Brand Heritage Concept in Turkish Food Industry: Its Importance for Companies

Abstract

Purpose – Brand heritage is acknowledged as one of the future priorities in branding research. Heritage brands stand for longevity and sustainability, as proof that the core values and performance of the given products are reliable. Focusing on the food industry, the aim of the present study is to analyze the drivers and strategies of brand heritage from the viewpoint of management.

Design/methodology/approach – The study was conducted in the case study, one of the qualitative research designs. In-depth interviews were held with the representatives of the businesses that have a brand heritage in the food industry, and questions were asked about the strategies of creating and sustaining the brand heritage. A total of 12 in-depth interviews were carried out and interview scripts were prepared by using the five characteristics put forward on brand heritage literature by Mats Urde. In-depth interviews were analyzed with MAXQDA 2018 program with thematic analysis, which is a qualitative data analysis method.

Results – Among the main findings, it is noted that the managers of companies with brand heritage perceive their brands as a way of life and form the concept of brand heritage with the five characteristcs stated by Urde.

Discussion – The concept of brand heritage is a relatively new one in the literature, especially in our country. When previous studies are examined, it can be observed that there are very few studies in the field of brand heritage prepared from the management’s perspective rather than consumers. For this reason, it is considered that the findings of our study will make a significant contribution to the literature in the field of strategic brand management in our country.