Future Hi: Corporate Branding in the New Age

June 15, 2004

Corporate Branding in the New Age

Cross-posted from my site, LVX23.

Here's a curious document I ran across about market branding in the new age - it's a transcript of a speech by Cheryl Swanson given to the Business of Marketing Strategy Conference Institute for International Research, April 27, 2004 in Boston. While it is creepy to the core, explaining how branding must evolve to capitalise on the emerging humanism in our culture, it's also intriguing to note that the advertising world agrees that such humanism is indeed growing.

This highlights a conflict I've been struggling with for some time: is it ultimately beneficial when advertising co-opts the underground? Thinkers like Grant Morrison and Doug Rushkoff maintain that media advertising and it's desire to be ever-hip provide opportunities for radical artists and ontologists to present their visions to a huge audience, essentially using the exposure of the corporate brand as a vector to deliver the ideals of the progressive underground. But it begs the question, "Does corporate co-option dilute the message of the underground, tying it to consumerism and desire instead of engeandering progressive social evolution?"

Some excerpts:

The visual landscape of the 21st century is morphing from a masculine, machine-based vision, rational, geometric, linear and logical world, toward an organic, bright, sensory reality that celebrates the human spirit. This viewpoint provides a wake-up call filling us with optimism. Organic shapes and sensory textures reunite our biorhythms (if but for a moment) with our emotions. This new world combines masculine with feminine principles; organic, soulful, soft, inward oriented, producing a more humane landscape...

As we compress the sleep cycle, man finds himself losing touch with his wellspring of myth and fantasy. Brands take on a subliminal, emotional role in society, replacing myth and fantasy to become the defining cultural artifacts of our hopes, dreams and fears...

How does this human inspired vision of the future affect design and brands?" The "human principle," a sharing of our imperfections, weaknesses, feelings, and idiosyncrasies, rather than the perfection of machines or a divine being, is highly relevant to brands. We have identified four themes that make brands relevant in this "Survival of the Fastest" era. Brands can remain relevant only when they remind us of our humanity. Brands need empathy, sensory, simplicity and optimism ("ESSO") to make a solid human connection...

Indoors we yearn for the colors, textures and forms of nature. In reaction, home design is integrating the sounds of water and natural light.

The yoga craze expresses our need to reunite with our bodies, to re-learn how to breathe, to stimulate our senses with aromatherapy, strong mints, body lotions.

Our senses hunger - we must nurture them.

A feeling of excitement and relief exists when our senses are engaged. Materials and manufacturing innovations will continue to create unique sensory shapes, textures, and colors.

The SOFT concept is being embraced at every level, from softer lines and materials with skin-like qualities to highly textured things that respond to touch. These products can be high-end like the Cappellini Gel Chair, or mass like the elastic techno-gel pens at the local drugstore.

Brands are investing in high-sensory experiences. Design is breathing new life into packaging in an almost magical way. Packages are becoming experiences, especially high-end fragrances and liquors, even waters like the Fiji brand...

Optimism is a celebration of the human form. We will continue to see fewer unapproachable corporate signatures as we favor lighter, brighter, more emotionally evocative symbols.

The human face and form is enjoying a renaissance in everything from corporate identity to product marketing to design. Institutions and utilities, insurance, medical, science and technology companies are choosing to visually communicate their human spirit.

Posted by LVX23 at June 15, 2004 01:13 PM | TrackBack

Comments

"This highlights a conflict I've been struggling with for some time: is it ultimately beneficial when advertising co-opts the underground?"

What conflict/struggle? It is never beneficial when advertising co-opts anything. Remember the 60's and 70's? "The culture" totally de-fanged anything with potential for real change by co-opting the superficial trappings of whatever it was.

To even suggest that there could possibly be an upside to it is crazy, in my considered opinion.

- roebuck

Posted by: roebuck at June 15, 2004 04:28 PM

Well I think I somewhat disagree, hence my conflict. I think people are effected by media on many levels. More people have a grasp of what an acid trip is like thanks to the integration of psychedelic design ideals into commercials and videos. How many people have been turned on to alternative ideas and ways of thinking thanks to the Matrix, or the Lord of the Rings trilogy, or X-Files? Granted, these are somewhat different from advertising, per se, but the point remains: When the mainstream co-opts the underground it brings it to a much larger audience.

And you act like nothing from the 60's survived past the 80's. What about civil rights? What about the environmentalism of the 90's or the current trends towards pastoralism? How about the massive anti-war protests leading up to the Iraq war? Just because everyone isn't running around in tie-dyes handing out free love and drugs doesn't mean that many of the fundamental principles of that era dissolved into nothing because of "the culture".

Posted by: lvx23 at June 15, 2004 05:01 PM

My innate tendecy is to think that anything that promotes blindless consumption for the corporate machinery is bad. On the other hand, perhaps in advertisers attempt to co-opt the 'psychedelic-shamanisitic-spiritual", it in turn is ultimately co-opting them! Daniel Pinchbeck makes a good point (in Breaking Open the Head) that today's youth are more easily able to go into the hyper-spatial DMT realms, probably because of the information overload we have experience through this very mass media.

Posted by: Paul at June 15, 2004 07:23 PM

Branding and corperate design is often considered an art form in itself. There is plenty of material available that goes into great detail about this. Alot of it comes out of Practical Design from the 1920s-1940s where art is applied to design of everyday items.

AS for co-opting undergrounds...any subculture will react against the mainstream intrusion. The mainstream will adopt the new concepts into the general pool adjusts them so they will fit a little nicer. Each groups has its own priorities.

The subculture in the mean time changes to react against these adjustments and can create something new and inspiring or die out.

It is a constant process of evolving new directions creating change. The system Itself Creates the change. Its a cultural Darwinism.

Wether the changes are helpful etc Its a case by case situation. The process lends itself to the potential for both evolutionary and devolutionary directions.

I persaonlly dont rate subcultures as more valuable then the majority culture. They are aspects of the whole system.

Society as a whole grows through changes and the coopting of innovation by mainstream methods is simply another example of the same pattern over and over again. Its instinct. Built into humans.

When was the last time there was a new subculutre that did NOT "co-opt" elements from another previous subculture?

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