For my my essay I have chosen the question 'What is the relationship between branding and the consumer self?'. More specifically I my essay will be confirmed with how various marketing techniques and ideas of brand image to play upon the ego in order to establish a strong relationship between the brand and consumer self.
Initially I had wanted to also explore how this leads to conformity within society and whether or not this creates tension due to the opposing notions of the individual self and group dynamics. Furthermore I had wanted to explore whether this tension is unique to or simply a cause of consumer based society or whether or not it is something much more pervasive and ever within human society no matter its particular philosophical or theological form.
However after the group tutorials I have decided to focus on only the first aspect of my question. This is because the general consensus that I got from moth peer and tutor feedback was that if I included the latter two parts it would be too overarching in its themes and, given the word count would leads to a incoherent and sloppy essay.
With all this in mind I have devised an initial plan and structure to my essay.
Thesis: Do marketing techniques and brand identities subvert and manipulate
Intro: Explain briefly how ego drives marketing and brand image and touch upon the ways in which it does this. Define key words such as brand and ego that are of fundamental importance to my essay.
Paragraph One: Focus on the nature of branding and marketing particularly how it appeals to an emotional rather than rational level. Suggest that this is due to brands playing into certain aspects of the ego rather than simply subverting them.
Paragraph Two: In contrast to the first paragraph explore the argument that branding and consumer society actively creates these traits within the ego in order to successfully sell products.
Paragraph Three: Explore in depth the various techniques, such as those highlighted by Vance Pakard in The Hidden Persuaders, used to market products and create strong brand identity through various inherent traits of the individual within consumer society.
Paragraph Four: Close reading of Naomi Klein's No Logo exploring how brands seek to target younger age groups due to their lack of, and subsequent need to define self identity. Like with the first two paragraphs explore whether or not this something created by marketing and branding or something inherent to that age group.
The various sources I will use include:
Benson, A.L (ed), I Shop therefore I am, Compulsive buying and the search for self, Oxford, Rowman & Little field Publishers
Freud, S, Society and Its Discontents, London, Penguin Books Ltd
Heath, J, Potter, A, Nation of Rebels: Why counter culture became consumer culture, New York, Harper Collins
Lasn, K, Culture Jam, New York, Harper Collins
Lee, M,J (ed), The consumer society reader, 2 ed, Blackwell Publishing Ltd : Marx, K, Estranged labour, Marx, K, The Fetish of Commodity and its Secret
Klein, N, No logo, London, Flamingo
As well as the images:
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