RESEARCH OF THE DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF BUSINESS SERVICE BRANDS IN CROATIAN COMPANIES

This paper analyses the development and management of business service brands. After the theoretical part, the results of the primary research are presented. The aim of the research is to find out how enterprises in Croatia develop and manage their business service brands and how they communicate and evaluate them. An ad hoc cross-sectional research was conducted on a convenient sample of enterprises providing different business services. The results show that the analysed enterprises treat their service brands as a valuable intangible asset, that they apply a holistic approach in brand building, and mostly use the corporate brand strategy. The inseparability of the service from employees results in the fact that Croatian enterprises are more focused on internal than on external communication. Since the area of development and management of business services brands is less investigated in literature than consumer services brands, the paper contributes to the body of knowledge of business services brands in. general. Moreover, the conclusions grounded in research results represent a valuable input for enterprises aiming to actively manage their business service brand.