OUGD401: Study Task 08 - Practical Exploration (Initial Thoughts / Ideas)

What is the relationship between branding and the consumer self?

Given that my essay was about the relationship between brands and consumers, the underlying question that I chose to focus on was who holds the power within the relationship and to what extent.

After analysing several sources relevant to my question it soon became clear that the brands have the upper hand within the relationship. In most cases, brands can manipulate consumers to buy products they don't need or even want, through clever marketing and advertising campaigns that shed light on a new 'revolutionary product' that will in some way improve their lifestyle, their relationships etc. even though this obviously isn't the case for the most part.

So following on from this fact, my initial thoughts for my practical investigation to go along side my written essay was to look along the lines of branding a 'product' which is something that we already have as a given, that we don't need to physically buy.

The first thing that came to mind was human rights; these are something that every human being has and is entitled to, regardless of any other environmental factors.

A few examples were things such as:

- The right to life
- Freedom of expression
- Freedom of thought, belief and religion
- Right to participate in free elections
- Right to education

I thought that branding something like this in such a way that is done with most products these days would put emphasis on this idea that brands are infinitely powerful when it comes to controlling consumers on a physical, mental and emotional level.

Given that a big aspect of selling products to consumers is the aesthetics of packaging/product etc. this is one thing that reels people in to buy more products they don't know and spend more on certain brands they feel are more 'luxurious'.

Examples of Branding

Packaging

Even though these are only basic products that most people will buy on a regular basis, by branding them in such a way that makes them feel more high quality, even though the product may be the same as others, people are deceived into believing that this product is better out there than others simply because of the way it looks. 

This is something I want to harness within my idea, creating something that appears as though people would feel the need to buy it, even though ultimately it's something that doesn't need to be physically bought.

OUGD401: Study Task 6 - Establishing the requirements of your practical investigation

1. TECHNIQUE(s)

I plan to use a range of techniques within my practical piece to ensure that I have explored most if not all possibilities when creating my work. These will potentially include a range of techniques including letter press, screen print and digital printing.

2. CONTENT

The content of the practical piece will be based around my question, but more so will be a branded object to support my question.

3. COMMUNICATION / MESSAGE

The underlying message of my piece will be that brands hold the power within the relationship between them and the consumers and that they can essentially convince us to buy products we think we need.

4. RESEARCH / ANALYSIS

My research for this piece will be varied from relevant books, some of which have been used within my essay, but also self driven research through the likes of questionnaires etc.

5. EXPLORATION / EVALUATION

Evaluating my piece will useful as it will depict whether or not I was successful within proving my hypothesis and this will not be evaluated by just me, but will also include the opinions of other fellow students who will critique my piece.

1. What is your research question?

What is the relationship between branding and the consumer self?

2. Do you have a hypothesis (an assumed conclusion that you will endeavour to prove)?

My hypothesis is to prove that brands hold the power within the relationship between them and the consumers and that they can essentially trick/convince us to buy products we believe we need due to their clever ways of advertising and packaging of the products.

3. What are the contexts of your research interests (politics, advertising, consumerism)?

Contexts of my research include consumerism and also branding, which links into advertising given advertising is a large part of how brands become known and show off their products.

4. Sources of primary/secondary research.

Books:

- Klein, N. (2000) No Logo. London: Flamingo.

- Olins, W. (2003) Wally Olins: On Brand. London: Thames and Hudson

- Miles, S. (1998) Consumerism: As a way of life. New York: Sage

5. How will your practical work answer the research question?

It will answer the research question through providing evidence of how consumers can fall victim to brands ways of advertising and packaging products to make them believe that this particular product will in some way improve their lives by making it more luxurious etc.

6. What methods will you use to research, develop, create and test your work?

Research will come from online sources, books but also questionaries of fellow classmates, family and also friends. These questionnaires will be aimed at proving my hypothesis by providing the work I've designed along side some relevant questions. This in turn will help me to further develop my designs and overall concept, in the hope to ensure I can fully prove my hypothesis from my practical work.

As for the creating and testing side of my practical work, I will aim to use a range of mediums throughout the different development stages of my investigation and adapting my designs to fit with feedback on my work along the way.

7. Provide a proposed timeline for your work to completion (consider carefully whether you will need access to college facilities).

All practical work to be completed by the ~20th April.

OUGD401: Essay Research (John Berger: Ways of Seeing - Episode 4)

I came across a documentary that I thought would come in useful in supporting my point of how brands are consuming us and manipulating us into thinking we need more than what we actually do, ultimately forcing us into buying products that aren't necessary.

John Berger makes a point within the episode of how ‘publicity of these brands, in a way, forces us to buy more and more products as if it would in some way improve our lives and will make us in some way richer, even though we will be poorer by having spent our money’. This is done by companies showing off models who appear to be living an ideal lifestyle because of these products, which results in consumers envying these people and wanting to buy the product thinking that it will do the same for them.

He also mentions how it ‘forces consumers into this vicious cycle of wanting more and better products, needing more money to buy these, taking out loans and spending that money on more and better products’. This all ultimately leads to the big name companies leeching off the consumers who are naive  and are just wanting to obtain these ‘dream’ lives the portray in their adverts, all because of people feeling insecure about themselves.
 

OUGD401: Essay Research (Klein & Olins)

Following on from a previous blog post where I created a plan on how I will aim to structure my essay, I read more from both Naomi Klein's book 'No Logo' (2000) and Wally Olins' book 'Wally Olins: on Brand' (2003). Both of these had some very good points on brands and how they've consumed not only consumers but society as a whole with their overwhelmingly obtrusive advertising and packaging ways.

Extracted Quotes/Points:

Naomi Klein (No Logo)

Nike were described as a superbrand because of how they're 'a company that swallows cultural space in giant gulps’ due to them having taken over not only the media, sports and also the consumers, yet consumers are for the most part oblivious to this. This isn't the case for all brands, but a large selection of them seem to consume everything in their path such as Nike.

Another point from No Logo was how branding ‘grew with people both physically and mentally as a result more and more people wanted brands and started to care less about the actual clothes themselves’ which in turn meant that brands grew exponentially. This point links in well with my first point I will aim to make in the essay which is about a person's self-identity and what brands they use and how these brands shape the person and their personality.

Wally Olins (Wally Olins: On Brand)

To link in with my planned first point within my essay is Olins' idea of there being a strong relationship between brands and the consumers as he talks about how you can ‘Mix and match to customise, enhance and underline your own particular self-perception’. Which is him referring to mixing and matching brands such as hotel chains where you stay over and the clothing brands you wear.

Olin’s makes another point of ‘branding has moved so far beyond its commercial origins that its impact is virtually immeasurable in social and cultural terms’. This is brands becoming a big part of people’s lives due to the pressure of feeling inferior and how brands are becoming a big part of everything you could imagine.

Another point he made was that ‘The only people you ever see wearing a Barclays Bank t-shirt are a few miserable people who work for Barclays and they don’t seem to like it much’ meaning that the consumers, choose which brands do well and which don’t because of the fact that we buy the brands we like and disregard those we don’t, which supports the third point I aimed to make within the essay that contrasts with this idea that brands hold the power within the relationship.