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KEY POINTS

» In its simplest form, the process of branding involves marketing a product with a consistent logo,image or mascot that conveys to the consumer a sense of consistency, quality and trust.

» The importance of branding grew with the rise of mass industrialization and mass transport at theturn of the century because it was a way for businesses to compensate for the distance and anonymityof modern production.

» These original logos and mascots – often people – were designed to give comfort to consumers bycreating surrogate personal relationships that could replace disappearing personal relationships withfarmers and shopkeepers.

» This fairly simple role of the brand is unrecognizable today in an era of "brand tribes" – we have movedfrom being reassured by brands about the quality of products to a world in which we organize our veryidentities around brands.

» A handful of all-American brands – Coca-Cola, Disney, McDonald’s – were the first to understand theeffectiveness of selling ideas and lifestyles rather than merely goods.

» Coke sold peace and love in the 60s; Disney sold the American dream; today Nike continues in thistradition by selling an idea about the nature of sports and its intimate connection to the AmericanDream; while Virgin has mastered the mass production of individuality and rebellion.

» One of the most disturbing aspects of this phenomenon is the devaluing of ideas and ideals when theybecome associated with commercial commodities.» Companies experience "epiphanies" about how best to turn our most powerful ideas and ideals intobrand content by taking a "quasi-anthropological" approach to marketing.

» The "quasi-anthropological" approach involves identifying what consumers are feeling, thinking, andexperiencing when they consume a product.

» This new marketing approach differs fundamentally from past approaches in this way: the old approachsought to create associations between desirable lifestyles and products by showing certain kinds ofpeople consuming the product; the new way involves going into the culture and discovering whereand how people actually live these lifestyles – in other words, where the brand idea lives independentlyof the brand or the product.

» The goal of this new approach is essentially to buy and own the independent ideas and lifestyles you’vefound, and to merge them with the brand.

» In this way, the strength of a brand is measured by the power it has to stretch and spread across thepop-cultural landscape: for example, the brand gets merged with the spirit of rock and roll throughsponsorships of concerts, rock stars wearing the brand, rock bands performing in ads.

» Continuing with this example, the brand becomes so associated with rock and roll that it assumes itsspirit, becomes the rock star itself, full with followers and groupies and the like – while actual rock stars,and the brand’s actual products, are now beside the point.

» Examples of this phenomenon can be found everywhere: from people wearing Tommy Hilfiger clothesthat turn them into walking billboards for the brand, to people actually living inside the brand in theDisney-owned town of Celebration.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION & WRITING

1. How does Klein explain the most simple and basic forms of branding a product? What was the original purposeof branding products?

2. According to Klein’s argument, how would you describe the difference between the way brands look and worktoday and the way they looked and worked in the early twentieth century? How, specifically, has the purpose and process of branding changed over time? And why, specifically, have they changed over time?

3. What was it about modernization and industrialization that changed branding?

4. What does Klein mean by "brand tribes"? What’s new about them in the context of the overall history of branding?

5. How do identity, ideas, ideals, and lifestyle play into today’s corporate marketing strategies? And how doesthis represent a shift from the past?

6. What were the first companies to sell a lifestyle, an idea and an ideal in order to build their brands? Whatspecific associations did each make? Do you feel, looking at these brands all these years later, that thesebreakthrough companies succeeded in doing what they set out to do? Explain.

7. What does Klein mean by the new "quasi-anthropological" marketing approaches of today? What does thisterm mean? What, specifically, does this marketing strategy involve? What’s its primary goal?

8. How, specifically, does this "quasi-anthropological" approach differ fundamentally from past approaches?According to Klein, what are the social and cultural effects of this difference?

9. How do the consequences of this new anthropological approach relate back to Klein’s earlier discussion of"brand tribes"? How do Celebration, Florida, and Tommy Hilfiger relate here?

10. Why does Klein say that Celebration, Florida, is the achievement of "brand nirvana"? What ideas and idealsdoes Celebration tap into? How does the actual advertisement-free look of the town reinforce these ideasand ideals? Do you see any irony in this?

ASSIGNMENTS

1. You have just been made CEO of Company X and it is your job to successfully market Brand X to the consumer.

Decide what the idea or lifestyle image of Brand X will be and come up with a strategy detailing how you will market your brand to the world. Who is your target market? How will you grab their attention? (Rememberyour brand is going to be the next big thing!) Write up and/or present your strategy. By the way, what kind of product are you selling? Does it matter?

2. Naomi Klein says that when brands appropriate our ideals to sell products, our ideals get devalued: Starbucks comes to stand in for community, Wal-Mart for family, and human values get used to enhance the monetary value of corporations.

For this assignment, you’ll collect some ads, examine whether or not they incorporate values that are important to you, and reflect on the rationale and effectiveness of this marketing strategy.

» Start by creating a list of the ideals or values that are most meaningful to you.

» When your list is complete, collect some advertisements. Cut out ads in magazines and newspapers;photograph ads you see in public spaces (billboards, buses, etc.); record ads you see on television – atthe very least, if all else fails, write out detailed descriptions of the ads you find.

» With this list and these examples in hand, write a paper – or prepare a presentation – analyzing how the ads you’ve collected may or may not appropriate the values that are important to you.» Include a discussion of why you think the company in question chose to brand these values. Do youthink the branding of these values has helped sell their products? Why or why not?

» Finally, discuss whether or not you think that branding the ideals on your list devalues or trivializes them. And be sure to explain why or why not.

3. According to Klein, the way brands look and work today is very different from the way they looked and workedi n the early twentieth century. For this assignment, you’ll be researching and collecting advertisements from the early twentieth century to reflect on the validity of Klein’s argument.

» Find some old advertisements, photocopy them, and take notes on what you see being depicted.(Libraries usually carry collections of back-issue magazines and bind them together by year. If not, try looking online.)

» If you find an ad for a brand that still exists, collect present-day advertisements of the same brand. If the brand no longer exists, collect advertisements of a contemporary brand selling a similar type product. As with the old ads, make notes about the ad.

» Now that you have your samples and your notes, prepare a presentation that compares and contrasts the old ads with the new in light of Klein’s argument.Make a poster placing the old and new ads side-by-side (on poster board or a large piece of paper). And write up some notes so that you can talk about the similarities and differences you see. Be sure to analyze how the ads work – and be sure to place your analysis within the context of Klein’s specific discussion about how advertising has changed over time.What values are appealed to? What type of audience is each aimed at? What do you think is really being sold?