Open Hedonistic Branding: Managing Brand Purpose in a Hedonistic Era

As Iglesias and Ind (2020) argue, brand purpose and conscientious corporate brand co-creation are the next challenge for branding and brand management. In a world characterized by existential crisis of climate change, environmental degradation, political rivalry and unrest (including war), economic instability, health crises and the increasing incursion of technology on human life the role of branding might seem small. The ability and necessity for brand to address these grand challenges has led to researchers to focus on what in which brands can work with brand purpose (Swaminathan et al, 2020; Hadjas & Kleczek & 2021) and brand conscience (Iglesias & Ind, 2020). This sentiment is reflected in industry with a general shift in focus from solely shareholder primacy to a more encompassing commitment to all stakeholders (Business Roundtable, 2019). Similarly, consumer surveys indicate that there is strong consumer sentiment for purpose driven brands (e.g. Edelman, 2020; Gast, Illanes, Probst, Schaninger & Simpson, 2020). However, scholarship has lagged particularly in understand consumer motivations for engaging with purpose-driven brands and evidence suggests that consumers are skeptical about commercial brand-related messages (Copeland
& Bhaduri, 2020; Klostermann, Hydock, & Decker, 2021; Wang & Bouroncle, 2024). This is compounded by a more general consumer disaffection with affluent consumption and institutional actors and arrangements aimed at addressing society’s grand challenges (Soper, 2020). The question addressed in this paper is “Under conditions of consumer acceleration, how can we engage consumers around brand purpose?”