I was really interested in the part where there is talk about the Image Brands. I can only agree with the Armani quote "it's no longer fashion that matters, but rather the fashion name. The product is secondary" I want to go on where they left off..namely discussing the image brands such as Nike and Adidas in the world of sports. These image brands are no longer well-known for the type of products they put on the market, but it's more the image that goes along with them. I read an interesting article from on of Nike's employees who talked about the different types of tennisplayers that have a contract with Nike. Nike has a lot of flamboyant players on their payroll (Serena Williams, Mary Pierce, Andre Agassi, Carlos Moya etc etc) and just looking at their outfits during Roland Garros this month proves it. Bright colors that attract your attention is all that matters. Nike has a bit of an arrogance and a 'only the best wear nike' attitude, whereas Adidas is more conservative when it comes to it. No bright colors and the players who wear the brand are far less outspoken as their Nike colleagues (think of the likes of Tim Henman and Justine Henin). Image brands are however really influential on the consumers.
Another important tool an image brand has can be explained by the world of football. Take David Beckham.. the man is an image brand by himself, but let's just focus on his deal with Adidas. When he had to leave Man Utd (thanks Alex Ferguson...NOT!) there was a lot of speculation on where he would go: FC Barcelona and Real Madrid seemed to be the two main options. But when you thought a bit harder, there was no such thing as a tight race between the two clubs. Beckham wears Adidas, Beckham IS Adidas. Real Madrid's sponsor is Adidas, their starplayers wear Adidas (Raul, Zidane and of course Beckham).. FC Barcelona's sponsor is Nike. No chance that a major image icon like Beckham would go to Barcelona.. The same story with Beckham these days is his possible return to England next season. Again, two names come up (besides his old club Man Utd) Chelsea and Arsenal. Again: Arsenal has Nike, the clubs biggest stars play on Nike shoes, so a no-no for Arsenal. Chelsea has Umbro, so this could still be an option. Umbro not having the big image brand name like Nike or Adidas.
It proves all the more that an image brand in the world of sports has more power than the consumer is aware of. You can ask yourself, is this development a good one. Can it be that a top athlete is forced to transfer to a club he himself has not much to say about. In a few years time sponsors are the key figure when it comes down to doing business in sports (if it is not already the case). It's all about the face that goes along with the brand. Image is everything.
www.nike.com , www.adidas.com
Dafermos (reader)
I was mostly interested inthe parts where Dafermos explains the idea of a weblog and what its power and functions are. Not that the part of companies vs weblogs wasn't interesting... ;) So, in addition to my first entry of this week I will again continue from a point where Dafermos stopped... I want to link the beheading of Nick Berg to the weblogging on the internet and the beginning of Dafermos article. On www.blogrunner.com they track weblog conversations as they develop across the web. Also with the ongoing discussion about the decapitating of this American man in Iraq. Reading some of the comments on several blogs made me very aware of the power bloggers can have (in potential), but also the danger of being pulled in a political stream. Dafermos talks about weblogs as being ' a novel approach towards the continuation of democratic public discourse' but in some cases it can be quite scaring if you ask me. Before this development you would talk around the watercooler about the possible flaws that can bee seen in this Nicholas Berg video. Now, everything you say can and will be read by thousands... crossing all boundaries. This embodiment of online self-organising social systems can therefore be just as easily tricked by those with the right timing or power. Just imagine this video of Nick Berg to be indeed false, with the Americans having staged this all to withdraw the attention on the Iraqi prison pictures. It means, that with a simple click, the video is on the net and millions of bloggers are triggered to spill their beans and taking a lot of works out of the US governements' hands. A site like www.blogrunner.com is extremely handy for people like myself who are too lazy to surf the net for anything useful. They collect everything you want to know about (in this case) Nick Berg. The fact that weblogs have this non-political, but human voice can work distracting from whatever is talked about. The voice of the people works twice as convincing than that of a political figure 'condemning' that what happened. Indeed. weblogs bring discussions back to the marketplace as Dafermos states but this immense democracy is therefore just as powerful in both positive as negative ways.
Re-imaging the ad agency: the cultural connotations of economic forms - Sean Nixon (Cultural Economy)
Nixon talks about the BBH's (Bartle Bogle Herarty www.bbh.co.uk) pursuit of new forms of remuneration and its associated moves to re-invent its identity and all. He states that the economic relations of BBH are articulated through cultural practices. I have some troubles seeing these practices as cultural, even if this culture is being used as the set of rules, values etc that portray the image of a company. In BBH's case, the part that, to me, backs up my argument is the part where Martin Smith explains the logic behind the decision of these 'cultural changes' It's a very good and well thought of argument on how BBH is a person that helps whoever needs him and it's creativeness speaks for itself. All I read is SHOW ME THE MONEY! Come on, who are they trying to fool here. With such large commercial companies there is no such thing as cultural paractices that articulate the economic relations. Not that this is such a problem, but to me Nixon could haven been far more critical when he decided to use BBH as a casestudy.
The THINKING part of their website is very funny. Well, it's like that with all major companies I guess, but it's a pleasure everytime to read how THEY are different from the REST. They even have a student section where they try to give an impression of what advertising is all about. Still, it remains interesting how such a company with clients as Coca Cola, FHM, Shell, Audi, Sony Ericsson etc can actually do all of this. Creativity? Sure. But certainly against an enormous amount. Does creativity rise when the paycheck increases?
The THINKING part of their website is very funny. Well, it's like that with all major companies I guess, but it's a pleasure everytime to read how THEY are different from the REST. They even have a student section where they try to give an impression of what advertising is all about. Still, it remains interesting how such a company with clients as Coca Cola, FHM, Shell, Audi, Sony Ericsson etc can actually do all of this. Creativity? Sure. But certainly against an enormous amount. Does creativity rise when the paycheck increases?
