Brand Identities

Essay #2: Brand Identities

We have discussed a variety of ways in which different media producers attempt to market to specific audiences, whether through the creation of a particular brand identity, or through tapping into some niche market. For your second essay, you will analyze how some contemporary media product is marketed and investigate the identity that is sold alongside it. While questions about brand identity are important to marketing research, your essay will be more anthropological than an analysis of business strategies. It is less your goal to decide whether or not some media product is being marketed effectively than to offer an understanding of the kind of identity the media artifact invites audience members to consume. The best papers will both offer an interesting analysis of the product’s brand identity AND demonstrate some appreciation for the cultural implications of the identity itself (e.g. what does the identity say to or about the culture that has produced it? What ideological values are implicit within this brand identity? How does this brand identity complement some particular zeitgeist?) You can choose to analyze any of the following: 1) A specific magazine. What sort of brand identity does Cosmopolitan create through its articles and advertisements? What kinds of values or ideologies do the producers of the magazine seem to assume their readers share? 2) A specific music group or performer. How are listeners supposed to view Clay Aiken? Based on the kinds of songs he records, the ways in which he is advertised, the artwork on his CDs, and so forth, what sort of people are we supposed to assume is attracted to him? How do his producers create this image? 3) A specific television network. What is the brand identity for Spike TV? Based on the kinds of programs on the network, as well as the advertisers that pay to be included on it, whom does the network seem to be targeting? What are members of this audience supposed to value or believe about themselves? Depending on your selected focus and the particular argument you want to make you might want to focus your discussion even more specifically then these broader topics—that is, you might want to write about a specific issue or section of a magazine, a specific portion of the television network’s programming (e.g. Adult Swim), or a specific period in an artist of band’s career. Pick something about which you think you can offer an interesting argument that will teach your reader something about both the media you discuss and the broader culture in which it takes place. Regardless of the specific media product you choose to analyze, you should keep all of the following in mind: 1) Your essay should have a specific thesis that is unique to your analysis. It isn’t enough to simply say that Cosmopolitan is targeted towards women or Spike TV is targeted towards men. You should offer a more focused analysis that gets at the unique ways in which your media product targets some more specific group. In clarifying this for your paper, it might be useful to name the specific brand identity you explore. If you can attach an interesting, specific label to the identity sold alongside Clay Aiken, then you are likely on track to a specific argument and analysis. 2) Your essay should make use of specific primary sources to demonstrate your argument. Your first essay used historical newspapers as their primary sources. For this essay, your primary sources will be the media products that help demonstrate the brand identity you are exploring. If you decide to analyze Spike TV, your primary sources will likely be television programs from the network, specific advertisements included during these shows, the network’s website, advertisements for the network