This article discusses the argument put forward by Vargo and Lusch (2004) that a new service dominant logic is emerging within marketing. Taking on this new service logic means our understanding of marketing has developed from a focus on exchange of goods to a broader focus on exchange of services. However, in seeking to elaborate on Vargo and Lusch's argument, limitations are highlighted and consequently their eight foundational premises are challenged at an ontological level. While Vargo and Lusch recognize the evolution of marketing towards a service orientation, their understanding of this and what it means for marketing continues to be founded on the same rationalistic assumptions as the traditional goods-centred logic. In recognizing the emergent service orientation, marketers and researchers need to question their underlying assumptions and seek to understand services as constituted in the customer's experience.

This study investigates how consumers use brands to construct their self. Focusing on the consumer's experience of brands, the study interprets consumer narratives on how brand consumption contributes to the construction of the self. The findings demonstrate that consumers use brands in different ways: symbolic, iconic, and indexical. Apart from the symbolism of brands used to construct the self, consumers also use brands that resemble something in an iconic manner. Additionally, consumers use brands that have a factual connection to something in an indexical way to construct the self. Given these findings, this paper therefore contributes to both theory and practice. Theoretically, the findings support semiotic theory and the relationships between the object, the sign, and the interpretant. More practically, this work shows that recognition of the experiential meaning of brands informs marketers and brand managers on how to effectively market brands.

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