Purpose

The past is important for various known and unknown reasons. This paper aims to reveal and justify unacknowledged reasons why, when and how managers should consider leveraging the pasts of previously successful but currently declining brands to restore their more desirable historical market positions.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper combines marketing and branding theory with historical branding examples, anecdotes and inductive inferences to develop and justify brand-pastness as a theoretically-grounded and managerially-actionable repositioning concept that could be applied to resurrect declining brands.

Findings

The emergent historically-grounded brand-pastness framework generates innovative insights that could be applied in the future. These insights explain when, why and how brand managers could apply brand-pastness to resurrect declining brands. The framework also facilitates the development of a brand-pastness-based research agenda. The agenda is driven by questions structured to address the nature, scope and potential applications of brand-pastness as a new concept and useful repositioning tool.

Research limitations/implications

This paper’s recommendations are limited by their conceptual and inductive origins. However, a research agenda is developed to guide and structure future empirical investigations of the branding antecedents to and consequences of a prospective brand-pastness construct.

Originality/value

This paper introduces, conceptualizes and justifies the potential value of a historically-grounded concept called brand-pastness. The concept may prove beneficial when marketing managers use brand-pastness to reposition and resurrect declining brands by re-instilling targeted consumers’ historical perceptions of brands’ past superiority.

中文翻译：

---

Tout casse，tout passe，tout lasse；et tout se remplace：利用品牌的过去来复兴衰落的品牌

目的

由于各种已知和未知的原因，过去很重要。本文旨在揭示并证明管理人员为何、何时以及如何考虑利用先前成功但目前正在衰落的品牌的过去来恢复其更理想的历史市场地位的未被承认的原因。

设计/方法论/途径

这篇概念性论文将营销和品牌理论与历史品牌实例、轶事和归纳推论相结合，以发展和证明品牌过去性作为一个有理论基础和管理上可行的重新定位概念，可用于复兴衰落的品牌。

发现

新兴的基于历史的品牌过去性框架产生了可以在未来应用的创新见解。这些见解解释了品牌经理何时、为何以及如何运用品牌过去性来复兴衰落的品牌。该框架还有助于制定基于品牌过去的研究议程。该议程由旨在解决品牌过去作为新概念和有用的重新定位工具的性质、范围和潜在应用的问题所驱动。

研究局限性/影响

本文的建议受到其概念和归纳起源的限制。然而，我们制定了一个研究议程，以指导和构建未来对未来品牌过去性构建的品牌前因和后果的实证调查。

原创性/价值

本文介绍、概念化并证明了一个基于历史的概念（称为品牌过去性）的潜在价值。当营销经理利用品牌过去性，通过重新灌输目标消费者对品牌过去优越性的历史认知来重新定位和复兴衰落的品牌时，这一概念可能会被证明是有益的。