Brand Management: Research, theory and practice

The culturally aware brand manager

The insights from the cultural approach can also be used in other ways. Cultural
agendas aimed at your brand can be used as inspiration or warning signs of the
branding strategy losing its appeal. Therefore, Thompson et al. (2006) introduce the
term ‘Doppelgänger brand image’ as a theoretical term to describe the negative
autonomous brand images circulating in our culture. Where Holt views the tension
between brand icons and the global brand culture in the bigger picture (in the research
behind the citizen-artist brand prospect), Thompson et al. view the tensions in a more
concrete light, presenting the ‘doppelgänger brand construct’. The ‘doppelgänger
brand’ is a brand that has been subjected to ‘culture jamming’ and can provide hints
about the need for a change of brand strategy. Therefore, any brand manager should
be very conscious of anti-brand activities and take them as warning signs of a brand
strategy losing its appeal. A doppelgänger image should be seen as an early indication
regarding flaws and imperfections in a brand’s image and strategy;

the analysis of a dobbelgänger image can (1) call attention to cultural contra-

dictions that potentially undermine the perceived authenticity of a firm’s

emotional-branding strategy, (2) provide early signs that an emotional-

branding story is beginning to lose its value as an authenticating narrative for

fashion, the brand manager is supposed to go back in time in order to

understand the brand heritage and the brand’s possibilities versus

constraints for performing certain kinds of myths

• A cultural historian’s understanding of ideology. National shifts in
  ideology are closely intertwined with cultural, political and economic
  changes. The brand manager who is able to understand the ideological
  shifts and the cultural changes they cause is skilled at targeting the most
  relevant tensions in society


• A sociologist’s charting of the topography of social contradictions.
  Social contradictions are inevitably linked with cultural, economic and
  political changes. Developing an empathetic understanding of social
  contradictions enables the brand manager to perform powerful myths


• The willingness and ability to take on a literary expedition into popular
  culture. Managing an iconic brand is all about developing a deep
  cultural understanding – and being able to deliver on it as a cultural
  activist. Having one’s ear to the ground and understanding the cultural
  web is therefore a prerequisite


• The sensitivity and empathetic antennae of a writer. Just like a writer is
  often able to observe life more than participate and still be the one who
  pinpoints the exact feelings of other people, the brand manager needs to
  have a sixth sense of what goes on beneath the surface of people’s lives
  SourceHolt (2004)

The cultural approach 231