Vehicle Strand Advertising and Branding

1. Vehicle StrandAdvertising and Branding

2. Advertising and Branding •  Branston & Stafford: history of advertising and marketing, movie tie-ins, influence and objections, regulation • advertising and branding: key part of today’s mediated environment •  Key term: brand

3. Example: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011)

4. What is a Brand? •  A mark made by a red hot iron •  Used on cattle (ownership) • Used on convicted criminals (disgrace) • Holocaust tattoos to categorise (dehumanising) • In some languages: fire (e.g. Swedish, German)

5. Exercise: Branded  Make a list of all the items you have with you right now.  Note those which are branded: name, logo, mark, etc  Do you have more branded or more unbranded items?

6. Advertising  Traditional view: advertising = persuade people to buy goods  successful advertising = more sales e.g. washing powder, car, shampoo

7. Naomi Klein, No Logo Klein: this is no longer the case Canadian journalistNo Logo (2000) Advertising is not about goods at all Specific products are largely irrelevant You don’t buy products, but brands What does Klein mean by this?

8. History of Branding  Mass marketing campaigns: began second half 19th century  Advertised new products:radios, phonographs, cars, light bulbs  Advertisements = information and persuasion

9. History of Branding Traditional staples scooped from bins: soap, flour, oats, etc  Uniform, factory-produced staples needed distinguishing  Proper names used:Quaker Oats, Campbell’s Soup, Coca Cola, Heinz pickles, Uncle Ben’s rice, etc  Beginnings of corporate ‘personalities’

10. Twentieth Century Early 20th century: growing awareness of the importance of brand image  1920s: Bruce Barton (General Motors): role of advertising = for corporations to ‘find their souls’  1940s: talk of ‘corporate consciousness’, ‘brand essence’, ‘brand identities’  1960s: increased commercialisation and consumerism; affordability; life style

11. 1980s1988: Philip Morris (tobacco) purchaseKraft (food) for $12.6 billion  Six times the company’s actual worth  Brand name Kraft was the most important part of company  A new recognition of the importance of brand names

12. Exercise: Shampoo Planet •  Consider the 7 brands of shampoo • What qualities and connotations do you associate with each? • What is the ‘soul’ or ‘personality’ of each of these brands? How do you know?

13. Exercise: Shampoo Planet TRESemmè • Head & Shoulders • Pantene Pro-V • Palmolive • L’Oreal • Asda • Johnson’s

14. Advertising We have an impression of the product without having tried it  Advertising informs brand  Throughout growth of the brand advertising has increased hugely

16. New LocationsAdvertisers desperate to get ads into new places: • Gordon’s Gin + juniper berries • Calvin Klein perfume strips • Scandinavian phone calls • NASA’s space stations • Pepsi and the moon

17. Diminishing Returns The more you advertise, the less people take notice • Adverts become environmental • David Lubars (ad exec): “Consumers are like roaches – you spray them and spray them and they get immune after a while.”

18. Advertising Brands Klein: advertising isn’t simply about selling products Brand = core meaning (message) of the corporation Adverts = a means (vehicle) for conveying that message

19. New Corporations Successful corporations of 1980s:Nike, Microsoft, Tommy Hilfiger, Intel  Producing goods = unimportant  Passed to oversees contractors  Cheaper: lower wages, laxer safety and welfare laws

20. Tommy Hilfiger Corporations buy goods and brand them  Tommy Hilfiger doesn’t produceanything  Commission underwear from Jockey, jeans from Pepe, etc.  Then add their brand name (or get someone to do that too)

21. Nike Nike CEO Phil Knight: “For years we thought of ourselves as a production-oriented company, meaning we put all our emphasis on designing and manufacturing the product. But now we understand that the most important thing we do is market the product. We’ve come around to saying that Nike is a marketing-oriented company, and the product is our most important marketing tool.”  product = a marketing tool a complete reversal

22. Producing Images Objective: employ and produce as little as possible  Big corporations don’t make products  They produce images, representations and ideologies

23. Buying into a Brand You don’t buy a branded product You buy into a way of life, an attitude, a set of values, look, idea, an ideology • Nike don’t sell sports products but “enhance people’s lives through sports and fitness” IBM don’t sell computers but rather “business solutions” Microsoft don’t sell software but ask “where do you want to go today?” Diesel doesn’t sell clothes but rather “a style of life” • Apple don’t sell smart phones but rather they “iphone your life”

24. Summary: Age of the Brand Products are relatively unimportant Advertising is not of products Advertising and products are partofbranding Brands = images, ideologies, lifestyles Advertising of brands is set to increase? Even into dreams and classroom? Any Questions?

25. Shock Advertising Arena: The Fine Art of Separating People from their Money (BBC 2000) • Dennis Hopper hosts •  Shock advertising and brands •  Warning: shocking images!

26. Exercise: Shock Advertising(1) Which imagery did you find most shocking? Why? (2) Does the fact that an advert is shocking make it good advertising? (3) Does advertising have a social responsibility? (4) Can advertising fulfil a useful social function as well as promoting a brand?

27. Environment StrandEnvironments andAnti-Environments

28. Environments andAnti-Environments Key term: anti-environments • first: environments • media = extensions + environments

29. Extensions “All media are extensions of some human faculty – psychic or physical” (McLuhan and Fiore 1967, p. 26) • wheel = extension of the foot • book = extension of the eye • clothing = extension of the skin • electric circuitry (computer) = extension of the central nervous system • all enhance some human faculty (i.e. extend us)

30. Environments “Any technology or extension of man creates a new environment” (McLuhan 1969, p. 31)  extensions lead to a change in our relationship with our surroundings  we understand world differently  we act and behave differently

31. Example Environments Clothing: extends our skin we experience the physical environment very differently, e.g. thermals, wet suit  Alphabet: extends our visual sense shifts us from acoustic to visual space TV: extends sight and hearing the new global environment, i.e. ‘village’

32. Invisible Environments environments are imperceptible (invisible)  we don’t notice that people are wearing clothes: “nice jacket” not “clothes today?”  we don’t notice our acoustic, cool, global village: we notice particular TV shows (content) not TV itself (medium) Any questions?

33. McLuhan’s Fish “One thing about which fish know exactly nothing is water, since they have no anti-environment which would enable them to perceive the element they live in.” (McLuhan and Fiore,1968, p. 175)  what is an anti-environment?

34. Anti-Environments we are shaped by our environment  but the environment is imperceptible we don’t notice the far reaching effects that environments have on us  how can people be made aware? we need new strategies of “attention and perception”: we need to create anti-environments…

35. Anti-Environment: Definition an anti-environment is anything that draws our attention to the environment in which we live, which would otherwise remain invisible, affecting us without our knowing it  3 examples (linked to vehicle strand) McLuhan starts with art…

36. 1. Art as Anti-Environmentart can train our perception onto the environment • e.g. Pop Art: 1960s (c. McLuhan) incorporates elements from popular or mass culture • Pop Art uses everyday objects anti-environmentally • an example…

37. Andy Warhol started out as a designer and migrated to advertising • famous as an artist in early 1960s: • started painting household products • ‘Campbell’s Soup Can’, 1964 (same year as Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man)

40. Why Soup? 1964: 80% soup = Campbell’s ubiquitous in American shops, supermarkets and homes stacked on shop shelves  McLuhan: “The world of modern advertising is a magical environment constructed to produce effects for the total economy but not designed to increase human awareness.” (1966, p. 111)

41. Why Soup?Pop Art reminds us that ordinarily our artefacts and images don’t train our perception or awareness • soup cans in a gallery: draw attention to our environment • we are surrounded by soup cans i.e. by commercial branding • good or bad? just there

43. Anti > EnvironmentsMcLuhan: anti-environments must constantly be renewed •  we get used to anti-environments, and they become merely environments • Warhol postcards, key-rings, teapots: • all now part of the ‘Warhol’ brand • Warhol-inspired range of soups…

45. 2. Graffiti as Anti-EnvironmentMcLuhan: artists tend to be considered enemies or criminals of society • ‘Banksy’ is a criminal: • “An Exterior Paint Specialist” (i.e. graffiti artist) • creates ‘anti-environments’ around London & Bristol  designed to make you pause and notice your environment …