TY - JOUR

T1 - Raising the dead

T2 - on brands that go bump in the night

AU - Brown, Stephen

AU - Patterson, Anthony

AU - Ashman, Rachel

N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Marketing Management on 17th December 2020, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0267257X.2020.1839121

PY - 2021/4/30

Y1 - 2021/4/30

N2 - Many brands have been obliterated by the ‘death of the high street’ and many more have had near-death experiences. This paper applies Derrida’s ‘hauntology’ to Hollister, a high-flying fashion brand that fell from grace. Although it remains in the land of the living, selling impossible dreams of So-Cal’s beachside lifestyle, Hollister is a ghost of its former self. An interpretive empirical investigation reveals that the brand’s hauntology comprises four phantomic components: mortality, anxiety, liminality and retroactivity. A spectral ‘model’ of bump-in-the-night brands also makes its presence felt.

AB - Many brands have been obliterated by the ‘death of the high street’ and many more have had near-death experiences. This paper applies Derrida’s ‘hauntology’ to Hollister, a high-flying fashion brand that fell from grace. Although it remains in the land of the living, selling impossible dreams of So-Cal’s beachside lifestyle, Hollister is a ghost of its former self. An interpretive empirical investigation reveals that the brand’s hauntology comprises four phantomic components: mortality, anxiety, liminality and retroactivity. A spectral ‘model’ of bump-in-the-night brands also makes its presence felt.

KW - Ghost brands

KW - Hauntology

KW - Hollister

KW - Introspection

KW - Literary criticism

U2 - 10.1080/0267257X.2020.1839121

DO - 10.1080/0267257X.2020.1839121

M3 - Journal article

VL - 37

SP - 417

EP - 436

JO - Journal of Marketing Management

JF - Journal of Marketing Management

SN - 0267-257X

IS - 5-6

ER -