Towards new conceptualizations of branding: theories of the middle range

Abstract

It is suggested there is a need to broaden theorizing about brands to include service, relational and social perspectives as well as the traditional managerial perspective. Rather than attempt to develop a grand theory about brands, a more productive approach is to focus on the interface between theory and practice, provided by the managerial, service, relational and social perspectives to develop a federation of theories. This paper provides nine perspectives which serve as a basis for this middle range thinking.