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This article examines the American Export Trading Company (AETC) as authorised under the Export Trading Company Act of 1982. It reviews the three critical elements necessary for AETCs to become a significant force in world markets — capital, product/production skills, and international marketing skills. Specifically, this article investigates an important potential source of international marketing skills, the Export Management Company, to determine their interest in participating in an AETC.

Many firms, wine producers among them, have successfully communicated the quality of their products to the market by emphasizing the geographic origin, or location of production of critical ingredient(s) found in the product. The purpose of this article is to: introduce the concept of a “place‐based” marketing strategy, i.e. a marketing strategy that identifies a consumer product with a specific geographic area; explain why it is essential to the wine business; and, why it may be superior to other types of marketing strategies for certain types of agricultural products. Additionally, traditional valuation techniques applied to agricultural land typically assume that agricultural goods are undifferentiable commodities. With the growing trend toward the production of “place‐based” agricultural products, the traditional valuation methods omit an important variable – the potential for the geographical source to help develop a product‘s brand equity. This paper also discusses land valuation techniques and applies the concept of products of place to the trend among Californian wine growers to produce wines with vineyard designations.

A bank's attitude towards export‐stimulating legislation is influenced by various stages of bank internationalisation and it can be concluded that internationalisation factors which have helped researchers explain export behaviour and attitudes among manufacturing firms have worked equally well for the banking industry. A survey of 600 US banks (drawing a response rate of 42 per cent) into bankers' attitudes to the Export Trading Company Act (ETCA) of 1982, also has implications for government policy in that size of bank is useful for segmentation and thus export promotion purposes: large banks are favourable towards ETCA, while small banks are largely unaware of the legislation.

A dynamic econometric model of wine auctions is estimated to measure the informational signalling impact of a wine critic on the return to the investment in fine wines. United States data suggests that critic Robert Parker is an influencer on the auction price of Bordeaux wines. Furthermore it appears that American buyers look toward the much larger European market in order to establish values. In doing so they may be able to mitigate the effects of asymmetric information.

Despite nearly universal agreement that ultra‐premium California wines have reached a quality level which is on a par with the world's best, these wines have not captured the hearts and minds of many traditional buyers of the best wines in the international marketplace. These California wines face several competitive disadvantages — the lack of a sustained track record over a long period of time; comparatively small production levels; the lack of an established pecking order; and, a less‐than‐optimal distribution system, among other factors. As a result, brand equity of California ultra‐premium wines has suffered. This paper modifies and extends the paradigms of both Aaker and Keller by specifying a brand equity model that captures the dimensions of brand equity for ultra‐premium California wine producers. Evaluating current marketing practice against the derived model, the authors suggest marketing strategies and tactics that may permit ultra‐premium California wines to overcome many of their competitive disadvantages with the objective of enhancing brand equity.

This paper investigates the brand personality dimensions associated with professional sports teams and the personality dimensions of the cities they call home. Two studies evaluate ten National Football League teams and their respective homes, with data collected from 434 respondents from five disparate locations throughout the United States. Findings suggest that in general people ascribe similar personality traits to both the team and their city, with correlations stronger among avid NFL fans. It appears that city 'insiders' (i.e. residents) tend to hold more positive views than city 'outsiders'.

Looks at the globalization of communications in New Zealand, in the compelling and e‐volutionary global marketplace. Explores the impact of environmental issues on marketing communications. Managers must reach out to and communicate with customers, consumers, and publics ‐‐ who impact markedly on overall market share and profit performance. The corporation plays a significant role in brand marketing and strategic business unit management, especially marketing communications. Whatever a globalized communications strategy means, it potentially spells integration within and between corporations, individuals, and brands. Whatever integrated global communications may mean, there would certainly be an expectation that communications would focus on customer needs and building relationships. What was found in New Zealand was a focus on globalized and integrated communications in terms of corporate imposition.

Smuggling represents a significant proportion of world trade. However, its nature and rationale are not sufficiently understood in comparison with those of counterfeiting, parallel importing and contraband trade. The willing or unwilling involvement of MNCs in smuggling is also poorly perceived. These issues are reviewed here as well as actions aimed at reducing smuggling's growth.

The focus of this special issue of the International Journal of Commerce and Management is the globalization of the retailing industry. This is a topic which has received relatively little attention by most retailers and researchers until recently (Akehurst & Alexander, 1996). Instead, based on the belief that the heterogeneity of consumers across regions and nations was too great a hurdle to overcome, retailing has been traditionally viewed as primarily local or national in scope. Events in the retailing industry over the past several decades, however, has proven this belief to be incorrect. In fact, retailers have been among the forefront of the globalization process presently occurring in the business environment.

Calculating brand equity, the price differential that a branded product is able to charge compared to an unbranded equivalent, often suffers from a lack of a means to truly determine equivalence. Luxury wines have the benefit of an established measure of equivalency – the Parker score. Robert Parker’s influence as a tastemaker provides a point of comparison across brands. This study looks at brand equity of Bordeaux classified growth wines considering château brands, growths and vintages to illustrate the intangible value for the consumer.

Using price and wine-specific data from Wine-Searcher.com, an online database and search engine, an initial sample of 393 wines with Parker scores ranging from 72 to 100 is presented. A subset of perfect wines, with 100-point Parker scores, is also reviewed focusing on the great vintage of 2009.

The results indicate that brand equity in the luxury wine market exists. Not only is this true for the brand of a specific château, but there is also equity associated with the vintage and the growth.

This offers practical implications for brand managers in positioning their wines.

An analysis of luxury wines supports the financial perspective on brand equity, especially when there is a viable means of determining equivalence, such as the Parker score.