Thesis (M. B.A.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2002

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Business Administration, School of Management

With globalisation and the nsmg influence of retailers as middlemen between manufacturers' brands and customers, concern is growing that managing brand equity is the way to recreate a real bond with consumers. As a response, retailers in Europe are now trying to adopt long-term development projects with clearly defined and exportable selling concepts, raising a new issue: can retailers also adopt branding strategies? In an international environment where successful retailers are world-players, solving this issue is the key to global success. In Asia, the notion of retail trade is still recent, and dominated by foreign groups, such as Big C, Tesco and Carrefour in Thailand. Is the market ready for branding strategies? This thesis envisages the notion of brand equity from three original perspectives: first, brand equity management is analysed from a retail and not just a manufacturer's perspective. Reciprocally, we will try to introduce branding perspectives to retail industry in a environment where the industry is still recent and still often dominated by short-terms financial rewards. In order to achieve this, we will examine the case study of Carrefour in Thailand in order to provide recommendations for the firm to build and manage brand equity successfully.