Twenty-five years of brand new thinking

Over its first quarter century, Marketing Theory has transformed how we think about brands, and what we think brands are. The journal began by rescuing branding from the clutches of managerial functionalism, reimagining it as a cultural phenomenon worth serious intellectual attention. What followed was a remarkable journey: from brands as symbols to brands as systems, from cultural codes to cultural infrastructures, from messages crafted in boardrooms to meanings negotiated in algorithm-mediated platforms. Along the way, the journal became a home for scholars who refused easy answers, who saw brands as sites of labour and resistance, governance and play, power and possibility. This commentary explores that intellectual adventure, highlighting the conceptual leaps and the scholars who made them, while mapping territory for future exploration. Marketing Theory’s peculiar penchant, we suggest, lies in its restless curiosity and its refusal to let ‘brand’ mean just one thing. As branding continues to evolve, the journal’s appetite for theoretical diversity suggests it’s just getting started.