1 Brands as Complex Social Phenomena

Contemporary marketing literature describes brand creation from either a company perspective, or from the consumer’s side. We argue that this rather dualistic restriction on either the organization as the dominant driver in establishing brands or the focus on consumers ’ reaction to marked objects largely ignores the possibility that a more varied group of interested individuals and organizations actively co-participate in brand-related interactions and so contribute to brand development. The objective of this paper is to re-conceptualize the brand as a complex, social phenomenon. To this end, we will first present a brief review and discussion of how brands have become depicted in contemporary literature. Secondly, we develop an integrative perspective, which conceptualizes a brand as encompassing brand manifestations, brand meaning, and a brand interest group that constructs brand meaning as well as brand manifestations in an ongoing public discourse. Finally, implications of such an approach for theory and future research will be discussed