What does brand authenticity mean? Causes and consequences of consumer scrutiny towards a brand narrative / Allison R. Johnson, Matthew Thomson, Jennifer Jeffrey -- Managing brand meaning through celebrity endorsement / Jennifer Edson Escalas, James R. Bettman -- Brand remixing : 3D printing the Nokia case / Aric Rindfleisch, Matthew O'Hern -- Managing cultural equity : a theoretical framework for building iconic brands in globalized markets / Carlos J. Torelli, Jennifer L. Stoner -- Nothing matters more to people than people : brand meaning and social relationships / Aaron C. Ahuvia -- Identification and attachment in consumer-brand relationships / Sankar Sen ... [et al.] -- Identifying customer evangelists / Nathalie Collins ... [et al.] -- Linear versus step-function decision making : the moderating role of relationship norms on consumer responses to brand transgressions / Pankaj Aggarwal, Megha Agarwal -- Feeling attached to symbolic brands within the context of brand transgressions / Eda Sayin, Zeynep Gürhan-Canli -- Consumer responses to brand failures : the neglected role of honor values / Frank May, Alokparna Basu Monga, Kartik Kalaignanam.

Establishing, expanding and leveraging brand meaning is critically important yet exceedingly complex. Successful brand meaning management is foundational to both brand differentiation and to outcomes like brand identification and brand attachment. Yet, managing this meaning over time is complex. Noted contributors to this special issue add new insights to this complex domain. A group of papers lend insight into the myriad entities involved in the meaning making process itself, such as marketers, celebrities, brand users, and the broader culture in which consumers live. A second set emphasizes the critical impact that brand meaning has on consumers and brands themselvesâoutcomes that include brand identification and attachment, social relationship management, and brand evangelism. The final set addresses when and how brand transgressions can threaten these outcomes, and what brands must do to recover from lost or tainted meanings. The volume co-editors provide an overview of the chapters and identify future research issues on brand meaning management in B2B (vs. B2C) markets, and how multi-product firms manage the collective set of meanings that comprise their brand portfolio.

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