Global Branding, Fashion Systems, and Historical Culture

Global brand culture includes “the contention that culture and history can provide a necessary contextualizing counterpoint to managerial and information processing views of global branding’s interaction with consumer society” (Schroeder, 2007, p. 351). In other words, international marketing managers need to pay more attention to both the cultural and historical context of brands and branding practices across the globe. In light of the fact that global brand culture derives in part from the impact of society and history on consumer culture, one could argue that the understanding of global branding would only benefit from perspectives that integrate managerial, social, and cultural perspectives. Consumer researchers Julien Cayla and Giana Eckhardt have shown how the Asian world can be understood via brands that reanimate and repackage historical culture to reveal a more modern and multicultural Asia (2008). From this perspective, brands can be treated as cultural forms by researchers. This chapter explores the cultural role of brands and aspects of brand culture in the global marketplace. The following sections enumerate managerial and cultural perspectives, global branding, brand culture, historical culture, and fashion systems.