Customer perception of brands’ heritage: synthesis and perspectives

Journal title IMPRESE E STORIA
Author/s Fabien Pecot
Publishing Year 2024 Issue 2023/47
Language English Pages 23 P. 17-39 File size 308 KB
DOI 10.3280/ISTO2023-047002
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

This article looks at of what marketing has produced regarding the way consumers engage with brand heritage. The literature review shows how marketing scholars take the heritage discourse and analyses the way the message is communicated to external audiences, if they accept it or not, and what effects it has on their broad relation to the company. Then, the first part of the paper clarifies the distinction in brand heritage literature between the focus on the corporate brand and the focus on the marketing mix and its perception by consumers. The second part defines brand heritage as it is perceived by consumers, while the third examines protocols and, most particularly, scales that facilitate the measurement of brand heritage percep- tion. The fourth part reviews the known consequences of brand heritage perception. Finally, the conclusion lists avenues for further research.

Keywords: brand heritage, customer perception, measurement scale

  1. Baker, S., & Kennedy, P. (1994). Death by nostalgia: A diagnosis of context-specific cases. NA Advances in Consumer Research, 169–174.
  2. Balmer, J. M. T., & Chen, W. (2017). Corporate heritage brands, augmented role identity and customer satisfaction. European Journal of Marketing, 51(9/10), 1510–1521. DOI: 10.1108/EJM-07-2017-044
  3. Balmer, J. M. T., Greyser, S., & Urde, M. (2006). The Crown as a corporate brand: Insights from monarchies. Journal of Brand Management, 14(1–2), 137–161.
  4. Baumert, T., & de Obesso, M. de las M. (2021). Brand antiquity and value perception: Are customers willing to pay higher prices for older brands? Journal of Business Research, 123(October 2020), 241–254.
  5. Bourdieu, P. (1979). La Distinction. Critique sociale du jugement. Les Editions de Minuit.
  6. Brunninge, O., & Hartmann, B. J. (2019). Inventing a past : Corporate heritage as dialectical relationships of past and present. Marketing Theory. DOI: 10.1177/147059311879062
  7. Burghausen, M., & Balmer, J. M. T. (2014). Corporate heritage identity management and the multi-modal implementation of a corporate heritage identity. Journal of Business Research, 67(11), 2311–2323.
  8. Burghausen, M., & Balmer, J. M. T. (2015). Corporate heritage identity stewardship: a corporate marketing perspective. European Journal of Marketing, 49(1/2), 22–61. DOI: 10.1108/EL-01-2014-002
  9. Butcher, J., & Pecot, F. (2021). Visually communicating brand heritage on social media: champagne on Instagram. Journal of Product & Brand Management, ahead-of-p(ahead-of-print).
  10. Chaney, D., Pulh, M., & Mencarelli, R. (2018). When the arts inspire businesses: Museums as a heritage redefinition tool of brands. Journal of Business Research, 85(xxxx), 452–458.
  11. Clark, P., & Rowlinson, M. (2004). The treatment of history in organisation studies: Towards an “Historic turn”? Business History, 46(3), 331–352. DOI: 10.1080/000767904200021917
  12. Desai, P. S., Kalra, A., & Murthi, B. P. . (2008). When Old Is Gold:The Role of Business Longevity in Risky Situations. Journal of Marketing, 72(1), 95–107.
  13. Dion, D., & Borraz, S. (2015). Managing heritage brands: A study of the sacralization of heritage stores in the luxury industry. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 22, 77–84.
  14. Dion, D., & Mazzalovo, G. (2016). Reviving sleeping beauty brands by rearticulating brand heritage. Journal of Business Research, 69(12), 5894– 5900.
  15. Divard, R., & Robert-Demontrond, P. (1997). La nostalgie: un thème récent dans la recherche marketing. Recherche et Applications En Marketing, 12(4), 41–62.
  16. Eidelman, S., Crandall, C. S., & Pattershall, J. (2009). The Existence Bias. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(5), 765–775.
  17. Eidelman, S., Pattershall, J., & Crandall, C. S. (2010). Longer is better. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(6), 993–998.
  18. Foster, W. M., Coraiola, D. M., Suddaby, R., Kroezen, J., & Chandler, D. (2017). The strategic use of historical narratives: a theoretical framework. Business History, 59(8), 1176–1200. DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2016.122423
  19. Fritz, K., Schoenmueller, V., & Bruhn, M. (2017). Authenticity in branding – exploring antecedents and consequences of brand authenticity. European Journal of Marketing, 51(2), 324–348. DOI: 10.1108/EJM-102014-063
  20. Hakala, U., Lätti, S., & Sandberg, B. (2011). Operationalising brand heritage and cultural heritage. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 20(6), 447–456. DOI: 10.1108/1061042111116659
  21. Halwani, L. (2020). Heritage luxury brands: insight into consumer motivations across different age groups. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 24(2), 161–179. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.30269.9008
  22. Han, M., Newman, G. E., Smith, R. K., & Dhar, R. (2021). The Curse of the Original: How and When Heritage Branding Reduces Consumer Evaluations of Enhanced Products. Journal of Consumer Research, 00.
  23. Heinberg, M., Katsikeas, C. S., Ozkaya, H. E., & Taube, M. (2019). How nostalgic brand positioning shapes brand equity: differences between emerging and developed markets. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.
  24. Holak, S. L. (2014). From Brighton beach to blogs: exploring food-related nostalgia in the Russian diaspora. Consumption Markets & Culture, 17(2), 185–207. DOI: 10.1080/10253866.2013.77630
  25. Holak, S. L., & Havlena, W. J. (1998). Feelings, Fantasies, and Memories. Journal of Business Research, 42(3), 217–226. DOI: 10.1016/S0148-2963(97)00119-
  26. Holbrook, M. B. (1993). Nostalgia Some Tastes and Emerging Consumption Preferences : Patterns of Consumer. Journal of Consumer Research, 20(2), 245–256.
  27. Hudson, B. T. (2011). Brand heritage and the renaissance of Cunard. European Journal of Marketing, 45(9/10), 1538–1556. DOI: 10.1108/0309056111115188
  28. Hudson, B. T., & Balmer, J. M. T. (2013). Corporate heritage brands: Mead’s theory of the past. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 18(3), 347–361.
  29. Kessous, A., & Roux, E. (2010). Les marques perçues comme « nostalgiques »: conséquences sur les attitudes et les relations des consommateurs à la marque. Recherche et Applications En Marketing, 25(3), 29–56.
  30. Kessous, A., Valette-Florence, P., & De Barnier, V. (2017). Luxury watch possession and dispossession from father to son: A poisoned gift? Journal of Business Research, 77, 212–222.
  31. Lazer, W., & Kelley, E. J. (1960). Interdisciplinary horizons in marketing. Journal of Marketing, 25(2), 24–30.
  32. Lowenthal, D. (1998). Fabricating heritage. History & Memory, 10(1), 5–24. Lowenthal, D. (2015). The Past is a Foreign Country Revisited. Cam-bridge University Press.
  33. Martino, V., & Lovari, A. (2016). When the past makes news: Cultivating media relations through brand heritage. Public Relations Review, 42(4), 539–547.
  34. Mencarelli, R., Chaney, D., & Pulh, M. (2019). Consumers ’ brand heritage experience : between acceptance and resistance. Journal of Marketing Management, 00(00), 1–21.
  35. Miller, Dale. (2014). Brand-building and the elements of success: discoveries using historical analyses. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 17(2), 92–111.
  36. Muehling, D. D., & Pascal, V. (2011). An empirical investigation of the differential effect of personal, historical, and non-nostalgic advertising on consumer responses. Journal of Advertising, 40(2), 107–122. DOI: 10.2753/JOA0091-3367400208
  37. Orth, U. R., Rose, G. M., & Merchant, A. (2019). Preservation, rejuvenation, or confusion? Changing package designs for heritage brands. Psychology & Marketing, October 2018.
  38. Paek, W., Ryu, H., & Jun, S. (2020). Heritage-based value of a corporate brand: antecedents and effects on the firm’s financial value. Journal of Product and Brand Management, September. DOI: 10.1108/JPBM-062019-243
  39. Pecot, F. (2016). Consumers’ responses to brand heritage: cognitive and affective paths. Aix-Marseille Université.
  40. Pecot, F., Celhay, F., Kacha, M., & Lombard, G. (2022). Expressions of the past : A practice-based approach of brand longevity visual translation in advertising. Journal of Business Research, 150(May 2021), 121–133.
  41. Pecot, F., & de Barnier, V. (2018). Brands using historical references: a consumers’ perspective. Journal of Brand Management, 25(1), 171–184.
  42. Pecot, F., & Merchant, A. (2022). Why and when is older better ? The role of brand heritage and of the product category in the evaluation of brand longevity. Journal of Business Research, 140(February), 533–545.
  43. Pecot, F., Merchant, A., Valette-Florence, P., & De Barnier, V. (2018). Cognitive outcomes of brand heritage: A signaling perspective. Journal of Business Research, 85(March 2017), 304–316.
  44. Pecot, F., Rose, G., Merchant, A., & Choi, S. (2022). Brand heritage across cultures: U.S.A., France and South Korea. Journal of Brand Management, 0123456789.
  45. Pecot, F., Valette-Florence, P., & de Barnier, V. (2019). Brand heritage as a temporal perception : conceptualisation, measure and consequences. Journal of Marketing Management, 00(00), 1–20. DOI: 10.1080/0267257X.2019.166741
  46. Pfannes, C., Meyer, C., Orth, U. R., & Rose, G. M. (2021). Brand narratives : Content and consequences among heritage brands. Psychology & Marketing, January, 1867–1880.
  47. Pinçon, M., & Pinçon-Charlot, M. (2006). Grandes fortunes. Dynasties familiales et formes de richesse en France. Petite Bibliothèque Payot.
  48. Pizzi, G., & Scarpi, D. (2019). The year of establishment effect on brand heritage and attitudes. Journal of Consumer Marketing, JCM-05-2018-2665. DOI: 10.1108/JCM-05-2018-266
  49. Rindell, A., & Santos, F. P. (2021). What makes a corporate heritage brand authentic for consumers? A semiotic approach. Journal of Brand Management, 1966.
  50. Rindell, A., Santos, F. P., & De Lima, A. P. (2015). Two sides of a coin: Connecting corporate brand heritage to consumers’ corporate image heritage. Journal of Brand Management, 22(5), 467–484.
  51. Riviezzo, A., Garofano, A., Mason, M. C., & Napolitano, M. R. (2021). Italian corporate museums as industrial tourism destinations: А segmentation study based on strategic orientation. European Journal of Tourism Research, 29, 1–20.
  52. Rose, G., Merchant, A., Orth, U. R., & Horstmann, F. (2016). Emphasizing brand heritage: Does it work? And how? Journal of Business Research, 69(2), 936–943.
  53. Rose, M., Rose, G. M., & Merchant, A. (2017). Is old gold? How heritage “sells” the university to prospective students: The impact of a measure of brand heritage on attitudes toward the university. Journal of Advertising Research, 57(3), 335–351. DOI: 10.2501/JAR-2017-03
  54. Santos, F. P., Burghausen, M., & Balmer, J. M. T. (2016). Heritage branding orientation: The case of Ach. Brito and the dynamics between corporate and product heritage brands. Journal of Brand Management, 23(1), 67–88.
  55. Scarpi, D. (2021). The importance of consumer engagement in brand heritage advertising : How feeling close to a brand can increase willingness to pay more. Journal of Advertising Research, April.
  56. Schroeder, J., Borgerson, J., & Wu, Z. (2015). A brand culture approach to Chinese cultural heritage brands. Journal of Brand Management, 22(3), 261–279.
  57. Smith, A., & Simeone, D. (2017). Learning to use the past: the development of a rhetorical history strategy by the London headquarters of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Management and Organizational History, 12(4), 334–356. DOI: 10.1080/17449359.2017.139419
  58. Spielmann, N., Discua, A., Tyler, B. B., & Beukel, K. (2021). Place as a nexus for corporate heritage identity : An international study of familyowned wineries. Journal of Business Research, 129(May), 826–837.
  59. Suddaby, R. (2016). Toward a historical consciousness: Following the historic turn in management thought. Management (France), 19(1), 46–60.
  60. Urde, M., Greyser, S. A., & Balmer, J. M. T. (2007). Corporate brands with a heritage. Journal of Brand Management, 15(1), 4–19.
  61. Volle, P. (2022). Rhetorical history and strategic marketing: the example of Starbucks. Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, 14(1), 111–129. DOI: 10.1108/JHRM-08-2021-004
  62. Ward, M., Townsend, C., & Nowlan, L. (2015). Don’t Go Broke…Go Back in Time: Vintage, an alternative status symbol. Advances in Consumer Research, 32, 142–146
  63. Wiedmann, K.-P., Hennigs, N., Schmidt, S., & Wuestefeld, T. (2011). Drivers and Outcomes of Brand Heritage: Consumers’ Perception of Heritage Brands in the Automotive Industry. The Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 19(2), 205–220. DOI: 10.2753/MTP1069-667919020
  64. Williams, L. E., Stein, R., & Galguera, L. (2014). The Distinct Affective Consequences of Psychological Distance and Construal Level. 40(April). DOI: 10.1086/67421

Fabien Pecot, Customer perception of brands’ heritage: synthesis and perspectives in "IMPRESE E STORIA" 47/2023, pp 17-39, DOI: 10.3280/ISTO2023-047002