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The paper aims to apply the co‐creation paradigm to nation branding in order to analyze how the identity and image of a nation brand are inter‐twined in terms of levels and dimensions, respectively.

This explorative study was conducted among 178 Finnish university students, who were asked to build a program for branding Finland. The students worked in small groups of two or three. In all, 75 reports were handed in, of which those (67) targeted at tourists were taken for analysis. The analysis was conducted in accordance with a model modified from Gnoth.

Its image is a critical stimulus in motivating tourists to visit a destination. A nation brand is at the crossroads of three levels of identity and a fragmented set of images. The idea is to exploit the right fragments in line with the destination and the target groups.

The empirical analysis was based on data gathered from MBA students. The intention is to extend the sampling to include branding experts, company representatives and delegates of the Finnish Nation Brand Committee in order to build up a more specific picture of a nation's brand identity and image. The examination is restricted to one, rather homogeneous country, Finland. It would be of interest to conduct comparable analyses in other, more heterogeneous countries. Another avenue for future research would be to test the market, in other words to question potential visitors about their perceptions, and thereby to determine whether the nation's brand identity and image coincide.

This paper contributes to the theoretical discussion on the role of branding in the marketing of places, herein called nations. For practitioners, it highlights the importance of managing the brand “bottom up”, in other words starting from the people.

Brand heritage is acknowledged as one of the future priorities in branding research. Adopting it in an international context is challenging. In order to maximise its use it is necessary to know how strong it and the target country's cultural heritage are. Accordingly, the aim of the study is to construct a pioneering operationalisation of both brand and cultural heritage.

The study begins with a discussion on the focal concepts. Definitions are proposed and suggestions for operationalisation put forward. Thereafter, the concepts are applied in an analysis of brand heritage in different countries.

It is suggested that brand heritage is a mixture of the history as well as the consistency and continuity of core values, product brands, and visual symbols. A country's cultural heritage could be conceived of as homogeneity and endurance.

The preliminary operationalisation of the concept needs to be further tested. Nevertheless, the clarification and suggestions offered here should open up opportunities for further research.

The exploitation of brand heritage in international markets is likely to be further accentuated. The operationalisations generated are easy for practitioners to apply, enabling companies to better evaluate what brand heritage means for them and to effectively plan its use in an international setting.

To the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to suggest operationalisations of brand heritage and cultural heritage.

At the beginning of 2010, new higher education legislation was enacted in Finland. As a result, 17 state universities were consolidated into three newly formed and autonomous universities. This chapter describes the merger process of the libraries in these new universities, namely Aalto University, University of Eastern Finland, and the University of Turku. Using a case study approach, the chapter describes different aspects of the merger process, particularly how to manage cultural change in formerly independent libraries into a single new organization, as well as how to define the new structures and alter directives for management, leaving the past behind. Although this is based on Finnish experiences, it is helpful for other libraries considering or engaged in similar mergers by giving examples and tools for the actions needed for new structures to succeed. Also described are the challenges that the three libraries met in introducing innovations, the necessity for broad communication, and marketing of the new structures within their respective universities. Also included is a brief background description of the overall impact of the new legislation on universities as a whole. Higher education in Finland encompasses polytechnic institutes and universities. This chapter addresses library mergers only in universities.

The study focused on dimensions of consumer‐based brand equity, and especially the recall level of brand awareness. The purpose was to identify any statistically significant differences in brand recall in various product categories and different national contexts.

This observation study explored relations between consumers' awareness of brands, attitudes related to brand equity, and changes in cultural context. Questionnaire data was collected from university students in four countries: the USA, Finland, France and Sweden. The respondents were asked about the brands of beverages, computers and cell‐phones that first came into their minds, and their attitudes in relation to brand equity.

It seems that the four dimensions of brand equity co‐vary depending on the cultural context. The results also revealed a relationship between TOMA and the national context that was generalizable in the three product categories.

Culture as a contextual factor of consumer brand equity should be studied further. The findings should be replicated with non‐student samples in other product categories and cultural contexts. SEM could be used to establish the causality and direction of the relationships between the various dimensions of culture and brand equity.

The findings on the effect of the cultural context on brand equity are of practical relevance to marketing managers: they should tailor their branding strategies accordingly.

The results gave valid and reliable evidence of a relationship between the TOMA dimension of brand equity and the national cultural context.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the country image of Finland among potential travellers and potential consumers of Finnish products. Three research questions are addressed, each of which contributes to the overall aim: What is the level of awareness about Finland among the respondents? How is the awareness constructed in terms of dimensions? Where does the image stem from (the source)?

A survey was conducted among US, French and Swiss university students. Given the high number of respondents who had not visited Finland, the analysis focused on non‐visitors. Six hypotheses were formulated based on existing theory.

Awareness is a key indicator of people's knowledge about the existence of a country. Branding may be an elementary tool in enhancing awareness as well as altering or reinforcing stereotypical views. The results of this study bring out the cross‐cultural aspects.

Including the respondents’ sources of information enhances the results of previous studies on country image. The findings contribute to the theoretical discussion on the source of the image and the factors that affect it.

Knowledge of the information sources and their role in image building will help destination marketers to influence potential travellers, including non‐visitors, and thereby increase the likelihood of a first or repeat visit.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to focus on awareness of a country among non‐visitors.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of a place’s name as the carrier of identity and heritage from the residents’ perspective. The authors assess the extent to which names of municipalities carry the place’s heritage, and how this can further be transferred to the place brand. The context is a situation in which a municipality changes its name, or is at the risk of doing so, as a result of municipal consolidation.

The authors conducted a large survey in the south-western Finland in spring 2013. The survey questionnaire was posted to 5,020 randomly selected residents, and the final sample comprised 1,380 recipients. The authors offer a framework for operationalising place heritage, comprising four components: history, place essence, symbols and residential permanence.

Most respondents attached importance to the name of their home town. The majority also felt that a name change would mean losing part of the place’s history. A strong place heritage proved to correlate positively with the importance of the municipality name.

The developed framework for place heritage can serve as a tool for place branding studies and practical place branding. A stable name has an essential role in branding places. The authorities should understand the crucial relationship between place name, heritage and identity, and their importance to the residents.

To the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to report empirical research on the relation between place names and place branding from the heritage perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify why, when and how e-mail marketing can be used to empower consumers and to give ideas for future scholarly research.

Systematic literature review studies 41 e-mail marketing and 54 consumer empowerment articles published in variety of academic journals between 1998 and 2014.

E-mail allows an active, interactive and personalized communication fulfilling the preferences of an empowered consumer. E-mail marketing can be used to empower consumers by sending e-mails based on permission, by making consumers active participants in the communication process and by making e-mails relevant for the recipients. However, current e-mail marketing strategies need to be updated to get the maximum benefit out of the channel.

The limitation of the study is the broad domain of research, which hampered the in-depth analysis. However, the study was able to synthesize the scattered literature and create an overall picture of the topic as planned.

The paper encourages managers to use empowering e-mail marketing strategies and presents several suggestions for future e-mail marketing research.

The paper uses a new perspective, consumer empowerment as a lens for understanding e-mail marketing. Because e-mail marketing is currently very popular among marketers but is threatened by its negative image among consumers, it is important to understand how e-mail marketing can be developed so that it can also survive in the future.