Comments on: brands: meaning in, meaning out

By: Fabrizio

Fabrizio — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:24:15 +0000

I admit it may seem a little bit paranoid but I asked 10 of my students that work for a large fashion company in Italy to do the same thing as Jane. I really like the results as they show a compex picture of local, national and global brands. In particular I found interesting how the number of brands quoted differ depending on the kind of activity involved and the relvance of the activity for the individual cultural project. I am still working on their agendas but I would like to share a couple of results with you, just to know your feedbacks and suggestions:

a) The number of brands quoted is higher when it comes to very personal and self expressive activities such as getting dressed and personal care (in total my students quoted almost 40 different brands in clothing and accesories and 28 in personal care).

b) When it comes to food and drink the presence of national and local brands grows. Total brands quoted: 19, total national brands: 10; local brands: 3

c) In technological products the number of brands is very poor: 11 with Nokia as the most quoted brand in cell phones and Samsung in TV sets.

I think this offers a far more complicated picture of the use and relevance of brands in everyday life than one might derive form Jane’s day in life…

By: Laurie

Laurie — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:22:57 +0000

I’m more than curious about Jane’s work day: does she ever stop for coffee, buy gas for her car, pick up groceries on the way home (and if so, where and what?).

The other thing I found quite revealing is Jane does not seem particularly loyal. Look at her hodgepodge beauty routine.

These questions have me wondering more about Jane: her age, her profession etc. Indeed, as revealing as Jane’s day is, it poses more questions than it answers.

By: Mark Nelson

Mark Nelson — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:03:43 +0000

What strikes me about the timeline is how incomplete it feels. Certainly many of the branded products and services we consume in a typical day are not as self-referential as these are. Hey, where’s the Sam’s club toilet tissue? On the other hand, this may be the value of the exercise. She has constructed a list of brands from which she derives self-referential meaning, which is where brands need to be.

By: John

John — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:22:41 +0000

Good point Fabrizo. It makes me think how brands in our daily life always carry a sense of symbolic capital to them. i.e. a local brand probably has less than say Apple (depending on the habitus of the individual or group). So when we start to map our daily brand use we unconciously attach outselves to the ones that carry capital.

However, we can learn from more local brands.In London one finds with shopping, for example, that local independant food deli’s become strongly branded due to shopping habits driven by media etc, for example – If you want to eat organic food then shopping locally will provide you with a organic, rustic experience.

Finally, not sure why Jane put a dope leaf as a brand – is it a brand? -

By: Fabrizio

Fabrizio — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 06:47:21 +0000

The “branded day in life” is a very effective representation of the impact of brands in our daily activities (all of them). As an European (and Italian) reading this map I am impressed by the fact that there are almost no local brands in it..If my colleagues or myself do this map it will vary dramatically depending on the geography. On the other hand, the brands reported in the map are all market leaders, i.e. large market share, this means that they might be more present in our life than other minor brands but less relevant to us as symbols or icons.

By: smack

smack — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:13:42 +0000

With no blog of my own to post, and likely not much to offer by way of insight, I beseech you to comment on CNN’s beta t-shirt service (look for the t-shirt icon next to witty or confusing quotes on their website). At risk of bring attention to this idea and upsetting the experiment, please bring to bear some sane commentary on what this means.

Yes, I realize my comment it NOT directly related to Jane’s idea, but wearing a quotation from CNN is a somewhat novel application of branding.

By: Mark Magnusson

Mark Magnusson — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:11:00 +0000

My first reaction I had was HEY COOL visual mashup, what an interesting visual excercise but for what purpose.

My second thought is, how valuable is this really? The counter-point: is it really important or relevant? This is more like SUPER wishful thinking from Marketers. Isn’t this a perception from a by gone era. I don’t wake up in the morning and think CASIO, now I’m going to Crest my teeth, etc. Doesn’t this just play into company’s preconceived notion that they define People with their pristine brands. I don’t know “Jane” but is it saying that we are all Brand Slaves

It’s a totally funny brand-time mashup /gimmick and there may be value somewhere but it’s not quite evolved yet. What if it was a brand-geo-mashup or Brand-timeline/tag-cloud. What other layers of information does this “Brand Timeline-Portrait” need to be useful? It seems a bit inconclusive evidence of anything substanstial. Jane’s on to something but not sure what? Totally fascinating how people want to say: “Hi I’m Jane and this my Brand and these are my sub-bands that make-up my experience.

By: Renan Petersen-Wagner

Renan Petersen-Wagner — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:30:30 +0000

This remembers me a short video that a friend made. You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RzqtWL3rRY

By: Jane Sample

Jane Sample — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:53:33 +0000

I am not ready yet to let go of my “Jane Sample” identity. Rest assured I do work in advertising, and was not surprised that my whole day could be mapped out in brands. What surprised me is how much meaning each brand took on in the context of a day full of brands. it really told a story.

and thank you for the insightful article.