Multicultural, not multinational : emerging branding strategies in culturally diverse societies

Kipnis, Eva and Broderick, Amanda J. and Demangeot, Catherine (2011) Multicultural, not multinational : emerging branding strategies in culturally diverse societies. In: European Marketing Academy Conference, 2011-05-23 - 2011-05-27, Ljubiana.

Abstract

This paper proposes that approaches to culture-based brand positioning are diversifying in response to increasing complexities of consumer cultural identities, with uni- bi- and multicultural identities emerging. Acting as visualisations of consumers’ cultural identities, brands represent people’s ideas about their membership of cultural groups. Findings from a critical visual analysis of brand communications reveal that the brands’ positioning concepts include associations with single cultures, or two or more distinct types of culture that go beyond traditional global-local positioning strategies. This suggests that in culturally diverse marketplaces, coherent branding strategies that create ‘multi-cultural’ meanings can be used by marketers as a competitive positioning tool, to appeal to consumers that integrate multiple cultures in their identities.

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