Questions 2:

How effective is the combination of your main

product and ancillary texts?

What is a brand?

A brand is a make of something .E.G. Coca cola or Pepsi. A brand helps us distinguish this product from any other. By

promoting this product they are persuading us to buy their product. The main question they want to fulfil is “what makes this product better than the rest?”

By giving the product a personality, you are increasing the mass production and are making it more competitive for other brands.

Consumers have so many other brands , that each product within a category. They have to have be giving different personalities.

“competitive branding became a necessity of the machine age – within a context of manufactured sameness, image – based difference had to be manufactured along with the product” (Naomi Klein, No Logo)

Examples: Coca Cola Coca cola is a well known brand. This brand has many appeals,

due to the many different ways in which it is advertised.

The advertisements have changed through out the years and even seasons; in order to still appeal to the mass audience.

E.G. in winter the adverts surround the idea of Christmas and all contain “Santa”. However in the summer most of the advertisements are set in places associated with summer, such as “the beach”.

Example: Pepsi

Pepsi’s brand is advertised in a different way. This brand makes ties with other well known brands (stars) in order to promote their brand. This is known as synergy.

E.G. • singers such as Britney

Spears, Pink and Beyoncé.• Famous footballers such as

David Beckham

What is a brand in the music industry?

A brand is the image of an artist. The brand of an artist is everything… from clothing to what music they do.

And by this I mean it is the image of the artist that is portrayed to the audience.

Many brand images that are created links closely to the genre of music. By looking at the artist we (the audience) are automatically able to assume what type of music they do.

Example: Missy Elliot Missy Elliot is a well known female rap artist. Her brand image shows this: She always wears a lot of

jewellery (Bling)yet again to highlight her expensive taste.

Her clothes – she is in named brands of clothing (shows her expense and style)

Missy Elliot always has an attitude in her music videos, she wants to show people that she is a successful female rap artist.

Example: Beyoncé Beyoncé makes her image known by

wearing revealing outfits and showing off her main highlights; her chest area, her strong thighs and her extremely noticeable curves.

Her brand image is a sexy, curvy, strong, fierce, independent woman.

In comparison to what her image used to be to what it has become now is extreme.

Her brand image used to be; innocent, young, sweet and sexy (e.g. destiny's child). But as her popularity grew she had to develop her image further.

Example: Nicki MinajNicki is a female rap artist, her brand image

is very sexual, as she is known for her large cleavage and oversized bottom.

Her brand image is very creative as she seems to have a range of different appearances and this is what makes us want to watch her more, in some of her video’s we see her as a fierce independent woman, but in others we see her as I saucy playful woman.

She is a very alternative rapper, as we mostly expect rap artist to be male, but she is pushing the boundaries and her audience expect nothing less.

She uses a lot of wigs in her videos this is to show creativity as a singer, the wig always matches the image she tries to create in her currant music video

My thoughts on how effective is the combination

of the main and ancillary product?

The brand image we was going for was “The Diva” it seemed to be a lot easier to do this in the music video in comparison to creating the brand image through the print project. Personally I think this was because she was able to show the audience her attitude through her dancing and singing. Whereas in the print project she had to show all of this through her facial expressions.

Personally I think the combination of both the music video and the print project has been really effective, this is because of many reasons…

Continued… Firstly because we have tried to create the image

of wealth, success and independence through both of our projects. We tried to do this through the colour scheme we have used in both (gold, black and white). This is because we wanted the audience to see this artist as a diva and we wanted the audience to make this assumption because of the artist’s attitude and also her costume. In the ancillary product we showed this by her facial expressions and only revealed her outfit in the advert.

also the backgrounds helps us

Continued… Secondly, through her appearance – we did this

by making her look really tanned and have big blonde expressive hair. This look is a popular look in to days society which helps us show the audience that this artist is all about her appearance and how she is up to date on the latest styles. Also we had the artist in a very short dress to make it typical for this genre. Usually in these videos all the women dress quite provocatively and are simply there for show next to a male character who is highly made up of heavy wealthy jewellery. We have challenged this slightly by having the dominant character a female with no male characters in the video what so ever.

Continued…

Also why used a range of shots that all gave the impression that this artist is successful and powerful and is in control.

This was because the main shots were low angled and made her look bigger and more important (looks like a Diva). And if they didn’t do that they were side on shots which were close up – this is because with her looking a way from the character we as the audience focus on her facial expressions which showed a lot of attitude.

How have we created a brand image in our music video?

We have created through our music video the brand image of a “diva” we have done this through many

ways, for example… The artist is dressed in a short tiger print

dress, with high heels on – this is because we wanted the artist to conform to the typical idea of what us as the audience expect is a “diva”. The artist also had big bright blonde hair and really tanned.

When we were making the video our main idol was Beyoncé, this is because we liked her style of music videos and we wanted to have an artist similar to her.

Our front cover We have kept to the same

colour scheme as some elements of the video were.

Gold/black/white – these are the colours we have used in both parts of course work. This is because we wanted to portray the theme of wealth and strength of which the artist has.

We used a big bold font as this is typical for many albums belonging to the same genre. We have used a shadowing of the words underneath to make the writing seem almost bolder (to stand out more). We went for a simple front cover as we wanted the audience to focus on the main attraction (the artist). Also direct address has been used, along with a typical close up shot to conform to typical aspects of album covers.

We wanted to stick to the same colour scheme as we did for the front cover, but we wanted this side to be more brighter. We did this by not putting a translucent black sheet over the top of the character as we did in the front cover.

Also we did the album name the opposite way round with the white writing in front of the back, this is because of the gold and black back ground we have chosen, which represents yet again the gold and wealth of this artist.

In this panel we have the artist facing side wards which is very unusual as the artist isn't using direct address, but it also helps to guide the audience to the importance of this panel – the track list.

& Back Panel

Other Panels

Panel 1keeps with the grey scale theme which is similar to the front cover.

We have also incorporate the theme of the gold and black background but have made them duller than the back ground as this panel is still for show but not the main one.

We have created the back ground to look as if the are ‘music bars’ by having them all different lengths.

The characteristics of the artist really come through on this image. Due to (1) her pose – shows her authority and attitude. (2) her facial expressions make her look serious and in control. (3) the grey scale picture – makes her blend into the image and makes her become the main focus.

Panel 2 is quite different to the rest of the images but still ties in rather well.

The font of the writing adds a feminine sight and by this I mean in comparison to the other writing which is much more bolder and bulky, this is much more softer and delicate.

For this panel we haven't created a background and have just focused making the image more brighter and showing off some of the main characteristics of the artist.

The colour gold has been in forced throughout this picture in order to show wealth and power.

We have still in forced the idea of her appearance – big hair. In this image we have been able to give the artist a fierce and in control attitude which is also evident in the music video.

P1

P2

The poster To make this advert look authentic

we have also included a picture of the album cover and the release date.

We have still stuck to the main idea’s of what we see in this character…

Colour scheme – we have stuck to yet again black/ gold and white. We have created an image of expense and wealth by using an image of gold crinkled foil, which relates well to not only the music video, but also the lyrics of the song.

Physical appearance – she yet again has big blond hair and has a stylish dress on. This is to again enforce the idea of the artist being stylish and

Her pose – sums up her personality; it shows that she knows she is

The font – because of the colour of the text it contrast and makes the audience focus on the information which is the main point. The reason we have chosen this font is because we wanted to make it look feminine.