Branding Belonging in the Night

This thesis examines how branding in nightlife settings is interpreted and perceived by young people in the Netherlands. Drawing from semi-structured interviews with individuals aged 18-25 and guided by a theoretical framework combining branding theory, identity, spatial politics and audience reception, the study uses reflexive thematic analysis to examine how branding communicates inclusion, exclusion, and identity performance. The findings demonstrate that participants experience branding as an emotive and symbolic system, signifying where participants feel safe, included, or excluded. Participants actively interpret visual, spatial, and social signs, usually negotiating or resisting branding expectations. These interpretations are shaped by personal social identity, taste, and experience. Though some branding was experienced as enabling self-expression, others experienced it as constraining or exclusionary. This analysis illustrates that branding is not solely a marketing technique, but a symbolic infrastructure that co-produces social meaning in nightlife contexts. As a feature of nightlife branding, it both reflects and legitimises symbolic boundaries in terms of aesthetics, crowds, and spatial cues (for example, music genre, door policy, and dress codes). Participants assessed 'moral' and aesthetic choices based on the branding cues, articulating their preferences as well as critiques and moments of ambivalence. In this sense, the use of branding cues is closely tied to a deep sense of belonging and the ability to negotiate or perform identities in nightlife space. Approaching branding as part of a dynamic interpretive process engages the tension between inclusion and exclusion, even in a nightclub space branded as inclusive. It is important to note that many participants articulated how nightlife branding functioned as a way to express their creativity and/or a form of liberation, but carried with it implicit standards which correspond with marginalising or alienating some bodies or behaviours. The study importantly highlighted how participants did not take these branded cues passively, but rather engaged in sense-making processes that involved resisting, reinterpreting, and negotiating affection. This research contributes to nightlife studies and branding research by highlighting the active participation of the young audience in creating the meaning of branded spaces, and also providing thoughtful perspectives on broader implications of symbolic limits in urban youth leisure culture.