Brand Culture

Citation

Jenster, P.V. (2006), "Brand Culture", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 40 No. 7/8, pp. 911-911. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090560610670089

Jonathan E. Schroeder and Miriam Salzer‐Morling's edited volume is entitled Brand Culture and published by Routledge. The editors are joined by a diverse group of contributors, and this diversity is also reflected in the book itself. Schroeder and Salzer‐Morling rightfully start the book by noting the increasingly prominence of branding in the manager's mind, yet proceed to justify the need for adding a cultural dimension to the branding in a way which most managers certainly would not find particularly useful, even if a small group of researchers might do so. The editors argue that the title is meant to be a supplemental text to business management courses, both undergraduate and MBAs, because contrary to “the many, many books on brand,” Brand Culture does not take a practical approach to the subject (which others might regret). Despite the rather discourteous commentaries on the works of a number of recognized colleagues in the field, the editors do emphasize that they only intend to address the (few) researchers, scholars, and students who are interested in the (“right”) current research of state‐of‐the‐art thinking. Contrary to Kitchen et al., we find in Schroeder and Salzer‐Morling's book a somewhat scant effort above the mere collating of papers from a number of researchers' independent work and the adding of a few discussions questions after each chapter. The editors have organised the volume in three parts. Part I is entitled “Corporate Perspectives on Brand Culture”. Part II attempts to clarify differing brand concepts, and Part III is entitled “Consuming Brand Culture”. It would have been nice to receive a more comprehensive introduction to each of the three parts beyond the short coverage in the introductory chapter. For the narrow audience targeted with this book, the editors are likely to find some interest and appreciation for this collection of researchers from varied backgrounds.