Brand heritage is a brand's previous history — brands are invented, evolved, re-invented or revived.

An invented brand, such as Orange, launched by Hutchinson Telecom in 1994, has been created for the purpose of what it promises. 

An evolved brand is a brand which has gone through transformation, either of its presentation — name, logo, other attributes — or of the nature of the promise, or both. Nokia was originally the Finnish Rubber Works, and began to use the name Nokia in the 1900s when rubber was its only product. It only entered the telecomms market in 1922 when it acquired the near-bankrupt Finnish cable works. Most brands which are more than fifty years old have gone through an evolution in terms of their name, logo and liveries. Typically, a comparison of a logo over a fifty year period will show that it has become steadily simplified. Names are less fluid, and tend to change with 

A re-invented brand is usually the result of a rebrand. Re-invention can mean a new name presented in the same style as the old name, a new style, including logo, with the old name, or an entirely new name, logo, style and livery, but representing the same product or service. 

A revived brand is a brand which has fallen out of use but has still some residual value, often connected with nostalgia, heritage or prestige, and is being re-established to take advantage of this value. A number of old automotive brands have been revived in recent years. Formally speaking, in the UK once a trade-mark has lapsed, anyone is free to register the same mark, subject to satisfying the Intellectual Property Office that it is a legitimate application. In practice, many companies keep a brand in a dormant state by issuing perhaps one product a year bearing the name, so that they can maintain continuous trade mark registration which would otherwise lapse if no trading is taking place.