Miriam Salzer-Mörling, Stockholm University

We live in a branded world. It is a world where production and consumption to an increasing extent is concerned with brands. The marketplace has become a battlefield of brand names, images and logos striving to be heard. In the branded world, everything can be commoditized and everyone is a potential brand. Politicians, artists, regions, cities, prisons, schools, etc., are all struggling for attention, trying to make an impression in our minds. Brands and logos surround us everywhere. Some would even argue that brands constitute a language of its own. The branded world consists of a global system of signs and symbols where the cultured consumer easily can recognize logotypes and values of a large number of brands. To be literate in the branded world implies knowing all the signs and codes that talk to us in commercials and ads. As goods take on greater symbolic roles in our lives, the aesthetic content of the product increases. A central aspect in this symbolic role of products is the expansion of new meaning generating systems that attach a particular set of values to the commodity. Through the representational systems found in e.g. design, packaging and advertising commodities are turned into something entirely different from mere functional items.

Thus, the creation of emotions, experiences and lifestyles is a growing sector in today's economy and it is repeatedly argued that national growth and innovation are to be found within the creative industries (c.f. Florida 2004). Whereas "anyone can manufacture a product", it is often claimed that competitive advantage is increasingly to be found in the production of attractive images and symbolic values. To construct and express emotional, aesthetic and symbolic values lies at heart in the expressive economy. The role of the image-makers is thus gaining more attention, and professions such as designers, advertisers, brand managers, story-tellers, etc. are becoming increasingly important and influential in shaping the commercial landscape. As organizations are competing on the basis of their ability to create sign values and becoming attractive actors on the market place, this new "expressive expertise" takes centre stage in corporations and society (Salzer-Mörling, 2002).

In consequence, the core activity of many corporations is transformed: from the production of things to the production of images and sign-value. The activities of marketing, design, advertising and branding are no longer categorized as supportive functions, but rather as the core of the enterprise. As the brand is what is produced, sold and consumed, the skills in producing signs and sign values are becoming central to corporate activity. Companies like Nike, Adidas, and Ericsson have to an increasing extent out-sourced their manufacturing so that the corporation can be "free to focus on the real business - creating a corporate mythology powerful enough to infuse meaning into these raw objects just by signing its name" (Klein 1999).

This shift in focus implies that management and organization become less concerned with the transformation of raw materials into products, and more focused on the transformation of products into lifestyles, ideas, brands, etc. This new logic of business seems to be well documented in e.g. the literature on out-sourcing, imaginary systems, knowledge management etc. However, there have been few, if any, studies on the actual work that is carried out in the production of symbolic values. How are products turned into signs? How is this transformation from substance to image constructed? And how, then, can we understand the processes of managing and organizing expressive values?

Aim of the research project

Whereas the dominant management paradigm of the 20th century has been concerned with the organization of material goods, and rests on a model of industrial production, the increasing "de-materialization" of the economy seems to put new demands on the theories of leadership, marketing and organization. There is a need for new metaphors and concepts that can grasp the expressive and ideational aspects of production and consumption.

The aim of this project is to contribute to the understanding of how symbolic values are constructed and the role of the expressive expertise in the construction of signs, symbols, and identity in contemporary culture.

The initial purpose of the project was primarily focused on the "production" side of expressive values, i.e. how corporations try to craft and sell branded goods. However, throughout the work it became obvious that an understanding of the creation of brands also called for an exploration of the "consumption" of brands, i.e. how consumers create and use expressive values. Thus the project came to include studies of consumer culture. The main questions that the project has explored can be summarised as:

o What is the role of brands in contemporary culture?
o How are symbolic values constructed?
o How do consumers and producers create expressions on the marketplace?

Results

1. The role of brands in contemporary culture
In various writings, late modern society has come to be labelled as a dream society, a catwalk economy, an experience economy, an attention economy, a vanity fair, etc. Underlying the different labels is a common emphasis on the immaterial dimensions of production and consumption. As Lash & Urry (1994:15) write there is an increasing component of sign value or image in material objects. This aestheticisation of material objects can take place either in the production or in the circulation and consumption of such goods. Further, goods often take on the properties of sign-value through the process of branding, in which marketers and advertisers attach image to goods.

In our book Brand Culture ( Schroeder & Salzer-Mörling 2006) we show how brands to an increasing extent form a cultural landscape. Brands have become cultural icons that are consumed in their own right (c.f. Holt 2004). As brands, rather than commodities, are flooding the marketplace, the social landscape is in many aspects turned into a commercial brandscape. In the brandscape the production and consumption of signs rivals the production and consumption of physical products. The brandscape can be regarded as a culture or a market where brands and brand-related items such as signs and logos increasingly dominate every-day life. The brandscape is a material and symbolic environment that consumers build with products, images, and messages that they invest with local meaning (Sherry 1988). The brandscape is thus a cultural landscape where consumption and commodities are given meaning and where brands are crafted and circulated.

It can be argued that the brandscape reflects a social and economic order that is moving from substance to image, where the production and proliferation of signs have become more important than the production of material objects. "We don't sell soap but hope" is a classic quote from the cosmetic industry illustrating how the market has become an arena for producing and consuming dreams.

When business organizations are preoccupied with the creation of meaning and image the market for products is turned into an expressive economy. In this sense the production of goods has becomes more and more intertwined with the production of meaning and we can see how the borders between cultural industries and traditional business sectors become blurred. In the public space branding has thus moved beyond "splashing one's logo on a billboard", and instead branding has become an issue of fostering powerful identities and stories (Klein 2000). By conquering mental and geographical space, brands are to a large extent invading every-day life. When we shop at Ica, travel with SAS, furnish with Ikea, relax with Gevalia, or pay our bills at Nordea, our daily practices in mundane life are inevitably shaped by, and performed in, a branded world. It is a world where images, myths, ideals and values blend together in a system of signs that form our culture.

2. How symbolic values are constructed
Marketing has traditionally been concerned with the promotion and distribution of goods and services and the production of such goods has generally been regarded as a question of producing functional values. Production and consumption have then been a question of use-value. The growing role of the expressive economy, however, has brought the role of sign-value into the limelight. This does not mean that the functional or material value of commodities has vanished altogether. Rather, the expressive economy points to the role commodities also play on a semiotic or symbolic level. While use-value normally is regarded as a product's physical or material qualities, sign-value is in general referring to the immaterial values and images that the brand carries.

How are then generic products turned into cultural icons? How are commodities re-enchanted? A central finding in this research project is the use of stories as a means for constructing sign-value (see Salzer-Mörling 2005; 2009; 2010). Story-telling is an expressive strategy that fills the product with meaning. Stories are thus often used to create a brand with a history and origin. Companies like Ikea and Absolut Vodka, for instance, make an extensive use of its legacy in constructing the story of the brand. Narratives are thus used as a way of infusing meaning into goods. As the expressive side of the brand is concerned with what the product means, storytelling has become an issue of creating brand meaning.

A central concept in the branding literature is the brand personality. The carefully designed brand personality is supposed to convey the core values of the brand (see e.g. Aaker 1996). Stories are hence employed as a means for crafting a personality, where the use of the history and origin turns the vodka into a personalised brand. By giving the brand a personality, making it more human, the corporation aims at turning the brand into a character with whom we can have a relationship. To consume a brand has thus become something more than consuming goods. As brands are personalized characters in a cultural play of signs and signification, using a brand has a cultural and social purpose. To socialize with a certain set of brands is a way to express who we are and where we want to belong. Which brands do you want to be seen with or not? In many cases, the consumption of brands is a part of individuals' identity-building where the story of the brand is used to create "the story about me". In many aspects, identity has become a project of defining and expressing one self with the help of brands (see e.g. Garsten & Salzer-Mörling 2004; Salzer-Mörling 2010).

3. How producers and consumers create expression on the marketplace
In the marketing management literature brands are generally regarded as assets, designed and controlled by the corporation's production process. The brand, it is argued, is created by the company as the logotype is loaded with attractive stories and emotions. However, in contrast to this view, consumer culture theory emphasises the way consumers actively engage in sense-making activities as the brand is consumed. As consumers we are not passive receivers of pre-defined stories. Signs are turned into value-laden brands only when consumers absorb, are immersed into, and use the brands. When brands are employed by consumers in everyday life, new stories emerge, identities are created and the brand becomes a meaningful icon. Brands are thus created by consumers in actions: on the streets, in consumption, in self-realisation, etc (Salzer-Mörling & Strannegård 2007).

In the brandscape, economic and cultural activities blend together, and consumption thus needs to be elevated on par with production (c.f. Firat & Venkatesh, 1995). Consumption can, to the same extent as production, be seen as a value-producing activity, and both are matters of signification. Consumption is thus not to be understood as the final stage in a process of creating and destroying value. Rather, in the branded world, consumption is a continuous process where values are created. It is in the act of consuming the sign that the sign is given meaning and is transformed into a brand. Consumption can thus be understood as an activity of creating value (Salzer-Mörling 2010).

This is to say that brands do not carry any inherent meaning. Most of the time, logotypes pass by unnoticed or they just become signs void of meaning. For meanings to arise, if at all, interaction is needed. It is when consumers actively use brands, that brands become more than markers of identification. For a brand to become meaningful the sign need to be contextualised. The codes and signs that the brand conveys must be culturally significant in order for the brand to create an evocative effect (Salzer-Mörling & Strannegård 2007). The expressive values arise as the brand is employed in the individual's story. The construction of the brandscape is thus a process involving both producers and consumers, neither of which can control what the signs do and what they are turned into. Even though stories can be read into the brand images, there is no ready-made story waiting to be unfolded. Rather, any story that might evolve, any meaning that might be produced, is an outcome rather than a starting point.

Consumer culture research also highlights the subversive aspects of consumption, with consumers buying and using goods in ways unintended by the producers. With an emerging awareness of the ethics of business corporations and a growing media attention to corporate scandals and double standards, many a super brand has been publicly accused for marketing corporate values that are not lived up to. There is also an increasing critique against the global brands' never-ending conquering of public space and increasing infiltration of every-day life. The "coca-colonization" and "starbuckification" of the world are met with consumer protests and demonstrations. By parodying ads and hi-jacking billboards, the anti-consumption movements use the same aesthetic language as the branding companies, thereby undermining the intended message. The idea of the corporately controlled sign is in this way effectively challenged. It is a questioning of the assumption that branding is a one-way communication flow. By the mere act of transferring a visual sign to a new context a completely new story is created.

Like in art, signs are used and reused, contextualised and re-contextualised, thus acquiring new appearances. The companies can never gain absolute control over how these expressions are created. Thus, far from being a spectacle with actors and an audience, the brandscape can be understood of as an arena of aesthetic reflection and expression. Signs are turned into brands in actions. The act of consumption is an act of creating expressions.

Dissemination of results

The research project has resulted in a number of articles, conference papers, book chapters and an internationally published book (see list f publications). Results have also been presented at workshops and seminars at Stockholm School of Economics, Linköping University and at the School of Business at Stockholm University. The research has also been presented to graduate and post graduate students in lectures at Stockholm University. A number of popular seminars and lectures have been given at various organisations and companies such as IFL, Swedish Trade Council, AMS, Sveriges Radio, Logica, IPF, Svenska Kyrkan, Liljevalchs, etc. The project has also received media attention in, for instance, Svenska Dagbladet, Handelskammartidningen, Metro.

List of publications

Salzer-Mörling, M. 2005. Storytelling & Varumärken. I Christensen, L. (ed). Att mobilisera för regional tillväxt.  Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Salzer-Mörling, M. &  Schroeder, J. (eds) 2006. Brand Culture. London: Routledge.

Salzer-Mörling, M, 2006. Drömmar till salu – marknadsföring i en varumärkt värld. Paper presented at seminar at School of Business, Stockholm University, September 2006.

Salzer-Mörling, M. 2006. An expedition into expressivity. Presentation at CASL Anniversary Workshop on Leadership. Stockholm School of Economics, December 2006.

Salzer-Mörling, M. 2007. Expressiva strategier. I Melander, A. & Nordqvist, M. (eds), Att förstå strategi: Process och kontext. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Salzer-Mörling, M. & Strannegård, L. 2007. Ain’t Misbehavin’ - Consumption in a Moralised Brandscape. Marketing Theory December 2007.
 
Salzer-Mörling, M. 2007. Att leda med symboler. LOOP . Tidskriften om ledarskap, organisation och personal. Vol 3(3): 48-51.

Salzer-Mörling, M 2008. Drömmar till salu. I Cronqvist, M. (ed) Hållbara värden.  Stockholm och Göteborg: Makadam.

Salzer-Mörling, M 2008. Symboliskt ledarskap. Paper presented at Workshop on Leadership,  Centre for Advanced Studies in Leadership, Stockholm School of Economics, January 2008.

Salzer-Mörling, M. 2009 Symboliskt ledarskap. I Jönsson, S. & Strannegård, L. (eds), Ledarskap. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Salzer-Mörling, M. 2009. Fenomenet Ikea. I  Bengtsson, S. (ed) , Ikea på Liljevalchs konsthall. Liljevalchs katalog nr 480. Stockholm: Liljevalchs.

Salzer-Mörling, M. 2010. Consumption of Brands. I Ekström, K. (ed), Consumer Behaviour – A Nordic Persepctive. Lund: Studentlitteratur.