A review of brand research (1990-2010): classification, application and development trajectory

Facing rapidly changeable markets, a firm not only should make best use of its brands to strengthen recognition, attitude and purchase behaviour of consumers to enhance their purchase intention, but the firm also should build up and maintain B2B partnerships to achieve win-win situations. Unfortunately, the extant literature related to brands lacks systematic exploration and analyses. A comprehensive survey of extant brand literature was undertaken using keyword classification from 1990 to 2010. Based on 1,714 articles, we find that the number of publications on brands significantly increased since 2003, with steady growth in recent years and these selected articles are mostly published in 20 academic journals. In addition, there is no industry that has not implemented the concept of brand management and the majority of brand targeted countries come from Asia-Pacific emerging markets. This study ends with some discussions and conclusions.