Duration: 2 hours

KEY TOPICS

• The appeal of ‘superbrands’
• Strategies used in creating superbrands
• The effectiveness of current examples of branding in communicating a message and reaching a target audience
• Major themes and messages that are conveyed through global ad campaigns

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After completing this unit, teachers will be able to:

• Analyze and evaluate branding strategies and their effectiveness
• Assess the impact of branding on local and global communities
• Analyze the messages and values conveyed through specific branding strategies
• Assess the role of new technologies in branding locally and globally

PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES and ACTIVITIES

• ‘Global marketing strategy is so effective that conscious subversion is hardly needed. The message “we will sell you a culture”, has resulted in the global advertising campaign, a single advertising message used in all countries where a product is made or distributed. Worldwide advertising is more economical and more efficient, although it may clash wildly with local conditions.’ (Noreene Janus, Advertising and Global Culture, in Cultural Survival Quarterly, 1983.)
  • Conduct online research to determine the marketing strategies used by transnational corporations. Consider visiting www.adage.com, the website for the industry publication Advertising Age. Identify the various strategies used by major corporations to promote their products and ‘sell’ a culture. Discuss what is implied – directly or indirectly – about traditional vs. contemporary culture
  • Visit the website of a transnational corporation and select one of their advertisements to examine closely. Identify the elements of this ad that make it appealing. Consider the use of claims and emotional appeal. If possible, compare this ad with another for the same product targeting a different region or market. Identify the ways in which each ad is constructed for its target market. Explore to what extent it is possible for a person to understand the ad, even if he or she doesn’t understand the language used in it (consider what can make an ad and its images ‘universal’)
  • Many critics say that transnational ads are involved in ‘selling’ a culture. Analyze the ways in which this ‘selling’ is accomplished. Identify the messages and values being conveyed
  • Create an ad outline for a product or service that is indigenous to a particular community or region. Identify and explain the technical and creative strategies that would be most effective for reaching that audience. Explain how your ideas are different from those developed by North American or European ad agencies targeting the same market
• ‘Since an important characteristic of transnational culture is the speed and breadth with which it is transmitted, communications and information systems play an important role, permitting a message to be distributed globally through television series, news, magazines, comics, films’ (Noreene Janus, ‘Advertising and Global Culture’, in Cultural Survival Quaterly, 1983) and, perhaps most importantly today, the Internet
  • Research current examples of advertising that illustrate the powerful role of technology in communicating and disseminating the advertiser’s message. Explain how the technology is being used and to what effect
  • Based on this research, develop a plan for marketing a fictional product to an international market. Identify the target audience. Explain the strategies that would be most effective in reaching this audience. Explore how new technologies make this possible
  • Examine examples of branding in your local community. Explain the elements that contribute to the development of an effective brand. Assess to what extent the example is effective in establishing high brand recognition, communicating brand meaning and reaching a target audience