Correspondence: Sally Harridge-March, Oxford Brookes University Business School, Wheatley, Oxford, OX33 1HX, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 1865 485; Fax: +44 (0) 1865 485742; E-mail: spharridge-march@brookes.ac.uk

¹is Research Director of PRiNTELLIGENCE(tm), a market research consultancy specialising in the UK print industry, having previously completed research in the print industry as a Knowledge Transfer Partnership associate at Oxford Brookes University. Nicolas has conducted research for the British Print Industry Federation (BPIF) and major print media groups such as Associated News and WEBMART^®, and presents the research through the print industry's trade press and industry trade associations such as the BPIF and the International Confederation for Printed and Allied Industries (INTERGRAF).

²is a senior lecturer in marketing at Oxford Brookes University. She supervised the successful KTP project at WEBMART, which resulted in this article. Her research interests include direct marketing, online marketing, trust online, wine marketing and the use of social networks for marketing purposes.

Received 14 March 2008; Revised 14 March 2008; Published online 16 May 2008.

Abstract

This paper examines the way in which brand positioning elements are manifested in the business-to-business (B2B) online environment. The case of the UK print industry is presented, investigating the use of brand positioning elements through the examination of corporate web pages of 30 UK print suppliers. A framework is developed to show how brand positioning is operationalised in the online environment. The paper concludes by giving recommendations about how the framework can be used by practitioners in order to reconcile their online and offline branding activities. The framework may also be useful for academics to undertake empirical research.