17 May 2007 |
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Why and under what conditions are people likely to buy brand names rather than their generic counterparts? People are more likely to buy a brand name rather than their generic counterpart because of informational value. According to Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwan, the authors of Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, ‘informational value is the representational and interactive syntagms that relates products to consumers;” and this is carried out by covert advertisements. Kress and Van Leeuwan believes that the placement of brand names, such as Estee Lauder or a Nike shoe in a magazine layout attracts consumers because the product is made more salient by being marketed in a popular magazine than its generic counterpart. According to some theory, brand names products have various ways of being marketed to appeal to consumers than its generic counterparts. One of the ways is through framing-brand name products are usually framed in an angle to exaggerate more information than it is really necessary, thereby giving off the impression of importance, and consequently connects consumers to the product. Every meaningful action- for example wearing ‘a necktie, embracing a friend, cooking a meal- is meaningful only to the extent that it is a sign in some interpretive code.’ In literary theory, Robert Scholes calls interpretive code a Textual Power. Texts, according to Scholes have power to change the way we see things. Why does one product languish in stores shelves, while a similar product flies off the shelves? The answer comes down to branding- the projected identity of a product. When a product is branded a popular name, what is been created, is action personalized in a product. The product is made important because the consumer thinks it is important, thus, a powerful allure has been imparted. Branding a product a certain name evokes an action, a feeling- whereby someone equates that action to a cultural value. What is in a name, but a feeling of some sort? A brand name is really a feeling, made important because of the value system of that particular culture and how the value is associated to that name. In this case, advertisement culture says, a brand name product is fashionable, appealing and therefore important because a consumer has unconsciously agreed with the essences of what is being sold to them- a feeling. Ironically when this becomes popular, people begin to equate that product to a time period that means something to their lives. In a nutshell, what all this is, is simply the value accorded to a particular product because of what the name evokes, and what the advertisement company says the product does. In these case, the name is what really sells because its’ equivalent- the generic type has no popularized name, and has not been marketed, and therefore, has no cultural value placed on it- mainly because it hasn’t being made salient by a covert advertisement. The difference is really in the name and the glory accorded to that named product due to the classificatory advertisement. To further clarify my point, I will analyze an Estee Lauders’ layout picture in a popular magazine advertisement with the model Elizabeth Hurley. A layout of an Estee Lauder’s ‘Spotlight Skin Tone Perfector,’ in a popular magazine, for instant, would have several images: The image of people looking onto Ms. Hurley as something thrown down from heaven because she is using a brand name product. She is perceived as beautiful because she uses the Estee Lauder Skin Tone Perfector, a promise for those who dare to use the product. The print model, Elizabeth Hurley, is placed in a foreground to emphasis the promise of the product, while some onlookers are placed on the background. The admirers in this picture are not as important as Hurley, whom is made more salient. Elizabeth Hurley as the spotlight of the visual representation of the advertisement conveys beauty. She is made salient by giving the consumers an image- ‘this is what you would look like when you use Skin Tone Perfector by Estee Lauder.’ When a brand name product is placed in such a height with a beautiful model such as Elizabeth Hurley, what do you expect would happen? Consumers would run to buy the product even when the promise is elusive. There is no way a consumer would look like Ms. Hurley even after using the Skin Tone Perfector. This is the reality, but we don’t see it because we are constantly bombarded with advertisement that says differently. Advertisers use beautiful models to lure consumers to their brand name product- thereby promising them what they are seeing; ‘the beauty is in the bottle or in the shoe’. Verbal text is also used to elevate the unspoken essences of what the product would do for those who uses it. In this particular layout example, Ms Hurley glittering face with the bolded words, “ Beautiful,” is made the spotlight and stands out against the dark background of the ad- thereby giving the consumers an unspoken promise of what the product Estee Lauder can do for them when used. It would make them beautiful. An advertisement gives greater stress to the promise of a brand name product than its generic counterpart that hasn’t been marketed through advertisement. In other words, what really sell brand name product is advertisement. And the reason people may chose to buy a brand name product rather than its generic counterpart is because it’s been advertised repeatedly in a popular magazine or in a television space. As important as a brand name product may be, it is important because of advertisement, and the reason many people would buy a brand name product, is because, it’s being accorded a semiotic code, a feeling imposed by a covert advertisement.
References: Gunther Kress; Gunther, and Theo van Leeuwan: Reading Images The Grammar of Visual Design, 1996 R. Tufte, Edward; Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative, 1997 Robert Scholes; Textual Power: Literary Theory; 1988 For comments please contact Blessing Otobo, the writer and owner of article at:
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