Brand Management: Research, theory and practice

The ‘brand–consumer exchange’

In the cultural approach, the brand is analysed as a ‘cultural artifact moving
through history’ (Holt 2004, p. 215) and is as such comparable to e.g. a
Hollywood movie, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel or a music festival concert. The
brand is a storyteller, endowed with cultural meaning and an important factor in
the intricate web of cultural meanings used in the collective identity projects of
consumers. In that sense, the brand is a vessel of meaning and myth making,
successful only if it resonates with consumers’ collective identity projects of the
time. Understanding the brand–consumer exchange in the relational approach
also requires an understanding of the identity projects of consumers. It is,
however, important to note that the understanding and focus of consumers’
identity projects is different in the two approaches. In the cultural approach
consumers’ identity projects are analysed at a (macro) collective level. The rela-
tional approach is concerned with the understanding of individual identity
projects as important contributors to brand meaning.
In the macro-level focus of culture the brand is also a significant political and
financial power and is at the centre of debate when it comes to issues and
discussion surrounding globalization issues:

With the growing impact of market institutions on almost all aspects of our

lives, it does not take much imagination to see ‘brands’ and ‘branding’ as

part of an increasingly dominant market economic and commercial

ideoscape, carried by organizations such as WTO, by marketing and

management practices and by the contemporary sovereign status of the

liberal market economy. As [part of] such an ideoscape, branding is

becoming central to the structuring of commercial and economic activitites

in still larger parts of the world.

(Askegaard 2006, p. 92)

one may argue that brands are among the most significant ideoscapes in the

globalization processes.

(Askegaard 2006, p. 94)

Culture

What can culture do to brand value creation?

How does branding affect culture?

Branding

Figure 10.1Scope of the cultural approach

210 Seven brand approaches