Updating is the key…

I haven’t posted on here for a while, but this does not mean that I have not been researching into my Dissertation and the direction that I am going in with it.

Dissertation Presentation

1. Title of my dissertation:

L.O.G.O: Lost Or Greatly Oblivious?

or

L.O.G.O: Lost Or Genuinely Oblivious?

How brands have taken to new methods of marketing its logo rather than its historic and valued identity of the brand itself.

1. Why I have chosen this subject to research?

I have choses this subject because I personally have a grudge against this new era of consumerism and the new generation of people buying into a brand solely for its logo on the breast of the shirt rather than the rich history and identity behind the logo. For me I want to find out why this is and why brands have no fallen into the trap which they set themselves of highlighting the simple logo of their brand rather than the meaning and culture of the brand behind the symbol. I feel it will affect my design studio practice as I will have to consider from now on whether I will have to design something according to a more shock and awe factor of its logo, aka its main identity now, rather than producing something that in affect wont be about the logo but rather the brands history with the thought it may not be successful.

1. What has already been said about this subject?

Some cases agree with my title, yet others disagree. In the case of Naomi Klein, she heavily agrees with the idea that brands such as Nike and Pepsi have expanded beyond their products, with their name just appearing on everything and everywhere. As this has happened, the brand obsessed youth of today drove them into a direction of promoting what they thought was “cool”. These sorts of brands also aim to attach themselves to celebrities, movements and media that is popular, even if it has no real attachment to it. Klein argues that large multinational corporations consider the marketing of the brand name to be more important than its manufacture of products. Which thus explains the use of Third World countries being used to manufacture their products in a quick and easy way. That is just a small selection of examples that she talks about in her powerful book, yet I feel that she is 100% correct in what she says.

Many websites that I have used as part of my research understand the common objective to acquire younger and younger consumers to which they can pump their brand name into via ways of advertising of which leads them to wanting their product, whether it is any good or not.

Some do disagree with this proposition, however there aren’t too many that I could find. A few websites feel that a logo does not have the sole responsibility of earning a brand its money.

The majority of books I have found and read often say the ways that they perfect cost effect they are marketing and branding in this way. Most websites as well agree with the idea that they are changing the way they market to increase sales due to the demand in a logo rather than the products itself.

1. What research have I done over the summer?

Books:

–       “No Logo” – Naomi Klein

–       “On Brand” – Wally Olins

–       “Convergence Culture, where old and new media collide” – Henry Jenkins

–       “Brand Leadership” – David A. Aaker

–       “How brands become icons” – Douglas B. Holt

–       “Packaging the Brand: – Gavin Ambrose and Paul Harris

Websites:

–       http://k2md.net/knowledge/article_01.aspx

–       http://lawyerist.com/a-brand-is-not-just-a-logo/

–       http://www.high50.com/archives/life-times/advertising-why-do-luxury-brands-target-impoverished-youth

–       http://marketing.about.com/od/marketingyourbrand/a/beyondbrand.htm

–       http://www.fastcodesign.com/1664145/branding-is-about-creating-patterns-not-repeating-messages#disqus_thread

–       http://justcreative.com/2010/04/06/branding-identity-logo-design-explained/

–       http://heidicohen.com/branding-logo/

–       http://www.dissmeyer.com/striking-brand-logo-increase-economic-activities.html#respond

–       http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/symbols-impact-on-logo-design/

–       http://themarketingspot.com/2009/01/basics-of-marketing-brand.html

–       http://business.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=120000060KHC&page=1

–       http://www.brandingmagazine.com/2012/03/02/youth-unemployment-at-record-levels-i-can-see-why/

1. Plan of Action!

From here I will be now cross referencing all my research against each other, to see which agree or disagree, has the same or dissimilar opinion, etc. Then I will be aiming to contact major brands that I feel has gone down the route of creating a logo rather than its brand and products and subtly asking them whether they are doing this for any reason and try to find out whether this is really what is going. I will also be contacting smaller brands on the same issue. I would like to contact Naomi Klein, seeing as she has near exact thoughts of myself, in some way or another and let her know what I am doing and whether she can perhaps give me some directions to look into that I haven’t thought of as of yet. I will be creating a large scale research into youth and the new generation by creating simple yet effective questionnaires that can be done over the next set of months that will allow me to understand whether the youth are really to blame for this logo idolised consumerism world.

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