Cultural Symbolism of Brands

This chapter discusses how studying the cultural symbolism of brands can help further develop models of brand management in multicultural markets. One of the most difficult choices that multinational corporations face is deciding whether to standardize their communication strategy or to customize it to target consumers in different cultural settings. People use the symbolism in brands to communicate to others who they are or who they aspire to be. The social identity function of brands facilitates expressing to others one's central values and self-concept. Powerful brands that achieve dominant positions thanks to their high levels of group symbolism are frequently referred to as iconic brands. Iconic brands can act as cultural primes. Incidental exposure to an iconic brand can bring to mind its attendant cultural meanings. This can have consequences for the evaluation of brands in globalized markets.