Marketing Seminar Series. "A Portrait of the Artists as Brand Interpreter", with Chloe Preece and Pandora Kay
Published: 18 September 2024
30 October 2024. Professor Finola Kerrigan, University of Birmingham
Professor Finola Kerrigan, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham
"A Portrait of the Artists as Brand Interpreter", with Chloe Preece and Pandora Kay
Wednesday, 30 October 2024. 15:00-16:30
Room 386AB, Adam Smith Business School
Abstract
We propose a relational approach to branding which incorporates existing ‘me’, ‘not me’ and ‘we’ approaches to theorizing branding within socio cultural branding research. We pose the epistemological question: How can we study brands in a complex world? Turning to visual artists in recognition of their role as brand interpreters, we argue that marketers should look more to such cultural communicators as contemporary artists for insight into how brands link to, and play a role in, consumer identity work. Unencumbered by theoretical concepts grounded in the field of marketing, artists incorporating brands into their work can provide fresh insight into perceptions and classifications of brands. Secondly, and equally importantly, through examining how brands are deployed as semiotic texts by contemporary artists we can understand how brands relate to each other, how their significance in terms of aligning to consumer autobiography reveals brand meaning. We examine British Artist Grayson Perry’s ‘Walthamstow Tapestry’ argue for a more collective approach to understanding brands that unifies ‘me/we’, ‘not me’ and indifferent responses to brands and demonstrates the importance of perceived consumer identity markers (such as gender, social class and national identity) in the formation of brand constellations within which brand meaning is derived from proximity to other (often unrelated) brands.
Bio
Finola Kerrigan is Professor of Marketing in the Department of Marketing at Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham where she teaches and researches marketing and consumption.
She has published her research in a range of international journals, edited collections and is the author of Film Marketing (2010/2017). Drawing on a range of qualitative and creative research methods, Finola has researched subjects on branding, digital identity, ethics and the incorporation of new technologies into marketing practice and how this impacts consumers. With a specific focus on researching the cultural and creative industries, Finola centres the arts both in terms of arts based methods and as a context for her research.
As well as her academic research, which has been funded by the ESRC, EPSCR, British Academy and a range of charitable organisations. Finola has completed a number of industry research projects in collaboration with public bodies and commercial companies.
Finola is Secretary of the Academy of Marketing and was a member of the Academy of Marketing Research Committee. She was the President of the International Society of Markets and Development (ISMD) and continues to be a board member of ISMD. She is deputy chair of the Academy of Marketing Special Interest Group of the Academy of Marketing. Between 2020 and 2022 Finola was the Director of the Fashion Business Research Centre at University of the Arts London.Finola has previously worked at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London; King’s College London and University of Hertfordshire. Finola is on the Board of Directors of the Jasmin Vardimon Dance Company.
For further information, please contact business-seminar-series@glasgow.ac.uk.
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First published: 18 September 2024