Established in 2017, the Brand Research Center of Wuxi (hereinafter referred to as the Center) is a tightly-knit academic research team consisting key members of marketing department of School of Business, Jiangnan University and top experts in the field at home and abroad.Under joint construction of Wuxi Industry and Commerce Administration Bureau, the Center connects Jiangnan University with local economy based on the provincial Strategy of "Double Creations". With its rigorous academic researches focusing on meeting corporates’ demands in brand building and social services, the Wuxi-based Research Base, which offers brand consulting for enterprises, recommendations for governments' decision-making, strives to be a brand think tank that features global insight while expanding its influence in Jiangsu province and even the whole country.

Professor Teng Lefa, Head of Brand Research Center, is a tenured professor at University of Guelph in Canada, a leading talent in Wuxi and an overseas cultural expert of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China in 2013. Professor Teng is also the first expert who won major government fund with research of Canadian ice wine marketing and branding. He was a guest editor of Journal of Business Research from 2012 to 2014, and 2016 to 2018. Among the six researchers, there are two associate professors, three university associate professors and one lecturer. One researcher holds a master degree while the other five are doctors, of which one graduated from University of Liverpool, one from City University of Hong Kong, one from Fudan University and two from Shanghai Jiaotong University. Among the three people who have obtained their doctorates in China, two have studied in Canada and the United Kingdom as visiting scholars for more than one year respectively, and one of them is a doctor jointly cultivated by China and US. With a reasonable age structure and academic background, the members of the research team collaborate with each other closely.

Against the backdrop of implementing a national brand plan in China, the Center, with support from School of Business, Jiangnan University, actively carries out researches on corporate brand, industrial cluster brand and city brand, focusing on formulating brand strategy, designing and brand marketing and evaluation and interpretation of brand performance and brand equity improvement. In addition, considering the trend of precise marketing and new media marketing in the digital era, it focuses on consumer behavior research using integrated Internet data based on consumer behavior theory and decision-making model. With experiments, web crawler software and panel data to analyze consumer type, purchase frequency, affordable price, promotion model, shopping model, product category, after-sales feedback and communication, the Center aims to provide effective brand and marketing strategies and theoretical supports for corporates.

In recent years, the research team has published papersin top international and leading magazines, such as Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of International Marketing, Journal of International Management, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Journal of Services Marketing, Psychology & Marketing,etc.The Research Base has obtained one project from the National Natural Science Fund, one of the National Social Sciences Fund, one entering the Double Creation Talent Program of Jiangsu Province, one major social sciences project in Jiangsu province, 2 projects of MOE’s humanities and social sciences project and several vertical projects from the municipality and municipal departments. Total research fee reached RMB 3.65 million.

University Support: School of Business

Director: Teng Lefa

Major research direction 1: Researches on Corporate Brand, Industrial Cluster Brand and City Brand

Major research direction 2: Marketing Strategy Research in New Media Era

Major research direction 3: Research of Consumer Behavior in Big Data