aesopic said on May 21 `09

Hey, I tried to post to the larger site but it got rejected and now I have lost my entry entirely… so here is a brief version of it:

1.
There is a MASSIVE difference between branding and graphic design. Graphic design in brand development should be informed by, at best, rigorous market research or, at worst, a product developers instinct. Either way, the designer should be serving the best interests of the client or the client’s customer or, ideally, both.

2.
Branding is and always has been a somewhat democratic endeavor. If you consider the success, failure, or something in between, as defined by the consumers relationship with the product / offering, then branding is a “democratic” process… it much more complex than this, but in simple terms, the consumer owns the brand and the source of the offering owns the “branding"--the process of influencing the consumers relationship to the offering.

And if you even remotely agree then this gets to the most important point I want to make:

3.
There is a serious challenge of media literacy facing our society. If we believe so strongly in our capitalist ideals, we should educate citizens at a very early age about the methods and materials of branding and brand influence. Such literacy would helps the consuming culture to understand why they want what they want… and perhaps will alleviate some of the pain and suffering that moves people to act violently in pursuit of a video game console or sneakers or even schoolyard bullying over backpacks etc. An educated and informed consuming public is where truly democratic brands will exist. It’s a HUGE challenge that seems to get very little consideration.

Well, hope this makes some sense to someone. Thanks for the post!
Andrew

Arjen said on May 21 `09

Wow excellent response to a kind of off the cuff post. I will marinate your comments some more and respond. your first post may have been rejected because I was messing with the template for this page. Not sure.

Arjen said on May 21 `09

1. Ofcourse. I don’t think I argued differently? Graphic design is an element of and the final visual manifestation of the huge arc of market and customer research as well as development of brand values, that goes into branding. (And that doesn’t begin to cover it.)

2. Interesting point, it brings me back to the trajectory that the Tropicana project underwent. At first, I thought it was public outrage that made PepsiCo reconsider, but ofcourse it was really all about cold hard cash. The revenue dropped something like 30% immediately upon introduction of the new packaging because people didn’t read the same values into the new look. They read it as generic (i.e. “Cheap") and so reached for another brand name like minute maid, instead. That in turn creates new loyal customers for competing brand which translates to permanent damage. By flipping back immediately, they might have stopped the bleeding there a littlebit.

3. To want to educate the public on “why they want what they want” is a lofty goal.

That said, I’m a bit cynical about the idea that all people out there would actually be interested in being educated about all this.

To be challenged to think about how the economy, marketing, promotion, advertising and brand building really works and how it subconsciously influences you to make decisions, takes a lot of energy and curiosity that many might not be so willing to expend. However, it would indeed be worth it to educate school children on the subjects, so that those who are curious about these things have the opportunity to be somewhat more informed and protected from it.

aesopic said on May 21 `09

Hey again
I think we are probably more aligned than not. With maybe the exception about educating the general public. I have taught quite a few workshops to inner city school (intermediate and high) children. I am convinced that they want to know how this all works and they want to be informed. All of which makes me hopeful that someday an informed consuming public will make more informed buying decisions.

I think part of the great mystery of current economic crises has to do with an old maxim around “the less they know.” I am hopeful that people want to know more so they can align their lifestyle and consuming activities to their broad principle approaches to daily and long term living. You know, its that old idea of designing your life so to speak - or that every decision we make is a design decision.

It may be lofty, but I think its possible.
Thanks again for the great site and the post!
Andrew