Thematic Analysis Method Application in Recognizing Brand Agility

Undoubtedly, the main function of a brand is to create and maintain an attractive and sustainable differentiation according to status quo and possibilities. Nowadays, with the increasing number of brands and the intensification of competition between them, those brands that do not have the knowledge of quick and right adaption to influential environmental changes, will soon be gotten out of consumers' preference and choices lists. This paper is a qualitative research on the meaning of agility in brand. In the first phase, after a comprehensive literature review on branding and all types of agility, with the aim of collecting qualitative data, a framework developed in order to formulate semi-structured interview questions with experts. Nine Iranian high-level academics and executives, who were expert in marketing and branding, were selected through purposive sampling (Snowball sampling). In the second phase, Transcribed interviews were coded with Nvivo and by the Clarke and Brown's six-step inductive semantic analysis method. There are no logically pre-defined themes in this method, and patterns are revealed during analysis via placing similar open codes or sub-themes in a bigger theme. In this research out of a total of 239 open codes and 24 sub-themes, three main themes were identified, named as the triggers, requirements and attributes of brand adaption, and the new concept of brand agility formed. According to the findings of the research, brand agility is the intelligent, continuous, identity driven and fast performance-communication adaptation of brand against meaningful and significant drivers. This can be reached through five basic capabilities named as relative flexibility, efficient responsiveness, intelligent sensing, power of prediction and brand learning.