Origination: The Geographies of Brands and Branding

Chapter Four‘Local’ Origination … Newcastle Brown Ale

Introduction

This chapter examines the actors involved in attempting to create and fix meaningful and valuable geographical associations in the brand and branding of Newcastle Brown Ale (NBA) in particular spatial and temporal market settings. Emphasizing the importance of socio-spatial history, it begins by tracing the geo-historical origins of the brand. It explains the origination of NBA in the particular ‘local’ of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the north east region of England. NBA’s brand owner, managers, circulators, consumers and regulators have sought to construct and appropriate meaning and value from its traditions and values in its urban and regional commercial heartland and subsequent national distribution. This particular origination made it difficult for the brand owners and managers to recruit new generations of consumers in the north east and beyond in the context of broader market shifts and segmentation. Origination illuminates how the brand owner’s search for new markets for the brand articulated with a growing market segment in America. NBA’s origination was then changed to the national scale within the pluri-national state of the United Kingdom. The brand was (re)originated as ‘Imported from England’ in efforts to construct its premium meaning and value for its new college-educated, typically male and affluent younger consumers. The wider value of origination is demonstrated in analysing the particular ...