2 problems. 1 – it’s a huge subject with a long history wandering through unsubtle, subtle and back to today, increasingly explicit. Brand executives are fully aware that blatant images rarely work alone, even with males.
2 – I can’t mention people, brands and campaigns here (often to do with copyright) but I’ll PM you a some links that deal with it at various levels and epochs. Otherwise I'd be writing a thesis that would be deleted because examples are inevitable.
It branches into 3 main topics – the image, the caption or logo and brand identity symbols, and the physical packaging, music too with video. Bringing these together is usually complicated and has to be done quickly esp with new products that can leak to competitors.
Packaging is an interesting one. Ask for instance why females are generally attracted to squeezy plastic bottles for kitchen and bathroom products. It goes back to a campaign by a washing-up liquid firm. They wanted to test which package would sell better: a squeezy plastic cylindrical one pointed at the top; or a more rigid plastic one roughly the same shape, maybe they had a different shape – I forget and the study was long ago. (Still mentioned on google I see). Well, you know how these people work. You don’t give each tester one of each bottle and ask which bottle they preferred. You put the same stuff in both bottles but in one the liquid is coloured slightly differently. You tell the testers that one bottle contains brand A, the other, brand B. Which
brand did they like the best. The only variable is the bottle. The results came back overwhelmingly in favour of the squeezy bottle. Of course, the analysts crept out of the woodwork but a consensus was reached about squeezy bottles.
Semiotics (signs) deal with the ideas signified by the whole presentation, brand identity and the importance of consumers associating personal identity with a brand.
You often find ads sexually weighted but omitting the product altogether, just giving the corporate logo. The whole aim is to awaken latent desires no matter what is suggested.
Crikey, it’s even got into classical music marketing. Here’s one of a famous violist.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....14oUKLTBGL.jpg
Mild, it shouldn’t offend anyone. The disc is on sale with this cover from major retailers.
Hope that all makes sense!
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