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How brand visual aesthetics foster a transnational imagined community

Mark Buschgens (School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, College of Business, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia)
Bernardo Figueiredo (School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, College of Business, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia)
Kaleel Rahman (School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, College of Business, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia)

European Journal of Marketing

ISSN: 0309-0566

Article publication date: 25 June 2019

Issue publication date: 20 September 2019

1469

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how visual aesthetic referents used in branding can help foster a transnational imagined community (TIC). The authors use brands embedded with Middle Eastern visual aesthetics as a research context. As such, the study aims to examine how Middle Eastern non-figurative art is used by non-Middle Eastern brands to foster an imagined Middle Easternness.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a critical visual analysis, the authors apply a visual social semiotic approach to Middle Eastern art canons to better understand the dimensions of transnational imagined communities.

Findings

The study finds and discusses six sub-dimensions of Middle Easternness, which compose two overarching dimensions of TIC, namely, temporal and spatial. These sub-dimensions provide brand managers and designers with six different ways to foster transnational imagined communities through the use of visual aesthetic referents in branding.

Research limitations/implications

This research identifies the specific visual sub-dimensions of brands that enable transnational communities to be imagined.

Practical implications

Understanding the visual aesthetic sub-dimensions in this study provides brand managers with practical tools that can help develop referents that foster transnational imagined communities in brand building to achieve competitive advantage and reach a transnational segment.

Originality/value

Prior studies have primarily focussed on how visual aesthetics help in understanding issues related to national identity. In contrast, this paper examines the use of visual aesthetics in branding from a transnational perspective.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank the Associate Editor and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback on earlier drafts of this paper. In addition, the authors thank Giana Eckhardt (Royal Holloway University of London), whose comments were instrumental in our progress with the reviews.

Citation

Buschgens, M., Figueiredo, B. and Rahman, K. (2019), "How brand visual aesthetics foster a transnational imagined community", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 53 No. 11, pp. 2268-2292. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-10-2017-0655

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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