Media Brand Strategy Research

Strategy and strategic management are two important components of media brand management, which are also high on the agenda of the domestic media practice and its related studies. Through the combinations of reasoning and evidence, and of past and present, this paper theorizes on the internal and external factors for media brand strategy and discusses various possible strategies for media organizations. The framework of the paper is built on theoretical analyses, which is mainly supported by the discussions of the current situation of media brand management in China and the strategic options for Chinese media organizations.The first chapter deals with the individualities of media brands, which is the starting point for the study of media brand strategy. The author argues that aside from the trade characteristics, both the public and the corporate media brands have their own distinct features. The public media brands lay much emphasis on social and other non-profit values by focusing on the planning, coordination and integration of brand elements. On the other hand, the distinctness of corporate media brands is demonstrated by both the brand dualism and the beneficiary complicatedness. It is thus a difficult and crucial issue to reconcile the intermingled relationships.Chapter two analyzes the past and present of the development of media brands, both home and abroad. The brand management of the world media industry has undergone a process from unconsciousness to consciousness, from single-trade to cross-trade operations, from product and capital affiliation to independence, from peripheral influence to central significance. Meanwhile, the brands are also enhancing themselves both in quality and in quantity. Viewed currently, the global media brands are characterized by unsynchronized developments and unbalanced distributions. The other characteristic of the current situation is the domination of corporate brands. Although the development of the Chinese media brands is not as fast as that in the global scene, it has experienced the similar phases. It is now characterized by the domination of state-run public brands, while the management is complicated by the unbalanced developments of the different media types and levels.Chapter three deals with the motivations and constraints of the media brand management in China. Externally, foreign media brands and their entry motivates the media brand management; internally, it is under the influence of the development of media industry and the advancement of its industrialization, the maturation of the...