Understanding the internationalisation process of Havaianas: the important role of brand

• Autor(a) principal: Silva,Susana Costa e
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Outros Autores: Sousa,Maria João, Freyre Filho,Fernando
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1646-24082010000100012
• topic: Internationalisation; Brand, Entry modes; Footwear industry; Brazil

In today’s economy, intangible assets account for a large amount of the value created by firms. A brand is one of those intangible assets crucial to the attraction of customers and for the creation of emotional bonds with them. Nevertheless, many organisations keep focusing on products and services with often limited functional and technical characteristics, which do not really add value. This paper intends to show how it is possible to reverse this kind of situation: adding value through the creation of a strong brand, and using it to leverage a firm’s value, whether national or internationally. With a case study carried out with the sandals business São Paulo Alpargatas, we intend to understand the factors that made its Havaianas brand one of the biggest Brazilian icons abroad. The communication strategy used, the new position achieved with the brand, and the implementation of a long-lasting strategy were some issues we studied, along with Havaianas’ internationalisation process. As a result, we were able to find that the brand’s repositioning was crucial to the successful internationalisation process of the firm.