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The purposes of this editorial are first, to review the background to, and development of, the Special Issue call for papers issued in March 2013 on the topic of “Brands in the Arts and Culture Sector”, second, to introduce the eight papers in the double issue (seven in the Special Issue plus one paper (by Caldwell)) which was submitted to the journal in the normal course and whose topic fits well with the arts and cultural branding topic, and third, to set out a framework designed to facilitate the analysis of individual arts and cultural brands, as well as the directions for future research in the area.

The papers in this Special Issue use a variety of approaches-some qualitative (e.g. ethnography, expert interviews), others quantitative (e.g. laboratory experiment, surveys); others deal with conceptual issues for individual artists and for the arts market.

Findings and insights relate to topics such as: how the “in-between spaces” (e.g. art studios) can be key building blocks of a strong artist’s brand; the importance of western ideas for the Chinese art market; how pro-activeness, innovation, and risk-taking are the three key drivers for the decision to integrate blockbusters as a sub-brand in museum brand architecture; the importance of experiential design for low-involvement museum visitors; the utility of the notion of brand attachment in explaining volunteering; the potential of visual arts branding for general branding theory; the concept of millennial cultural consumers and how to reach them; and celebrity casting in London’s West End theatres.

The authors believe that all of the papers have implications for future thinking, research, scholarship, paedagogy, and practice in the area of arts and cultural branding.

As far as the editors are aware, this is the first ever journal Special Issue on arts and cultural branding. More specifically, the authors have taken the opportunity to present in this editorial essay the “C-Framework” of arts and cultural brands, which offers a new way of thinking about arts and cultural brands − one which can accommodate classical or so-called “mainstream” branding ideas as well as insights from cultural, media, and consumer studies, and other disciplines. This framework can be applied to individual arts and cultural brands as well as to the entire field.

In “the century of culture,” a current drift is toward utilizing cultural heritage branding. Cultural heritage brand referred to in this study means a brand with value proposition based on cultural heritage. As Asian cultures are gathering global focus amid ongoing trend of exoticism and the growth of Asian economies, there is more opportunity especially for Asian brands to benefit from cultural heritage branding. Also, the advantages of cultural heritage branding can benefit fashion brands, considering that designs of great importance in fashion brand's competitiveness can earn creativity and originality from cultural heritage.

Therefore, this study (1) profiles cultural heritage fashion brands based on Asia: Japan, China, and Korea, (2) identifies components of cultural heritage fashion branding by comparative analysis, and (3) identifies characteristics in brand management strategy from the brands, and offer managerial implications for upcoming cultural heritage fashion brands.

This study adopts a case study approach that focuses on Asian fashion brands; Issey Miyake (Japan), Shanghai Tang (China), and Damyeon designed by Lee Hye Soon (Korea). The analytical contents of this research include general profiles (i.e., brand history, brand philosophy and concept, and BI and visual representation), cultural heritage perspectives and brand management perspective (i.e., product, price, place, promotion, and brand extension). Most of the information was retrieved from multiple sources including books, academic papers, brand's annual report, brand official website, news articles, etc.

Overall, this study shows cultural heritage fashion branding can be useful in distinctiveness in positioning and delivering brand value in depth, authenticity, and credibility for customers (Urde, 2007). The findings suggest some managerial as well as cultural heritage-related indications for upcoming cultural heritage fashion brands.

Although common components of cultural heritage fashion branding (i.e., utilization of traditional prototype, emphasis on traditional fabric, and preservation of traditional craftsmanship) were drawn out, achieving optimal balance between tradition and modernity was found critical as well. Managerial guidelines include foreign brand naming, premium pricing, art-related promotions, and extension for a total lifestyle brand. In further research, the type of industry and different country-of-origins can be applied in order to extensively study about the issue of cultural heritage branding.

Communicating the national values of artists and the role of product benefits as symbols of national values, infuse iconic national brands. This paper aims to validate a conceptual framework that offers empirical insights for cultural identity that drives brand management.

Case studies and cross-cultural focus group research establish the present study’s conceptual framework for cultural branding.

Brand awareness of a perfume named after a Cuban dancer and a spirit named for a Chilean poet, reflect authentic emblems of national identity. Informants’ behavior confirms the study’s model of icon myth transfer effect as a heuristic for cultural branding with clear, detailed and unprompted references to the myths and brands behind these heroines.

The study’s ethnography shows how artists reflect myth and folklore in iconic brands. Future research should assess whether the icon myth transfer effect as a heuristic for cultural branding occurs with cultural icons beyond the arts and transcends national boundaries.

The study challenges conventional branding, where the brand is the myth, and the myth reflects the myth market. The authors show how the myth connects to a national identity yet exists independently of the brand. The branding strategy ties the brand to the existing myth, an alternative route for cultural branding mediated by the icon myth transfer effect.

These two Latin American brands provide a much-needed connection among the branding literatures and images surrounding gender and nationalism in lesser-known markets.

Most research explores iconic myths, brands and folklore in one country. This study extends cultural branding through social history and by testing a conceptual model that establishes how myths embody nation-specific values. Iconic myths are a heuristic for understanding and describing brands, revealing an unexamined path for cultural branding.

This paper aims to contribute to the development of a film brand theory and in doing so, illustrate the utility of a socio‐cultural approach to branding. The purpose is to develop the conceptual framework within which the film brandscape may be considered. An illustrative case study of the James Bond franchise is provided so that the potential application of the framework can be clearly understood.

The paper approaches the topic from a socio‐cultural perspective in order to take particular account of the symbolic nature of film offerings. It combines insights from contemporary production and consumption practices in the film industry with theoretical perspectives from marketing, branding, consumer, cultural and film studies. Although a conceptual paper, it incorporates an illustrative case, the James Bond franchise, in order to support the proposed brandscape.

Films are marked with signs of ownership and may carry other cues which function as risk‐reducing shorthand devices. Consumers look to brand characteristics as communicated through brand cues. Particular brandscapes can be viewed as loosely bounded sites within which meaning is derived from making sense of the various, interrelated brands within this brandscape. Such meaning is dependent on cultural cues which evolve over time.

This paper presents a theory of film branding which is primarily applicable to mainstream commercial films. The implications for marketing and branding scholars are highlighting the need to view brands within their wider brandscapes in order to understand how consumers understand brands in relation to one another. There is also a need to move beyond dominant relational modes of thinking about brands and consumers to consider the temporal nature of brand meanings.

The paper offers a theoretical approach enabling scholars in a range of disciplines to engage in cross‐disciplinary dialogue about film brands, thus facilitating debate and opening up new lines of research inquiry. The case study included is merely illustrative and further empirical studies are needed to test and develop the brandscape.

The paper develops the cultural approach to branding through introducing the idea of the granularity of the brandscape: particular brandscapes can be viewed as loosely bounded sites within which meaning is derived from making sense of the various, interrelated brands within this brandscape. Such meaning is dependent on cultural cues which evolve over time. Managerial decision making can be understood through considering the various cast and crew decisions, genre and positioning. Through understanding the granularity of the brandscape, marketing and branding practitioners can have a greater understanding of consumer sensemaking which can be used in strategic decision making.

The purpose of this research is to explore the cultural and branding issues that have gone into the design and development of Nano – a brand name for an Indian automobile – which is a low‐priced passenger vehicle targeted toward the middle‐class Indian consumer in urban settings.

The paper provides a cultural framework for the brand initiative and its execution. Specifically, the paper uses an ethnoconsumerism approach to the issue of cultural branding.

The Nano car was conceived and executed under two narratives: an economical and affordable vehicle, and a brand appeal that would satisfy Indian cultural sensibilities.

Cultural branding is becoming a popular approach in product positioning. This research shows that an ethnoconsumerist framework is ideally suited for examining cultural branding issues.

With the emergence of global markets, new methodologies have to be employed in studying cultural issues pertaining to local conditions. Toward this end, the paper provides an application of the ethnoconsumerism approach for studying branding phenomena.

This paper aims to analyse the creation of a place brand for Colombia’s coffee region, within the framework of the evolution of place branding from traditional, one institution-led marketing approaches towards a more modern concept of network branding involving multiple stakeholders. The production of quality coffee in this region has been complemented with the development of coffee-themed rural tourism, which helps Colombia to enhance the value and positioning of its resources in the context of the economic and cultural exchanges inherent in globalisation.

Following a theoretical and conceptual analysis of place branding, this paper explores the case of the Coffee Triangle, examining the network of interrelationships involved in the process of business-led coffee branding and place branding by public institutions to achieve a dynamic identity asset shared by various parties. This study entailed fieldwork in Colombia to visit the region and hold meetings with managers in public administration, representative companies in the region and various social groups and entities.

Following a conceptual analysis which attempts to demonstrate the evolution of place branding towards a more holistic, multi-party and networked approach, the case study confirms the formation of complex interactions between stakeholders and public and private institutions at the local, regional, national and even international level.

This successful initiative can serve as an example for other food production regions in emerging countries, helping them to improve their positions in global scenarios and enhance the value of their physical products through a heightened awareness and appreciation of the culture associated with these natural environments and landscapes. Synergies between business and place branding are also analysed.

This paper looks at an instance of place branding involving multiple stakeholders and on the basis of cultural and dynamic identity. It comprises an inter-regional case study in Colombia. South America is a sub-continent where some interesting and successful place projects are being implemented that add nuances to global economic and cultural dialogue, which has probably focused mainly on the Western world and the industrial nations of Asia.

The purpose of this paper is to review a typology of branding that identifies four perspectives on branding: corporate perspectives, consumer perspectives, cultural perspectives and critical perspectives. This typology helps organise and synthesise the growing interdisciplinary literature on brands and branding, and sheds light on the various ways corporate brands work.

A brief synthetic review of branding is offered, along with contemporary examples of emerging aspects of the four branding perspectives.

The four perspectives demonstrate the growing interdisciplinary interest in brands. They also signal a move away from a focus on the brand-consumer dyad, towards broader social cultural and theoretical concerns. Studies that extend brand research into cultural and historical realms may provide an essential bridge between our understandings, on the one hand, of value residing within the product or producer intention, and on the other, value created by individual consumers or brand communities.

The insights from this review may shed light on a number of branding research areas, including studies on corporate marketing, cultural heritage brands and strategic brand communication.

The paper illustrates how complex branding has become and offers conceptual tools to think about and guide branding from multiple points of view.

This paper provides a selective overview of important recent developments in corporate marketing and brand research over as well as a look at visual aspects of four perspectives of branding as a complement to corporate branding research. The typology of brand perspectives helps organise and illuminate a burgeoning brand literature, and provides an interdisciplinary framework for understanding brands.

The objective of this research is to propose a framework which is apt to assess how a nation branding campaign could promote cultural identity by ultimately curbing political polarization.

By relying on a multidisciplinary approach that blends theoretical constructs from different fields the methodology is based on a mixed-method approach whereby the qualitative data stemming from a set of interviews with key-informants is coupled by a survey of Colombian citizens in order to gain in-depth insights over the impact of nation branding on political polarization.

From the findings, it emerges that a campaign based on nation branding and targeting domestic citizens could curb political polarization within Colombia, by also fostering cultural identity.

The study considers only Colombia. To fully assess the robustness of the framework it would be useful to extend the analysis to a broader range of countries and to a wider set of domestic issues.

The research not only provides in-depth insights on how nation branding can be used effectively in order to curb political polarization but also practical guidance on how a nation branding campaign can be effectively designed. The findings are relevant to policy-makers that have the opportunity to implement informed and educated nation branding campaigns not just overseas, but also to strategically address important domestic issues by engaging the domestic stakeholders.

While country branding has been extensively investigated within the context of international business, we have a relatively limited understanding of its domestic impact. In contrast to traditional country branding literature, this paper aims to theoretically advance our understanding of nation branding and its effect on political polarization, as well as gauging its impact on cultural identity.

With rising globalization, Western and Eastern brands are increasingly collaborating and co-branding. Drawing on the theory of dialectical self that captures the degree of cognitive tendency to tolerate conflicts, inconsistencies and ambiguities in self-concept, this paper investigates the effect of consumer dialectical self on co-branding that encompasses Western and East Asian cultural brand personality traits.

Two studies were conducted using Chinese participants to examine the effects of the dialectical self on co-brand evaluation under single-and dual-personality conditions and to explore the mediating role of ideal social self-congruence and the moderating role of product type (high vs low conspicuous).

The findings suggest that counterintuitive to the received wisdom, the dialectical self negatively influences one's attitude towards a co-brand in the dual-personality condition only. Further, ideal social self-congruence mediates the relationship between the dialectical self and dual-personality co-brand evaluation in the high conspicuous product condition only.

Important implications are offered to international marketing managers for managing the dialectical self that lead to positive co-brand evaluations. Moreover, managers should highlight ideal social self-congruence for co-branding success for particular product types.

This paper examines co-branding from a novel perspective of consumer dialectical self and shows the pivotal role it plays when brands carry varying cultural traits engage in co-branding. By identifying the role of the dialectical self and the important mediator and moderator, the paper fulfils an important gap in co-branding literature and offers key implications.