Write a 8 pages paper on issues of global brand management. John Lewis (the renowned UK based upscale department stores) has approached the author of this paper to work with them as an external branding consultant. As an external branding consultant, the aim of the author will be assessing options and providing recommendations for the expansion of the John Lewis brand in the overseas market. There will be two prime objectives for this study will be, 1- conducting a review of existing literature regarding branding strategies over geographic boundaries to identify branding elements that can be used by John Lewis to decide its branding strategy in international markets and 2- identifying one new market where John Lewis can execute its global branding strategy. China has been selected as one new market where John Lewis can expand its business portfolio.

Zeithaml (2010, p.12) defined a brand as a “ name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and differentiate them from those of competitors.” In simple words, the sole objective of any branding strategy is to develop the distinguishable identity for the products and services being offered by businesses. By executing branding strategy, marketers can explore the variety of benefits such as 1- acting as mean differentiator among parent company products and other available competitive products, 2- highlighting the unique value proposition of the products/services being offered under the brand, 3- generating awareness regarding product/service offering of the parent company and 4- increasing customer trust (Brakus, Schmitt and Zarantonello, 2009). Carroll and Ahuvia (2006) pointed out that branding strategy is executed by marketers to create two key critical success factors such as brand experience and brand equity.&nbsp.