Exogenously Induced Brand Change:

Brand change is extensively elaborated from a management-centric perspective. Nevertheless, this view perceives the brand change process as rather linear, harmonic, static and mainly initiated by brand managers. In contrast, this thesis is arguing that brand change is emergent and the role of exogenous stakeholders is crucial. Therefore, this thesis ontologically and epistemologically adopts Lucarelli and Hallin’s (2015) performative perspective to brand change. This approach interprets brands as loose assemblages (Lury 2009). A netnographic study elaborates on exogenously induced brand change and the role of media, consumers as well as regulatory institutions / governmental institutions. Based on this empirical study, the thesis argues that brand change can be seen as processual, multiple and political and therefore exogenously induced brand change can be observed through a performative lens.