ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a critical theoretical overview of paradigmatic brand and branding conceptions and advance a novel conceptual approach to brands and branding that draws on performance theory. It focuses on analyzing the development of brand definitions as discourses that construct the subjects and the worlds of which they speak, rather than just describing them differently. The analysis focuses on three prototypical brand discourses that can be found in the academic brand management literature: the brand-as-object, the brand-in-the-mind and the brand-in-culture. The chapter expresses that existing theory is mired in three fundamental assumptions: a dyadic comprehension of brand relations, an essentializing understanding of the brand, and a semantic notion of brand meaning. It provides a typological review and critique of predominant approaches in branding theory to identify the main assumptions about brands and branding in terms of brand relations, brand ontology and finally brand content.
