Virtue Ethics in Marketing: The Art of Crafting Tragic Brand Stories

The paper explores the role of marketing stories in cultivating virtue ethics in consumers. Drawing from the philosophy and storytelling tradition of the Aristotelian tragedy along with Kierkegaard’s Either/Or and Castoriadis’ insights, it is illustrated that tragic stories can be a valuable creative resource for marketing professionals who wish to promote virtue ethics in the marketplace. To achieve this, the paper: a) illuminates the value of virtue-oriented stories in marketing; b) critically examines the value of existing brand stories; c) proposes an alternative brand storytelling orientation, based on the tradition of tragedy, which fosters virtue ethics; d) offers a framework and guidelines to brand executives who want to craft tragic brand stories.