Branding in Advertising

This week, when I read an article from Advertising & Society Review titled “What is Advertising?” I really started to think about company’s “branding” practices today. I am now intrigued to explore this idea of branding, look at how Pepsi has branded itself, and also look at an article from Advertising Age.

            It used to be that long ago there were no brands, coffee was just coffee and water was just water. Now, everything is branded and it all started with packaging products to be purchased instead of consumers bringing their own packaging for products to purchase. Currently, everything seems to be branded and it seems that every brand is making their own “personality” per say. Each brand wants consumer to automatically have a certain feeling obtained for their product and to have a certain voice in the market they are in. Each brand, nowadays, has settled their own way into the culture of consumerism today.

            After President Obama was elected president of the United States, Pepsi was fast to change the look of their Pepsi logo. They changed their logo to resemble the look of Obama’s campaign logo. This seemed to be a move to try and show the public that they continue to change in the eyes of the public to cater towards others. I think this was a move to make Pepsi seem more patriotic. Also, I believe this was a move to try and show that Pepsi is a brand targeted towards youth as well. This past election had the most amount of votes casted by a younger age group (18-21) than any election in the history of the United States. This was a risky move, but I think they were pretty successful in adapting to new cultural trends of today.

            I read an article in Advertising Age called, Men Can't Adapt, but Brands can - -Here's How to Target Guys .This article talked about the current changes in the economy affecting men and their own role in society (AKA manhood). I don’t think this article was absolutely correct with Rose Cameron’s example, however, I can look beyond her examples to see ones that fit. She gave examples of Old Spice and their newer commercials targeting towards men to smell more “manly.” She also looks at Dos Equis and their attempt to advertise towards aging men, in order to still feel cool and in the times. This whole article was to capture the idea that brands have to change their idea and basically their motto, in order to cater to the needs of increasingly changing consumers and changing consumer culture.