Abstract

While there have been ongoing discussions and attempts to utilize archives for marketing purposes in various organizations, including businesses, there has been a lack of clarity regarding what should be archived and what should be considered as marketing targets within an organization’s history. Consequently, historical marketing has often been past-oriented, with results varying significantly based on the capabilities of those in charge. To introduce and effectively utilize archives in organizational settings, it is crucial to demonstrate that archives can positively impact organizational performance. The Heritage Archives is a utilization plan that offers an approach to digitizing and preserving the valuable heritage and assets of a business, explaining them to various stakeholders through records, serving as a foundation for building trust in the business, and linking them to marketing, branding, and other applications. This study focuses on fundamental concepts for constructing and utilizing heritage archives by defining and interpreting key concepts such as the affordance of records, organizational heritage, and heritage assets. To this end, the study incorporates Geoffrey Yeo’s affordance and John M.T. Balmer’s concept of heritage. In addition, it compares definitions of assets in KS Q ISO 55000:2021, KS X ISO 15489-1:2016, and KS X ISO 30300:2020. Through the study’s findings, insights can be obtained for organizations seeking to implement heritage archives and leverage them for marketing, branding, and related purposes.