The service brand and the service-dominant logic: missing fundamental premise or the need for stronger theory?

It is increasingly being recognized that brands play a major role in contributing to the value of service businesses (e.g. Berry, 2000; de Chernatony, 2003). However, in their award-winning article about the emerging service-dominant logic, Vargo and Lusch (2004) pay little attention to branding. This article explores the case for integrating branding into the service-dominant logic (S-D logic). We review how diverse perspectives of brands relate to the S-D logic and then examine Rust, Zeithaml and Lemon's (2000) claim that brand equity is a component of the concept of customer equity. Next we review some recent research about brands in relationships and then examine whether there is a missing fundamental premise in the S-D logic about the service brand. Finally we consider the development of stronger underlying theory that integrates the concepts of brand equity, customer equity and network equity into the S-D logic.