Brand Immortality

Ceyda Sinag
Jan 8
5 min read

Written By Ceyda Sinağ, Post-Doc at Sabancı University, Turkiye

Even managers anthropomorphize brands. We speak of brands as if they were human; they are born, mature, endure, and sometimes die. However, their lives do not entirely adhere to biological realities. Even after death, they can open their eyes again, through brand managers’ touch. The challenge is not to turn them into Frankenbrands once they are revived.

In their article in press, "Trajectories of brand afterlife", Jacob Östberg (Stockholm University) and Benjamin Hartmann (University of Gothenburg) ask a simple yet important question: What are the possible trajectories when a brand dies? To answer this question, the authors develop a conceptual model of brand afterlife that outlines the possible pathways a discontinued brand may take.

Reviving phantom brands without awakening the Frankenbrand

Once brands are discontinued and leave the shelves, that does not mean they leave consumers' hearts. Consumers may still use, talk about, and love them. Hence, discontinued brands maintain their presence in consumer culture. Jacob and Benjamin describe this stage as a liminal phase in which brands stand between life and death, and they metaphorically refer to such brands as "phantom brands." The authors develop a brand afterlife model that outlines the possible paths phantom brands may follow. Not all phantom brands are alike; they generate different forms of residual value for target consumers. Depending on the value brands offer, they may become a nostalgic, vital, utilitarian, or dormant phantom brand. Notably, residual value varies across consumer groups. For example, Saab is a "utilitarian" phantom brand in Sweden but a "vital" one in the U.S. due to residual emotional value.

According to the authors, managers may relaunch a liminal, phantom brand, but this alone does not ensure its resurrection. To come alive, relaunched brands must still pass the litmus test of consumer authenticity judgments. If consumers view the revival as inauthentic, the brand becomes a "Frankenbrand" and remains in the liminal phase. Such brands are, in the authors' terms, "defunct, freakish, and monstrous doppelgängers." To move such brands out of liminality, managers must socialize them through authenticity cues, symbolic bridging, and enchanting discourses. The authors further outline several resurrection strategies to guide managers toward successful revivals of phantom brands and to prevent Frankenbrand outcomes.

The birth of the dead brands idea

The authors met at Lund University, where Benjamin was Jacob’s master’s student. The idea for the research originated in an earlier paper they wrote on brand authentication for the Swedish guitar brand Hagström. In the IJRM paper, we learn that Hagström was a Frankenbrand that was successfully revived and achieved market success. Writing this earlier paper, Jacob noted that the team recognized brand death and revival as worthy of further exploration. Once the authors began investigating discontinued brands, they realized this represents a large class of brands.

On writing a conceptual paper

The authors cast a wide net, collecting information from news articles, trade journals, and the marketing literature. They found parts of the story already discussed in both managerial and academic work, yet managerial insights were dispersed and anecdotal. Therefore, the authors synthesized these fragments into a unified theoretical perspective. Jacob told me they had been working on drafts of the paper for about 10 years before submitting to IJRM. Writing a conceptual paper rather than an empirical one is a different kind of scholarly work. He noted that they read many conceptual papers and selected those that inspired them to position their paper. Further, while they included only a few examples in the paper, in fact, they collected hundreds of pages of quirky, strange examples of brand revivals.

“The challenge of writing a conceptual paper is that you face questions such as: On what basis do you interpret the data this way? Without empirical evidence to rely on, you must instead construct stronger arguments and write a good story. There is more freedom, but not without limits—you are not writing fiction. The task is to use that freedom sensibly.”

- Jacob Östberg

Despite the challenges, there were many rewards. Over the years, the authors have become close friends. Joint paper projects give them opportunities to meet as they live in different parts of Sweden. Jacob speaks fondly about his co-author, stating that he is both very creative and critical. He remembers the laughter during discussions with Benjamin of Frankenbrands and their resurrections Beyond their genuine friendship, they found great joy in working on this specific piece.

Honing the conceptual framework

Their initial manuscript was "very colorful" in Jacob's terms, with plenty of playful metaphors and humorous elements, such as zombies and Frankenstein's monster. Hence, it was fun to read, but for an academic paper, he admits it was too much. The reviewers and editors were kind and supportive throughout the process.

“The review process and editorial team did a good job of identifying the strengths of our work and encouraging us to develop them further. They also helped us to make it even more meaningful by removing sections that were fun but did not meaningfully advance the theoretical ideas we aimed to pursue.”

- Jacob Östberg

Even though they removed much of the colorful language, Jacob notes that the paper still contains enough quirky elements to feel like a genuine reflection of who they are as scholars. I would definitely agree; what is your view?

Read the paper

Interested in reading “Trajectories of brand afterlife” Read the full paper here.

Want to cite the paper?

Ostberg, J., & Hartmann, B. J. (2025). Trajectories of brand afterlife. International Journal of Research in Marketing.

Meet the Author

Jacob Östberg

Professor of Marketing at Stockholm University

If you had the chance to revive a phantom brand, which one would you bring back and why?

I would revive the Swedish car brand Saab. It was a charming and quirky brand. Saab originally started as an aircraft manufacturer, and the company still produces airplanes. I am familiar with its history from the beginning. I was genuinely saddened when Saab went bankrupt. Although a Chinese company attempted to revive it, the effort was ultimately unsuccessful. I would love to see Saab cars back on the road.

If you would not be a marketing researcher, what would you be?

I would like to be a journalist. I like the writing part of the job.

Who is the researcher from any field you would like to sit down to lunch with? What would you say to him/her?

Judith Butler. She is one of my absolute favorite scholars and is deeply inspiring. She is super interesting, very bright, and super critical. If I were to bring up a topic that I would feel comfortable talking to her about, it would be how to push through, standing up for and continuing to research and write about critical issues, despite many people being openly hostile, critical, and dismissive not just of her research, but her as a person. I would like to hear about the strength it takes to believe so strongly in the validity of her ideas that she is willing to face all these hardships and stand up for what she believes.

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