COMPANY’S BRAND ORIENTATION: DEVELOPING AND TESTING THE MEASURING SCALE ON THE EXAMPLE OF RUSSIAN CUSTOMER MARKET
The paper deals with the analysis of the existing approaches to brand orientation operationalization. This research aims to develop and test on empirical data the scale for reflecting the level of brand orientation development in Russian companies. For this purpose, a mixed empirical study was conducted, consisting of the sequential use of qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative research was conducted on the basis of in-depth interviews with fifteen representatives of Russian companies, and the quantitative research as an online survey - on the sample of 213 Russian companies. As a result, the scale of four groups of indicators measuring brand orientation in four directions was formed: the strategic importance of the brand for a company, the communication activity of a company, the analysis of the behavior of a company’s competitors and the use of internal branding in a company. A distinguishing feature of the resulting brand orientation scale lies in reflecting and measuring both components of brand orientation, specifically, strategy and tactics. The proposed approach makes it possible to assess the level of the company’s processes development aimed at the formation of brand orientation, both from the point of view of building activities around the brand values and using the brand as a strategic asset, and the specific methods, tools and implementation methods. The obtained findings can be used by Russian companies in the development of a business strategy and in studies on measuring the level of brand orientation, identifying the brand management features in terms of philosophical and behavioral approaches to brand orientation and their harmonious integration within an organization.