International Journal of Business Management & Research (IJBMR) ISSN 2249-6920 Vol. 2 Issue 4 Dec 2012 97-102 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.,
REPRESENTATION THEORIES OF COMMUNICATION AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR CORPORATE BRAND COMMUNICATIONS OLUTAYO OTUBANJO Senior Lecturer (Marketing), Lagos Business School, Pan-African University, Km 22 Lekki Epe Expressway Ajah, Lagos, Nigeria
ABSTRACT This paper examines the three dominant theories representation within the discipline of mass communication – probing deeply into what these imply for product or corporate brands. In order to do so, core arguments presented under these theories were discussed and the implication of these theories were examined by taking a look at corporations such as BBC, CNN, IBM, Apple, and Marks & Spencer. Findings from the study indicate that although all the three dominant representation theories have their shortcomings, they are equally useful in understanding the nature of brand and corporate communications in today’s business world.
KEYWORDS: Corporate Brand Communications, Mass Communication – Probing Deeply INTRODUCTION Academic literature is dominated by works that explain the concept of brand and corporate communications. Unfortunately many of these lack strong theoretical reasoning. This paper attempts to shore – up this gap by discussing some of the dominant theories of representation within the communication discipline – highlighting how these impacts on brand and corporate communication discipline. The importance of pursuing this exercise is that researchers are given further insights into how cultural codes within societies can be deployed and used as a foundation for creating meanings especially among stakeholders. This paper is divided into four parts and this constitutes the first. The second examines the meaning of representation and the third discusses the theories of representation and how these impact on brand communications. The paper ends with a review of issues discussed.
THE MEANING OF REPRESENTATION Representation is a phenomenon reflective of the construction and production of meanings within societies (Nussbaum, 2007; Kirmayer, 2009). The notion of representation recognizes that meanings are socially developed, transmitted and maintained through signs or language among cultural members experiencing similar social conditions of life. Representation is used by culture theorists to explain how individuals and groups use language to say something about, or to represent the world meaningfully to others (Hall, 1999). It refers to the production of meaning through language system (Stern, 1998) and it emphasises how cultural practice, such as organizational philosophies, beliefs, rituals, norms and strategic intentions all contribute to the production of meaning (see Hirschman, 1986). Representation refers to the construction in any medium (including corporate or product brands) aspects of ‘functional and emotional reality’ such as size, strength, competence, commitment to customer service delivery, and other abstract concepts which may include signs that are not known universally. Representations especially by business organizations or corporate brands may appear in all forms of corporate communications including events, guided editorials, corporate advertising as well as corporate
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literatures. The term representation refers to a variety of processes that enable firms to create meanings about themselves in the minds of stakeholders.
THE THEORIES OF REPRESENTATION AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR BRANDS So far cultural studies theorists have adopted three distinct approaches to understanding the meaning of representation. These are reflective, intentional and constructionist approaches. The Reflective Approach: the use of this approach for the understanding of representation theories began in the fourth century BC, when Greeks used the notion of mimesis or mimetic to explain how language, even drawing and painting, mirrored or imitated nature. Under the reflective or the mimetic approach, meaning is thought to lie in an object, person, idea or event in the real world and language functions like a mirror to reflect the true meaning as it already exist in the world (Hall, 1999). Reflectivists argue that the concepts of language may bear some relationship with the shape and texture of the object, which they represent. For this reason, reflective theorists hold the view that language works simply by reflecting or imitating the truth that already exist and fixed in the real world. The implication of this theory for the marketing function is that brands whether at product or corporate level must be named based on the nature of their business. A number of business organizations are known to have done this. For instance, The Cable Network News popularly known around the world as CNN mirrors the very essence of its existence, which is to bring the audience top news stories around the world through its dedicated staff in London and Hong Kong, working with colleagues at CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, and with bureaus worldwide. CNN relies heavily on its global team of over four thousand news professionals (CNN, 2012).
Similarly, the name British Broadcasting Corporation, globally known as BBC equally mirrors a raison d’etre that aims, among other things, to provide high quality news, current affairs and factual programming to engage its viewers, listeners and users in important current and political issues (BBC, 2012). It is important to note that the core object of personality CNN and BBC personalities equally reflects stakeholders’ view of what these corporations do within the society. The use of names that reflects the raison d’etre is not limited to CNN and BBC. Indeed, across the world, and throughout many sectors, there exist other business names which reflect and mirror the central activities of corporations. As seen in the case of CNN and BBC, it is possible to argue that the reflective theory of representation do bear some relationship to the shape and texture of the objects, which they represent. However, in spite of this evidence it is equally possible to argue that there are two dimensional visual images of a rose, which may be confused with a plant with thorns and blooms. Equally, there are words, sounds and images which people fully understand that are fictional or fantasy but exist only in the imaginary world. The word ‘rose’ does refer to real actual plants. Take the case of Apple, a consumer electronics technology firm. Apple is best known today for its hardware products including Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and iPad. The knowledge that consumers of Apple is hinged on the ability of the firm to successfully
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link its code name (i.e. Apple) to the production oduction and sale of consumer electronics. However, in spite of the fame and reputation that Apple has created about itself and its products, it still possible in some cases to confuse Apple, the consumer electronic firm, with Apple the fruit, especially if if the people who think so are not aware of Apple the corporation and how the products of this firm have radically changed human lives. Table 1: Apple Logos and an Apple
Such a disconnect may equally occur if some people say there is no such word as ‘rose’ or apple within the framework of their culture. The result of this, if it ever occurs, is catastrophic failure in brand and corporate communication. In order to restore or achieve communication objective therefore, individuals must be an effort to learn the code that links rose to love, affection or the production and sale of consumer electronics in the case of Apple. The Intentional Approach: the intentional theory holds holds that it is the speaker or the author who imposes his or her unique meaning on the world through language (Hall, 1999). Proponents of this theory believe that words means what the author intends they should mean. In order to accomplish meaning, human communication communication of message must move from being a private possession into rules, codes and conventions of language, which must be shared and understood. The lesson here is not just for individuals but for business organizations as well. In order for brand or corporate corporate communications to have meaningful effect, business organizations must communicate effectively to achieve comprehension especially among target audience. However comprehension cannot be accomplished by communicating in private or technical languages understood only by its members. For organizational communications to have or achieve a meaning among external stakeholders, messages must be developed with the hindsight of rules, codes and conventions shared and understood among stakeholders. For instance,, the IBM ‘think’ campaign which dominated the length and breadth of the corporation since the 1970s meant nothing to outsiders until the principles that underlie ‘think’ was conveyed to external stakeholders as a way of denoting IBM’s scientific advances over time, combining history and technology in an “innovative” time machine.
Source: http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/vintage/ 03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/vintage/
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Source: http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2012/07/26/IBM-Think-App-072712.aspx http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2012/07/26/IBM The Social Constructionist Approach: under the constructionist approach, the social character of language is recognized. It acknowledges that neither things in themselves nor the individual users of language can fix meaning in language. Things do not mean (Hall, 1999). Individuals, groups and organizations construct meaning, using representational systems, concepts and signs. Constructionists warn that materialism must not be confused where things and people exist and the symbolic practices and processes through which representation, meaning and language operate. Constructionists acknowledge the existence stence of the material world but argue that it is social actors who adopt conceptual, linguistics and other representational systems to construct meaning, to make the world meaningful and to communicate effectively about the world to others. Unlike the reflective lective and intentional representation theories, the constructionist theory is applicable to this research. Just as with individuals in a social system, organizations too belong to a wider habitat called ‘business environment’. Similar to individuals, business business phenomenon does not mean and neither business phenomenon nor organizations that use business language can fix meaning to a business phenomenon. Business organizations adopt conceptual systems of their culture, business environment, linguistics and other other representational systems including symbol to construct meaning, make them meaningful to target audience and communicate the substance of their message most especially their corporate identity effectively to internal and external stakeholders. This theory theory recognizes that symbols equally has material dimension.
In recent past for instance, consumers in Britain associated the Marks and Spencer brand with poor quality clothing and personal accessories. This negative image and identity changed after a series series of re re-engineering activities involving total refurbishment of stores, introduction of top of the line ‘stylish and fashionable’ cloths and personal accessories endorsed by celebrities. Today, M&S is known for top quality clothing and products. Throug Throughout these periods, M&S’s visual identities changed in consonance with new organizational positioning.
CONCLUSIONS This paper examines the nature of the reflective, intentional and social constructionist theories of representation and the implication of these for product or corporate brands such as BBC, CNN, IBM, Apple, and Marks & Spencer. Findings from the study indicate that although all the three dominant representation theories have their shortcomings, they are equally useful in understanding the nature nature of brand and corporate communications in today’s business world. This in essence adds to the list of growing papers that seek to offer a pedagogical understanding into the nature of corporate communications and brand management. Unlike other works within within the corporate marketing discipline, what makes the difference here is the pedagogical grounding this paper gives to academic literature. This paper is useful in cases where brand managers need to uncover meanings that are constructed through signs, pictures, pictures, words, gestures, objects, and in some cases through sounds.
REFERENCES 1.
BBC (2012), Six public purposes and how they will be delivered http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/whoweare/publicpurposes/ accessed October 20, 2012
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CNN (2012) About us http://www.cnn.com/ accessed October 20, 2012 2.
Nussbaum, C.O. (2007), The musical representation: meaning, ontology, and emotion, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 3.
Kirmayer (2009), The body's insistence on meaning: metaphor as presentation and representation in
illness experience, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Vol. 6 No. 4, pp.323–346. 4.
Stern, B. (1998) Representing Consumers: Voices, Views and Visions, Routledge, London.
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Hirschman, E. (1986), ‘Humanistic inquiry in marketing research: philosophy, method, and Criteria’, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 23 pp.237-49.
6.
Hall, S. (1999), Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, London.
BIODATA Olutayo Otubanjo is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Lagos Business School. He is a Visiting Research Fellow at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick (UK) and was a Visiting Scholar at Spears School of Business, Oklahoma State University, USA. He holds a PhD in Marketing with emphasis on industry construction of the meaning of corporate identity. Otubanjo attended University of Hull (UK) and Brunel University, London. He is published in The
Academy of Marketing Science Review; Tourist Studies; Management Decisions; The Marketing Review; Journal of Product and Brand Management, Corporate Reputation Review, Corporate Communications: An International Journal etc. He has contributed to edited books on corporate reputation and corporate branding. His research interests sits at the interface between social constructionism, on the one hand, and the elements of corporate marketing including corporate
branding, corporate identity, corporate reputation, corporate communications, on the other. He was at a time Director for Brand Strategy and Planning, CentrespreadFCB, Nigeria’s third largest advertising agency.