EFFECTIVENESS OF BRANDING OF INTERCOMPANY COOPERATION IN THE CONTEXT OF ECONOMY DIGITALISATION

Abstract

The research is devoted to the development of scientific and practical recommendations for the realisation of branding of interfirm cooperation in the conditions of digitalisation of the economy. In order to assess the effectiveness of branding in interfirm cooperation, a scientific and methodological approach is proposed, according to which the process of substantiation of the decision of the management concerning the choice of a variant of branding for each enterprise-participant and interfirm interaction, in general, takes place on the basis of a combination of periodic marketing research of brand recognition and construction of an economic and mathematical model of branding. The approach is based on the following statements: several enterprises that can interact are involved in production and trading activities; coherence of inter-firm interaction can have different length and number of participants, cover different functions (supply (S), production (P), logistics (L), trade (T)); at least one participant in inter-company interaction is involved in the branding process; brand effectiveness is assessed on the basis of brand awareness based on periodic market research. The research focuses on the branding processes that arise from the inter-firm interaction of participants in production and trade chains. The subject of the research is the theoretical, methodological, organisational and applied aspects of the implementation of branding in inter-firm interaction in the context of the digitalisation of the economy. The research methodology includes various theoretical and practical principles and positions from economic theory, macroeconomics, microeconomics, systems theory, leading studies in the fields of management theory, marketing and management of marketing activities, and branding. The following methods were used throughout the research: economic generalisation, abstraction, systematisation, analysis and synthesis – to establish theoretical and methodological foundations and to clarify the concepts of "brand", "branding" and "production-trade chain"; classification – to define the content of the branding; economic-statistical and historical analysis, abstract-logical methods – to identify and analyse the impact of existing communication and information technologies on the development of Ukrainian branding; marketing research methods – desk analysis, expert evaluation and online surveys to develop an evaluation methodology for the effectiveness of inter-firm branding in production and trade chains; scientific abstraction – to establish a comprehensive approach to building the mechanism of inter-firm branding in production and trade chains; graphical and tabular methods – for the visual presentation of theoretical and analytical research results; methods of integral calculus and economic analysis – to formulate scientific and practical approaches to making strategic decisions about inter-firm branding in the context of the digitalisation of the economy. The aim of the research is to deepen theoretical and methodological positions and to provide practical recommendations for the implementation of branding in inter-firm interaction within production and trade chains. Conclusions of the study: the comprehensive approach to building the mechanism of interfirm branding combines conceptual approaches to branding and the concept of forming interfirm interaction for the implementation of branding in one of its variants; the application of a comprehensive approach to building the mechanism of inter-firm branding makes it possible to consider the interrelationship and mutual influence of production and trade activities and to achieve a synergistic effect from the use of branding throughout the entire production and trade chain; the implementation of the mechanism of inter-firm branding is reflected in a scientific-practical approach to making strategic decisions on branding in production and trade chains. This approach emphasises the importance of branding activities at each stage of product creation and promotion, based on branding algorithmisation, and provides specific recommendations for all participants in the chain, resulting in increased effectiveness of their marketing activities.