Emigration and imperial business: the New Zealand Company brand 1839-1841

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to offer an example of a comprehensive mid-nineteenth century branding strategy in practice.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper follows a historical research methodology using archival resources and secondary sources within a conceptual framework of present-day branding theory (Bastos and Levy) and communication theory (Perloff). It interrogates visual and material data to construct a production-led examination of the development of a company brand.

Findings

The examination of the material suggests, first, that the company developed a sophisticated, multi-dimensional, multi-functional and materially coherent branding system. Second, it demonstrates that such a system represents an early example of a strategic practice that many scholars have considered to have arisen only in the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries. Third, it provides evidence that the origin, if not always the implementation, of the strategy lay with one man, Edward Gibbon Wakefield.

Originality/value

This paper is novel in its use of visual and material culture artifacts to demonstrate the intentions of those who produced them. It also offers an example of practice in an area that is often only explored in theory. It will be of interest to cultural, marketing, visual and material culture historians.

Citation

Thomas, P.A. (2016), "Emigration and imperial business: the New Zealand Company brand 1839-1841", Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 284-307. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHRM-11-2015-0044