Exploring Meaning in Brand Storytelling: A Case Study of the Calvin Klein 2016 Fall Global Campaign

Abstract

Brand storytelling has in recent years attracted increased academic attention, although research has mostly been focused on studying the topic from a consumer behaviour perspective, while much less attention has been paid to the actual meaning of these stories. This thesis explores how meaning is constructed and communicated in brand storytelling, as well as how this knowledge can be applied in branding research. This is done through an exploratory case study, which consists of identifying the narratives found in Calvin Klein’s 2016 fall global campaign and subsequently examining how they contributed towards Calvin Klein’s status as an iconic brand. A multimodal discourse analysis is performed on a sample of 24 campaign materials from the campaign in question, comprising a mix of images, videos, and written interviews, where the three overarching narratives of celebrating individuality, promoting diversity, and the empowering role of the Calvin Klein brand are identified. Subsequently, these narratives are examined within the theoretical framework of cultural branding theory, which reveals that the narratives in question were used to enact an identity myth of the microcelebrity, which consumers sought to live out through consuming the brand’s products. This suggests that the three narratives contributed significantly to Calvin Klein’s status as an iconic brand by narrativising the identity myth that gave the brand iconic status. The findings of this thesis contribute to the brand storytelling literature by demonstrating an alternative approach for studying this field, providing a multimodal discourse perspective of how meaning is constructed and communicated in brand storytelling, while also showing how the knowledge gained from this approach can be applied to existing branding theories.