ABSTRACT
The quest for sustainable competitive differentiation has been at the forefront of contemporary corporate considerations the entire world over. While many organizations in Ghana continue to brace themselves against intensifying competitive pressures that emanate from a wide array of sources including liberalization, globalization and sheer ‘copycat’ technology and operations, what remains worrying is the conspicuous lack of departure from the usual reliance on the traditional, antiquated means of differentiation. Brand equity – the differential value over and above the functional utility of products and services in consumers’ estimations – has become a strategic imperative that has proved to provide the ultimate sustainable competitive cushioning that modern-day service organizations require for surviving and growing. This chapter employs signalling theory to highlight benefi ts involved in managing inimitable brand identities in the service sector of emerging markets that consumers would be happy to associate themselves with.
