OUGD601 - Turn it in Draft

I submitted my research essay thus far to Turn it in, initially I wanted a full word count to submit to turn it in however through the development of the module identified this would not be feasible to a high quality including primary research and conclusion. I submitted 5,300 words which was a good amount at this stage in the module, comprising of my introduction, chapter one, two and my first case study. From turn it in I received a 3% similarity rate which reinforces that I am referencing properly and can continue confidently to finish the rest of my research essay. 

OUGD601 - Practical / Peer idea crit

With two sophisticated practical proposals, I used the peer critique slots to present both concepts to a group of students who could help inform me as to which proposal was most appropriate and contextually relevant my research question. The crit gave me a real opportunity for the first time to talk through both proposals in relation to the research essay, having to talk through the project to explain the concept to the rest of the group provided a critical reflectivity that further developed my understanding of the context of my project. 

Talking through these proposals I felt more excited about the freedom of movement concept,  as it's more conceptual in its approach whereas the vodka mimicked the Absolut case study. Feedback I received from the rest of the group suggested my concepts were very wordy at present, this is a result of only recently thinking about the practical, thinking through the projects and refining them to key deliverables and outcomes within writing a formalised brief for the practical will resolve this. Further feedback suggested the 'freedom of movement' concept was more relevant especially due how current the events of Brexit are, even though it needs narrowing down from a large concept to a refined resolution which provides a better opportunity for contextual exploration.This feedback established that the 'freedom of movement' concept should be developed further into my practical response to the COP 3 module due to its relevance to both the research title and current events. 

Peer Critique Feedback

OUGD601 - Practical / Brainstorm

From the initial introduction to the practical element of the COP 3 module in the 3rd tutorial it was established that similarly to the absolute cases study social issues could be embodied by a brand as a means to exploit a consumer through shared ethics / values. From this I began to consider a range of social and ethical issues relevant to contemporary society, with the introduction of Brexit earlier this year freedom of movement appears a relevant issue that could be newly exploited. 

Freedom of Movement 

This concept would see a private corporation benefit from the results of Brexit being able to charge consumers to move freely within the European union. The concept would work similarly to other third party providers organising the relevant visas, documentation and applications to visit EU countries leaving the consumer to sit back and enjoy their trip. The target audience of the campaign would be young professionals targeting the "millennial" generation who lead busy exciting lives, willing to pay for these services as opposed to wanting to complete all the documents themselves. Embodying the constructs of brand psychology; the brand image would be youthful and creative with the brand personality connoting an explorative and adventuring tone that remains refined, organised and trustworthy. The brand equity of the service will be reminiscent of family holidays taking them back to a childlike state of adventure with no worries or responsibilities to partake it but to just enjoy the experience. Exploiting this sense of millennial adventure and childlike exploration questions the ethics of the brand and applies the theories of brand psychology to a hypothetical suggestion of post brexit society. 

Vodka

The second practical concept came as a more linear result of the research dissertation, my case study into Absolut vodka identified how the brand support social issues such as LGBT rights as a means to attributing to their brand equity and personality. From this case study it was identified that most branded vodka is centred around a sense of national identity such as Absolut from Sweden, Grey Goose from France, and Russian Standard from Russia. Taking this concept and applying to the exploitation of social issues created a concept of creating a newly branded vodka with no promoted country of origin in order to raise awareness of the refugee crisis. This would exploit a given social issue in order to generate publicity and an ethical brand equity and personality. The brand image would be minimal and respectful of refugee's yet promote this as a USP in order to target a socialist audience to the brand.  

OUGD601 - Tutorial 3

Following the progress of my tutorials I continued independently developing the rest of chapter one and two, this consisted of the main body of my research project synthesising the body of theory that defines brand psychology. With this holistic understanding of brand psychology I can then begin to apply the theory to practice in chapter three applying these constructs to case studies evidencing the exploitation of the consumer within these primary examples. 

The focus of this tutorial was to beginning to shape the practical element of my COP 3 project. It was discussed in detail how the constructs of brand psychology could be applied to almost any product suggesting it has an almost cancerous composition from this beginning to suggest that any physical product could adopt these ideologies within the practical project. Some of the suggestions that were brainstormed within the session worked of the proposal of using a social issue to exploiting the consumers perception of a brand, for instance capitalising on Brexit or raising awareness for refugees to exploit the marketing potential. From this initial brainstorm I plan to develop these proposals further before evaluating the effectiveness of each concept which will conclude a definitive practical direction. 

Practical brainstorming 

OUGD601 - Tutorial 2

In the second development tutorial I sent over a copy of my revised introduction and initial first chapter in advance which my supervisor had annotations of revisions and improvements. The majority of this tutorial was spent talking through these annotations explains how I could improve the structure of the draft through implementing these changes.  This involved ensuring the research was triangulated effectively and relevant to the original research question. For the next tutorial Ben gave me a deadline of revising my introduction and chapter 1 with the changes talked about in this tutorial, begin developing chapter 2 and start to think about how this research can effect the practical element of the cop 3 project. 

OUGD601 - Introduction Feedback

Following my supervisors deadline suggestions before the next tutorial, I began drafting an introduction, I sent this in advance of tutorial 2 this was sent back via email in advance of this tutorial with suggestions and improvements. These changes were invaluable as from this feedback I could acknowledge this original draft lacked a sense of critical direction not explicitly stating how I aim to answer my proposed research question. Answering these questions labelled within the feedback helped create a far more objective and critical introduction to my COP research proposal. 

OUGD601 - Suggested Research / Edward Bernays

As suggested my dissertation supervisor I watched the documentary ‘Century of the self’ in which episode one had a feature on Edward Bernays, nephew of established psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. In the documentary it I found that Edward Bernays became a 20th century influence, took Freuds ideas and used them to manipulate the masses, in which he showed corporations how they could make people want things they don’t need by linking mass produced goods to unconscious desires. He summarised this in his quote “If you could use propaganda for war, you could certainly use it for peace” manipulating the unconscious to make money. 

In the documentary they reference a case study of Bernays in which he was employed by a tobaccos factory to improve their sales figures with a female demographic. As a result of the times it was deemed socially unacceptable for woman to be seen smoking in public. As a result of this Bernays persuaded a group of young debutants to smoke publicly at the annual Easter Day parade in New York City. He chose this venue as it was rife with reporters of which he informed reporters a group of suffragettes were protesting their inability to smoke in public. This made national news using the imagery of women smoking in public armed with Bernays memorable slogan “Torches of freedom” (referencing the cigarettes) evoked a sense of equality, emotions and memory encouraging anyone standing for these values to condone the behaviour. The results of this publicity stunt were astounding and resulted in changing the American perspectives of smoking in this single symbolic act. Making it socially acceptable and providing connotations that if a woman is seen smoking in public she is perceived as more powerful and independent.

This research highlights the importance of psychology within corporate branding and identity and reinforces the relevance of my research project that can be used to manipulate consumer attitudes towards a particular product of service through psychological exploitation. 

OUGD601 - Tutorial 1

Having been assigned my dissertation supervisor (Ben), I had my first tutorial which gave opportunity to talk through my research proposal and talk directly about how I want to conduct this research. I took an initial dissertation proposal to the first tutorial, to more accurately articulate what areas of research I want to investigate as part of my COP3 project. My supervisor read over this and felt it would work well to create a systematic exploration of the subject matter. The first tutorial was really engaging in being able to talk through my project on a 1 on 1 level and gain feedback as to the best ways in which to approach individual research elements. 

Following the tutorial Ben typed up my tutorial notes and sent them out via email, this worked really well allowing me to focus on the conversation within the tutorial and worry less about scribing notes. In this he suggested areas of research that may be particularly useful to my project and gave a range of small deadlines to work towards, this worked particularly well in focusing me to break up the length of the module into smaller more achievable deadlines. 

OUGD601 - Research Focus presentation

As a formalised starting point of the COP 3 module we were asked to create a short 3-5 minute presentation that outlines our research focus, first thoughts, and initial areas of research. This was presented to a range of students and tutors to give a better understanding of my current direction in relation to my research project and would be able to offer advice as to how to improve particular aspects before engaging in more critical research tasks.

Feedback from students and tutors was generally positive stating the first thoughts and initial areas of research are relevant to my working title. It was suggested changing the title from 'to what extent....' to more simply 'how...' as the current title suggests more ambiguity and subjectivity than a more direct 'how'. Suggestions of how to improve the current proposal would be to establish a clear understanding of particular case studies and frameworks to work from as opposed to general theorists.