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.