Lecture 9 - Objects mean more than you think

1. Explore this:

Every object tells a story if you know how to read it. Agree with it. Disagree with it. Explore our relationships with objects. How we have made them and how they make us. How each object including us have become communication technologies. How we are so obsessed with them and how we are becoming objectified by the meaning we put in them. You can look at context (if you know how to read it). Use different media within the blog to express your thoughts in the most appropriate way.

A brand is a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers." Branding began as a way to tell one person's cattle from another by means of a hot iron stamp. A modern example of a brand is Coca Cola which belongs to the Coca-Cola Company.

Objects, when put together with a brand, become more than just mere objects. We identify with these objects because they have been designed to communicate with us - be it a deliberate attempt or not. We engage our senses when evaluating the object and figure out how it is used, and how we can relate to it. Humans are inclined to establish communication to draw meaning and make sense of things because it is in our nature to do so.

As we explore the issue of objects becoming communication technologies, the following 3 brands will be the focus of our discussion, as we feel that these are iconic in communicating beyond their tangible aspects: Tiffany & Co., Rolex, and Nike.

Tiffany & Co.
The world today recognises that particular shade of robin egg blue as The Tiffany blue. Interestingly, this blue with the patented Pantone number 1937 coincides with the year Tiffany & Co. was founded. In colour psychology terms, turquoise represents communication, creativity, modernity and a forward-thinking stance.

The little blue box
What Tiffany & Co. is attempting to put across to its consumers is that it is a brand of excellent craftsmanship and exclusivity, and people who buy its products as a gift care enough to purchase something special.

Imagine this scenario: You are having dinner in a room lit by only soft candlelight. The ambience is romantic but the dim lighting tones make it hard to see as well. You look up from your seat and across the table. Amidst the blurry shapes of cutlery and wine glasses you catch sight of that blue packaging, and breathe in deeper. Your heart rate flutters and you hear yourself silently whisper "Tiffany’s" before the other party even presents the gift to you.

The positive emotional responses evoked by glimpsing the sight of the blue box during the gift giving process have a very real and significant value, often tied with romantic connotations.

The ‘Tiffany blue’ color has come to symbolize Tiffany itself. But the company’s success does not just owe it to their product packaging of their signature blue box and their blue jewelry pouch. It is also the strength and endurance of the Tiffany name.

 

It is also rumoured that the particular tone of colour may have been chosen because of the popularity of the turquoise gemstone in 19th century jewelry. Turquoise was also a favourite of Victorian brides, who gave their attendants a dove-shaped brooch set in turquoise so that they would not forget the bride. This extends a strong nuptial association with the colour; many weddings today are themed around that colour, and some do not even require the actual use of a piece of jewelry from the brand.
 

The movie which placed Audrey Hepburn as one of the greatest style icons of all time, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, starts off with her character standing outside the Tiffany & Co. boutique at Fifth. The romantic nature of the story, which explores various kinds of love, further illustrated Tiffany & Co. as a tangible representation of positive emotional feelings like love and happiness.

“Time rolls on and youth is gone,
And you can't straighten up when you bend.
But stiff back or stiff knees,
You'll stand straight at, Tiffany's...”

Marilyn Monroe also repeats Tiffany’s a couple of times in one of her trademark songs in the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The lyrics of this song center around how different things may fade but diamonds will always stay the same, making it a “girl’s best friend” - the fact that she included Tiffany & Co. in the song rather than other brands shows how Tiffany & Co. is used to represent timeless luxury.

Due to the constant hammering of these ideals across various media over the years, Tiffany’s has become synonymous with jewelry that stands a class above the rest. This translates into an identity, one that proposes that if one is seen wearing Tiffany & Co. jewelry, then they would be deemed more stylish, and more appreciative of quality and luxury. This perception-based image is exactly what the brand aims to communicate; so much so that “It is every girl’s wish to receive a little blue box from Tiffany’s.”

Rolex
Rolex is a luxury brand with a well-established reputation of manufacturing high-quality wristwatches. These bespoke watches are undeniably one of the most prominent forms of status symbols, even today. Transcending a mere object worn on one’s wrist to keep track of time, a Rolex timepiece holds much more importance in the creation of an image often widely associated with a worthy investment and high status.

In the beginning, Rolex gained recognition as they were to first to manufacture the waterproof and dustproof wristwatch “Oyster” in 1926. Another notable innovation of the watchmaker was the fact that it was the first ever watchmaker to receive chronometer certification for a wristwatch.

It serves well

The constant innovation and high-quality of Rolex watches was one of many reasons that propelled the brand to prominence. Furthermore, the Rolex watch has always been associated with men and women of status and power. By the beginning of World War II (WWII), Rolex had already gained such prestige as a luxurious maker of watches, that it was even the preferred choice used by British Royal Air Force pilots, who eschewed inferior standard-issue watches.

Rolex promises that the world is our oyster

Today, one owns a Rolex timepiece with the intent to portray themselves as well-heeled, affluent, individuals that pursue higher quality things in life. It is indicative of a lifestyle, an attitude, and even the owner’s status in society, although these can be a fabrication and/ or inaccurate representation of the truth.

Counterfeit goods are a good way that exemplifies how we perceive and use objects to communicate certain values intrinsic to those objects. Because of how we pine for these luxurious objects, and the inherent status they confer to us, people who could not afford a real luxury timepiece by Rolex often purchase counterfeit versions of the watch, at a fraction of the price. Unless exposed by someone who can tell the authenticity of the timepiece, anyone would be able elevate his status and portray himself in a manner that he wants to others to see him.

Nike

The name "Nike" was taken from the Greek and it means "goddess of victory." The logo represents the wing of the Greek Goddess. In the world of brands, Nike is definitely a victor. Nikes uses a simple logo, a great slogan (JUST DO IT) and a list of superstars including Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Andre Agassi, Shane Warne, Maria Sharapova, and Venus and Serena Williams to promote their sales.

The original swoosh.

The slogan (JUST DO IT) has been introduced in the late 1980s and became an instant success and remains a popular branded slogan even twenty years later. On the other hand, the logo (Swoosh) has became Nike’s signature. With or without the word Nike underneath it, the general population can see the swoosh and visualize Nike. The logo is the heart of an organization’s identity, as well as to persuade visually. The swoosh simultaneously represents athleticism, competition and victory. With one solid brush stroke, viewers of the swoosh know that this is what it means. Yet Nike's audience does not notice this at first upon sight of the swoosh because "visual communication is always coded and seems transparent only because we know the code already, at least implicitly".

Nike produces a wide range of sports equipment. There are different types of Nike shoes that are catered for different purposes. For instance, Blazers, Air Max, Court Classics and etc. The brand is well-known and popular to the youth culture, chav culture and hip-hop culture for their supplying of urban fashion clothing. Nike has also teamed up with Apple Inc. to produce the Nike+ product that monitors a runner’s performance via a radio device in the shoe that links to the Ipod Nano. This made it easier for runners to keep track of their performance and at the same time, being able to listen to music while running.

Nike has strongly believed in bringing inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. And what Nike meant by athlete is, “if you have a body, you are an athlete”. Their mission has reflected in their advertising as well. Nike makes use of “real women” in their print advertisements. These advertisements showcase what seem to be real women and highlight a specific part of their body. According to USAToday.com, the ads show “a mix of pro athlete models and real women appear in ads with shots of their legs, butt, hips or arms. The fit women are unapologetic about what they call their ‘big butt’ or ‘thunder thighs.’” Spokesperson for Nike, Caren Bell, comments that, “The ads try to illustrate that 'not all body types are created equally. To be a woman athlete, fit and strong doesn't mean you have to be sample size." These Nike ads play on women's insecurities, yet displays them in a way that empowers the female.

Nike prides itself in creating state of the art athletic equipment from running shoes to soccer balls and using a logo that rhetorically represents success and visually ties into the ancient gods of sport explains its success as a successful, simple and recognizable trademark. The visual rhetorical tactics that Nike used (semiotics, gender, narrative representation and spatial experience) has led Nike today to be an effective brand.

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In our post-modern society that we live in today, we are but disparate individuals each seeking to form his/her identity. Our identity makeup, often guided by what we perceive around us, is now easily “designable” by what we choose to purchase and show off. We can now shed identities like how a snake sheds its skin, and we have created objects so loaded with perceived meaning, that they speak to us on many levels.

As we delineate ourselves through our purchases in our consumeristic culture, we have become an evolving micro-organism that literally works at creating objects, so that we can afford to buy the very same objects, in order to craft our very personal uniqueness.

In short, as we consume objects, so do they consume us.