Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the relevance of branding as a source of competitve advantage within the local business context.

The research questions are:
-To study and understand the phenomenon known as branding and its relevance in the local set up.
- To establish if there are strong local brands.
- To assess the impact of local strong brands on the sustainability of an organization.

My research method will be case studies and i have outlined 3 categories namely - a fmcg company (Phoenix Beer) that has global brands in its portfolio like Coca Cola and Guiness, but i will focus on a famous local beer that this company produced and sell on the local market. It is interresting to note that they are the only local beer producer on the market but will now (in 2005) be facing new entrants on the market, that will start local production and distribution as well.
Secondly, i have chosen another fmcg namely Eski, which a soft drink (like a limoande), this product has to compete with global brands like Coca, Pepsi, Sprite, Fanta... But Eski, has a strategy that is based on Patriotism. It is known as a the National Limonade, and there are intensive marketing and communication campaigns during the Independance Period (it should be noted that i am from Republic of Mauritius and that we were a british/French colony before our Independance in March 1968 - we have an economy based on tourism, offshore, textile ICT, and now to a lesser extent agriculture-sugar).
The other case study is about a textile company that has successfully introduced a new local brand that now competes with global like Billabong, Diesel, Levis. The products that they produced are premium products and are very expensive and they have been able to have 6 outlets locally. The target is youngsters (15- 28), that are paradoxically mostly economically dependent (still studying and living with parents). But the company developed a new brand targeting the economically active group.