From being branded to doing branding: Studying representation practices from a communication-centered approach

•We propose that the brand is a mode of organizing representations.•In corporate branding, doing branding and being branded are linked in an intimate way.•We show the contribution of a communication-centered approach to study branding.•The brand is both the outcome of negotiation interactions and what orders them.•Our conception of the brand helps in bridging macro and micro approaches to branding.

SummaryThis paper revolves around the organizing dimension of the brand, which we explore by focusing on what we call representation practices: actual day-to-day communicative practices through which people collectively engage in representing the organization, and by doing so participate in creating its brand(s). Taking a communication-centered approach to branding, we direct our attention to a particular organizational context, that of higher education institutions. More specifically, we address the branding efforts of a university department in the development of its new website. Through this case study, we show how, in doing branding, faculty members are directly confronted with the images/identities of who they are, collectively and individually. Branding, we argue, implies an ongoing negotiation of representations, which affects both what and who is being branded.