Beyond the Brand

Douglas Rushkoff wrote in his article Leggo my Logos, the Branding of Human Culture, that the brand began as a way for ranchers to identify and claim their cattle. Products were branded with the same purpose, and advertising “simply meant publicizing the existence of one’s brand. The sole objective was to increase consumers awareness of the product or company that made it”. (Rushkoff, 2003) In 1922 Claude Hopkins wrote Scientific Advertising, and brought about a whole different outlook on advertising. He believed in “the more you tell, the more you sell” and “white space is wasted space”, choosing the written word over the image. Some decades later the advertisers began to favor the image, due to the popularity of television, and advertiser Leo Burnett introduced using lovable characters to represent products, such as the Marlboro Man. In the 1960s the advertiser David Ogilvy promoted the image of the brand, and not the product itself, as he believed that the customer couldn’t distinguish between products unless their images were different. During this time demographics (market research to help advertisers know which segments of the population they can influence) and brand image were combined to develop the most effective advertising campaigns.

Marlboro man

Brands are hard to dismiss in today’s society. However, James Surowiecki, in his article The Decline of Brands of 2004, thinks that the brand is on its return. Consumers are no longer loyal to their product, despite the fact that companies are spending large amounts of time and money into the branding of their product. This is a new development, because consumer-goods markets used to be very stable, and consumers would stick to their product for years. The companies of the past, such as Disney, did not become successful because their brand was strong, but because they offered the best animation movies. If a brand was strong, people would link it to quality, and start buying it. The company would then assume that it had customers for life. Surowiecki states that now “consumers are continually looking for a better deal, opening the door for companies to introduce a raft of new products” (Surowiecki, 2004). Because the consumer is fickle, the established brands are in a weak position, and this is the reason why new brands are created. In electronics, consumers will no longer pay more money for the same stereo even if it has a Sony logo. According to Surowiecki, brands are becoming nothing more than shadows, as consumers become more powerful. (Surowiecki, 2004)

The changing character of advertising campaigns is discussed in Simons’ book Peruasion in Society. Five phases are explored: idolatry, iconology, narcissism, totemism, and pantheistic.

Advertising one’s product became necessary after the Industrial Revolution, because people encountered unknown mass-produced products for the first time, of which they didn’t always know the purpose of. This resulted in advertising becoming “necessary to connect commodities to culturally approved means of satisfying needs” (Simons, 2001, p. 277). Advertising has come a long way since the 19th century, and five phases in the development of consumer culture can be distinguished.

An advertisement for the Nodark Camera, 1900