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7 Oct 2011

Progress Report XIII
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The past week has been mentally busy, and setting out all of my key insights from my research, the most important insight has to be regarding brand terrorism, and the context of the term in its entirety. This insight, as previously pointed by the tutors present at the presentation last week, is already known to the general public, but what has been done to solve such a problem?
Examples such as Logorama by H5/François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy and Ludovic Houplain & Kapitaal by Studio Smack both note the problems that the terrorising messages become meaningless as a moral through a visual narrative. On the other hand, Deleting Space by Christopher Steinbrener and Rainer Dempf’s outdoor methods of erasing brands on the high street created an impact through the erasure of noise, the response from the audience were clear. But the underlying point is that those examples do not suggest what can be done to avoid the meaningless messages as a whole.
While this key insight serves more direction towards the outcome, it has brought another insight that in fact, the essence of this project is about raising awareness about something that is already known to everyone; raising awareness about something familiar. As it is an analogy to state that rather than making a point by proving that the problem with media is constantly pointing out the negativities within society to provide the shock value for its audience, as Gerbner (as cited from Seward Barry, p.306) states

Under the umbrella theory of "cultivation process" Gerbner has traced how "mean world syndrome" can come about when, with the repeated exposure to negative messages, people can become convinced that the world they live in is an inherently dangerous and primarily mean one...when people believe what they see and what they see is a world enmeshed in violence, they expect violence to happen to them...and inadvertently actualize what they fear – all without understanding how the process has worked or the actual reality behind the fears.

This draws insight that I had raised towards the beginning of my Major Project on the exposure of negative media, but there are not as many suggestions as to how to improve their negative findings.

So how would I be able to raise awareness about something that is already known to the audience?

Had a think (not necessarily in a dark room though, as my tutor had suggested) over the output, a web interface with a type of humourous and engaging shock for the audience; the stats and facts will connect with the different scenarios that will be asked, with metaphoric titles such as "Rise and shine" – asking the audience what they do when they first get up; some may go to the bathroom, some may use their phone to check their social networking sites / emails etc., or their daily commute, with small analogies such as "we spend x time watching/seeing ads about health/fitness products that would equate to x amount of hours spent at the gym". The important message behind this site to be engaging and informative. Thusly, creating the creative co-ordinates of
- engaging
- informative
- which directs contemporary.
The tone of voice which directs the site still requires work, as there may be multiple dynamics that I am adding as a result of utilising both analogies and metaphors within the language; the interpretations of them would be different for all.

Importantly, the outcome brings learning about brand exposure to a more informational extent by using such analogies, and it can help at the end of the interactive survey by offering suggestions on purchasing (such as making search terms more direct, and to spread the news of awareness on this site), creating the link from my key point, to offer positives in light of the negative discovery. Whether or not it would create the realisation that branding is the contemporary method of escapism for the audience is up to the individual.

Sketches of the site are being created as I write up; on a 12 column grid to retain the simplicity that would be required to keep in line with the creative co-ordinates. The name of this campaign, or essentially, the brand, has currently been proposed as “Brandology” – literally, meaning the study of branding. (Still subject to change)

For the purpose of online viewing, I have attached Logorama and Kapitaal for your viewing pleasure.

Bibliography
Seward Barry, A (1997) Visual Intelligence: Perception, Image, and Manipulation in Visual Communication. State University of New York: New York.
Video
H5/François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy and Ludovic Houplain (2009) Logorama [video online] Available at:

<>

[Accessed 10 May 2011]

Studio Smack (2006) Kapitaal [video online] Available at:

<>

[Accessed 4 October 2011]
Website
http://www.steinbrener-dempf.com/index.php?article_id=5 [Accessed 1 October 2011]
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30 Sep 2011

Progress Report XII
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“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.
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23 Sep 2011

Progress Report XI
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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.
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