What do brands mean to us? : A short introduction to brand research within Consumer Culture Theory

Abstract

This paper is about you and me and our brands. More specifically, it is about how we view brands, construct brand images and meanings and use them in social interactions with other people. But do brands mean anything to you? Does it matter what brand your jeans are or what brand your bag is? Have you thought about which brands are important to you and why are they important? In other words, what do they stand for in your mind and what is it you want to show others through your brand choices?

This paper is organized as follows: after the introduction to the organization-focused and consumer-focused views of brands and brand images, a discussion on individual consumer level brand research is given. Then, brand communities and cultural level brand phenomena are discussed. Finally, overall conclusions of the consumer-focused research traditions are provided.