International brand management: building brands and going international with small financial resources: a case study of the Swedish fashion industry

Abstract: With globalization, boundaries between countries are wiped out and this ismaking it easier for companies to internationalize. Therefore today, it is no longer only big financially strong companies that go international. Thisphenomenon can be seen in the Swedish fashion industry where companies withsmall financial resources are becoming global. The brand is today moreimportant than previously and this is especially true for the global fashionindustry where marketers market the brand rather than the traditionalproducts. Extensive previous research exists on the concepts of brandidentity and internationalization. However, there is little research on theconnection between the two of them and close to none on their relationship to small financial resources. In this thesis the relationship between brand identity, internationalizationand small financial resources is studied through two cases in the fashionindustry. The empirical data was gathered through interviews with Merde! andOdd Molly, two Swedish companies. The results from this study indicate thatin a fashion company's internationalization process, brand identity is ofimportance. The findings further imply that small financial resources do nothave a negative effect on the brand identity creation process. However, thisresearch indicates that small financial resources affect the ways throughwhich a company internationalizes its brand. The study further indicate thatSwedish fashion companies have to internationalize their brand in order tosurvive. The authors of this thesis conclude that for a fashion company, thebrand identity determines the make or break of an international opportunity.