BRAND: From 'utility' to 'meaning' and to 'values'

Jooyun Kim's 
Spacebranding vol.06


 "The brand has now evolved beyond 'meaning' of success and 'meaning' of consumption to 'badge' which represents 'value' as a means of enjoying self-realization."


<Brand_'Evolution'>
It has become difficult to select products based on only functions or specifications in today's era where subjective needs and lifestyles are consumed beyond basic needs for survival. If the product is made good, it will be sold, but it is difficult to be chosen by customers just by quality.1) 

At this time, the brand appeared to create a differentiated value for the product. The historical etymology of the brand is the 'postmark' that represents the owner of a cattle-like animal. In modern times, it became a trademark, name, or famous brand.

This is an era where products are being developed to extend and strengthen the success of the brand. As brand consumption spreads due to the products developed as a brand, the management and operation of the brand image have become more important than the actual product.2)

<Brand_'Solidarity'>
In the European soccer league, we can feel the sense of belonging and solidarity that they have wearing the sportswear of the team they support and cheering passionately. A brand is easily understood as a football team's logo or T-shirt that symbolically speaks of such a sense of belonging and solidarity.

Just as we want to establish an individual's position in society, companies must establish their own position for business success. That's the brand. A brand is a unique name, term, design, symbol, or other characteristics of a company or product that is clearly distinguished from other competitors in the eyes of the customer.3)

A brand is a collection of recognized images and experiences, which includes, as narrow as a product, symbols representing a company, numbers from cover, letters, fonts, logos, colors, and slogans, directly related to consumer reliability, quality, and satisfaction.4)

<Brand_'Desire'>
Bernd Schmitt defines the brand as: "It is something unique that differs from other companies, products, services, and business models that consumers have in their minds. It refers to the overall culture of a company's image, products, services, and business model to consumers.5)

Functional skills, financial skills, and sales skills are the three key players in business success.6) No matter how good the first two skills are, it is difficult for the business to succeed if the third sales skill is insufficient. Modern sales skill involves "desire" that can give meaning to consumers, and it is the brand that stimulates it.

<Brand _ ‘Meaning’ and ‘Values’>
The days when people bought things because they needed them are gone. Now, most people buy things out of 'desire'. To be happy, to have fun, and even to be a member of a special group, people need a brand 'thing'.7) The brand has evolved. 

At the beginning of the 20th century, brands changed over time from simply identifying a product or service to something that represents quality and reliability. The brand has now evolved beyond 'meaning' of success and 'meaning' of consumption to 'badge' which represents 'value' as a means of enjoying self-realization.8)

<Brand of Desire _ ‘Supreme’>
The Supreme brand is a representative case in which the power of the brand depends more than the actual product, and the brand has become a business model. Barbara Kruger, a famous American feminist conceptual artist, is famous for her masterpiece in 1987, <I Shop, Therefore I Am>. This sentence was a critique of the consumption culture of modern people written in white letters on a red background.


image from acca.melbourne

Ironically, a New York street fashion company borrowed that image in 1994 to create a brand called Supreme. Supreme, which has the reputation of being the world's best-selling logo, has the principle of producing only limited edition products, making only 400 pieces per item and not putting them back out. 

Supreme collaborates with world-class artists like Damien Hirst or famous brands to release the product, and as soon as the new product comes out, it sold out. The $485 T-shirt, which was made in collaboration with Louis Vuitton, was sold on a secondhand site for $7,500. In 2016, the Supreme logo was printed on red brick and sold for $30, which was traded directly on a secondhand site for $1,000-2,000. 


Supreme has a business that stimulates the desire to own a limited edition brand, including things that seem ridiculous and useless. Supreme's collaboration areas are diverse. 

'supreme' at google image surching 2021.08.07.


In 2018, Supreme proposed to the New York Post newspaper, "Let's do a creative collaboration that we've never seen before." On August 13, 2018, the New York Post printed only the Supreme logo on the front page and back of the sale. The daily newspaper sold out around 7:30 a.m., and the one-dollar newspaper began trading on eBay for $12-20 that day.9) 

© Brian Zak

<Supreme _ A combination of 'Pride Pursuit' and 'Experience Amusement'>
Catharine Slade-Brooking describes the essence of the brand as follows: "The brand is more than the product we buy. It is a service, a business, a product, an idea, and a concept at the same time."10) Now, the role of the brand is shifting from marketing-related sales techniques to a symbolic one that expresses corporate value.11)

A brand is something that its value sympathizes with the customer's mind. There are three types of brands depending on the needs that the brand meets. 
These are the 'Efficacy Satisfaction' brand, the 'Pride Pursuit' brand, and the 'Experience Amusement' brand.

Efficacy-satisfying brands focus on product functionality and pursue practical value. Pride-pursue brands go after social values ​​by satisfying the conspicuousness and face of the person who owns them, while experimental amusement brands emphasize the playfulness of products or services and pursue personal and intrinsic values.12) Supreme is a successful brand with a combination of pride pursue and an experience amusement brand.

<Brand type and desire to meet> 13) © illustration by Lee, Soo Bin






<Summaries>

"The brand has now evolved beyond 'meaning' of success and 'meaning' of consumption to 'badge' which represents 'value' as a means of enjoying self-realization."

"The brand is more than the product we buy. It is a service, a business, a product, an idea, and a concept at the same time."

"There are three types of brands: 'Efficacy Satisfaction' brand, the 'Pride Pursuit' brand, and the 'Experience Amusement' brand."

"Modern sales skill involves "desire" that can give meaning to consumers, and it is the brand that stimulates it."

"Now, most people buy things out of 'desire'. To be happy, to have fun, and even to be a member of a special group."


Jooyun Kim <Spacebranding> pp7-11
1) Manabu Mizuno, From Sell, to Sell, 誠文堂新光社, 2016., pp27
2) Catharine Slade-Brooking, Creating a Brand Identity: A Guide for Designers, Laurence King Publishing, 2016., pp16-17
3) wikipedia ‘brand’ from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand
4) wikipedia ‘brand’ from https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EB%B8%8C%EB%9E%9C%EB%93%9C
5)” 권민 지음, "브랜딩", BY UNITAS BRAND, 2012.09.05., 25쪽 재인용
6) Wally Olins, On Brand, Thames & Hudson, 2003., pp6
7) 권민 지음, "브랜딩", BY UNITAS BRAND, 2012.09.05., 120쪽
8) Shaun Smith & Joe Wheeler, Managing the Customer Experience: Turning Customers Into Advocates, Pearson FT Press, 2002., pp30-31
9) 조선일보, 2018,“수프림의 힘", from http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2018/08/16/2018081604231.html
10) Catharine Slade-Brooking, Creating a Brand Identity: A Guide for Designers, Laurence King Publishing, 2016., pp11
11) Wally Olins, On Brand, Thames & Hudson, 2003., pp19
12) 홍성태 지음, “모든 비즈니스는 브랜딩이다”, 샘앤파커스, 2012.7.15., 9, 228-229쪽
13) 홍성태 지음, “모든 비즈니스는 브랜딩이다”, 샘앤파커스, 2012.7.15., 229쪽
 

Jooyun Kim

jykim@hongik.ac.kr







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Beginning of Space Branding: Prada Epicenter

Image
    Jooyun Kim's  Spacebranding vol.14 "Prada has imprinted on the public what 'Prada luxury' is with one marvelous space." <Guggenheim Museum to Prada flagship store.> In 2001, a spacebranding space was created in Soho, Manhattan, New York. 'New York Prada Epicenter' is a Prada flagship store. The author takes this space as the beginning of a true modern "spacebranding." 'New York Prada Epicenter', Soho, New York © Jooyun Kim Soho New York ©  Jooyun Kim Prada opened the Guggenheim Museum branch in Soho, which once led American art to the center of the world and was a leading art street, to the public as a flagship store. However, the store's approach was fundamentally different from before. It's a store that doesn't look like a store at all. Prada eliminated the area by drilling nearly half of the ground floor in Manhattan's Soho, where the price per floor area is high. The first floor and the basement are directly ...
Read more

Space is the brand's worldview and media

Image
  Jooyun Kim's  Spacebranding vol.41 "Space branding is controlling everything that is seen in the world to be ideal for a company or brand." <Lotte World Character Lotty's apartment> What does Lotty, a 32-year-old employee, do after work? It is the story of Lotte World's character Lotty. In August 2021, "Lotty's Apartment" was created as a pop-up store on the streets of Seongsu-dong. The goal is to announce the rebranded character Lotty. It was intended to experience the newly created Lotty's worldview through space. Lotty's Apartment by Project Rent ©Jooyun Kim Although it was August, when it was difficult to move due to the rainy season and the heat wave, more than 1,000 people a week visited the small apartment on the street. The space consists of a living room and a home office, and various props for the Lotty, such as pouches and household items, were made. Lotty's Apartment by Project Rent ©Jooyun Kim Of course, I was able to...
Read more

What is Good Space for Space Branding

Image
  Jooyun Kim's  Spacebranding vol.39 “A ‘good space’ for space branding is a Dionysian emotional space.” < 'Space' = 'Symbol of meaning'> Human beings think through 'words,' says psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung. Visual images are also like words. ‘Positioning’ is a term used to describe the concept of positioning a company, product, or service in the most advantageous place in the mind of the customer. Marketing theorist Jack Trout, who first popularized it, says: “The word ‘word’ is like the trigger of a gun, which triggers the meaning buried in it.” 1) The spatial image we see is something that replaces something that can be accessed with a purpose, a 'symbol' of meaning. German psychologist Rudolf Arnheim reveals that a person's reaction to the figure and the psychological state can be judged only by a drawing of a curved, smooth figure or lightning-like sharp figure on paper. If the clumsy graffiti painting on paper is the same, it can b...
Read more