Topic outline

  • Wk. 4. Radical Creativity in Strategic Innovation

    • Assignment icon
      Pre-assignment for 17th May session
    • Not available unless: You belong to L01 (SISU)

      Self-study material 17th May

      Design and societal relevance

      As many of you are busy with the Product Design Gala this week, tomorrow’s session about Design and societal relevance is cancelled. As promised, below follow instead a couple of reference that you can work through independently to learn about the subject.

      Building on what we worked on last week in terms of having cultural branding as a starting point for design, the plan for the session was that we would have gone deeper into what is means to design for an identity myth and how to collect relevant source material for executing the myth. Below follows a couple of short YouTube videos and reading suggestions to help you explore this topic on your own. I have added a couple of questions throughout the text to help you reason through things in more detail. 

      I hope you find the references useful. 

      Cultural branding versus other forms of branding

      What Holt means with an identity myth (and how it differs from other forms of branding) is discussed in Chapter 1 and 2 of his book ‘How Brands Becomes Icons’. In short, in Holt’s view, consumers derive value from brands as they help them develop and express their identity in a manner that differentiate Cultural branding from other forms of branding. All in all, Holt introduces Cultural branding as an alternative to three other forms of branding practices: Mindshare, Emotional and Viral branding. If you have already read chapters 1 and 2, you can look at the following short videos for a quick recap.

      [Holt introducing Cultural branding]

      [Mindshare branding]

      [Emotional branding]

      [Viral branding]

      [Cultural branding]

      If you want to test yourself, take a look at the following video and think about which form (perhaps even forms) of branding it represents. Why is not cultural branding?

      [What is branding with Marty Neumeier]

      Brands and storytelling

      For Holt, successful brands are successful because they engage in storytelling (myth building) on societally relevant topic which are relevant for people in shaping/expressing their identity; people form their identities and overcome cultural contradictions through the brands they consume. Holt discusses this aspect of Cultural branding in more detail in Chapter 3 of his book and I would recommend you to read it through if you have time. That said, if you do not have a possibility to read it, you can look at the following short videos for a summary:

      [Brands and storytelling Part 1]

      [Brands and storytelling Part 2]

      As example of how this myth building is realized, look at the following examples of Dove advertisements and think about what is the broader cultural developments that they build their storytelling around, and how Dove adjusts/alter its storytelling over time. Why do you buy Dove? For Holt, brands need to reference cultural developments with care in order to be perceived as authentic so think about how the plot and characters change across the commercials. Does some of the advertisements come off as more authentic? If not, why?


      Storytelling through design

      Advertisement is the prime vehicle for storytelling throughout Holt’s work. However, similar processes are also possible to recognize in the design of products and how they are received. The Lammily doll – which in many ways tried to pursue a a similar storyline than Dove - was for instance launched 10 years ago with mixed success.

      What could form the storyline for your own project?

      Building on this, what would the storyline be for your own brand in addressing a cultural contradiction and how would you materialize this storyline with design?

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