BRANDS: MARKETS, MEDIA AND
MOVEMENT
Sociology of Marketing Communication
Zdeněk Sloboda
Marion Dewaele
Henry Houyvet
TOPICS

Branding in consumer culture
History of branding
 Relation between markets, media and consumer culture
 Marketization : increasing role of markets and marketing
 Mediatization : increasing role of media



« the increasing importance of information, image and media in the
organization and expression of the economy, consumer culture and
everyday life »
For example, Nike : “the combined effect of marketization and
mediatization is to make us ‘Just do it’”
MARKETS AND BRANDING

Branding
2nd half of the nineteenth century
 in the organization of production and consumption in
industrialized countries


Important increase over the following 150 years
Aggressive competition between producers
 Worldwide markets
 Economic competition between nations


1880 : corporate logo
Promote range of mass-produced products
 1990 : Coca-Cola

20TH CENTURY

Rapid growth of markets

Producer able to « speak » directly to the consumer


Presentation, packaging, media
Development of corporate and product personalities
Act as a guarantee of quality
 Replace the role of the retailer
 Conflicts between manufacturers and retailers


Intensive development of mediation in the last 150 years
New techniques in communicating
 Knowledge about the consumer
 Emergence of Marketing

MARKETING

New discipline

Marketers
initially described the ways in which products were brought to
market
 Acquired an interventionist role


Postwar period
Rise of self-service systems in retail outlets
 In which brands, promotion and packaging
coordinate selling


1950s “marketing revolution”
Difference between selling and marketing in terms of their relation
to the consumer
 Theodor Levitt in 1960 : « Selling focuses on the need of the seller,
marketing on the needs of the buyer. Selling is preoccupied with
the seller’s need to convert his product into cash, marketing with
the idea of satisfying the needs of the customer »

DEVELOPMENT OF MARKETING

Role of marketing linked to the changing role of retail


UK, USA
Marketing becomes a complex and aggressive activity
Information about the consumer is a necessity
 Retailers able to have better control of the supply chain

Birth of « marketing science » to model and optimize
market activities
 Birth of « consumer research » to map the target market
and describe the market in terms of lifestyle
 Growing authority for marketers

Greater emphasis on product differentiation
 Marketing played a role in the shift from Fordism to postFordism

PRODUCER-CONSUMER RELATIONSHIP



Products are not defined by their functional properties alone
Product’s potential existence extends beyond being a physical
good
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Define a product ‘essence’
 Linked to a framing of the market in terms of consumer’s
perceptions, needs and practices


Change of view of the producer-consumer relationship
Key stage in the emergence of today’s brand
 Advertising agencies
 Account planner : representative of the point of view of the consumer
within the agency



To offer the client a view of the consumer’s experience
To make sure that the identity of the brand is maintained through the
creative process
CONSUMER’S DESIRES

Rise of « creative advertising » - UK 1980s

Use of new forms of consumer research


Aimed to construct an imaginary lifestyle for consumers


Lifestyle research, attitudinal and motivational research, psychodemographics
Elaboration of the emotional and aesthetic values of the product
Guy Julier notes that “market researchers could interpret
better the desires of the consumer than the consumer
himself”

Exemple of Sony
CORPORATE BRANDING

Branding of product ranges
Brand extension
 Increase in branding of services and corporate branding
 Hart – 1998 : « Many brands succeeds […] because they do not focus
on a specific product, but instead communicate clear values which
can extend across different products and services »


Becomes central in internal firm’s organization

Brand double role :




Organizing the exchange between producers and consumers
Organizing relations within the company itself, between employers and
employees
‘Brand engagement’ – ‘internal marketing’
« A corporate stands for the relationship that an organization
has with its employees, as much as it represents the
relationship that it has with its customers through its product
and service offering » (Interbrand Insights, 2001)
MICHELIN






In the ranking of the reputation of the companies of the CAC 40
(Paris Stock Index) from the point of view of the French people
Michelin is :





111 090 employees in the world
176 million produced tires
17,9 billion euro turnover
A commercial presence in more than 170 countries
World Market share : 15,5 %
1st on products and services
2nd on the citizenship and the innovation
4th on the governance
and 5th on the leadership and the performance (Challenges,
french economic magazine)
Bibendum elected “Logo of the century” in 2000 by the
Financial Times

Last quarter of the 20th century:
Set of practices
 Distribution practices, media communication, product
design, retail design, and point-of-purchase marketing
 Marketing + business strategy = branding (Moor, 2007)

Emergence of brand consultancies
 Brand management
 Example : a consulting American agency made an
extensive research into the racial aspects of the
automobile market



“African Americans are more likely to advocate vehicles
that express their individuality and success to family and
friends”
In the last decade of the 20th century, companies start
to care about values, personal branding
SOCIAL MARKETING
Marketing management model
 « social marketing »



Brands play a fundamental role in society


« companies should acknowledge their ‘strong social
influence on a society’s sense of purpose, direction and
economic growth’ » (Hart, 1998)
Will the product improve the customer’s and society’s wellbeing?
Non business organizations

Universities, political parties, football clubs presented as
brands
MEDIA AND BRANDING





The term « branding » appeared with the interplay between
marketing and media.
For Douglas Holt in 2004: branding is an icon
For Martin Kornberger in 2010: It’s a new way of organizing
production and managing consumption.
For Celia Lury in 2004: Brand is a new media object.
For Adam Arvidsson in 2006: Branding take part of the
mediatization of the economy.
Is there real importance attached to consumer in professional
branding while is there a real increase in consumer power?
 What are the new forms of cultural capital in a media
economy?




For Douglas Holt: a brand and a product are different because of
their “customer experiences”.
In a brand, there are different actors or “authors” which
represent:
- companies,
- the culture industries
- intermediaries (critics, retail salesperson)
- community of customers.
Iconic Brands: Importance of the symbol which give identity value
and self expression
Example: Harvard’s became a brand at the beginning of the new
century.
- They voted for a new president: well known and for the
globalization
- They capitalized on the Harvard name
- They Invested on technology
1) The brand as a market device
>> Multiple levels of existence
 We cannot reduce brand to advertising or simples images.
 It emerges at the convergence of media and computing.
>> “It’s a dynamic platform or support for a variety of practices”

The brand is becoming a market device
In the second half of the twentieth century:
>>Marketers incorporate all the consumers’ activities in the
processes, products and distribution.
>> It creates marketing knowledge's, tools and information.
>>In this way: The brand become a platform for products,
activities and experiences.


Consumers become unconsciously in a flow of products,
services, promotion and events.
The brands has to organized themselves in front of this
movements:
>>Create their own logo to secure their recognition.

For Scott Lash and Celia Lury in 2007, branding can be
“described as the mediation of things, the mediation of
commodities”.
>>The consumer create an open-ended relationship with the
product and the brand.


For Lee, branding contributes to the “fluidization of
consumption”.
Example:
 Sanrio (Japanese company that designs, licenses and
produces products which focused on Japanese popular
culture)
>> receive 3 % of royalties every time a company sells a
product with their characters.
>> Hello kitty is everywhere (glasses, notebooks, phone
cards etc…)


Brands have an importance in the framing of
communication between producers and consumers.
Brands organize activities of the market by acting as
interface for communication.
They create a link between the inner and outer
environments of the market.
>>They can informed how consumers relate to producers
and how producers relate to consumers.

The communication of a brand have to deal with
emotion, affect and qualities.
>>The main goal is to create, indirectly a relationship
between the brand and the consumer.

2) The role of the information
Thanks to media and computing, marketers can collect data from
the consumers.
>> It help companies to predict future behavior, calculate the potential
value or lack of value of a person’s custom


Example:

Sephora developed a system of daily promotion. They collect their
consumer’s phone number and send them automatically SMS when
the consumer is closed to the store. (In a determined area). In this way
they can instantly proposed promotions about products that the
consumer usually buy in their store

Possibility to measure the « engagement » of the consumers
with special tools: « Web analytics ».
>> It can measure number of unique visitors, page views per
visitor, time spent per user, frequency of visits…
>> Brands uses these information to make themselves more
valuable.
>> They are actually focused on the emergence of blogs and
social media in order to discover their potential consumers.

Example: Harvest Report Server 2.0 claims to helping the
company “to understand the value and sentiment of
customer conversations” by analyzing what they are
saying and understand their tonalities
3) The economic and political implications of the brand

For Adam Arvidsson there is an “informational
capitalism”.
>> A blurring of the distinction between production and
consumption
>> Development of an online economy
>> New importance of intellectual property rights
>> The exploitation of labor of workers is becoming less
important as a source of profit.
>> While the private exploitation of public and social
knowledge become more important.

Distinction between advertising and media
message is increasingly blurred.
Advertising has lost capacity to persuade consumers
>> The industry’s research has undetermined faith in the
communication process.
>> While there is a growing use of home computers, games and
video games.


Consumers become more active and reflexive in front
of marketing and communication’s tools.
For Arvidsson, consumers are believed by brand managers to
be more concerned about finding meaning in their
lives.
>>That’s why new marketing have to fill the “great gaps of
meaning that exist in people’s life” and to propose brands as
“ideas that people can live by” (John Grant).


Example: Event-based marketing such as Nike fun runs or
PlayStation club nights or art events.
4) Informational Capitalism



For Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy in 2004: “the interaction
between the firm and the consumer is becoming the locus of value
creation.”
This encourage brands events , lauches and opening moments.
Example: - Levi’s Personal Pair programme: introduced mass
customization in 1995> All information are taken from the consumer
(style, size, colours..) to delivered the personally fitted jeans.
-
“Bro-ing”: Giving clothes to selected people in inner-city
neighborhoods and evaluate their reaction about the products
Reflexive environments such as Niketowns or Sony showrooms : to
encourage consumer activity in the space of the store and
analyzed their reactions in front of the products.
-
Creation of social events to create links with the consumers and a
-
feeling of community: Harleys Davidson gathering.


Importance to make the consumers think of the brand as
something that inspires loyalty.
For Michael Dell: « Our best customers are those we learn
the most from ».
For Arvidsson, the main goal is to make the consumer
practice add value to the brand.
>> Autonomous consumer practice
Example: Boeing’s new Dreamliner was designed in part in
collaboration with 120,000 volunteers who signed up to held
through the corporation’s website.

Brands management work with the freedom of the subject:
not ‘you must’ but ‘you may’!
>>They try to create socials relations around that.
>> Importance of managing investments of consumer’s affects!

Consumers are contributing to brand equity:
>> This is the ‘immaterial capital’
 « The surplus »value generated by branding is based on the
« surplus » sociality generated by consumers around the brand.




Importance of the logos which represent cultural capital and
image-properties.
It represents their recognizability, their value.
Example: Disney corporation intended many time the law
courts to ensure that only copyright-perfect images are
circulated for public consumption.
>> On the other hand, Nike didn’t react to the Nigo’s Japanese
fashion label which redesigned the Air Force 1 because this
competitor pushed them to innovate.
CONCLUSION

Branding takes place in a context in which consumers’
activities have become increasingly valuable for capital.

Marketing has an expanded role in profiling these activities.

Branding as a new form of valorization

Informational capitalism: Social communicativeness



Branding is increasingly taken up by governments and
public institutions.
Branding become a new form of power and a new logic for
consumer culture.
The consumer is active but doesn’t control everything.
SOURCES

www.marketing-etudiant.fr

www.strategies.fr

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Levitt

www.e-marketing.fr