Brand Identities We have discussed a variety of ways in which different media producers attempt to market to specific audiences, whether through the creation of a particular brand identity, or through tapping into some niche market. For your second essay, you will analyze how some contemporary media product is marketed and investigate the identity that is sold alongside it. While questions about brand identity are important to marketing research, your essay will be more anthropological than an analysis of business strategies. It is less your goal to decide whether or not some media product is being marketed effectively than to offer an understanding of the kind of identity the media artifact invites audience members to consume. The best papers will both offer an interesting analysis of the product's brand identity AND demonstrate some appreciation for the cultural implications of the identity itself (e.g. what does the identity say to or about the culture that has produced it? What ideological values are implicit within this brand identity? How does this brand identity complement some particular zeitgeist?) You can choose to analyze any of the following: 1) A specific magazine. What sort of brand identity does Cosmopolitan create through its articles and advertisements? What kinds of values or ideologies do the producers of the magazine seem to assume their readers share? 2) A specific music group or performer. How are listeners supposed to view Clay Aiken? Based on the kinds of songs he records, the ways in which he is advertised, the artwork on his CDs, and so forth, what sort of people are we supposed to assume is attracted to him? How do his producers create this image? 3) A specific television network. What is the brand identity for Spike TV? Based on the kinds of programs on the network, as well as the advertisers that pay to be included on it, whom does the network seem to be targeting? What are members of this audience supposed to value or believe about themselves? Depending on your selected focus and the particular argument you want to make you might want to focus your discussion even more specifically then these broader topics—that is, you might want to write about a specific issue or section of a magazine, a specific portion of the television
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