Abstract

The digital age has wreaked havoc on traditional models of branding. Social media has become a key platform for branding activity, including online brand communities, promotion, and branded content, as well as a powerful forum for brand celebration, commentary, and critique. Two issues seem critically important for this new branding environment: culture and value. Culture intersects with contemporary brands in many ways. Fundamentally, one can speak of a brand culture that underlies brands. The brand concept long ago transcended traditional definitions of logo, name, and slogan; brands embody cultural, ideological, and psychological value, providing representational and rhetorical power that shape brand meaning and value (Schroeder, 2009). Furthermore, the relationships between consumers and producers in branding process are blurred – consumers tend to be creative, unmanageable, active, and productive players in the market. Therefore, brand researchers have begun to understand brands through a cultural lens.