The Limits of Brand Heritage in Luxury Advertising

Brand heritage is a valuable dimension for luxury brands' identities. Luxury brands are competing in creativity to develop strong storytelling communication campaigns aimed at disclosing rich imagery around their brand heritage. Literature has shown multiple positive results of such practices. This current paper is, however, identifying situations where the focus on brand heritage may not have the positive expected effects. In three experimental studies, we show that focusing the storytelling on brand heritage when advertising products perceived to be more connected to self (such as perfumes) can backfire and lead to less positive attitudes toward the communication campaign and lower intentions to purchase the product. Our results indicate that storytelling should focus on character when the product is perceived to be closer to the self. The focus on brand heritage however is efficient for products that are perceived to be less connected to the self (such as bags).

品牌传承（Brand Heritage）是奢侈品品牌身份建构中的关键维度。当前奢侈品品牌竞相在创意领域发力，打造富有感染力的叙事传播活动，以展现品牌传承背后的丰富意象。既有学术研究已证实此类运营策略可带来多重积极成效。然而本研究旨在识别品牌传承聚焦策略未能达成预期积极效果的场景。通过三项实验研究，我们发现：在为被认为与自我关联度更高的产品（如香水）投放广告时，将叙事焦点置于品牌传承反而会适得其反，导致受众对该传播活动的态度更为消极，且产品购买意愿有所降低。研究结果表明，当产品被感知为与自我关联度较高时，叙事应聚焦于品牌人格特质；而聚焦品牌传承的策略，则对与自我关联度较低的产品（如箱包）更为有效。