Articles

GUEST EDITORS
Cleopatra Veloutsou, Professor of Brand Management, Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
Elena Delgado-Ballester, Professor of Marketing, Faculty of Economics and Business University of Murcia Campus de Espinardo 30100- Murcia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 
INFORMATION
The way that brands are managed has evolved significantly in the last decade. Recent publications appreciate that there are certain difficulties and challenges that brand management is facing that primarily derive from changes in the management practices and the environment (Veloutsou & Guzmán, 2017). In terms of the management practices, there is increased expected accountability of brand actions from the side of the company and the loss of control in the development of the brand reputation. In terms of the environment, there is an increased speed of change and the markets have an increasingly global nature with new players entering dynamically the landscape, while the technological changes influence the way brands are developed, communicated and consumed. In this environment managers are trying to develop strong brands and there is an increased pressure to deliver short-term financial return, rather than build a long-time reputation.
This special issue of the Spanish Journal of Marketing – ESIC aims to help in the understanding of the way that these challenges are experienced from the various stakeholders. The paper submitted in this issue could have as a context any setting, any kind of brand, such as product, service, personal and place and any methodology. The submissions should focus on topics relevant to the understanding and management of the challenges. Possible areas of interest include:

• Changes in the development of brand identity and brand reputation
• Understanding and managing human-like brand characteristics, such as brand personality, brand gender, brand anthropomorphism
• Management of brand portfolios
• Brands and innovation.
• Balding strong brands and emotional connection with consumers through storytelling
• Brands as engagement entities co-created with others
• Brand communities and brand tribalism and their role on branding
• Brand experience
• Brand Passion – from brand love to brand hate (brand relationships)
• Brand equity and challenges on brand equity development
• Brands, internationalisation and country-of-origin

Any questions about this special issue should be directed to BOTH the guest editors.
Papers should be submitted to through the Journal’s page after January 1^st in the section ‘‘New challenges in brand management’.’
 
Submission deadline: 15 February 2018
Expected publication date: December 2018