The presence of the omni-temporal: theoretical foundations of (corporate) brand heritage design

Abstract

This conceptual article explores and articulates the theoretical bases of (corporate) brand heritage design. It is conceptualised as the multifaceted actualisation of a (corporate) heritage brand’s quality of omni-temporality and as a purposive-instrumental creative act of translating it into material and ideational manifestations. These intended manifestations are said to imbue a brand with an “aura of heritage” affording a specific “heritage atmosphere” that enables consumers or other stakeholders to experience the heritage brand in a multi-modal and multi-sensory way. The paper argues that design is a relevant but often overlooked or taken-for-granted dimension of (corporate) brand heritage, which is not only of instrumental strategic efficacy but constitutive for (corporate) heritage brands and identities per se. Based on a reading of the extant literature, a tentative theoretical framework is developed that may guide future conceptual and empirical work in the field of corporate and brand heritage scholarship. The article suggests that corporate/brand heritage is actualised in and by design through an ongoing translation of the omni-temporal into the omni-present via four interlinked dimensions. It advances extant scholarship in conceptual terms in that it shows the central significance of (corporate) brand heritage design for the pertinence of (corporate) brand heritage as a strategic resource for brand management.