The Glocalization of Brand Myths: An Examination of Volvo Discourses from a Swedish and an American Consumer Perspective

Abstract

This article examines how global brand myths take on localized meanings in different localities. The global car brand Volvo is used as context to identify global brand myths and study the local variations in how Swedish and American consumers interpret these myths. This knowledge is needed due to the increasing globalization of brands, which makes the issue of brand myth interpretation across borders an important one. We suggest that glocalization in the specific context of brand myths has been given to sparse attention in previous research. Moreover, understanding of brand myths is essential for transforming a brand into an iconic brand. Our analysis demonstrates that consumers use Volvo discourses in a number of localized ways that reproduce glocal brand myths constituting structures of common difference. Our findings indicate that there are four global myths with local variations: myth of Volvo as safe, myth of Volvo as transformed, myth of Volvo as Swedish, and myth of Volvo as transforming me. We show that Thompson’s (2004) interpretative framework allows us to analyze Volvo’s brand myths as gnostic and romantic and we propose that brand myths stretching between the gnostic and romantic mythological ends can be a way to create an iconic brand.