and virtual environments. Therefore the issue to communicate in a consistent appearance within all channels is an increasing challenge. This thesis work studies the matter of how companiesare working with brand consistency in their business in physical and virtual environments. This was done to analyze the consequences of the problem when a brand isinconsistent in its messages to the customer and in its operations. For this work the qualitative research method and a case study have been chosen. The case study includes observations of three physical Stadium stores, located in the centre of Gothenburg, Sweden and Stadium’s website. This was chosen to analyze this matter in real life in both environments. The theoretical framework consists of two main areas: These are branding and relationship marketing, which support this research. Brand includes the theories of brand identity and brand image, and relationship marketing comprises the theories of customer loyalty, brand communities and additional value. These areas have been used throughout the whole work as tools to research the issue of brand consistency. The empirical data has also been recorded according to these areas. As the conclusion, the findings of the thesis work have shown that brand consistency builds an important part in a company’s communication channels. For the case of Stadium it can be stated that it has positive approaches in working with brand consistency but also points out parts that are lacking and indicating inconsistency.