Wednesday 8 November 2017

No Logo, Naomi Klein

Naomi Klein (1999) No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies

:5 'think of the brand as the core meaning of the modern corporation, and of the advertisement as one of the vehicle used to convey meaning in the world.'

'The first mass-marketing campaigns, starting in the second half of the nineteenth century, had more to do with advertising than with branding as we understand it today' 
- Within this Klein is stating that a brand is not advertising. The designer is selling the product to the advertising and at this time, ignoring the creation of brand identity. This is something that has developed and changed over time and is important to understand when referring to the areas in the critical writing piece.

'What made early branding efforts different from more straightforward salesmanship was that the market was now being flooded with uniform mass-produced products that were virtually indistinguishable from one another. Competitive branding became a necessity of the machine age - within a context of manufactured sameness, image-based difference had to be manufactured along with the product.'
- The time of branding came about at the same time as the factory. This was an important time for manufacturers to brand and advertise their mass produced product as unique by associating it to a brand. This supports previous research and is a key in providing an understanding of how branding has changed.

:6 'The first task of branding was to bestow proper names on generic goods...'

'In the 1880s, corporate logos were introduced to mass-produced products like Campbell soup and Quaker Oats cereal.'

:7 'By the end of the 1940s, there was a burgeoning awareness that a brand wasn't just a mascot or a catchphrase or a picture printed on the label of a company's product; the company as a whole could have a brand identity...'

:20 The Body Shop started in the seventies however it wasn't until 1988 that it began to appear in a vast number of locations. In contrast to the goings on at Wall Street where brands were said to be failing, The Body Shop were opening between forty and fifty shops a year in the US. This vast expansion involved no expenses being spent on advertising as there was a strong brand image focusing on their ethical and ecological approach.  

:21 ' Branding, in its truest and most advance incarnation, is about corporate transcendence.' Klein writes that the products that will 'flourish in the future will be the ones presented not as "commodities" but as concepts: the brands as experience, as lifestyle'. - This theory is present in the majority of todays brands. The consumer is being sold a lifestyle through the brand and advertising which makes the product more than just a product. This is how brands ensure success. 

:24 In discussion between Klein and The Body Shop founder, Anita Roddick, it is explained that the stores aren't about what they sell, they are the conveyers of grand ideas. The late graphic designer Tibor Kalman described the role of this brand as 'The original notion of the brand was quality, but now brand is a stylistic badge of courage'. 








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