ASSOCIATION FOR CONSUMER RESEARCH

Labovitz School of Business & Economics, University of Minnesota Duluth, 11 E. Superior Street, Suite 210, Duluth, MN 55802

Branding of the Anti-Market Brands: 'Imagine' Lennon and 'Pop' Bono E. Taçli Yazicioglu, Bogazici University, Turkey

Brands are meant to be compelling, not repelling or compromising to the market. Yet, there are anti-market rock brands that often prefer to create social tension, but still represent the most profitable business ventures in the world. This study reveals preliminary findings by initially focusing on two anti-market rock brands, Lennon and Bono who try to legitimize both their commercial success, philanthropy and activism while preserving their authenticity through market (melo)drama and consumer empowerment. The findings plot promising insights for the branding.

[to cite]: E. Taçli Yazicioglu (2011) ,"Branding of the Anti-Market Brands: 'Imagine' Lennon and 'Pop' Bono", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Alan Bradshaw, Chris Hackley, and Pauline Maclaran, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 492-494.

[url]: http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/1007000/eacr/vol9/E-09

[copyright notice]: This work is copyrighted by The Association for Consumer Research. For permission to copy or use this work in whole or in part, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at http://www.copyright.com/. Branding of the Anti-Market Brands: ‘Imagine’ Lennon and ‘Pop’ Bono E. Taçli Yazicioğlu, Bogazici University, Turkey

Extended Abstract (Kolbe and Burnett 1991; Mulvey and Stern 2004). In the preliminary Brands are cultural, ideological and political objects (Firat and analysis, the ideological positioning and empirical context were Venkatesh 1995; Schroeder and Salzer-Mörling 2006; Askegaard compared and contrasted to portray the two anti-market brands. 2006; Lash and Lury 2007). Whilst the importance of branding has Analysis began with the identification of dominant themes that been developed, paradoxically, the consumer resistance and anti- are also suggested by the literature, e.g., the role of legitimization branding movement has also become a central part of consumer in branding (e.g., Fournier 1998). The emerging themes were then culture (Klein 1999; Kozinets 2002; Holt 2002; Askegaard 2006) applied to the primary data. This iterative coding will be revisited mainly towards global brands (Firat 2004; Yazicioğlu and Firat 2007; after the completion of data collection. Despite the limited number of Hollenbeck and Zinkhan 2006; Thompson and Arsel 2004; Varman interviews and literature/media coverage regarding the narratives of and Belk 2009). Brand managers neither like consumer resistance the two brands, these all plot a promising course for future research. nor any tensions, thinking that any one of these would destroy their The preliminary findings reveal that the anti-rock brands need brands. Ironically, there are anti-market brands that prefer to create to legitimize themselves through several processes that help them tensions, but still become successful: The rock brands. The growing to resolve the tensions within the dramas they create. Meanwhile, literature that points to the centrality of the music in the historical resolving such tensions both empower themselves and their fans process of cultural production and distribution (Attali 1985; Born (Firat and Dholakia 2006; Thompson 2004; Holt 2002) and help 1993; Bradshaw, McDonagh, Sherlock, and Bradshaw 2005; Giesler them remain authentic. Importantly, anti-market rock brands seem and Schroeder 2006; Bradshaw, McDonagh, and Marshall 2006; to be authenticated by the tensions they create, but that has already Hesmondhalgh 2008; Bradshaw and Shankar 2008; Yazicioğlu and been discovered by the managers and the music industry. Thus Firat 2008) also supports the importance of this type of branding. creating tensions and resolving them eventually help in the brand In the pursuit to answer such issues, this research initially focuses building–but only conditionally. Just for a start, these denote some on the two anti-market rock brands that have both been regarded as implications for branding. It seems that the less the brand equity, symbols of political and musical prominence: Lennon and Bono. the less it can benefit from the socially responsible and charitable This paper reports the preliminary findings of this comprehensive work that can even work to destroy the brand. research. The more the rock brands are empowered by the melodrama Brands represent capitalist institutions which generate their they create in the marketplace, that is the more they are able to set own series of productive practices (Arvidsson 2006). Lennon and their own rules to fight against the market (Bradshaw, McDonagh, Bono, as brand extensions of The Beatles and U2, are among those and Marshall 2006), the more convincing they become in their who illustrate the myth-embodying power and self-promoted mass- promises for freedom and hope. In other words, the more powerful mediated and the anti-market brands of rock. Both brands are also they become, the more powerful their messages for the empowerment recognized due to their musical prominence, anti-war and anti- of people transmits thoroughly because being anti-market conveys market public personas, and provide us a rich texture. Lennon and the message of promising to defeat the market. Bono can also mediate iconographic modes of remembering and The anti-market rock brands successfully juxtapose the provoke controversies and tensions in the public. The richness of contrasting opinions of their activism and music and show us the the literature applauding and despising Lennon and Bono has also postmodern marketplace of the future (Yazicioğlu and Firat 2008). supported the choice of these two rock brands. Importantly, a brand has to be part of the culture of ordinary lives The tension between art and commerce (e.g., Holbrook 2005; and even has to facilitate mutually constructed desires and the en- Venkatesh and Meamber 2006; Schroeder 2005) is inherent in many richment of meaning. The anti-market rock brands suggest that the forms of art, but the music, the rock brands in particular represent a marketing efforts are embedded in the brand itself in contexts where big industry. The traditional role of the artist in opposing bourgeois consumer participation is essential (Firat and Dholokia 2006). In values as opposed to economic pragmatics is even required for sur- the future of branding, the processes of this embeddedness seem to vival and sustenance in the competitive music industry (Bradshaw, be put more in question as a fairly under-researched phenomenon. Sherlock, and McDonagh 2003). Branding intersects with arts as Schroeder (2005) finds that in the visual arts. Musical brands can References utilize branding and commerciality to reduce their reliance on the Appadurai, Arjun (1986), “Introduction,” in The Social Life market (Bradshaw, McDonagh, and Marshall 2006; Kubacki and of Things, Arjun Appadurai (ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge Croft 2004), despite the context highly differs from visual arts: A University Press. reproduction of a painting is almost worthless and despised, but Arvidsson, Adam (2006), Brands: Meaning and Value in Media the success of a rock musician is rated by the number of albums/ Culture, London and NY: Routledge. CDs sold. Askegaard, Søren (2006), “Brands as a Global Ideoscape,” in To best study the meanings and elements of the anti-market Brand Culture, Jonathan E. Schroeder and Miriam Salzer- rock brands, the relevant aspects of the sociology of (rock) music Mörling (eds.), London: Routledge, 91-102. and brand theory were abstracted and linked with the rich literature Assayas, Michka (2005), Bono on Bono, Conversations with on Lennon and Bono. In the research, multiple methods that include Michka Assayas, London: Hodder. content analysis (Kassarjian 1971) and in-depth interviews with Attali, Jacques (1985), Noise: The Political Economy of Music, projectory questions have been used to find the diversified, com- Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press. plex and common elements of this type of branding. To conduct an Beller-McKenna, Daniel (1999), “Beatle-John’s Alter Ego,” initial coding scheme, the narratives of both brands were extracted Music & Letters, 80, 254-268. from the newspaper and magazine articles and books and written to a document for coding by using iterative and inductive analysis

492 European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, © 2011 European Advances in Consumer Research (Volume 9) / 493 Blackburn, Robin and Tariq Ali (1981), “Power to the People: Grossberg, Lawrence (1986), “Is There Rock After Punk?” Criti- John Lennon and Yoko Ono talk to Blackburn, Robin and cal Studies in Mass Communication, 3, 50-74. Tariq Ali,” in Lennon Companion: Twenty-five Years of Com- Hesmondhalgh, David (2008), “Towards a Critical Understand- ment, Elizabeth Thomson and David Gutman (eds.), London: ing of Music, Emotion and Self-Identity,” Consumption McMillan Press Ltd., 165-180. Markets and Culture, 11 (4), 329-343. Bordowitz, Hank (2003), The U2 Reader: A Quarter Century Hogg, Margaret and Emma Banister (2000), “The Structure and of Commentary, Criticism, and Reviews, Milwaukee: Hal Transfer of Cultural Meaning: A Study of Young Consum- Leonard Corporation. ers and Pop Music,” in Advances in Consumer Research, Bradshaw, Alan, Roger Sherlock, and Pierre McDonagh (2003), 27, Stephen J. Hoch and Robert J. Meyer (eds.), Provo, UT: “On the Methods of Researching Music in Everyday Life: Association for Consumer Research, 19-23. Assessing the Musician as Producer of Commercialised Holt, Douglas B. (2002), “Why Do Brands Cause Trouble? A Music,” in European Advances in Consumer Research, 6, Dialectical Theory of Consumer Culture and Branding,” Darach Turley and Stephen Brown (eds.), Provo, UT: As- Journal of Consumer Research, 29 (June), 70-90. sociation for Consumer Research, 193-198. (2004), How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Bradshaw, Alan, Pierre McDonagh, Roger Sherlock, and Harry Cultural Branding, Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Bradshaw (2005), “Exiled Music Herself, Push to the Edge Holt, Douglas B. and Craig J. Thompson (2004), “Man-of-Ac- of Existence: The Experience of Background Musicians Who tion Heroes: The Pursuit of Heroic Masculinity in Everyday Perform Background Music,” Consumption, Markets and Consumption,” Journal of Consumer Research 31 (2), 425- Culture, 8 (3), 219-239. 40. Bradshaw, Alan, Pierre McDonagh, and David Marshall (2006), Johnson, Fred (2004), “U2, Mythology, and Mass-Mediated “No Space-New Blood and the Production of Brand Culture Survival,” Popular Music and Society, 27 (1), 79-99. Colonies,” Journal of Marketing Management, 22 (5-6), Kassarjian, Harold H. (1977), “Content Analysis in Consumer 1-22. Research,” Journal of Consumer Research, 4 (1), 8-19. Bradshaw, Alan and Avi Shankar (2008), “Guest Editors’ Keightley, Keir (2001), “Reconsidering Rock,” in The Cam- Introduction: The Production and Consumption of Music,” bridge Companion to Pop and Rock, Simon Frith, Will Straw, Consumption Markets and Culture, 11 (4), 225-227. and John Street (eds.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Buxton, David (1990), “Rock Music, the Star System, and the Press, 109-142. Rise of Consumerism,” in On Record, Rock Pop, and The Klein, Naomi (1999), No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies, Written Word, Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin (eds.), NY: Picador. London and NY: Routledge, 427-440. Kolbe, Richard H. and Melissa S. Burnett (1991), “Content- Doggett, Peter (2007), There is a Riot Going On: Revolution- Analysis Research: An Examination of Applications with Di- aries, Rock Stars and The Rise and Fall of ‘60s Counter rectives for Improving Research Reliability and Objectivity,” Culture, Edinburg: Canongate. Journal of Consumer Research, 18 (September), 243-250. Firat, Fuat A. and Alladi Venkatesh (1995), “Liberatory Postmo- Kozinets, Robert V. (2002), “Can Consumers Escape From the derism and the Reenchantment of Consumption,” Journal of Market? Emancipatory Illuminations from Burning Man” Consumer Research, 22 (3), 239-67. Journal of Consumer Research, 29 (June), 20-28. Firat, A. Fuat and Clifford J. Shultz (1997), “From Segmentation Kubacki, Krzysztof and Robin Croft (2004), “Mass Marketing, to Fragmentation: Markets and Marketing Strategy in the Music and Morality,” Journal of Marketing Management, 20, Postmodern Era,” European Journal of Marketing, 31 (3/4), 577-590. 183-207. Lash, Scott and Celia Lury (2007), Global Culture Industry, Firat, A. Fuat and Nikhilesh Dholakia (1998), Consuming Cambridge: Polity Press. People, From Political Economy to Theaters of Consumption, Lennon, Cynthia (2005), John, London: Hodder & Stoughton. London and NY: Routledge. Middleton, Richard (2001), “Pop, Rock and Interpretation,” in (2006), “Theoretical and Philosophical Implications of The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock, Simon Frith, Postmodern Debates: Some Challenges to Modern Market- Will Straw, and John Street ( eds.), Cambridge: Cambridge ing,” Marketing Theory, 6 (2), 123-162. University Press, 213-225. Fournier, Susan (1998), “Consumers and their brands: develop- Miles and Pearce Marchbank (1980), John Lennon in His Own ing relationship theory in consumer research,” Journal of Words, London: Omnibus Press. Consumer Research, 24(March), 343-73. Mulvey, Michael S. and Barbara B. Stern (2004), “Content Anal- Frith, Simon (1981), Sound Effects: Youth, Leisure, and the Poli- ysis Research Themes 1977-2000: Evolution and Change,” tics of Rock’N’Roll, NY: Pantheon Books. in Advances in Consumer Research, Barbara Kahn and Mary (1996), Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Mu- Frances Luce (eds.), 31, 728-734. sic, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Norman, Philip (2008), John Lennon: The Life, Canada: Double- Frith, Simon, Will Straw, and John Street (eds). (2001), The day. Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock, Cambridge: Cam- Ono, Yoko ed. (2005), Memoirs of John Lennon, NY: Harper bridge University Press. Collins. Frontani, Michael R. (2007), The Beatles, Image and The Media, Robertson, John (1990), The Art and Music of John Lennon, Mississippi: The University Press of Mississippi. London: Omnibus Press. Giesler, Marcus and Jonathan E. Schroeder (2006), “The Sounds Schroeder, Jonathan E. (2005), “The Artist and the Brand,” Euro- of Consumption: Listening to the Musical Landscape,” in Eu- pean Journal of Marketing, 39, 1291-305. ropean Advances in Consumer Research, Karin M. Ekström (2009), “The Cultural Codes of Branding,” Marketing and Helene Brembeck (eds.), 7, 498-501. Theory, 9 (1), 123-126. 494 / Branding of the Anti-Market Brands: ‘Imagine’ Lennon and ‘Pop’ Bono Schroeder, Jonathan E. and Miriam Salzer-Mörling (eds). (2006), Brand Culture, London: Routledge. Solt, Andrew and Sam Egan (1998), Imagine, John Lennon, New York: Sarah Lazin Books, Penguin Studio. Street, John (2002), “Bob, Bono, Tony B: The Popular Artist as Politician,” Media, Culture and Society, 24, 433-444. The Guardian (2005), “A Day with Bono,” http://www.guardian. co.uk/uk/2005/jun/16/g8.hearafrica05 (accessed March 15 2006). The Telegraph, “Bono: ‘I’m overpaid, so shoot me’”http://www. telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/ celebritynews/6708665/ Bono-Im-overpaid-so-shoot-me.html (accessed December 2, 2009). Thompson, Craig J. and Zeynep Arsel (2004), “The Starbucks Brandscape and Consumers’ (Anticorporate) Experiences of Glocalization,” Journal of Consumer Research, 31 (Decem- ber), 631-642. Thompson, Craig J. (2004), “Marketplace mythology and discourses of power,” Journal of Consumer Research, 31 (1), 162-80. Thomson, Elizabeth and David Gutman (eds.) (1987), Lennon Companion: Twenty-five Years of Comment, London: McMil- lan Press Ltd. Time Magazine (2002), “Music: Bono” http://www.time.com/ time/magazine/article/0,9171,1001931,00.html (accessed November 5, 2008). Urish, Ben and Ken Bielen (2007), The Words and Music of John Lennon, Westport: Praeger Publishers. Varman, Rohit and Russell Belk (2009), “Nationalism and Ideol- ogy in an Anticonsumption Movement,” Journal of Consum- er Research, 36 (December), 686-700. Venkatesh, Alladi and Laurie A. Meamber (2006), “Art and Aesthetics: Marketing and Cultural Production,” Marketing Theory, 6 (1), 11-39. Yazicioğlu, E. Taçli (2010), “Contesting the Global Consumption Ethos: Reterritorialization of Rock in Turkey,” Journal of Macromarketing, September 30 (3), 238-253. Yazicioğlu, E. Taçli and A. Fuat Firat (2007), “Glocal Rock Festivals as Mirrors to the Future of Culture(s),” in Consumer Culture Theory, Research in Consumer Behavior, Russell W. Belk and John Sherry (eds.), 11, Oxford: Elsevier, 85-102. Yazicioğlu, E. Taçli and A. Fuat Firat (2008), “Musical Effects: Glocal Identities and Consumer Activism,” in Advances in Consumer Research, Angela Y. Lee and Dilip Soman (eds.), XXXV, Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 576-583. Wald, Elijah (2009), How the Beatles Destroyed Rock’n’Roll, An Alternative History of American Popular Music, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wenner, Jann (2005a) [Untitled article] in Memoirs of John Len- non, Yoko Ono (ed.), NY: Harper Collins, 267-274. (2005b), “The Rolling Stone Interview: Bono,” http:// www.rollingstone.com/news/story/8091949/the_rolling _stone_interview_bono (accessed December 16, 2009).