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Restoring luxury corporate heritage brands: From crisis to ascendency

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Abstract

The characteristics of enduring corporate heritage brands often include remarkable, but fluctuating histories. The current article presents a longitudinal, retrospective study of two corporate heritage brands, Tiffany & Co. and Burberry that experience structural corporate heritage brand decline, followed by recovery. A major contribution of the article is demonstrating how long-established corporate heritage brands can overcome a structural brand crisis, by restoring corporate heritage. Another contribution is the identification of the roles of heritage custodianship and core brand competencies in facilitating management of corporate heritage. The study offers a holistic, three-stage, corporate heritage brand recovery framework. The proposed conceptual framework to guide corporate heritage brand recovery utilises three key concepts: corporate brand vision; core brand values; and core brand capabilities.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the guidance and encouragement of the Guest Editors, and the astute feedback from the two anonymous reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing Griffith Business School, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, 4222, Queensland, Australia

    Dale Miller

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  1. Holly Cooper
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  2. Dale Miller
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  3. Bill Merrilees
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Correspondence to Dale Miller.

Additional information

1research interests include sustainable corporate branding, corporate heritage and corporate heritage brands. She has published on brand narratives in Psychology and Marketing and has a deep interest in investigating how to recover and advance corporate heritage in organisations.

2research spans various branding domains including corporate rebranding, corporate branding, cities, communities, retailing, and not-for-profit branding and sustainable business. She has published widely, including in the Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Marketing, Long Range Planning, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services and the Journal of Historical Research in Marketing.

3research interests encompass branding (including corporate rebranding and brand morphing) and innovation in various contexts including firms, cities, communities, retailing and franchising. His research has been published internationally including in the European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Advertising Research and Journal of Strategic Marketing.

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Cooper, H., Miller, D. & Merrilees, B. Restoring luxury corporate heritage brands: From crisis to ascendency. J Brand Manag 22, 448–466 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2015.9

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