The Brand Culture of Shanghai Tang: An Aspiring Global Brand

Abstract

In this research, managerial perspectives, consumer vantage points, managerial and consumer networks, and the interactions between these participants were examined across locations to come to an understanding of how Chinese brand development crosses national boundaries and intersects with a global context. By pursuing multi-sited interviews and case studies, we gained a rich understanding of the cultural formation of the brand, including how brand meanings circulate and co-create culture. The case study presented here offers a lens through which to study Chinese brand development in the global marketplace, and sheds light on the ways in which brands and culture circulate and construct each other in global brand culture. Furthermore, we use these insights to argue for the development of Chinese brand culture into a strategic brand resource. This is not a simple matter of drawing upon a shared set of characteristics in all cases; rather Chinese brand culture reveals itself as a subtle and complex resource with a diversity of applications, impacts, and impressions.