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The Internet technology has been recognised as a key business resource and is increasingly being used and integrated into firm’s marketing activities. This study explored the relationship between market orientation and marketing competency and investigated the role of the Internet marketing integration in the market orientation‐marketing competency linkage. From an analysis of a survey data from 47 manufacturing firms involved in exporting and 33 travel agencies, four dimensions – Providing Customer Value, Competitor Orientation, Management Commitment and Customer Retention were extracted from factor analysis result of market orientation. However, this study found that Competitor Orientation and Management Commitment influenced marketing competency of the firm. Compared to the previous study, the integration of the Internet marketing did not seem to moderate the influence of market orientation on marketing competency. In addition, the Internet‐oriented profiles of the Malaysian exporters and travel agencies were constructed using characteristics in terms of its size, age in operations, the importance of different regional market to the firm, level of market orientation, and market area responded, which can be used for future research.

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of brand's country‐of‐origin image on the formation of brand equity.

To accomplish this, the brand equity of household electrical appliances, particularly televisions, refrigerators and air‐conditioners, in the Malaysian market is examined. A conceptual framework in which brand's country‐of‐origin image is postulated to influence the dimensions of brand equity, which is made up of brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality, and brand associations. These dimensions, in turn, influence brand equity. Data were collected from consumers of household electrical appliances using probability sampling.

Factor analysis conducted on brand equity dimensions, produced three factors namely, brand distinctiveness, brand loyalty, and brand awareness/associations. The regression analysis results show that brand's country‐of‐origin image positively and significantly influences dimensions of brand equity. The results also show that brand's country‐of‐origin image influences brand equity, either directly or indirectly, through the mediating effects of brand distinctiveness, brand loyalty and brand awareness/associations.

The study investigates brand equity of durable goods of three product categories namely television, refrigerator and air‐conditioner. It only considers brand's country‐of‐origin image as one of the sources of brand equity. The conceptual framework does not take into consideration factors that moderate the influence of antecedent of brand equity on brand equity.

Producers of household electrical appliances should put greater emphasis in creating brand loyalty for their products. The good image of brand's original country should be highlighted in order to enhance the overall image of the brand. Favorable country image can also be capitalized in brand‐naming strategy.

This is paper important in identifying the sources of brand equity.

It is evident that most consumers are polygamous and are loyal to several brands within a particular product or service category. This circumstance is coined as “multi-brand loyalty” (MBL). The present research tries to shade light on consumers' motivation to become a multi-brand loyal by answering the research question: “why consumers become multi-brand loyal within a particular service category?” The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Four focus group discussions and 13 in-depth interviews were carried out to gain deeper insights regarding the drivers of MBL.

The findings of this study suggest that “financial benefits”, “need for privacy”, “competitor's attractive promotional campaign”, “public self-consciousness” and “availability of cheap handset and SIM card” are the most frequently cited reasons that can make mobile phone service users multi-brand loyal. In addition, the study reveals heterogeneity among consumers, i.e. along with “multi-brand loyals”, “sole-brand loyals”, “switchers” and “cross-buyers” also exist in the Malaysian mobile phone service market.

These insights put forth the importance for managers of mobile phone service industry to be more cautious in formulating their retention strategies. Moreover, they will be aware of the complicated loyalty pattern of their consumers which will eventually guide them to consider different strategic moves for each different loyalty segments.

Although the existence of MBL has been proven empirically, little attention is given to understand consumers' motive to become a multi-brand loyal, particularly in the context of services. Therefore, taking this opportunity into account, the present study fills this gap by providing an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon.

Developing and communicating a positioning strategy covering issues on market positioning, product lifecycle, product differentiation strategies and developing the marketing mix strategies in order to compete with competitors.

Advanced undergraduate and MBA student, taking courses of marketing management, strategic marketing, and brand management.

GranuLab is a private limited company based in Shah Alam, about 30 km from Malaysia's capital city of Kuala Lumpur; it was a producer of synthetic bone graft substitute GranuMaS. GranuMaS was launched in the Malaysian market in late 2010. At that time, the company aimed to capture 50-70 percent of the Malaysian bone graft substitute market by the end of 2015. However, by the end of 2012, GranuLab was experiencing low sales and the company had suffered a two-year loss due to manufacturing at low capacity. GranuLab also faced stiff competition from multinational competitors that had penetrated the Malaysian market earlier with competitive product offerings. The pressure to increase the sale ofGranuMaS was mounting for Mr Romli Ishak, the Managing Director of GranuLab, Mr Fadil Dalal, the new General Manager of Marketing, and GranuLab's management team. This is especially so since the company's contract to supply GranuMaS to government hospitals under the Ministry of Health (MOH) program would end soon. These situations forced the company to make a quick decision. In December 2012, Mr Romli and his team pondered upon the best strategy that the company should pursue to achieve its objective of being a dominant player in the Malaysian bone graft substitute industry. This teaching case is designed to stimulate case analysts' thinking on positioning a medical device product in a market which was already conquered by established multinational companies.

Understanding of the concept of product positioning, product lifecycle, marketing mix strategies, and social exchange theory, enables case analysts to extend the concepts to analyzing many other products and services in organizational settings.

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