How Value is Culturally Co-Constructed Over Time: An Interpretive Framework for Mythical-Level Analysis

Culturally attuned marketing and consumer research theories suggest that commercial companies and marketplace cultures co-create value over time through co-constructing brand meanings. Existing research suggests that commercial retro marketers and historic brand marketplace cultures play disparate value creating roles. Despite this, their efforts seem to serve the same end; namely, sustaining a branded experience over time. In response to this anomaly, this paper offers a mythical-level framework for philosophically and empirically interpreting this phenomenon. It contends that survivalue creation and revivalue creation are two strategically discrete, ideologically antithetical, yet complementary cultural value creation processes which sustain brand experiences over time. Survivalue creation defines the cultural conservation process which strategically preserves historic brand experiences. Revivalue creation defines the cultural reproductive process which strategically revives historic brand experiences. Both strands of value creation form the essence of a brand's cultural DNA; the code which enables its functioning, development and reproduction over time.