Thalhimer Family Scholar-in-Residence highlights effective global branding methods

By Kelsey Claud

“We don’t realize how powerful brands truly are,” Anthony Di Benedetto, Ph.D., told a group of businesspeople, marketing students and engineers gathered at Virginia Commonwealth University last week to hear his advice on handling global branding challenges.

Di Benedetto, who is a professor of marketing and supply chain management and the Senior Washburn Research Fellow at Temple University, stressed the importance of brand selection and building brand equity for global branding in his lecture, “Lost in Translation: The Challenges of Branding Around the Globe.” The March 21 event was part of the 2014 Charles G. Thalhimer Family Scholar-in-Residence Program.

The lecture kicked off with a YouTube video – Fresh Impressions on Brandmarks – featuring a 5-year-old, who simply states the first thing that comes to mind when she is shown different brand logos. Surprisingly, she identified most of them correctly, underscoring Di Benedetto’s point about the power of brands.

More and more companies are beginning to see going global as a must, making strong global brand leadership and strategies necessary to be internationally successful, Di Benedetto said.

“If you’re going to go global, you must consider and prepare for the type of errors and challenges you may be facing,” Di Benedetto said.

Kelly O’Keefe, a professor at the VCU Brandcenter professor and chief creative strategy officer for PadillaCRT, joined Di Benedetto for a question-and-answer session with the audience after the lecture.

O’Keefe and Di Benedetto discussed how things work in the world of branding and advertising – and in academics. Both scholars emphasized the need for companies to adapt to their audience, since consumers’ needs and wants will always be a moving target.

Di Benedetto met with members of the VCU and Richmond communities throughout his visit as the 2014 Scholar-in-Residence.

The Thalhimer Family Endowment, which was established in 1984 by Charles G. Thalhimer Sr. to support VCU, also sponsors the Thalhimer Executive-in-Residence program and provides a full tuition scholarship for two outstanding School of Business students each year.

The Thalhimer Family Endowment and the Thalhimer family continue to underwrite important programs at VCU, especially at the VCU School of Business.

 

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