Branding's Dark History

This is the episode that explains why this podcast changed its name. Branding has a genuinely uncomfortable past – from branding irons used on enslaved people, to the co-opting of ancient symbols by Nazi Germany, to the way modern branding has been used to colonise our imagination for designing alternatives. Martin Sully sat with this for 10 months before recording it. It's worth the listen.

LINKS

Episode page: https://www.snapper.studio/episodes/brandings-dark-history-ep-13

Blog post -- Branding's Dark History: https://www.snapper.studio/blog/history-of-branding

How I Think About Branding: https://www.snapper.studio/how-i-think

Enjoyed this episode? The best next step is a free 15-minute Vision Call with Martin. No pitch, no pressure -- just a straight conversation about where your brand is and what it needs. Book at https://clients.snapper.studio/discovery

Transcript

There are several problems with branding as we see it. A big problem is the reinforcement of neoliberal capitalism through an imposed consensus through which our imagination for designing alternatives is colonized, and our social relationships are atomized.

This is the level up podcast. I'm your host. Martin Sully, a brand strategist, designer and founder of snapper studio. And I'm on a mission to help you gain clarity and confidence in your brand. I'll arm you with bite size tips and introduce you to friends of a show who are taking their brand to the next level.

Big words -- that's not me. These are a quote from an article I've found particularly challenging and actually made me question a few things. So obviously, there's a lot to unpack in there, and I kind of appreciate that a lot of people be like listening to a few of the words in there and going what -- I don't fully understand. And that's okay. I'm going to try and unpack it.

I'm going to start off with looking at the history of branding. And we've touched on this in the past. I did it especially in my first episodes, in the hot metal brand podcast -- how it's history was in hot metal type. Hot metal type was the way to traditionally typeset books, and that is a huge part of my background. I worked in typesetting and typography, designing books. But it's got a dark, dark, murky past, something that I never expected to touch on in a podcast, something that I actually feel pretty strongly against. Because they touch on very physical, social, big, massive historical impacts from branding, which makes me feel uncomfortable, if I'm completely honest.

So to begin, let's go back. Yeah, obviously branding has been around for a very, very long time.

This article -- it was all about post branding, and it was incredibly thought provoking. Really got me thinking about -- it's kind of obviously clearly targeted at me, as I'm part of the population that can act on it and start altering perceptions.

Modern day branding is a really new thing. Back in the 80s, branding was known as corporate identities and around the early 2000s it kind of switched to branding, where there was also this split that took place where people started to concentrate more on personal branding, and that has been heavily influenced by today's social media.

There's been a fantastic new podcast that's come through called Personal Branding Unlocked. It's by Monica Walmsley and Josh Lawler. They have put together this amazing podcast. They're going to be diving more into personal branding.

The argument of the article was that the Industrial Revolution -- so we're talking about two or three hundred years back -- was the kind of catalyst for capitalism, which in turn brought the need for branding. But like I said earlier, there's a dark past that people don't want to talk about. The branding iron was used on animals and, more disturbingly, people. So slaves were branded as people's property. And I don't think we want to go in to too much detail around this topic, but it really just brought something to life and made me question why the podcast was originally called the hot metal brand podcast, and it really didn't sit well, so I've moved it over to the level up podcast, which I am really, genuinely, very excited about where the future of this can go.

To be honest, if I'm looking at the history of branding, I'm now questioning it -- not only in a good way at all. So this, for me, is really eye opening, a chance for me to shift my perspective, but also hopefully switch things around for you guys too.

The article then touches on a few things -- when we started to first see repetitive imagery and things being taken and used to promote new ways of looking at the world and communicating. Actually, it was Nazism. They're identifying marks -- so the swastika -- and that was originally an ancient symbol that was used in religions. So if you're looking at Buddhism and Hinduism, they both used the swastika. And again, it's got this really dark, murky history. I'm actually going to leave it there, I don't think we need to go too much further into that.

But the one nugget I did get from all of this was the connection to people -- they are what pull everything together. It's been emphasised for me during the pandemic and post pandemic. People are a lot more aware of the power of branding. But going into it, branding as a historical thing conjures up a lot of negative connotations. Secrecy, control, distortion, changing people's perspectives, altering opinions, being exclusive, looking at competition, and consumption -- trying to increase people's consumption of products and services.

I think there has got to be a balance. But I think what they kind of highlight is that post branding now looks at promoting as opposed to secrecy. They are promoting transparency. If you're looking at control, it's less control and more being open. The positive sort of side: collaboration rather than competition. Social engagement. Cohesion. Dialogue. Dialogue is a big, big one for me at the moment.

We used to -- branding used to be a monologue. It was purely: buy our product. Using a toilet paper example -- buy our toilet paper. It's triple ply. That would be purely just the benefits, the functional benefits, and that's dull. There's no connection. There's no emotive reason other than the fact that everybody needs toilet paper.

The big thing for me is looking at how do you make it emotive? How do you sell toilet paper in a post branding world? And that is looking at creating a dialogue between the buyer and the person selling it. The person selling wants to make sales, the person buying wants to buy the product but they want to get something else from it. And that thing is the feel good factor.

A brand that kind of perfectly sums this up is Who Gives a Crap. And I'm sure, because I talk about them a lot -- they do so many good things and they do it right. They're bringing people back into the conversation, and aligning all their values and everything to create this kind of openness, this kind of dialogue, which is perfect for that post branding world that we're kind of moving into now.

So it's a super point. And the other thing is that in that post brand world, being open to feedback, using the imagination to kind of push things forward. There are four things that I feel passionate about: openness, collaboration, dialogue and imagination. You need all these things to push things forward and to explore, to open up new opportunities. And it's not in a very capitalist way. It's making things better, trying to improve, trying to do things right.

So yeah, that's just some of the things I've been going over the last sort of 10 months. Why is it important for you guys? Well, people in branding have and design have the power to influence positive change. And it can only come from this point. If we need to start doing the little things and doing them a little bit better, it starts at that top level but it filters down. And that's the point of collaboration. You're all getting involved in trying to make little improvements that will make a big difference.

Some of the biggest things are obviously all the environmental sustainability goals. These are huge and the small little changes here make a big difference. I'll give you a case in point. We at home, about 18 months ago, started with a compost heap. Really simple -- we've got a bit of space in the back garden. Throw the composter down, just chuck in scraps of food, bits of cardboard. Before I get off track -- that has cut down dramatically on what goes in our red bin. Rather than four or five, six, seven bags, we put a bag of rubbish in the red bin every week. And that's it.

Obviously if we can use the power of branding and everything to alter perspectives without yeah, without harming and without being, taking away that human element -- I'm not also suggesting that only the people in branding or design can make those alterations. Definitely not the case. A large part of most people's role is to actually educate people as well.

So focusing on educating customers, clients, in the things that we believe in, will start turning the tide on the world's biggest touch points. We can't do it alone. We're all going to need to collaborate together. We need to start the dialogue. And while it sounds a little bit like Viva la Revolution -- break free from the capitalist mindset to use our imaginations a little bit more and actually start thinking about things a little bit more deeply.

If you align with what I'm saying, I would love you to go and read the article. I will put it in the show notes. It's really enlightening. And I'm actually going to go out and buy the book, because I want to read more. I want to find out more.

I've been incredibly busy behind the scenes, lining up some super cool guests. It's gonna be really fun. And hopefully you guys will enjoy this episode. I would largely love to hear some feedback. If people listen to it and want to send me a quick email, you're absolutely welcome. My email is Martin at snapper dot studio.