Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven is thick inlaid with patens of
bright gold. There’s not the smallest orb which though beholdst, but in his
motion like an angel sings, still choiring to the young-eyed cherubims; such
harmony is in immortal souls, but whilst this muddy vesture of decay doth
grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.
—Lorenzo, The Merchant of Venice,
Act V, Scene 1
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he way you say something makes a
difference in how your message is received. Consider Lorenzo’s words in The
Merchant of Venice. He could have said, “Hey Jessie, the stars are hella
bright. Check out Mars moving backward.” (That is, if Mars was currently in
retrograde motion.) But instead he calls them “patens of bright gold,” and
threw in music and angels for good measure. Much classier. I’m sure his words
gave Jessica pause, and made her think about just what kind of a man she had
lying beside her on that grassy knoll. Or perhaps she went straight on to
swooning, with no time for thought. Regardless of which effect his words had,
the fact remains that the way Lorenzo tells her to look at the stars influences
how Jessica hears him.
So, what does Shakespeare have to do
with the psychology of branding, you ask? All this beautiful speech has got me
confused. Relax, I reply. I’m going to explain.
Shakespeare understood the psychology of rhetoric, and used language that his audiences would find convincing, entertaining, and compelling. English majors not only study Shakespeare, but many other masters of rhetoric as well. In studying works of rhetoric, they study both the language patterns and the psychology behind them. Perhaps the most systematic work in rhetoric was undertaken by Aristotle, who said “Let rhetoric be [defined as] an ability, in each [particular] case, to see the available means of persuasion.” Aristotle’s words can be taken on two levels: as a description of physical mean, such as words and sentences, and as a description of psychological means, such as the thoughts and ideas an audience finds persuasive.
Though Aristotle was speaking primarily of oral speech, written language also must assess the available means of persuasion, and English majors are concerned primarily with this latter form of communication. Every writer, when she chooses the words to put down on paper, is assessing the means of persuasion. Every critic analyzes whether an author did this well or poorly. English majors, in the course of their studies, become both critics and writers. They become adept at identifying and using effective language, and do this by assessing the physical and psychological means of persuasion. This makes them prime candidates for work in the field of branding.
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ut what is a brand, you ask?
Originally, a brand meant the name and logo of a company, something that
distinguished them from similar companies. But branding has become a much
broader concept, including a spectrum of language and aesthetic values that
combine to convey the image of a company. A brand of a company is now often
developed and managed by a team of brand analysts. Each of these experts is
responsible for some aspect of the brand. However, all aspects involve
considering the psychological effect of the words and images used.
Coke ads are one example of how a
brand operates on a psychological level. Though I don’t like Coke as a product,
I have a positive association with the red Coke logo and tend to think of it as
a classic, reliable product. This remains true despite my unease at the rate of
corn syrup being poured into children throughout America and the rest of the
world who drink Coke. My positive image of Coke is actually contradictory to my
personal experience of seeing the way the ingredients used to clog the
dispenser at the café where I used to work. We would dismantle the soft drink
machine in order to clean thick brown gunk out of the fittings, which simply
accumulated due to the nature of Coke’s ingredients; those same ingredients
which pour down the throats of thousands of people daily. That Coke continues
to carry positive associations in my mind demonstrates the skill of their brand
managers in developing and maintaining its psychological profile as a brand.
Coke must use various rhetorical
strategies to counteract the negative effect of the ingredients in their
product. One way they do this is through trendy theme songs, and professional,
attractive commercials. Another way they do this is to draw heavily on their
history as a brand, and try to reach the customer at a personal level. One way
to do this is to make the business seem smaller than it actually is. On their
website, Coke manages to convey a small-business feel:
“In the remotest comers of the
globe, you can still find Coca-Cola…Coca-Cola is committed to local markets,
paying attention to what people from different cultures and backgrounds like to
drink, and where and how they want to drink it. With its bottling partners, the
Company reaches out to the local communities it serves, believing that
Coca-Cola exists to benefit and refresh everyone it touches.”
It’s interesting that a
mega-monopoly tries to go back to its “roots” in a small business in order to
generate trust in its consumers.
We often think of a brand as
something we create; a positive aspect of a company, something they have
control over. Yet every company and individual has a brand, even if it is
inadvertently, something the company itself does not take into account. The job
of a branding manager is to take that existing brand in hand, to make it
explicit, and shape it in accordance with the company’s goals and mission.
Every person and every organization is a brand, whether they like it or not,
and who better to pay to take this seriously than an aesthetics expert, someone
who’s job is to analyze the rhetorical effects of diverse media with rigor.
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randing is a field that explores a
gray area between aesthetic value and utility. On one hand, branding is about
selling a product; on the other hand, it is about selling an image, feeling, or
idea. This second type of content is often conveyed by the level and type of
aesthetic espoused by the brand. One example of this is found in late 19th
century advertising in France. Alphonse Mucha was a Czech artist who worked in
Paris at the turn of the century. After becoming famous for his posters of the
actress Sarah Bernhardt in 1894, he was hired by many companies to design
posters advertising products ranging from face soap to chocolate to bicycles.
Until Mucha began designing his advertisements, most companies used posters
advertising featured the product itself most prominently. One example is the
advertisement below, from early in the 19th century.
Most advertisements in the course of
the 19th century followed the strategy used in this ad, and aimed at
a realistic display of the product, in as great a detail as possible. But Mucha
realized the most effective way to sell a product is often to sell the way the
product makes the customer feel, rather than the product itself. He designed
most of his posters to feature beautiful young women rather than the bicycle
itself. Consider the poster below, for the bicycle company Cycles Perfecta.
The image both compares the bicycle
to the young woman, and promises the viewer that buying the bicycle will make
her like that young woman. Her loose hair indicates both physical and sexual
freedom, and a sense of abandonment to pleasure, but the simple lines and
conservative palette used in the design prevent it from becoming crass. Also,
note the strategy in what is displayed: the young woman is featured so
prominently that she almost obscures the bicycle, but the company name heading
the poster clearly shows the advertisement is for a bicycle.
The psychological aspects of
branding Mucha explored are alive and well today. Anyone considering a career
in the field of branding must be prepared to perform tasks like analyzing the
psychological effects of advertising copy and images, and their relation to the
brand as a whole. The level and type of aesthetic used in the ad has to do with
what that particular company and branding team define as beautiful.
English majors have devoted their
college careers to making judgments of aesthetic value. Aesthetics is the study
of beauty, broadly, and finds its application in works of art. Every time
English majors write a paper, make a point in class, or critique an article,
they are engaged in affirmation and negation: this has aesthetic value, while
that does not. As they read, their interior aesthetic sense makes judgment. On
author's sentence structure and work choice appeal, another author's do not.
As experts in aesthetics, English
majors can be a valuable asset to a branding firm. These firms manage a sort of
company within a company, responsible for how the public view that company or company's
product. A brand analyst must continually assess a variety of media in order to
determine whether they contribute positively or negatively to the company's
image. In the course of their studies, English majors also assess a variety of
media: books, films, news articles, ads, and magazine articles. English majors
tend to have a strong sense of audience, historical context, and voice, all of
which translate well to working in the field of branding. These same skills
that help English majors analyze these sources can also help them determine
what tone to use when writing branding-related copy, from a word or a few lines
in an ad to a few pages of website copy. Just as they have to judge whether an
author’s voice in a work is ironic or straightforward, English majors working
in the field of branding will often have to judge whether to take an ironic or
straightforward tone in writing copy. One way they might do this is to consider
the audience the author is writing for; this exercise then translates to their
job in branding as they consider the audience of their ad, and whether an
ironic or straightforward tone would be most likely to persuade that audience.
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o, what does a branding expert do
each day? An interview with Robert McGuire of McGuire Design gives us a look.
He works primarily on logo design, a niche of the branding field. He describes
the start of his process as focused on the client. “I first start with the
client, find out who they are, who are their competitors, what they are looking
for, and then what they need.” Then comes the actual process of developing the
logo, and McGuire seems to favor a multi-faceted approach at this point. “I am
a huge fan of doing a wordlist and keywords, along with spending the time to
research. Then, it’s the fun part… doodling, sketching, and figuring out the
problem to their puzzle,” he says. His particular career in branding offers a
high degree of creativity and flexibility.
When asked about his professional
journey and how he started, he answered that it was through doodling. When he
began college, McGuire took a couple classes in programming, but wasn’t
satisfied, saying he realized “as I create I like to see it while I’m doing
it.” So, he turned to graphic design. He started out working on live projects
in college, then freelanced for while until he began working fulltime for
companies like Toolbox Studios, The Clockwork Group, Blue Clover, Ideagin, and
Brandstack. “I’ve always been freelancing while or in between these places and
continue to this very day,” he added. McGuire’s professional journey highlights
freelancing, an aspect of careers for English majors that many people find
intimidating and frustrating, yet freeing.
Careers in the field of branding can
involve a fair amount of freelancing. But they don’t necessarily have to be
based on freelancing. There are plenty of fulltime jobs with health benefits at
firms. The trade-off is often with creativity, and sometimes with aspects of
control. Working as a freelancer often means that a branding expert can pick
their projects, and work on what interests them most, passing the ones that
don’t on to other freelancers. Freelancing poses a question for
potential—English majors should ask themselves about their personal tolerance
for ambiguity. If they are willing to live more frugally, work hard, and give
up some of the stability of a fulltime position in exchange for greater
flexibility and creative freedom, then the branding field is wide open. If job
candidates prefer stability and don’t experience ethical quandaries in
following a company’s direction, then they should look more narrowly within the
field of branding for work in a large firm or for a corporation, like Nike or
Intel.
Another aspect of branding is
working with a company to revamp their brand as a whole, including their
internal perception of the brand, i.e. how the employees and management
approach their own company’s brand. The members of Fitting Group offer two-day
workshops for companies who are not the top competitor in their market, but
want to increase their market share through stronger brand awareness. They call
this “brand spanking,” and their website provides an example of a strong ethos,
created by fresh copy, a quirky theme, and clean, professional design. Their
clients range from Duquesne University to Applebee’s, and small businesses to
large corporations. Jobs that associates with Fitting Group might do include
everything from preparing presentations, to leading brainstorming sessions
during the workshops, and writing up final reports for their clients after the
workshops are completed.
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ne question English majors might ask
themselves is whether they are an introverted or an extroverted personality
type. Though branding can be a successful career for either, introverts might
initially feel more obstacles to becoming successful in this field. Extroverted
individuals tend to have an easier time pitching ideas on a logo, and may build
their professional network more easily. However, in an interview with branding
expert Dan Schwabel on his blog last October, author Nancy Ancowitz asserts
that introverts also possess advantages in the job search, especially in regard
to networking at events. She says, counting herself among introverts, “Since we
prefer conversations with one person at time, if we choose carefully who we
speak with and ask to get introduced to, we can land some great leads.”
Ancowitz also has some good news if you happen to be an English major and an
introvert: “Since we’re often good writers, we can also rely more on online
social networking to establish initial contacts.” This leads us to the close
connection between branding and an online presence.
“The Internet has become the most
important point of touch a brand has with a consumer, and it’s generally the
first point,” says Allen P. Adamson, author of BrandDigital: Simple Ways Top
Brands Succeed in the Digital World. He goes on to assert that “More often
than not, when consumers form an association with a brand, it starts with the
online experience. And this online starting point is only going to continue to
grow as a factor.” Since online presence is such an important factor in this
field, it poses a question for potential candidates. English majors who are thinking
of branding as a career path should ask themselves how comfortable they are
working online—with online writing, designing, and even basic programming. If
they have significant skills in this area, it could be a sign to proceed
without fear; their skills are well-suited to the direction the field is
currently moving in. If, however, they are uncomfortable working on an online
environment, they may want to consider a different career path or be prepared
to hire others to compensate for the skills they lack.
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thics can pose a problem for many
highly qualified individuals considering careers in branding. Some companies
don’t seem to worry about ethics when promoting their brand. The Golden Palace
is an online casino, infamous for their use of topless women and streakers at
sporting events to advertise their brand. Rob Walker, writing for Slate.com,
puts it nicely: “There is of course nothing to admire about any of this, with
its how-low-can-you-go aesthetic. But this is a case where admiration simply
isn't the goal. You could say that the online casino is instead relying on an
extreme version of a very old promotional theory: All exposure is good
exposure.”
But this theory is one that has
thrown quality out the window. Aesthetics are no longer a part of the picture.
And this can pose a serious problem for many young, idealistic English majors
who have spent the last four or five years of their life studying aesthetics.
Working for a company like this one might cause them to encounter daily
quandaries about the value of their work. This situation is one job candidates
ought to consider before entering the field, and one that might prove an
obstacle to a career in branding. For some people, the stress of performing
work that contradicts their ideals is insurmountable; they would probably
prefer a less lucrative job doing something they believe in.
Writers may also have to sacrifice
their pride in one way or another. An editor may choose to add text the writer
would never have used herself, and her name appears at the bottom of the
article, regardless of how she feels about the end result. Similarly, an
individual working on a branding team for a company may disagree with the
direction the company is taking, but often have to finish the project anyway.
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any different factors can attract
English majors to a job in the field of branding. The field can provide some of
the more lucrative writing careers, since it overlaps with marketing, public
relations, and other business-related fields. Standard salary ranges for a
branding position can vary, depending mainly on the size of company and level
of the position. Undergrads new to the field can expect to start somewhere
between 30-45k, moving up to top salaries of 75-140k. These salaries are
similar to those found in many office jobs. At the same time, however, a career
in branding can offer the writer similar artistic satisfaction to that found in
less lucrative, more creative writing jobs. In the end, the choice of a career
is a personal one, made by each individual according to his or her personal
taste and circumstances. The field of branding is just one among many fields in
which English majors can find a satisfying career.
--Rose Gebken
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