Illustrating Complexity in the Brand Management of Family Firms

Family firms form the majority of enterprises in almost all national economies. While public corporations consist of the two components ownership and business, family firms have a third component: the family. In the past, brand management and family firms have been seen as two separate fields of research. This empirical study focuses on brand management of family firms, which can be seen as a complex interdisciplinary field of research. Taking the complexity into account, a model based on the brand identity model of Burmann, Halaszovich, and Hemmann (Identitätsbasierte Markenführung. Springer-Gabler, 2012) and qualitative interviews that were conducted with German family firm managers, is developed. This model, the so-called "markencloud", categorizes the different aspects of brand management in family firms and gives family firm owners additional hands-on information on their company's brand. The "markencloud" does not only illustrate complexity from a scientific point of view, it also works as a practitioners' tool to support a family firm's brand management.