In what sense does branding exploit consumers, and why does it matter? Do you agree with Arvidsson’s statement that branding is “a conservative and even reactive practice? October 12, 2016 Read More »
Arvidsson discusses three main ways in which brand management operates: through “investments in media culture” and “media politics” (pp. 245–6); through “building […] spaces that pre-structure and anticipate the agency of consumers” (pp. 246–8); and through commodifying the “productive sociality” of consumers (pp. 248–9). October 12, 2016 Read More »
Arvidsson suggests that marketing attempted to “discipline consumers” in the first half of the 20th century. Why would consumers need to be disciplined? Can you find examples of this disciplinary approach in contemporary marketing materials? From an ethical point of view, is this approach better or worse than the one taken by brand management since the mid 1950s? October 12, 2016 Read More »
Arvidsson describes the activity of brand management as “a governance that works from below by shaping the context in which freedom is exercised, and by providing the raw materials that it employs” (p. 246). What does he mean by that? Whose freedom is being constrained, and how? October 12, 2016 Read More »
Why does Arvidsson describe the brand as an “open-ended object”? (p. 244) Why is this open-endedness a “tricky problem” for marketers? October 12, 2016 Read More »
What is “immaterial labour”? (pp. 240–1?) Use this idea to explain why “consumption [is] a productive activity” that produces value (p. 242). In what sense is immaterial labour “beyond the direct control of capital”? October 12, 2016 Read More »
In what sense are brands “an asset that is expected to generate value”? Where does this value come from? Who generates it? October 12, 2016 Read More »
Arvidsson claims that in contemporary marketing the “link between public communication and economic value has acquired an unprecedented centrality” (p. 236) What is this link, and why has it become so central? October 12, 2016 Read More »
focus on one population and one health issue/disease and one type of settings within a country. consider that low income countries will not have access to the same level of facilities, technology, related to diagnostics and communication, medications, and the health care professionals found in the USA October 12, 2016 Read More »