Sustainability in the context of strategic brand management

Sustainability is garnering ever-greater public attention and debate. The subject ranks high on the legislative agendas of most governments, media coverage, companies and individuals. Nowadays, societies became more aware of their impact on the environment, therefore, their collective movement towards a sustainable future is leading to huge changes in the corporate landscape. Corporate sustainability is essential to longterm corporate success and for ensuring that markets deliver value across society. Besides the concept of sustainability, the area of brand management has become the center of attention in today's business. Companies invest generously in the development of their brands notorities and images. Considering the increasing importance of both concepts, the question of combining them remain essential. In the research field, Sustainability is discussed either in an operational context (production) or in the brand context. The combination of the the two contexts is absent. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop the implementation of Sustainability in a Strategic Brand Management while considering the operational scene. The aim of this study is to describe how corporates implement sustainability in their strategies and specifically in the brand management process. A framework was designed and an examination of several paths towards Sustainable Strategic Brand Management and an exploration of the contents of sustainability in the various components of the strategic brand management process was done. Through the analysis of ampirical data and the findings of the elaborated questionnaire, the implementation process of sustainability in the strategic brand management of three companies from three different sectors (Electrolux, DHL and TCS) was evaluated. As a result, the relevancy of the framework was confirmed. Although it is a basis that companies from different sectors can use to integrate sustainability in their strategic branding management, the firms can follow the same steps but the way to integrate sustainability varies and can't be a one unique model. Keywords: Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Strategic Brand Management, Corporate Sustainability, Sustainability in strategic management