Erik Kostelijk is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Amsterdam School of International Business of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands. He has teaching, research and professional experience in China, USA, Lithuania, France, Spain and Italy. He is the designer and author of the Value Compass, a method to assess the influence of values on branding. Karel Jan Alsem is Professor in Marketing at Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen, the Netherlands, and is Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He is also a brand consultant. He has published in several academic journals and has written multiple marketing books, including Applied Strategic Marketing (Routledge, 2019).
Karel Jan Alsem and Erik Kostelijk make an admirable attempt to clarify the subject of brand positioning. They have succeeded, without falling into the currently loved usage of simplistic language.... A must for every marketer who wants to delve deeply into the topic of brand positioning. - Max Kohnstamm, jury member of 'The Best Dutch Marketing Book of the Year'