892

Book Review

Schiller and visual artists like Hans Haacke or Andrea Fraser)? Is there a
threat that creativity will be institutionalised as it serves the interests of
marketers? Several minor points are noted: First, it may have been instructive
if consumption studies and other texts with similar titles, both are noted in
passing, had been developed more fully by Fillis and Rentschler. Second,
there are various references to the art world (including the book jacket); this
should be rewritten as the arts (to take into account references by the
authors to the visual and performing arts). Third, before the summation,
three-quarters of a page (pp. 126-7) is devoted to the Stuckists, an initiative
by British artists Billy Childish and Charles Thomson. Fillis and Rentschler
would appear to admire the so-called remodernist position of the Stuckists,
who seek to advance new figurative painting. Yet there is a reactionary
aspect to the Stuckists jibes at so-called conceptual art of their peers (such as
Damien Hirst, Tracy Emin, Sarah Lucas, and Chris Ofili).
Creative Marketing should be of direct and immediate interest to those
applying for a share of the 250,000 available to support workshops and
networks on the Nature of Creativity co-funded by the Arts & Humanities
Research Council, Arts Council of England, Economic and Social Research
Council (ESRC), and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). Areas of
interest include the nature of creativity; the differences between creativity
and innovation and the relationship between the two; different models of the
creative process; the conditions which stifle or stimulate creativity; the
circumstances that lead from creativity to innovation; the role of risk in
creativity and innovation; the value of creativity to business, the economy
and society; and changes in how society understands creativity and values
innovation in a knowledge economy.

Stuart Roper

Brand Culture
by Jonathan E. Schroeder & Miriam
Salzer-Mrling (Editors), Routledge,
(2006) 0 41535 599 0, 218 pages, 22.99 (s)

Introduction
The subject of branding has become increasingly important to both
practitioners and academics. Supporting this increased exposure has been a
large raft of books on the subject. In particular there have been a large
number of how to do it type texts which I would label airport books. Such
texts are formulaic in approach and set us a template that if followed will

Book Review

893

result in success for our brand. The usefulness of such titles must be doubtful
for practitioners, let alone academics studying branding.
An antidote to the plethora of how to volumes, however, has arrived in
the shape of Brand Culture, edited by Jonathan E. Schroeder and Miriam
Salzer-Mrling. This book makes great efforts to move away from the dyadic
producer:consumer micro-level approach to branding that gives the reader
strategic advice on how to manage their brands to look much deeper at the
culture which has created the post-modern brand landscape where the
impact, influence and power of brands is inescapable. The book focuses on
the gap between managerial intent and market response. The consumer is
not therefore treated as a malleable, passive individual who can be bent to
the will of the brand, but as much a creator of the brand as the company.
The book draws from different academic disciplines including marketing,
design, organisational theory and consumer behaviour to produce theoretical
work to help us understand the brand landscape in which we live. The text is
rightly critical of the top down approach to branding that is produced not
just in airport style books, but in classic texts in branding by Aaker and
Keller, for example.
The book is divided into three sections corporate perspectives on brand
culture, clarifying brand concepts and consuming brand culture. It features
contributions by some leading names in the field, e.g. John Balmer, Stephen
Brown, Richard Elliot, Jean-Noel Kapferer, Mary Jo Hatch and Majken
Schultz amongst others. Chapters are summarised with key points, and
questions for discussion are also included by each respective author.
Specific Themes
The section on the corporate perspectives on brand culture is started by Mary
Jo Hatch and Majken Schultz who analyze one of the worlds most famous
childrens brands LEGO. Their writing helps to emphasise the balance that
is needed between marketing, strategy and organisational theory when
considering brands. They identify the paradoxes of the corporate brand
rather than pretending that it is an easy concept to manage. Their case study
reinforces the importance of involving employees in the creation of and
enactment of the brand and its promises.
John Balmer discusses corporate brand cultures and communities. He
takes on the comparison between corporate identities and corporate brands
and introduces the idea of corporate faith communities. Balmer deals with
the complexity of brand architecture, culture and custodianship that form
part of the intricacy of the corporate brand and the myriad of relationships
that exist within the corporate brand. Balmer states that the real power of the

894

Book Review

brand comes from the emotional ownership which resides in the corporate
brand community.
Stephen Browns inimitable style produces an entertaining and thoughtprovoking piece discussing ambi-brand culture using the case study of
RyanAir the brand we love to hate. Ambi brand culture refers to the
ambiguities that are present within post-modern branding. Brown looks at
ironic brands and Machiavellian straight to the point brands to emphasize
the complexities of brand culture. The choice of RyanAir to stress this
ambiguity is inspired. The aggressive, unapologetic chief executive Michael
OLeary shoots down ideas of relationship marketing and customer service
because he doesnt care if customers are unhappy, as he sees branding and
marketing as a waste of time. He is, however, a master at getting free
publicity for his organisation. RyanAir likes to position itself as the
downtrodden, small start-up business, whereas it is the most profitable
airline in the world. Brown sums up the complexity of post-modern brand
culture by stating that brands that rebuff brandingare ironically, the best
brands in the world.
The diversity of this book is demonstrated by the next chapter by another
well-respected brand guru Jean Noel-Kapferer who writes about the two
business cultures of luxury brands. The difficulty of defining luxury is
tackled with the differing angles of economic, semiotic, sociological and
psychological definitions being addressed. Different interpretations of luxury
globally are investigated the West associating luxury with rarity, the East
with art and beauty. The paradox is that brand managers in the West are
charged with growing their brands and if they succeed they will no longer
be rare and, therefore, luxurious. Kapferer reports how the introduction of
virtual rarity is created to offset this problem.
Henrik Uggla concludes the first section of the book. He deals with the
brand leverage theory which investigates brand extensions and alliance
research. He looks to build a model that focuses on the transfer of meaning
between brands, for example, between leader brands and partner brands.
This is important due to the increasingly complex brand architecture caused
by the business culture of merger and acquisition in which we live. A
criticism here is that this chapter is a little too short to deal with such a
complex issue. The interchangeability between leader and partner is touched
on, but it is necessary to provide more detail, i.e. at what stage does the
partner brand, for example Goretex, supersede its leader brands and become
the leader itself?
The second part of the book is entitled Clarifying Brand Concepts. Sren
Askegaard presents the idea of brands as a global ideoscope. Askegaard
argues that brands and branding have profound impact on the marketplace
and the consumer within it. He borrows the term ideoscope from work

Book Review

895

outlining central ideas coming from the Enlightenment, e.g. democracy,

welfare, freedom, etc. Such is the impact of market-based institutions on our
entire lives that brands have become a fundamental method of structure in
the prevailing status of the market-based system which dominates the world.
Again, the confusion of present day culture is that this has taken place in a
society that often claims to be anti-branding. An interpretist stance is taken in
considering the social construction of brand meaning, symbolic use of brands
and brands relationship to personal self-interest. Ultimately Askegaard
claims the meaning of things, places and people is created by peoples
linkage to brands. The globalisation of consumer culture provides the
platform for this growth and brands have become a central metaphor for
both corporate and consumer identity formation. Brands have led the way to
a new form of consumption mall-based, chain stores and internet shopping
showing the homogenised way forward. The semi-spirituality and even
quasi-religious overtone of successful brands is discussed. This theory is
examined using both global and local brands as examples. Such is the
resonance and impact of brands to modern culture that Askegaard presents
the idea of a new type of person homo mercans (market man) dominating the
life we now live.
Brands form part of the new central stories that help to explain
postmodern life. Postmodern philosophy continues to be discussed in
relation to brands in the next paper by Benot Heilbrunn looking at Brave
New Brands: Cultural branding between Utopia and A-topia. Again, the
move away from traditional sources of power, i.e. religion, politics to
economic sources such as brands is discussed. The use of symbolic spheres
that were once the preserve of religion is debated, e.g. Carrefour organising
both weddings and funerals and brands taking over managerial
responsibilities, for example in the running of towns and cities. There has
been a move, therefore, of brands from the sphere of management to the
sphere of government. Heilbrunn justifies his thesis by reference to the work
of the French philosopher Foucalt. A complex thesis is proposed alluding to
Thomas Mores representation of Utopia and the propensity of a Utopian
system to promote a strong ideology. Heilbrunn proposes that brands act as
utopian entities that promote a strong ideology through a series of
paradoxes.
Brands are examined on a semiotic square of valorisations made up of
critical values, practical values, utopian values and ludic (i.e. playful) values.
The contradiction of presenting practical/critical values, e.g. value for money
and quality with utopian/ludic values, e.g. conviviality, fun and surprise is
presented as the inherent paradox behind successful brands such as
McDonalds. This structure is used to explain brands such as Carrefour,
Disneyland and Club Med. The reader who perseveres with this argument is

896

Book Review

rewarded, as once again this book presents a more thoughtful approach to

brands than much of the previous work.
In line with the second theme of this volume of clarifying brand concepts,
Csaba and Bengtsson present a chapter that criticises much of the work
currently published on brand identity for its lack of a theoretical depth and
how this lack of depth has led to inconsistent definitions of the concept. The
authors consider and propose the importance of building the theory of social
and cultural identity into brand management and outline alternative ways of
approaching and understanding identity in brand management. This is
placed within a discussion of the increased complexities of social and
cultural identity theory, e.g. the mobility, displacement and uprooting of
people in the age of mass migration leads to more questions about the nature
of identity. This is a far more straightforward approach to the one used by
Heilbrunn, but again, it does raise interesting questions related to brand
identity. As with much of the book, this is not a solution-based approach,
rather it encourages the reader to rethink and re-examine those concepts that
they may have taken for granted.
Brand management and design is dealt with in a piece by Johansson and
Holm where the roots of the two practices are examined. The differing
cultural approaches to design management in the US, Europe and Japan are
discussed. An interesting point is the criticism of business schools and how
few of them incorporate design into the management curriculum. Corporate
identity has become synonymous with graphic design programmes and
therefore to branding itself. At the same time the outsourcing of
manufacturing (design has stayed in-house) has taken place, meaning that
design has been subsumed into the brand to become part of the brand values.
The third part of the book deals with Consuming Brand Culture. Symbolic
brands and authenticity of performance is discussed by Richard Elliot and
Andrea Davies. It is proposed that the consumer is involved in a symbolic
project whereby they must create meaning out of symbolic materials and that
brands are amongst the most powerful of these materials due to their cultural
meaning. The authors use fashion and music to make their case.
A fascinating discussion of the emotional links to brands amongst neotribes and sub-cultures takes place. An ethnographical study is detailed
recording the importance of style, style repertoire and authenticity of style
among a group of 16-21 year olds. Collective individuality is discussed by
Elliot and Davies, including boycotts of high street stores and local systems
of knowledge. The focus on local information and knowledge shows the
limitations of traditional market segmentation techniques used by brand
managers. The authors make a good point in concluding their work, which
could be used to help summarise the value of this book in total -- that the
power and significance of cultural meanings and information are often left

Book Review

897

out of traditional measures of brand equity. This ethnography and much

other work that appear in Brand Culture show the error of this omission.
Many brands have been criticised from an ethical perspective over recent
years. This subject is tackled by Borgerson, Escudero and Magnusson in
relation to a well known case study in the area Benetton. The case study
highlights the gap between the identity and the image of the brand. The
authors question how identity influences brand meaning. They discuss how
semiotics works together with the ontology of branding. This raises
questions of what exactly lies behind the brand and does the brand meaning
stand up to scrutiny or is it merely hollow. The Benetton brand is an example
of a confused ethical position. The company thinks that it is ethical; some of
its retailers arent convinced and many consumers are not bothered!
To conclude the volume, Broschi deals with the role of advertising in
shaping luxury brand meaning, whereby a cluster analysis of luxury brand
advertising categories is presented. Finally a piece by Sven Bergvall discusses
the multi-level interactions of brands using the term brand ecosystems.
Bergval makes an excellent point that neither managers nor consumers have
total control over brand meanings. Ecosystems reflect the move towards a
networked society, but the author is clear not to restrict this to inter-company
or company-customer relations. The ecosystem of a brand involves
numerous intertwined relationships between the corporate level,
governmental and non-governmental organisations and the relationships
with technology and the importance of technology to the culture of the
brands host nation(s). Interaction amongst these differing levels is analysed
using the case study of Japanese-Swedish technology brand Sony-Ericsson.
Summary
This book must be highly recommended to those who have an interest in
branding. A frustration with the branding literature is that there is a
considerable amount of it, but so little theory to be found within. The writing
in this book at last takes us to a macro-level rather than considering branding
from the traditional textbook angle of the micro-level -- raising us above
consideration of how the marketing mix can be used to manipulate the
malleable and passive consumer.