The construction and controlling effect of a moral brand

Abstract

This paper explores the control effect of a moral brand through its brand culture. The moral brand culture distinguishes itself from other brand cultures by drawing on external claims for legitimacy. In this case, the brand drew upon a strong brand community, moral narratives in society, and the participative engagement with its values by many employees. As a consequence of these multiple and often external means of brand creation, managers were able to distance themselves from the process of brand and cultural management. Indeed such distancing was required for its effective enactment. The co-creation of the moral brand and the idea of 'doing the right thing' deflected attention from the controlling effect of the brand culture.

Ethics of ambivalence in corporate branding

“…4, 6). This form of corporate exploitation has been described in terms of the appropriation of the free labour of consumers, employees and communities (Arvidsson, 2005(Arvidsson, , 2014Caruana and Crane, 2008;Cova and Dalli, 2009;Land and Taylor, 2010) and in terms of the intensification of the managerial control over organizational culture (Endrissat et al, 2017;Kärreman and Rylander, 2008) and corporate ethics (Jeanes, 2013;Mumby, 2016). Recent work by Arvidsson (2007) and Mumby (2016) has suggested that ethics itself plays an important role in this process of subsumption in the creation of 'ethical capital' and an 'ethical surplus' that can be exploited by means of branding.…”

“…In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the ethics of branding (Arvidsson, 2007(Arvidsson, , 2014Egan-Wyer et al, 2014;Jeanes, 2013;Klein, 1999). Muhr and Rehn (2014) have highlighted how companies use the narratives of human rights activists in the branding and selling of their products.…”

“…Within the existing literature on corporate branding, contrasting accounts have been developed, where some authors have framed brands as a potentially liberating force for ethical consumption and consumer identity creation (Caruana and Crane, 2008;Kornberger, 2010;Newholm and Hopkinson, 2009;Palazzo and Basu, 2007), and others have criticized them as being built on the exploitation of the unpaid labour of consumers and employees (Arvidsson, 2007(Arvidsson, , 2014Cova and Dalli, 2009;Land and Taylor, 2010;Mumby, 2016;Willmott, 2010). The primary focus of recent empirical research into branding within organization studies has been on the role of brands as mediators of meaning within organizations and their role in employee identity work (Brannan et al, 2015;Endrissat et al, 2017;Jeanes, 2013;Kärreman and Rylander, 2008;Müller, 2017). These studies frequently note the fact that brands can never completely subsume worker identity and that opportunities for critical reflection are always present, but as yet there has been relatively little investigation of the tensions and contradictions that might form the basis of such critical reflection.…”

Ethical branding as a discoursive resource for employee identity work: A case study

“…The brand can attempt to paper over such contradictions by narrating a meaningful story about the job. The story is based on a moral story, which, to a large extent, is narrated outside of the work organization (Jeanes, 2013). Understanding brands as 'social identities' allows us to understand how employees construct their job as a meaningful activity that contributes to both the employees' and the consumers' lifestyles.…”

“…This leads us to the question of how a brand constructs meaningful 'social identities'. Existing research conducted by Jeanes (2013) has shown the important role that moral discourse plays in the process of branding. This article extends this research by revealing the specific 'modes' of identity work (Alvesson and Willmott, 2002) that are employed in the construction of a branded identity.…”