Brand Positioning: Connecting Marketing Strategy and Communications

Brand Positioning is an English translation of an exceptionally well-renowned Dutch textbook, which provides a practical approach to analysing, defining and developing a brand’s positioning strategy.

Divided into three key parts, the book works step-by-step through the creation of an effective marketing strategy, combining an academic approach with the strategic and operational guidelines, tools and techniques required. Unlike other textbooks, it has a unique focus on the relationship between branding, marketing and communications, exploring brand values, brand identity and brand image, and analysing how these can be transformed into a successful positioning strategy, using international case studies, examples and practical exercises.

This textbook will be core reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of marketing strategy, branding, marketing communications and consumer behaviour. It will also be of great value to marketing and communications professionals looking to develop and maintain their company’s brand.

Erik Kostelijk is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Amsterdam School of International Business of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands. He has teaching, research and professional experience in China, USA, Lithuania, France, Spain and Italy. He is the designer and author of the Value Compass, a method to assess the influence of values on branding.

Karel Jan Alsem is Professor in Marketing at Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen, the Netherlands, and is Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He is also a brand consultant. He has published in several academic journals and has written multiple marketing books, including Applied Strategic Marketing (Routledge, 2019).