Corporate brands with a heritage

This paper articulates a concept of ‘heritage brands’, based primarily on field case research and studies of practice. We define brand heritage as a dimension of a brand's identity found in its track record, longevity, core values, use of symbols and particularly in an organisational belief that its history is important. A heritage brand is one with a positioning and value proposition based on its heritage. The work grew from our lengthy study of monarchies as corporate brands. We describe how to identify the heritage that may reside in a brand and how to nurture, maintain and protect it, particularly through the management mindset of brand stewardship to generate stronger corporate marketing.