Economic Geographies of Brands and Branding

Abstract

Brands and branding are an underinvestigated area in economic geography. Despite their pervasive growth as sources and carriers of meaning and value, the economic geographic dimensions of brands and branding lack conceptual clarity and remain undertheorized. This article introduces the idea of geographical associations to provide stronger conceptual and theoretical foundations to explain the importance and role of brands and branding in economic geographies. It then builds on and critically examines the worth of this understanding in an empirical exploration of the Burberry brand and its branding in the luxury fashion business. The argument is that conceiving of the geographical associations constituting the economic geographies of brands and branding explains their role as means of cohering and stabilizing meaning and value in spatial circuits. Concerted attention to brands and branding can broaden the reach of economic geography in its intersections between cultural and political economy. © 2013 Clark University.