Creating Brand Meaning: A Review and Research Agenda

Abstract

In this paper I review, from the perspective of experimental research, studies that have examined how brands acquire cultural meaning, and suggest future research directions. McCracken's (Journal of Consumer Research, 13, 1986 and 71) model of the meaning transfer process gained influence about thirty years ago, but experimental studies of the processes it posited have been limited in their scope. The review is organized around three questions. First, what should be the dependent variables: the types of meanings that can adhere to brands? Second, what have we learned from studies on the types of visual, sensory, and human cues that are the sources of particular types of brand meaning-our independent variables? Third, what do we know, and need to know, about the inferential and other processes through which consumers "take possession" of these brand meanings from these cues? The review concludes with a research agenda.

Creating Cultural Meaning in Products and Brands: A Psychological Perspective

“…Batra () and Fournier and Alvarez () provide relevant and important perspectives from different research traditions that study “creating cultural meaning in products and brands.” This commentary organizes their views and thoughts under five broadly categorized questions and identifies additional relevant perspectives and questions for future research.…”

“…Just as brands can be described as a network of associations in memory (Batra, ), cultural psychologists regard culture as a network of domain‐specific structures in memory (i.e., a set of cultural schemas), such as values, material objects, beliefs, and implicit theories, that drive people's judgments and behaviors within the broader culture and subcultures of which they are a member (Hong, Morris, Chiu, & Benet‐Martinez, ). Associative networks related to culture can be conceptualized as being hierarchically organized into basic, superordinate, and subordinate levels.…”

“…Regardless of whether culture is defined at a superordinate (multi‐country), basic (country) or subordinate (within‐country) level, a product or brand is perceived to have cultural meaning when it embodies the abstract characteristics and values of that culture (Holt, ; Torelli, ). Whereas Batra () and Fournier and Alvarez () describe some of these associations, other associations include value orientations like individualism versus collectivism, and vertical versus horizontal orientations (see Shavitt & Barnes, for a review). Cultures characterized by individualistic (collectivism) orientations prioritize goals related to the self (others).…”

“…Batra () and Fournier and Alvarez () review essential topics related to creating cultural meaning in products and brands. These topics are particularly important in a globalized world, characterized by hyper‐competition, multiculturalism, and interconnectivity.…”

Crossing Bridges: Assembling Culture into Brands and Brands into Consumers' Global Local Cultural Lives

“…This research dialogue presents two articles on how brands acquire cultural meanings (Fournier & Alvarez, —this issue; Batra, —this issue). Both Fournier and Alvarez and Batra comment on how cultural meanings are assembled into brands, often by brand managers, but also other cultural intermediaries, including consumers, and how consumers use brands as resources in their lives, attaching new and different meanings to brands.…”