Learning Process

“Simmering content – rich in variety and riddled with idiosyncrasies – is obscured by the catchy one-liner coined by brand consultants…isn’t it better not to bother with the subject matter of an event at all when promoting it? Instead why not just chant the values of the organisation that it brings to people? Surely we all engage with a subject because we are familiar and trusting of the organisation that brings it to us?...why bother referring to content at all when people respond much better to the branded message?” (Bell, 2004, p.23-4)

Metaphors, metaphors, metaphors…

Under the advice of a fellow student, I read Nick Bell’s article in the Eye Magazine titled The Steam Roller of Branding, and it was insightful to revisit such an article that points out that “some corporate identities exist in spite of what a company or organisation produces, and in direct contradiction to the way it behaves.” (2004, p.20) Metaphorically speaking, branding is a brand in itself, does it not contradict itself in a way? It anticipates our basic and spiritualistic needs and sells ideas, encouraging affiliation through their products by highlighting aspirations through familiar metaphors

I presented my ideas in the Final Project Presentations yesterday, and the feedback was sound; the tutors and fellow peers alike provided questions to ponder on this weekend which I had otherwise omitted during the thinking for the output; one particular question which was raised by a fellow student did make me realise how immersed into this project I was, almost to the point of not remembering the other campaigns that already exist under the sea of brands and branding: “If you are creating something through all the clutter, how do you get people to notice it?”

It’s getting closer to the time where the outcome has to be finalised and get on with the report writing, I feel less prepared than ever, but have certainly gained more of an understanding of the psychology behind branding and its effects on consumers; the use of familiar metaphors relevant to our time through a narrative, like fairytales, provide a sense of affiliation between ourselves and the overall brand itself through their products. It is like a medicine that can cure our needs, that have long been merged with our inner-spiritualistic desires in this materialistic world.

This is a real-world form of escapism, where brands utilise their products and the market to provide this escape from the realistic thoughts, to be lost within their metaphors that makes you become affiliated to it, through a  visual narrative. Over time, as consumers become susceptible to this method of escapism, the psychological high that one can get from purchasing could be explained like the following:

1. Consumers use brand (Use)
2. Consumers become dependent (Abuse)
3. Consumers begin to depend on it (Dependency)
4. Consumers purchase more as they become more susceptible (Increased Dosage)

Of course that is the most superficial description on how it works; if I was to expand on it, and providing it with more materialistic context:

1. Consumers use brands (Use);
2. Consumer becomes increasingly dependent on it; more has to be purchased in order to refill that intensity and psychological high (Abuse and dependency);
3. Over time, consumers become bored of the brand (Susceptibility) and seeks elsewhere for an alternative high;
4. Brand itself lose their consumers and creates new products, providing an external set of metaphors that will ensure they are newer, better, stronger and importantly, fresher than before for the consumer (Disillusionment);
5. Consumers learn of new brand, and returns to previous brand (Relief control); other brand amends their image;
6. Repeat cycle.

From that analogy above, if that context was placed within the context of brand terrorism, then consumers would be so spoilt for choice, causing more purchasing and more hoarding of brands; it’s no wonder that compulsive consumers exist!

In between the hoarding, what would happen if I add the metaphor of a placebo effect?
Would the cycle be broken?

With time issues, there is not much space left to research further into the relationship between branding and how it presents metaphorically as a medicine for consumers, but can I utilise that metaphor to create an outcome? More importantly, as questioned during the presentation:
How does it affect individuals?
What do you want the audience to take out from this outcome?
How do you raise awareness of your stance as a result of your research from the outcome?

One soldiers on.

Bibliography
Bell, N (2004) The Steam-Roller Of Branding. Eye Magazine. 14 (53), 18-28.

There has been a bit of restructuring of my research, helping me to organise my thoughts and development; branding a conceptual idea such as materialism would only provide a form that can be so fluid and more must be interpreted within it to reach the outcome. It is also helpful as it helps me create a running order for the imminent Major Project Presentation next week. The idea of negativity and positivity still sits well in my mind, but would I be able to make a change by utilising the psychological research that I have found and focus on consumerism as the one aspect of society? How would I be able to utilise today’s brand terrorism, i.e. the bombardment of brands so that we are never too far away from them, or any other brands, to promote something positive?
   
Going through the research that I have done for the past few months has made me realise very much that I was better defining my boundaries within my research; children specifically as a target audience was not relevant in my interests, but rather the concepts that are inherent in children’s fairytales. The adult consumer is nowadays stuck in fictional narratives that are influenced by the concepts of fantasy within branding.
   
The power of brands is by no means weak; the ability of being able to provide a narrative that merges between the fantastical and the real is beginning to morph social norms of understanding the difference between spiritualistic desires (such as freedom, love, health) with materialistic needs; brand narrative aims to offer the fulfilment of spiritualistic desires by purchasing their product of a materialistic nature; the didactic nature that used to be carried by fairytales, however, was not brought along with the creation of branding. The difference between good and bad within the climate of branding is nowadays, so blurred to the point where, its consequences as it morphed social norms has changed our own ideals, as shown with the climatic example of the London Riots.
   
It is on the realisation based on this quote by Dieter Rams:

The value, and especially the legitimisation of design will be, in the future, measured more in terms of how it can enable us to survive…on this planet.

   
The in depth research of anything and everything about psychological behaviours when exposed to brands has almost made me forget that the brand itself does not have to be about a logo marque, as I began exploring the outcome possibilities. This project output is rather about the expression of a concept that makes the statistics, or research that I found, fresh for the reader.
   
From all the gathered research, my research question now stands at:
   
Is it possible to utilise brand terrorism to encourage good?
   
Under this research question, the outcome direction will utilise the psychological effects and impact that I have discovered between brands and the consumer to address the social issue of brand terrorism through metaphors as found throughout my research.

From 7/7 – Tutorial Feedback on 2.3 & 2.4

• Justify imagery within Visual Summary and provide narratives
• Consider the legibility of imagery and text critically

The feedback was extremely useful in providing different ideas and further progress for research; the initial worry before the tutorial was that there may not have been enough cope for visual experimentation. This progress report will deconstruct the ideas that were discussed during the tutorial.

The main topic of discussion that during the tutorial was the main starting point to this post-Major Project Proposal: where product placement can be found, by concentrating on one aspect, such as the legislation imposed on this controversial issue, further investigations can be found. One such extension would be to question the 9pm watershed that has been imposed on television shows, and its real impact on the ones that the watershed is aimed towards, and also the main audience for my Major Project; 7-12 year olds. Do social classes affect children’s choice (or restrictions) on media access after that time? With the availability of technology, doesn’t it simply mean that they can have access to the same material online even if they are in their rooms with their devices other than a television? By stating considerations such as social class, the restrictions imposed by parents are very much different between, for example, a middle-class family, than a working class family; bedtimes may actually be imposed on children from 7-12 years old within the middle-class family, but such may not exist for a working class family. With such points in mind, then is the watershed a time-sensitive issue or simply a red herring?

Product placement is about the placement of an idea within media, not just television anymore, so if a programme were to have an idea already embedded, i.e. having a purpose within the show, would this also be considered product placement, and would this mean that United Kingdom, or sometimes politically known as a ‘Nanny State’ be considered manipulative towards its inhabitants? What is considered positive and what is considered negative?

Campaigns such as Jamie Oliver’s ‘Jamie’s School Dinners’ or ‘Jamie’s Dream School’ aimed to improve children’s lives by promoting healthy eating and also to learn the importance of education – by showing both the negatives and positives of each aspect. By negative points, one means that, for example, in ‘Jamie’s School Dinners’, scenes of school dinners where foods that lack in nutrition are showcased in canteens, with overweight children munching away. The show then shows the alternative by suggesting different healthier foods being served that is packed with nutrition, followed by footage of smiling school children tucking into their healthy school meals, as improved by Chef Jamie Oliver. The positives and negatives are emphasised by editing the right footage for emphasis, followed by colours used within the film filters to further influence the viewer unconsciously; as Alvin Schechter says that “Color isn’t the most important thing; it’s the only thing…color goes immediately to the psyche and can be a direct sales stimulus.” (cite from Alsop, D. 1984, p.37)

By having such a celebrity endorsing such a campaign, it would be natural that more people would watch it for the celebrity factor, the connection with a well-known human being, rather than for the main objective of the programme, in “Jamie’s School Dinners”’s case, to market the idea of healthy eating, and such a celebrity involvement would help to raise awareness on the issue. So would it mean that positive things can help people improve by making them attractive? If so, can be the same done for brands?

If campaigns are strong enough to create an impact in one’s long-term memory, the idea of the campaign will eventually become a brand. From this, it can be said that anything can be considered as a brand nowadays; products, companies, people, even metaphors and gestures. Gestures such as the ‘thumbs up’, ‘thumbs down’, ‘OK’, the Crucifix and their behaviours as a result of the usage are well-known internationally, can we therefore brand with gestures due to the known significance of them?

Bibliography
Alsop, D. “Color Grows More Important in Catching Consumers’ Eyes” Wall Street Journal, 29 November 1984, 37.

From June 30 –

When asking the specific question whether or not product placement can have a positive brand exposure towards children, there are several points which have to clarified first before delving into something as specific as this;

• What is product placement?
• Why do we need product placement?
• How do we, as consumers perceive targeted advertising?
• Advertising’s role for brands
• What products are targeted towards children?
• How does product placement benefit / damage brands?
• Current situation in the UK with product placement legislation

   
As Twitter extraordinaire and founder of Alltop Guy Kawasaki once said “If you make meaning, you make money”, how do brands create meaning for the consumers, particularly through advertising?
   
From the vast amounts of reading written by media and advertising specialists, the vast world of media is a forever evolving spectrum that allows advertisers to play with consumers’ minds with the growing list of outlets for exposure. Advertisers have to continuously find new and innovative ways to tap into those markets with something new to try and gain attention from the overload of information and advertising ‘noise’; it almost seems that the “purpose of advertising is to cut through other people’s advertising…” (Niinimäki, 2009)
   
Within the reading so far, the majority of the authors seem to describe the power of image manipulation and advertising with negativity, so would the readers that absorb all this information gathered by the authors also not begin to accept the idea that advertising, as a whole, can only be a evil cog within this giant media machine? In this case, can these ‘findings’ really be said to be findings when they appear to be more of biased reports on advertising and image manipulation? Even when one searches for the keyword ‘brand exposure’, the first page links to a product placement agency named Brand Exposure, which (Brand Exposure, 2011) “offers a comprehensive and proactive product placement service for a range of high-end consumer products”.
   
From a brand’s perspective, the image immediately received by consumers by these outlets must therefore be attention-grabbing and almost as immediate as recognising a colour of the packaging, for example.
   
With the above points in mind, then how do children perceive the brand images when they are exposed to them on television? If it is as subtle and quiet as the first product placement in the UK since the ban was lifted in February 2011, then would they have even noticed or known it was a specific targeted advertising?
   
For consumers to even realise product placement was present in a programme (besides the regulated display of the Product Placement logo before and after the programme in which product placement was present was shown), consumers would have to have the knowledge of a product first; the first product shown in the UK was a Nescafe Coffee Machine during a popular daytime show This Morning. This programme is aired every morning at 10:30am, will aim to display products towards the target audience group that will most likely be in front of the television at this time of the day; mothers who may have just sent their children to school. This group of audience will also be the most likely group to be making the main purchasing decisions when buying products. Combining this knowledge and also wanting to have a morning cup of coffee after a hectic start to the morning, mothers will have certain knowledge of the products on display, perhaps from advertising campaigns outside and on screen during ad breaks, and the majority would be able to recognise the product.
   
    “Color isn’t the most important thing; it’s the only thing…color goes immediately to the psyche and can be a direct sales stimulus.” – Alvin Schechter
    (cited from Alsop, D. 1984, p37)
   
For children, since their senses are still developing, are more likely to be attracted to bright colours, this is why products aimed towards children always contain more than two colour palettes, and are very bright and lively to encourage play. For marketers that have to target products towards children, they must first understand, or even decide, what products should be targeted towards children in the first place. This can be done with insight from market research on aspects such as the most marketed products or the most purchased products in supermarkets or toy stores. Importantly, to control the research scope further, an age group of children has to be specified.
   
On the other hand, the marketers also have to understand the mindsets of parents when they make their purchasing decisions, as they are the users within a family that generate the income, and therefore providing their children with the products. It appears seemingly more so from media coverage that product placement is always emphasised negatively in advertising towards children.

As an advertiser said:

I disagree with the way that advertising has infiltrated my life such that I can’t choose when to view it…I don’t think there’s anything wrong with buying commercial time if it’s going to be offered…it has to do being able to have a choice when I receive the messages and when I don’t, and I feel that I’ve lost that choice. (Niinimäki, 2009)

Children, already considered to be incapable of making purchasing decisions, utilises a method called “pester power” in order to persuade those with power, i.e. their parents, to purchase a product.

   
Bibliography

Alsop, D. “Color Grows More Important in Catching Consumers’ Eyes” Wall Street Journal, 29 November 1984, 37.   

Niinimäki, M. (2009) Product Placement. [video] Available at: <http://vimeo.com/4056231>
   
This Morning, 2011. [TV programme] ITV, 28 February 2011 10.30.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Nescafe-Coffee-Machine-Is-First-Prod...
http://www.brand-exposure.co.uk/

"Be postive, my friend." Guy Kawasaki, y agrega "If you make meaning, you make money" #branding

— Andy Stalman (@AndyStalman) June 30, 2011

Introduction
 
The catalyst to this project began from an article, which the Mothers’ Union chief executive Reg Bailey (Fig.1) stated that ‘Society has become increasingly full of sexualised imagery…this has created a wallpaper to children’s lives’, accompanied by my personal interest in consumer influences as a result of brand exposure from different outlets, a fundamental aim of this research project is to learn and understand the importance of brand strategy, as well as the functions of product placement within media as a mechanism within branding and identity.
 
Brand strategy is important in any type of media; brands can encompass products, services, and more recently, people. Personal branding has become a new age phenomena where consumers now consider their purchases to emphasise on their individualism and ideals. So it has become more fundamental than ever for brands to stand out in order to catch the audiences’ attention.
 
One of my main objectives of embarking on a Masters course is to better my knowledge on design decisions and its influence on consumers. There is extensive research on product placement and its impact on purchasing influences, but lacks in the study of its impact on children, particularly in the United Kingdom, as her regulator policies forbids targeted advertising towards them; are our instated purchasing decisions also regulated within this nanny state of protectionism?
 
Research Question
 
Can product placement have a positive brand exposure towards children?
 
Aims and objectives
 
Aims
 
    •    Learn the importance of brand strategy within media
    •    Understand the function of product placement within media
    •    Question whether the project outcome will affect perceptions in the real-world and contribute towards a better understanding of the inner workings of branding and identity
    •    Collect a series of media as data collection – material such as television shows, movies, advertisements
    •    Consult experts in the field of advertising, marketing and branding
    •    Examine and document the visual language and messaging in the material gathered
    •    Determine whether the method of information processing can lead to universal application within branding and identity.
Objectives
 
    •    Find relevant data sources and establish experts in the field
    •    Set criteria for media scope
    •    Develop and apply a method of deconstruction for collecting material using semiotic and visual theories
    •    Establish a brand related theory from analysis of data
    •    Report and documents findings, processes, outcomes at every stage of the project
    •    Investigate if the influence of product placement can affect all age groups
    •    Based on the research, determine product placement’s effectiveness as a mechanism within branding and identity
    •    Collect reports and utilise them towards an overall written thesis, as informed by the reflection on the reports.
 
 
Audience
 
    •    Media watchers – the largest target audience which this project will aim towards, media watchers (or consumers) are the main user group that will be most exposed to the brands displayed
    •    Marketers and advertisers – the drivers behind-the-scenes of consumer choices, marketers and advertisers can work collaboratively if a gap in the market can be discovered within the media
    •    Visual researchers – this group of audience have to be constantly informed on the latest trends and hot topics for different age groups, making their knowledge invaluable
 
 
Context
 
Area/field of study
 
The consumer gives shape to a brand article, largely on the basis of what the ‘brand manufacturer’ offers: a tangible product, advertising. The brand article is much more complex than the tangible product, it is made up of emotions, associations and a fleeting whole that can nonetheless live on for a long time.
(Franzen and Holzhauer, 1987, cited by Franzen and Bouwman, 2001, p.144)
 
The big world of media is the most important tool for communication in the twenty-first century, and more brands than ever are competing against each other to maximise their marketing methods and brand exposure, but as Franzen and Bouwman rightly defines that


Marketing science considers brands as nothing more than identification means for products and services of suppliers. (Franzen and Bouwman, 2001, xvii)
 
The general area of study for this project is the promotional tactics used in both fictional and non-fictional media, also known as product placement. First introduced in the 1980s, this can take place in different forms; brands are integrated within, for example, a television show, thus guaranteeing an exposure of a product to its viewers; areas of research within this project will include
 
    •    Branding and identity within media
    •    Advertising techniques
 
Survey
 
In the United Kingdom, the Product Placement ban was recently lifted on British television as an attempt to stimulate the economy by allowing advertisers to pay for their products to be integrated into programmes, albeit with restrictions – the ban is still enforced in current affairs and children’s programmes.
 
The projected position of product placement for children is frowned upon as news sources inform that such placement as children are the most vulnerable to brand exposure in all different types of media. As previous research shows that
 
children as young as two have already developed preferences for national brands above shop brands, even if the shop brands tasted better. (Hite and Hite, 1995, cited by Franzen and Bouwman, 2001, p.122)
 
Review
 
Those around the age of 16-17 begin to develop their own sense of individualism and will begin to choose brands in order to express their ideals, but what of the impact of placement on viewers that are younger? What of the product placement targeted towards adults and its impact on children if they are exposed to such integrated advertising that is of a more mature nature? The media as a whole has become an integral part of our society as a tool for communication, combined with the conspicuous consumption of our society means that marketers have to find ways in advertising that provides ‘information on brands that make long enough of an impression on an individual is stored in the long-term memory’ (Franzen and Bouwman, 2001, p.135).
 
In relation to branding, this form of integrated advertising relies on good brand management to which marketers and advertisers utilise to reach as many different user groups as possible in order to increase their brand’s exposure and maximum outlets for generating revenue; academia (Spurlock, cited in Ruggie, 2011) noted in the movie Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold that ‘What makes consumers happy isn’t the product itself, but what that product is a conduit to.’
 
The UK government’s intention on the product placement ban on children’s programmes is due to the idea that children are more susceptible to manipulation than adults; from the collected material from various media sources reveal that marketers have been emphasising on what advertising does best; influencing children’s likes and dislikes by showing this young group of target audience exactly what they want, thereby developing a ‘I’ll have what she’s having’ complex towards product consumption.
 
The question remains as to whether such brand exposure has to be considered as negative exposure to children; with such great parental, as well as governmental, control over children’s purchasing decisions, what other sources of media are brands influencing children with apart from television?
Research Methodology
 
From the Unit 2.3 research topics, it was realised that most, if not all research investigated the idea of personal branding from different aspects of culture’s impact of perceptions in society. However, the research topics previously became problematic; the research became too self-referential, a closed circle; certain topics were also too specific in the lack of flexibility to consider the problem on a wider scale.
 
The complexity in exploring the different media methods that integrate product placement aimed towards children will allow the investigation of the seemingly negative brand exposure, and addressing how brands are accessed can change this.
 
Primary Research
    •    Establishing marketing strategies within product placement for different types of media – this sets the catalyst for the project in understanding how brands capture audiences in media
    •    Investigate the psychology of media influence
    •    Collate data on consumer purchasing choices
    •    Conduct interviews with advertising or marketing agencies to collect data on their strategies towards different user groups
Secondary Research
    •    What is product research?
    •    Which age group the most exposed to media?
    •    Which age group uses the most forms of media and technology?
    •    Collate findings of existing data of previous analysis of product placements
    •    Establish leaders in the field
    •    Referring to official / governmental websites and resources to clarify on the extent of the product placement legislation
 
Methods
The research methodology of this project will be mainly information gathering on different surveys as a collection for qualitative analysis, before undergoing interpretation with typologies and data visualisation techniques on aspects such as how different types of media is product placement integrated into as a starting point to quantitative analysis. Other components towards my methodology is as follows:
 
    •    Gather information on product placement as a whole
    ◦    Different types of media that product placement is now integrated into
    •    Establish a method of categorisation to create typologies of research gathered
    ◦    User groups and their media
    ◦    What products are most exposed to different groups
    ◦    Determine main user group – this is a crucial step as investigation and experimentations can be narrowed down for further criticism and analysis
    •    Generate constructed surveys to collect primary data
    ◦    Will be collated and analysed
    ◦    Determine what type, or types of media will be the focus of study
    •    Generate both qualitative and quantitative assessment of material gathered
    •    Filtering data to study extremes of both heavily integrated media and banned integrated media
    •    Literary research to extend understanding of main areas of study and analyse any findings on
    ◦    Brand strategies and theory
    ◦    Brand theory within media
    ◦    Advertising techniques
 
Resources
 
As previously mentioned, consultations may be conducted with tutors from London College of Communication, whom have experience in the advertising or branding industries, as well as setting up interviews with advertising agencies to gather primary research.
 
As product placement is a relatively topical issue since the recent lift on product placement within specified media, governmental websites may also be consulted for clarification on the extent of the product placement legislation as a whole.
Evaluation
 
As this proposal appears to be a research project about design, rather than a practical design problem, the most appropriate method of evaluation would be to employ critical reflection. This topical issue’s relevance is vast in today’s society where we are media and technology reliant; my focus on product placement towards children may face its occasional challenges due to governmental legislation rather than impracticalities.
 
The methods to evaluate the effectiveness of subject material will be reviewed by peers as well as tutors, which will then be reported in my milestone reports, which, currently, could take the form of a research blog. The research blog will be made public, thereby maximising sources for feedback from the public or amongst a wider research community.
 
Output
 
With applied research, the outcome will explore product placement and brand exposure towards children. I am specifying a written thesis as the outcome, as this project seems much more likely to be a critical discussion of product placement’s impact on children’s brand preferences. Producing a written output will still provide opportunities to acquire more technical and visual skills as part of the investigation, particularly in the form of a visual summary. With the context provided and research question outlined, I envisage the process of investigation will be broken down into a series of sub-projects in order to analyse different aspects of product placement and its influence on those exposed to such.
 
Any designed analysis produced for this project will involve a form of typographic and information design in order to present research findings, analysis and conclusions, and potential outcomes will be supported by an edited visual summary, as well as a research blog in addition to the final outcome.
Bibliography
 
Franzen, G and Bouwman, M. (2001) The Mental World of Brands – Mind, memory and brand success. Oxfordshire: World Advertising Research Center

Ruggie, A. Siegel and Gale, 2011. Morgan Spurlock is good for branding [online] Available at: <http://www.siegelgale.com/blog/morgan-spurlock-is-good-for-branding/>

Research Question

Can product placement have a positive brand exposure towards children?

Aims and objectives

Aims

• Learn the importance of brand strategy within media
• Understand the function of product placement within media
• Question whether the project outcome will affect perceptions in the real-world and contribute towards a better understanding of the inner workings of branding and identity
• Collect a series of media as data collection – material such as television shows, movies, advertisements
• Examine and document the visual language and messaging in the material gathered
• Determine whether the method of information processing can lead to universal application within branding and identity.

Objectives

• Find relevant data sources and establish experts in the field
• Set criteria for media scope
• Develop and apply a method of deconstruction for collecting material using semiotic and visual theories
• Report and documents findings, processes, outcomes at every stage of the project
• Investigate if the influence of product placement can affect all age groups
• Based on the research, determine product placement’s effectiveness as a mechanism within branding and identity
• Collect reports and utilise them towards an overall written thesis, as informed by the reflection on the reports.

Audience

• Media watchers – the largest target audience which this project will aim towards, media watchers (or consumers) are the main user group that will be most exposed to the brands displayed
• Marketers and advertisers – the drivers behind-the-scenes of consumer choices, marketers and advertisers can work collaboratively if a gap in the market can be discovered within the media
• Visual researchers – this group of audience have to be constantly informed on the latest trends and hot topics for different age groups, making their knowledge invaluable

Context

Area/field of study

The consumer gives shape to a brand article, largely on the basis of what the ‘brand manufacturer’ offers: a tangible product, advertising. The brand article is much more complex than the tangible product, it is made up of emotions, associations and a fleeting whole that can nonetheless live on for a long time.
(Franzen and Holzhauer, 1987, cited by Franzen and Bouwman, 2001, p.144)

The big world of media is the most important tool for communication in the twenty-first century, and more brands than ever are competing against each other to maximise their marketing methods and brand exposure, but as Franzen and Bouwman rightly defines that

Marketing science considers brands as nothing more than identification means for products and services of suppliers. (Franzen and Bouwman, 2001, xvii)

The general area of study for this project is the promotional tactics used in both fictional and non-fictional media, also known as product placement. First introduced in the 1980s, this can take place in different forms; brands are integrated within, for example, a television show, thus guaranteeing an exposure of a product to its viewers; areas of research within this project will include

• Branding and identity within media
• Advertising techniques

Survey

In the United Kingdom, the Product Placement ban was recently lifted on British television as an attempt to stimulate the economy by allowing advertisers to pay for their products to be integrated into programmes, albeit with restrictions – the ban is still enforced in current affairs and children’s programmes.

The projected position of product placement for children is frowned upon as news sources inform that such placement integrated into children’s programmes; children are the most vulnerable to brand exposure in all different types of media. As previous research shows that
   
children as young as two have already developed preferences for national brands above shop brands, even if the shop brands tasted better. (Hite and Hite, 1995, cited by Franzen and Bouwman, 2001, p.122)

Review

Those around the age of 16-17 begin to develop their own sense of individualism and will begin to choose brands in order to express their ideals, but what of the impact of placement on viewers that are younger? What of the product placement targeted towards adults and its impact on children if they are exposed to such integrated advertising that is of a more mature nature? The media as a whole has become an integral part of our society as a tool for communication, combined with the conspicuous consumption of our society means that marketers have to find ways in advertising that provides ‘information on brands that make long enough of an impression on an individual is stored in the long-term memory’ (Franzen and Bouwman, 2001, p.135).

In relation to branding, this form of integrated advertising relies on good brand management to which marketers and advertisers utilise to reach as many different user groups as possible in order to increase their brand’s exposure and maximum outlets for generating revenue; academia (Spurlock, cited in Ruggie, 2011) noted in the movie Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold that ‘What makes consumers happy isn’t the product itself, but what that product is a conduit to.’

The UK government’s intention on the product placement ban on children’s programmes is due to the idea that children are more susceptible to manipulation than adults; from the collected material from various media sources reveal that marketers have been emphasising on what advertising does best; influencing children’s likes and dislikes by showing this young group of target audience exactly what they want, thereby developing a ‘I’ll have what she’s having’ complex towards product consumption.

The question remains as to whether such brand exposure has to be considered as negative exposure to children; with such great parental, as well as governmental, control over children’s purchasing decisions, what other sources of media are brands influencing children with apart from television?Research Methodology

From the Unit 2.3 research topics, it was realised that most, if not all research investigated the idea of personal branding from different aspects of culture, and its impact of perceptions in society. However, the research topics previously became problematic; the research became too self-referential, a closed circle; certain topics were also too specific in the lack of flexibility to consider the problem on a wider scale.
The complexity in exploring the different media methods that integrate product placement aimed towards children allows the investigation of the seemingly assumed negative brand presence can be changed by addressing how information is accessed.

Primary Research

• Establishing marketing strategies within product placement for different types of media – this sets the catalyst for the project in understanding how brands capture audiences in media
• Conduct interviews with advertising or marketing agencies to collect data on their strategies towards different user groups

Secondary Research

• Investigate and collate findings of existing data of previous analysis of product placements
• Establish leaders in the field
• Referring to official / governmental websites and resources to clarify on the extent of the product placement legislation

Methods
The research methodology of this project will be mainly information gathering on different surveys as a collection for qualitative analysis, before undergoing interpretation with typologies and data visualisation techniques on aspects such as how different types of media is product placement integrated into as a starting point to quantitative analysis. Other components towards my methodology is as follows:

• Gather information on product placement as a whole
  • Different types of media that product placement is now integrated into
  • Establish a method of categorisation to create typologies of research gathered
  • User groups and their media
• What products are most exposed to different groups
  • Determine main user group – this is a crucial step as investigation and experimentations can be narrowed down for further criticism and analysis
  • Generate constructed surveys to collect primary data
  • Will be collated and analysed
• Determine what type, or types of media will be the focus of study
  • Generate both qualitative and quantitative assessment of material gathered
• Filtering data to study extremes of both heavily integrated media and banned integrated media
• Literary research to extend understanding of main areas of study and analyse any findings on
  • Brand strategies and theory
  • Brand theory within media
  • Advertising techniques

Resources

As previously mentioned, consultations may be conducted with tutors from London College of Communication, whom have experience in the advertising or branding industries, as well as setting up interviews with advertising agencies to gather primary research.

As product placement is a relatively topical issue since the recent lift on product placement within specified media, governmental websites may also be consulted for clarification on the extent of the product placement legislation as a whole.

Output

Potential final outcomes

With applied research, the outcome will explore product placement and brand exposure towards children. I am specifying a written thesis as the outcome, as this project seems much more likely to be a critical discussion of product placement’s impact on children’s brand preferences. Producing a written output will still provide opportunities to acquire more technical and visual skills as part of the investigation, particularly in the form of a visual summary. With the context provided and research question outlined, I envisage the process of investigation will be broken down into a series of sub-projects in order to analyse different aspects of product placement and its influence on those exposed to such.

Any designed analysis produced for this project will involve a form of typographic and information design in order to present research findings, analysis and conclusions, and potential outcomes will be supported by an edited visual summary, as well as a research blog in addition to the final outcome.Bibliography

Franzen, G and Bouwman, M. (2001) The Mental World of Brands – Mind, memory and brand success. Oxfordshire: World Advertising Research Center

Ruggie, A. Siegel and Gale, 2011. Morgan Spurlock is good for branding [online] Available at: <http://www.siegelgale.com/blog/morgan-spurlock-is-good-for-branding/>

The second workshop which I embarked on was learning how to utilise substantial amounts of data and organising it to be read and understood easily by readers.

This was the first time I've ever created an infographic, and understanding how to filter data to create something that has the right balance between good aesthetics that will attract, and good, interesting information that will compell the reader into wanting to find out more about the topic covered.

The emphasis of this infographic is to provide a coherent visual for the reader to follow the rise and fall of conversations on different subjects within science, such as Nuclear, Space, or Biotechnological Sciences, in parallel to significant events on the historical timeline that would have created the increase in conversation and interest. The Scientist Stereotypes characters were created in response to the development of technology over time in sciences, in conjunction to data gathered of how the public perceived scientists as a result of news coverage over time.

Many thanks to Dr Martin Bauer of the Institute of Social Psychology and Methodology Institute at the London School of Economics for the collaboration and the providing of data for this infographic.

This is the first time that I am also trying the pdf viewing functionality on Posterous, so let's hope this works! The full digital version is below:

Click here to download:

PosterV4FINAL.pdf (177 KB)

This, to many, is a circle.

A recent Design Literacy project has helped me understand circles, both as the shape itself, and a whole (or hole, if you like puns) lot more than the mere form we have come to take advantage of in many aspects of our everyday lives.

Without context

A circle is a circle. It is a round shape. What else is there to it?

Stepping into a territory where the process was not the accustomed response to an ad campaign,or answering briefs from D&AD, for example, was rather daunting; meaning is everywhere, implications are everywhere, take it all away and what do you have?

Different aspects were considered, like space, dimensions, light, and the internal structure when the circle is interrogated visually. What happens to it when we disrupt the shape? What happens when we overlap more of the same size of circles? These superficial considerations helps us in understanding what the environment around (and in) the form, let alone ourselves, can do to the form that we see. It was no mean feat to begin a project like this when everything is usually implied. Understanding the capability (or limitations) of such a shape can be immense; once you get the hang of it, the mind can spin like a wheel (see what I did there?) and ideas will flow.

Context applied

Without either a beginning or an end, the circle's history is far longer than both the square and the triangle, and often related to the divine, the beginning of life. Since context is rather far-reaching (to many different things), below is a brief paraphrase from my written summary to give a rough idea of the direction I went towards:

Our association with circles, let alone shapes in general has been crucial in the evolution of visual communication: in my case, the progress established from form itself to the final outcome that questions the impact of communication due to the digital boom justifies how much the basic forms – the circle, square and triangle, have deeply ingrained into our society, nowadays often unconsciously due to the overwhelming amount of them around us; a Pointillist ad infinitum.

Something such as a circle to most people can be rather mundane, but have a look around you, how many things on your desk are round? The mug you drink out of, is it not circles overlapping on top of one another?

Conclusion: what is a circle?

Overall, the project took us out of our comfort zones and guided us towards looking at mundane things in an in depth way; the difference between the two sections of the project was between discovering the function and emotion of the shape. The underlying realisations of form within design can be found; almost like a self-realisation, just like the circle itself.

It is a mere circle, you say? Oh no, sir'ree.