Cultural branding creates identity values by making a brand’s myth, a story that told by the brand which consumer can experience the story by buying the product. The myth is of the most important in cultural branding, it is the prerequisite of making a brand iconic. Cultural branding aims to guide the building of brand into an icon. Holt 2004) argues that the mode of cultural branding is the model to explain the success of some brands that became iconic brands while others branding models fails to explain so. There are axioms of cultural branding model. Some of the important axioms are, a brand tells myths that address acute contradictions in society, perform identity myths that address these desires and anxieties. Identity myths reside in the brands, which consumers experience and share via ritual action and these myths changes in time due to changes in the social environment.
We are in a society where cultural icons are increasingly central to economic activities. In a populist world, a brand identity is to resolve the tensions and anxieties “what you should be like” and “what you really are”. The example of the brand “Red Bull” will illustrate how they successfully use cultural branding to become an icon in the energy drink industry as well as in different realms of the society.
Red Bull launches its product in 1987n with the creation of a completely new product category as energy drink. The next year, in 1988 Red Bull introduces “The Red Bull Dolomitenmann”, an extreme sport that combines various sports. From the very beginning the brand already relates itself to extreme sport. From time the drink involves in more and more sports like cliff diving, Formula 1. It creates its own sports like the “Red Bull Flugtag”.
Red Bull as an energy drink tell the myth of an energetic and adventurous lifestyle. The drink holds events that challenge people to do something that they normally don’t. It broke records and limits This lifestyle is often lacked in today social with people intensely stressed with their everyday working life. Their slogan “red bull gives you wings” and the cartoon style advertising show how Red Bull can vitalize the mind as well as the body. A drink that “gives you wings”. It represents an idea that one can go beyond his limit with drinking the red bull. It then becomes the drink that people need to vitalize themselves from the tiring reality they are facing everyday.
Holt (2004) also mentions that an iconic brand’s myth changes in time and it shift to have it best fit in the historical context. Red bull, although still focus on the idea of being a sport drink, it’s increasing relate itself to the culture part by holding events on art, design, and music. The Red Bull music academy founded in 1998 with its many music events in different places around the world creates a new culture of music. With 15 years of history of the Red bull music academy, it adds the brand myth of drinking Red Bull to be a b-boy. The Red bull music academy is not only about music, but fostering the creation of music. It claims itself as a platform that make a difference in today’s musical landscape.
A brand become cultural icons when they told a brand myth that resolve social contradictions. Red Bull also addresses people’s desire and anxieties like desire for energy and playfulness, sporty, healthy, etc. The market gravitates to produce what people value most. Today, the culture industries are bent on cultivating and monetizing these icons. (Holt, 2004, p.2) So cultural icons exercise a huge economic power, with economic activities surrounding them. Red bull does not only sell their drink, they sell their drink with sporty and cultural ideas. Creating identities myth that consumers can tie themselves to the identities.
Therefore, Red bull successfulness in being an iconic brand can be understood in Holt’s cultural branding as it performs identities myths, either being a sport lovers or cultural pioneer.
However, branding concept as Klein (1999) criticize, turns into a virus and sending it out into the culture via a variety of channels: cultural sponsorship, political controversy, the consumer experience and brand extensions. Cultural branding had deviated the focus on production from the factory and production of the production to the selling of a brand ideologies. The problem of cultural branding is that companies are no longer selling products, they put efforts in selling ideas. Marketing took the importance more than the manufacturing of the products. In Red bull case, the manufacturing process or the ingredients of the Red Bull drink are seldom addressed. What addressed in its advertisements is that “Red Bull gives you wings.” A metaphor, an idea that drinking Red Bull can give one’s power. “The original notion of the brand was quality, but now brand is a stylistic badge of courage.” (Klein, 1999, p.??) No wonder good or bad, what Klein address is true and we as consumers had already so used to such a strategy of cultural branding. As its success in many iconic brands so as in the case of Red Bull.
Reference List:
Holt, D. B. (2004). How Brands become Icons. The Principles of Cultural Branding. Cambridge Mass.: Harvard Business School Press. (Chapters 1 and 2)
Klein, N. (1999). No Logo: no space, no choice, no jobs: taking aim at the brand bullies. New York: Picador. (Chapter 1 and 2) (SB HF 5415.152/ SB HF 5415.152, see also https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/klein-logo.html)