Brand culture: trade marks, marketing and consumption

"Visual identity can be understood as the result of the application of graphic design methods aimed at inter-brand differentiation, which paradoxically is leading to “homogenizing identities” (Bell, 2004). The globalization of visual identity is a phenomenon that can be observed not only among global brands competing with each other, but also in locally specific heritage brands that relinquish distinctive elements of their identity to resemble the global. In many cases, their specificities end up being distorted, blurred, or lost, and the richness of what is historically and culturally unique about them is often misinterpreted, neglected, or even discarded. By showing what can be lost with regards to historical and cultural memory within a brand’s imagery, this thesis questions the significance of archives to locally specific brands claiming symbolic and cultural relevance. It shows how can graphic designers can contribute to the preservation of cultural diversity through visual identity. To address the loss of cultural memory as well as the globalization of visual identity, this study draws on visual design heritage to achieve an understanding of the past as a source and a means to feed future cultural development. By adapting visual methodologies and case-study methods to assess brand identity, the study presents a methodological approach for the rescuing, interpretative analysis, and exploration of historical memory in brand imagery. It applies ethnographic research methods for data collection and graphic design methods for recovering visual materials, combined with timelines and grids for contextual and visual analysis. A main case-study is presented to demonstrate how the methods originated, how they enable the observation of identity transformations over time, and of how visual identity dissolves with global influence. This case addresses the historical context and today’s cultural relevance of an archive of the Portuguese iconic Sanjo sports shoes brand, which emerged with the rise of the ‘Estado Novo’ authoritarian regime in Portugal (1933–1974). Through the interpretation of how brand designs evolved in relation to contextual history it is possible to see the various social, cultural, political and economical transformations that occurred in their life spans. The thesis presents parallel examples of brands that were heavily influenced or even controlled by government in the past and now operate independently. As with the case of Sanjo, the comparative study investigates, and further draws attention to the relationship between the loss of historical memory and the globalization of visual identity. By examining the relevance of archives for addressing identity issues, the thesis shows that current graphic design practices can avoid failing to address historical contextualisation and cultural relevance if, firstly, a great deal of historical and cultural memory is retrieved, secondly, if there is substantial visual and contextual analysis, and thirdly, if the visual elements and histories uncovered are put together in the right context. By considering the possibilities that brand archives present for exploring the symbolic values of objects and generating meaning, this study fills a gap between archival practices and the way many designers and companies are dealing with locally specific brands. It argues that brand archives are key instruments for designers to derive meaning and convey cultural memory into the future, and that visual identity is a channel through which these can be acknowledged, displayed and experienced. The study concludes by suggesting possible approaches graphic designers might pursue to address the issues identified, and it broadens the scope of the directions in which brand archives can be explored through the re-contextualisation of cultural objects."

Style helps organizations tell stories within recognizable genres. Style associates strategy with high culture. To provide a distinctive interdisciplinary perspective on strategic brand communication, this chapter discusses several stylistic examples, including classical architecture, fetish style, and snapshot photography, as illustrations of how style intersects with visual communication and informs strategy. I discuss the role of snapshot aesthetics in contemporary brand communication and trace a brief visual genealogy of the snapshot, encompassing historical precedents in Dutch genre art, photographic genres such as street photography and reportage, and contemporary uses of the snapshots, such as paparazzi photography and social media. The staged spontaneity of the snapshot offers a powerful and flexible stylistic tool that forms a basis of the image economy. Snapshot aesthetics offer a useful window into how visual images perform identity work for organizations by capitalizing on historical notions of photography and realism, that is, by invoking the twin conceptions of photography as recording nature and photography as aesthetic creation. Focusing on style helps articulate and highlight organizational construction and strategic deployment of icons, codes, and representational conventions across a range of actors - encompassing fine art, advertising, corporate reportage, fashion photography, web design, popular photography, and film.

Today's mankind living in the world surrounded with signs, imagery, shapes and symbols and as tells his views, ideas by use of those signs. Imagery are created signs which are representing things that were shown. As Lepert (2009) " The imagery are not mined like ore; they are constructed for the purpose of performing some function within a given sociocultural matrix. As Berger (2010) " An imagery is a sight which has been recreated or reproduced ". Advertising imagery are produced to sell and to increase sales as providing to desire of objects. Such that imagery plays as an important role that determine of status. Buying a specific product means, gaing a specific status. As Leppert (2009), " Imagery urges what sort of bodies to have and to desire or to build (even the seeming natural " given " of our fleshly frames is terrain for future construction); it influences our sense of self, our belief systems, our individuality, and our status as social beings; it encourages what clothes to wear or car to drive, which political party to vote for, and so forth ". Meanwhile imagery have power to make changes in the value of a brand. Imagery (commercials, advertising, logos, photographs, showcases, etc.) has an effect in the value of brands. Through visual imagery it can be told the quality, goodness, badness, reliablity, cheapness, expensiveness, etc. of the brand. In this paper visual imagery will be examined and anlyzed of impact to brands quality.

Arts Marketing - An International Journal, 2014

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of the field of visual arts marketing in the development of wider branding theory and practice. Drawing on examples from visual artists and the art mechanism that connects them, our paper reveals how artists and art professionals foster various types of capital (social, cultural, symbolic) as a way of developing a brand name, ensuring longevity in the field, and gaining financial value on the market. As a conceptual paper, we draw on a range of published works as well as examples from the world of visual arts in order to provide fresh theoretical insight into how branding in the arts may be applied to other industries. Our key findings are the importance of the consideration of the development and nurturing of social and cultural capital in developing brand identity. Additionally, visual art brands are required to be innovative and dynamic, and lessons learned regarding these processes have relevance for mainstream brands. We also found that creativity is often collective and that looking to methods for developing work in the visual arts can be utilised by brand managers more broadly in the age of social media and user generated content. This paper follows on the developing body of work, which indicates what mainstream business can learn from looking at the visual arts. We highlight the collective nature of creativity in building the art brand as well as the importance of non-economic measures of value in the realm of branding.

Psychology & Marketing, 2014

Most brands are represented visually in print advertisements, and these visual representations must consistently identify the brand to the consumers who encounter it. At the same time, some of the particular visual elements used to represent the brand must change over time, because it is not acceptable to run the same ad year after year without refreshing its visual content. To explore these issues, a qualitative exploration was conducted with ad agency art directors and ordinary consumers. The focus was the criteria used by each group to determine when changes in the visual representation of the brand succeed, by staying consistent with the brand's identity, or fail, by violating expectations. Professionals, with their greater aesthetic sensitivity, had a more narrow latitude of acceptance for changes. A follow-up experiment with consumers showed that aesthetically aware consumers were likewise more sensitive to alterations in visual brand identity than consumers for whom aesthetics were not central. Results are interpreted in terms of assimilation effects and degree of incongruity along with the moderating effect of aesthetic skill. C 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

2017

3rd International Conference & Exhibition on Semiotics and Visual Communication 2017 branded. the semiotics of branding – culture + context 3–5 November 2017 Cyprus University of Technology Lemesos, Cyprus website at: https://icsvc-conference.com/ CALL FOR PAPERS: Branding and brand–design has achieved a reputation and status of almost mythical proportion over the past few decades. Emerging from its forerunner- corporate identity-to incorporate advertising, consumer lifestyles and attitudes; image- rights; market-research, customisation, global expansion, sound and semiotics, ‘the consumer-as-the-brand’-the word ‘branding’ currently appears bigger than its own umbrella definition. Habitually, in our contemporary societies of mass-consumption branding is associated primarily with marketing and commodities. However, it immediately becomes apparent that what we call branding is an all pervasive social semiosis that arises from a widespread and multifaceted practice in the cultural field, rooted in the history of all human societies since time immemorial. From tribal markers such as totems, scarifications and tattoos, to emblems of power, language, fashion, architectural space, insignias of communal groups, heraldic devices, religious and political symbols, national flags and the like, a form of branding is at work that responds to the need to determine the presence and interaction of specific groups, persons or institutions through a shared code of meaning. In the current context of global networks and mass communication, where we often talk of a boundless “ocean of information”, we are witnessing a proliferation of branding devices, mostly (but not exclusively) visual signs, which are indispensable both in the field of marketable goods and all manner of cultural domains, both conventional and unconventional, in order to delineate the units in the ceaseless flow of information that will enable us to navigate in it and make sense of it. Branding can be applied to a tiny local coffee-shop [consumer-led branding–the brand emerging from the lifestyles of its potential market audience–not imposed from ‘above’];to a football club’s global brand; political parties; a country, huge corporations; a pop star, a government agency, a charity; branding can be used to ameliorate a tarnished company’s image with a name change and a brand-change; consumers are living-brands, many young people enthusiastically identify themselves with their brand-choices and buy fully into brand values and signifiers – no longer standing ‘outside’ the mainstream culture [rebellion] but fully incorporated within it. Those that protest against the globally-homogenised culture do so often in choreographed protests that have been branded for maximum impact across media networks. Do we identify more with brands than with race/creed/religion/ethnicity/nationality? Do ‘brand-values’ equate to ‘values’? To what degree does branding exist as a set of floating signifiers in the global ‘image- repertoire’ above the surface of the real world [harsh realities hidden beneath]? How much does it connect to people’s actual lives? Can branding be escaped? Is it ‘window-dressing’ for the dysfunctional machinery of turbo-capitalism? How are designers, researchers, academics, consumers ethically positioned within it? Can it cultivate ideologies or help? The 3RD International Conference on Semiotics and Visual Communication seeks to bring together researchers, scholars and practitioners who share a common interest in Semiotics and Visual Communication. Proposals for individual papers, approximately 20 minutes long are invited, but are not limited, under one or more of the following main themes: • Brand mythology systems, world views and sacred beliefs in brands • Sartorial Branding and Tribal Branding • Branding for Political, Social and Cultural ideologies • Faith branding and visual communication • Language and branding • Mythical and literary branding references in early advertising/visual communication • The evolution of branding in printed, radio, television, film, internet and digital narratives • Music and sound in the service of branding • Branding and Typography, Graphic Design, Fashion, Textiles, Interior Design, Jewelry, Product Design • Branding through Architecture and Urban/Landscape design • Branding the Individual (self-branding), branding the body in cosmetic and medical practices, branding the suspect in modern surveillance regimes • Ethics and deontology of branding

CALL FOR PAPERS > https://icsvc-conference.com/ Branding and brand–design has achieved a reputation and status of almost mythical proportion over the past few decades. Emerging from its forerunner-corporate identity-to incorporate advertising, consumer lifestyles and attitudes; image-rights; market-research, customisation, global expansion, sound and semiotics, 'the consumer-as-the-brand'-the word 'branding' currently appears bigger than its own umbrella definition. Habitually, in our contemporary societies of mass-consumption branding is associated primarily with marketing and commodities. However, it immediately becomes apparent that what we call branding is an all pervasive social semiosis that arises from a widespread and multifaceted practice in the cultural field, rooted in the history of all human societies since time immemorial. From tribal markers such as totems, scarifications and tattoos, to emblems of power, language, fashion, architectural space, insignias of communal groups, heraldic devices, religious and political symbols, national flags and the like, a form of branding is at work that responds to the need to determine the presence and interaction of specific groups, persons or institutions through a shared code of meaning. In the current context of global networks and mass communication, where we often talk of a boundless " ocean of information " , we are witnessing a proliferation of branding devices, mostly (but not exclusively) visual signs, which are indispensable both in the field of marketable goods and all manner of cultural domains, both conventional and unconventional, in order to delineate the units in the ceaseless flow of information that will enable us to navigate in it and make sense of it. Branding can be applied to a tiny local coffee-shop [consumer-led branding–the brand emerging from the lifestyles of its potential market audience–not imposed from 'above'];to a football club's global brand; political parties; a country, huge corporations; a pop star, a government agency, a charity; branding can be used to ameliorate a tarnished company's image with a name change and a brand-change; consumers are living-brands, many young people enthusiastically identify themselves with their brand-choices and buy fully into brand values and signifiers – no longer standing 'outside' the mainstream culture [rebellion] but fully incorporated within it. Those that protest against the globally-homogenised culture do so often in choreographed protests that have been branded for maximum impact across media networks.

Hegel y Foucault: vida, historia y política, 2012

Academia Letters, 2021

In cardiovascular studies, in vivo or in vitro, changes in selected electrocardiographic (ECG) parameters are monitored after various interventions to assess the basis of the origin and development of heart rhythm disorders. In vivo experiments are usually performed with the animals under general anesthesia what can mean that different anesthetics may have varying impact on myocardial electrophysiology immediately after administration of the anesthetic. Since normal, reference values of ECG parameters in non-anesthetized rats as well as their changes during the 24-hour period are not described in the literature, we summarized the presented values from the methodologies of studies that performed in vivo rat cardiovascular or toxicological experiments a search of the Web of Science database for articles published between 2000 and 2019; in total, 204 articles were retrieved. ECG parameters that were reported as baseline or control values were summarized and averages with ranges were calculated. It was surprising that, in some of these studies, neither the type of anesthesia or sex was reported. The data described below are average value, range and n = number of experiments from which values were evaluated, based on the type of general anesthesia-barbiturate (pentobarbital, phenobarbital, thiopental, nembutal); ketamine (ketamine/xylazine, medetomidine/ketamine, diazepam/ketamine); volatile (ether, isoflurane, desflurane) and urethane anesthesia. The HR varies depending on the type of general anesthesia, which can be problematic in evaluating changes in HR after an intervention. Other factors, in addition to general anesthesia that may directly or indirectly affect the initial HR can be , the time of day (active or inctive