Review: Bevan, A. and Wengrow, D. (2010): Cultures of Commodity Branding. Left Coast Press (original) (raw)

Fashionization of archaeology in the perspective of content marketing

Forum Archeologii Publicznej popularyzacja i edukacja archeologiczna, 2020

In the very beginning, the term public archaeology was applied only to the projects that were simply founded by the public. Nowadays, it goes far beyond that, with changes not only in the terminology, but also in the related methods. Different areas of specialisation within public archaeological practice, like heritage education, cultural resource management, interpretation, museum studies and else, have developed their own techniques for engaging their audience. This article aims to understand and present new way of communicating the science to the non-expert public with tools of content mar- keting and on commercial examples.

Brand Archives: Exhibition Catalogue (Scholarly Edition)

Brand archives is a journey into a practice-related doctoral research project on graphic design and brand identity. By addressing the relevance of brand archives to companies, designers and the broader culture, this exhibition represents a critique as to how the cultural inheritance of locally specific heritage brands is often overlooked and tends to dissolve amongst global influence. Through a ‘designerly’ way of exploring brand identity the exhibition presents brand archaeology as a methodological system for the rescuing, recovery and analysis of historical memory related to brand imagery. The thesis argues that brand archives are key instruments for designers to derive meaning and convey cultural memory into the future, and that visual identity is a channel through which cultural memory can be acknowledged, displayed and experienced. The main case study addresses the historical context and today’s symbolic and cultural relevance of a unique archive and collection of the Portuguese iconic Sanjo sports shoes (1933–1996). The Sanjos emerged with the rise of the ‘Estado Novo’ authoritarian regime in Portugal (New State, 1933–1974), ultimately failing to resist to the threat of global brands during the 1990s. Whether for companies, cultural institutions, designers, educators or historians dealing with locally specific identities and visual culture, the body of work presented here makes a contribution to broadening the scope of brands as a theme under-considered with respect to the preservation of cultural difference.

Operationalising brand heritage and cultural heritage

Journal of Product & Brand Management, 2011

Purpose -Brand heritage is acknowledged as one of the future priorities in branding research. Adopting it in an international context is challenging. In order to maximise its use it is necessary to know how strong it and the target country's cultural heritage are. Accordingly, the aim of the study is to construct a pioneering operationalisation of both brand and cultural heritage. Design/methodology/approach -The study begins with a discussion on the focal concepts. Definitions are proposed and suggestions for operationalisation put forward. Thereafter, the concepts are applied in an analysis of brand heritage in different countries. Findings -It is suggested that brand heritage is a mixture of the history as well as the consistency and continuity of core values, product brands, and visual symbols. A country's cultural heritage could be conceived of as homogeneity and endurance.

Consumer Choice in Historical Archaeology

Springer eBooks, 1987

Werner's professional advice on innumerable details, and his patience with the inevitable delays, were a great blessing. I am also grateful to production editors Kenneth Wishnia, and especially Daniel Spinella, for their painstakingly detailed work in professionally publishing this volume. Other individuals at Plenum, including Peter Strupp, associate managing editor, gave me assistance on many details. My warmest thanks to all the professionals at Plenum who made this volume possible. Over the course of two years, colleagues freely sent me conference papers, from which I proposed this volume. Authors of every chapter in this volume completed the time-consuming tasks, both of comparative multisite archaeological and documentary research, and of rewriting and revising manuscripts to include the framework of consumer choice. Mark Leone not only contributed an insightful epilogue, but his enthusiastic support encouraged me in editing this volume. For inspiration, thoughtful comments, and support for my own research, I am especially grateful to Mark Leone and George Miller. I have been privileged to see a number of graduate and undergraduate students develop professionally in the process of assisting in my research. Foremost among these is Scott Heberling, who, as a graduate student, contributed professional-quality research and writing to our coauthored chapter. Finally, I am grateful to my father for sharing his love of science, nature, and music with me. I am thankful that my mother and father always actively encouraged and supported my intellectual and personal growth.

Shopping and historical archaeology: exploring the contexts of urban consumption

Australasian Historical Archaeology, 2000

P CROOK De pite a tradition of consumer tudies in historical archaeology and other fields, few historical archaeologists have addressed how the place or act of shopping may affect our understanding of good recoveredji-om the archaeological record. Yet, hi torical accollnts ofshopping suggest that different market place were the scene ofvery different social and consumer dynamics. With a foclls on the archaeology of working-cia s life. this paper explore whether shopping i important to historical archaeology alld how it may be distingui hed in the archaeological record. y rp

5: 205 Journal of Material Culture Iconic Brands: A Socio-Material Story

This article takes the story of a monument to a Soviet brand of cheese as a starting point for discussing the socio-material practices that underlie the elevation of some brands to iconic status in the post-Soviet context. While the literature on iconic or 'symbolically dense' brands primarily focuses on shared meanings and ideas that iconic goods come to stand for, we argue that a material perspective provides a richer and more nuanced understanding of this consecration process. Accordingly, we consider the manifold material forms and practices through which the iconic status of some Soviet goods is constituted and identify (perceived) material constancy, monumentalization and legal codification as three main realms through which the transcendent socio-cultural values of these brands are contested and established. We take the story of a monument to a brand as a challenge to bringing the notion of materiality into a more explicit and dynamic relationship with signification, thus moving from the separation of the two notions. Such a move, we suggest, helps elaborate the role of iconic consumer goods in re-constructing social bonds, community identities and ideology.

Shopping as Meaningful Action: Toward a Redefinition of Consumption in Historical Archaeology

Historical Archaeology 30(4), 1996

Much archaeological scholarship on consumption has approached its subject matter as the means to an end-e.g., as a way of studying socioeconomic status-rather than as a proper object of study in its own right. The "consumer choice" school, and, more recently, advocates of consumer behavior studies, have supported approaches that emphasize quantitative methods, at the same time downplaying the "qualitative" or symbolic aspects of consumption. A considerable body of literature on the symbolic aspects of consumption exists both in historical archaeology and other fields. The intention of this essay is to draw together this recent literature on consumption and combine it into a single approach that emphasizes shopping as the meaningful action at the very heart of consumption. With the emphasis on agency, this approach presents shopping as that crucial moment of transformation where identity, intention, and symbol combine in the decision to purchase, to own, an object.