Lesson 20 — Activity 3: Selling a Lifestyle

In the last activity, you saw that the amount of money a company spends on branding is actually more than they spend on the shoes. This is the case with most multinational corporations today. Branding means that a company works hard to represent a certain lifestyle or image. 

In this activity, you will learn more about how companies brand themselves.

    

Here's an example of branding.

A company called Neighbours wants to brand itself as a very family-oriented business. Not only does the company have advertisements and commercials that feature happy, good-looking families, the company also show up in other places. Neighbours holds family events like picnics, and it supports reading programs at local schools and a "kid friendly" website with games to play and information for parents.

 The company sells clothing and toys, but its advertisements focus more on certain types of families than on the products they are selling. The idea is that if people buy into the image, they will also buy that company's products. If you believe the Neighbours company stands for healthy, happy, well-off families, then you will buy Neighbours products so your family will be like this too.

 

Brands usually have a logo (a simple design that goes with the company name) that is easy to recognize. For example, Nike has the "swoosh." They also have a slogan, or saying, "Just do it," that represents the company.

 

Think about the things that you own. Are any of your possessions "branded"? To figure this out, think about how you describe the things you have. Do you own any clothes that you would describe first as a certain type or brand rather than describing the clothing by colour or style?
 

Digging Deeper!