Brands at the Nexus of Organizations and Markets: How Organizational Structures and Technology Shape Marketing Practice

Recent research suggests that marketing has been losing influence on some company’s strategic decision-making and has been increasingly employed at a tactical level. Additionally, technological advancements in media and communications have been pointed out as being drivers of this “tactification” of marketing. Within this phenomena, we are particularly interested in understanding how brand management is being regarded in large organizations. Thus, we set as purpose for our research to explore how brand management is currently being practiced in large organizations, with a particular concern for understanding their strategic role in these companies. To this end, we have developed a qualitative study, where data were mainly collected through in-depth interviews to top managers. We have studied how three large organizations structure the marketing function and what roles brands assume within their strategic endeavours. Our findings unveil important insights on the role of brands in the practice of marketing at both strategic and tactical levels, laying ground for future research.