Heritage Branding: Definitions and Key Terms
Heritage branding is the strategic use of selected parts of a brand’s past in its positioning and communication (Urde et al., 2007; Balmer, 2013).
When brand managers tell heritage stories, they typically build them from six elements: the founding date, people (the founder or the family), technology, links between past, present and future, struggle or conflict, and the place where the company was founded (Pfannes et al., 2021).
The key word is “selected”. Companies have a certain freedom in how they interpret their past: they choose which parts of history to highlight. That is also why some heritage claims can turn out to be inaccurate (Brunninge, 2023).
Brand Heritage
Brand heritage is a separate part of brand identity rooted in a company’s history and core values. Brands that use it well take care of it – this is called brand stewardship – so that the historical identity stays intact while the company moves forward (Urde et al., 2007).
Managing heritage requires a certain mindset: a sense of responsibility, long-term thinking, keeping trust in the brand, and the ability to adapt. This is how the value of heritage is found, used, protected and increased (Urde et al., 2007).
Heritage Brand vs Brand with Heritage
Any company with a history can claim heritage, but only some choose to make it central to their identity and strategy. A heritage brand actively positions and promotes its heritage as a central part of what it offers. A brand with heritage has a long history but does not use it openly in its branding. So a long history alone does not make a brand a heritage brand (Urde et al., 2007). Real examples of both types are in Heritage Brand Examples.
Corporate Heritage and Corporate Heritage Brands
Corporate heritage means the parts of an organisation’s past that internal or external stakeholders still see as relevant and meaningful today. Corporate heritage identity is broader: it covers the historical continuity of the whole company – its competencies, culture, philosophy, activities, markets and groups (Balmer & Burghausen, 2015).
A corporate heritage brand is a special type of institutional brand: its brand promise stays consistent over time and shows in the organisation’s identity, behaviour and symbols. So heritage is visible not only in advertising, but also in how the company acts (Balmer & Burghausen, 2015).
The Four Dimensions of Heritage
Heritage can appear in four forms (Hudson & Balmer, 2013):
- Structural heritage: real historical legacy, such as pedigree or historical events, that backs up the brand promise.
- Implied heritage: attributes that continue from the past, for example artefacts like trophies or product prototypes.
- Reconstructed heritage: a distinctive feature from the past, reinterpreted for today. Think of how the familiar shapes of the Porsche 911 or the Volkswagen Beetle have been adapted to modern design.
- Mythical heritage: imagined, often idealised or romanticised attributes that promise an experience, linked to fantasies in communication and product design.
So brand heritage is not always a literal archive. Sometimes it is factual, sometimes it is redesigned, selectively remembered or even partly invented (Hudson & Balmer, 2013; Brunninge, 2023).
Omnitemporality: Past, Present and Future
A corporate heritage brand connects three time frames at once: past, present and future. This is called omnitemporality. In simple words: a heritage brand keeps a symbolic link to its past while staying up to date (Balmer, 2011; Rindell & Santos, 2021).
Consumers expect exactly this balance. They expect heritage brands to combine past and present, old and new, traditional and modern – to keep an idealised past and still stay relevant (Pecot & De Barnier, 2017).
Brand History vs Brand Heritage
Brand history is everything that happened in a brand’s past. Brand heritage is only the part of it that is still relevant and meaningful today (Balmer & Burghausen, 2015).
Heritage also depends on the audience. It is formed in consumers’ minds: people read a brand’s current actions through their own past experience with it. This is called “image heritage”, and it may differ from the story the company wants to tell. If heritage claims seem fake or too artificial, consumers may become sceptical (Rindell et al., 2015; Pecot & De Barnier, 2017).
Can Heritage Be Invented?
Some companies without a long history try to create or borrow a sense of heritage. Heritage can also change hands: when a company buys a brand, it can take over that brand’s past as its own. Research on “invented corporate heritage brands” describes three strategies: appropriation (using the history of a predecessor company or local history as one’s own), oblivion (leaving out parts of history that do not fit the desired image) and fantasizing (openly inventing a historical story) (Brunninge, 2023).
In most cases the invention is not about fake facts, but about how believable the link between the past and the brand promise is. As Brunninge (2023) puts it:
“While in extreme cases, invented heritage brands build on totally made-up stories, the invention mostly does not lie in the facticity of the communicated past, but in the trustworthiness of its relevance for the brand promise.“
If heritage claims seem implausible, stakeholders may challenge them.
What makes such a story believable? In my view, one important condition is how stakeholders already see the company’s past: if they have a romanticised picture of it, an invented or borrowed story fits in more easily. This links to the idea of mythical heritage (Hudson & Balmer, 2013).
FAQ
Is every old brand a heritage brand? No – a long history alone is not enough (Urde et al., 2007). See Heritage Brand vs Brand with Heritage above.
What is a legacy brand? Is it the same as a heritage brand? In everyday language, “legacy brand” is often used as another name for a heritage brand – a brand with a long history. In research, the usual term is “heritage brand”. The key point is the same: a long history alone does not make a brand a heritage brand; it has to actively use its past in its identity (Urde et al., 2007).
What is the difference between brand heritage and heritage branding? Brand heritage is the resource; heritage branding is how a company uses it in marketing and communication (Urde et al., 2007; Balmer, 2013).
Can heritage be invented? Yes, but only if the story still feels believable (Brunninge, 2023). See Can Heritage Be Invented? above.
Sources
Balmer, J. M. T. (2011). Corporate heritage brands and the precepts of corporate heritage brand management: Insights from the British Monarchy on the eve of the royal wedding of Prince William (April 2011) and Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee (1952-2012). Journal of Brand Management, 18(8), 517-544. https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2011.21
Balmer, J. M. T. (2013). Corporate heritage, corporate heritage marketing, and total corporate heritage communications. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 18(3), 290-326. https://doi.org/10.1108/ccij-05-2013-0031
Balmer, J. M. T., & Burghausen, M. (2015). Explicating corporate heritage, corporate heritage brands and organisational heritage. Journal of Brand Management, 22(5), 364-384. https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2015.26
Brunninge, O. (2023). Invented corporate heritage brands. Journal of Brand Management, 30(2), 157-169. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41262-022-00304-7
Hudson, B. T., & Balmer, J. M. T. (2013). Corporate heritage brands: Mead’s theory of the past. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 18(3), 347-361. https://doi.org/10.1108/ccij-apr-2012-0027
Pecot, F., & De Barnier, V. (2017). Brands using historical references: A consumers’ perspective. Journal of Brand Management, 25(2), 171-184. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41262-017-0076-y
Pfannes, C., Meyer, C., Orth, U. R., & Rose, G. M. (2021). Brand narratives: Content and consequences among heritage brands. Psychology & Marketing, 38(11), 1867-1880. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21543
Rindell, A., & Santos, F. P. (2021). What makes a corporate heritage brand authentic for consumers? A semiotic approach. Journal of Brand Management, 28(5), 545-558. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41262-021-00243-9
Rindell, A., Santos, F. P., & De Lima, A. P. (2015). Two sides of a coin: Connecting corporate brand heritage to consumers’ corporate image heritage. Journal of Brand Management, 22(5), 467-484. https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2015.20
Urde, M., Greyser, S. A., & Balmer, J. M. T. (2007). Corporate brands with a heritage. Journal of Brand Management, 15(1), 4-19. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.bm.2550106