Everyday consumers buy into the concept of brands and their associated meanings--the perception of quality, a symbolic relationship, a vicarious experience, or even a sense of identity. Marketing Semiotics suggests that the extent to which consumers recognize, internalize, and relate to brand meanings is not only an academic question. These meanings contribute to "brand equity," the financial value of intangible brand benefits that exceed the use value of goods, and impacts upon a firm's financial performance. Therefore, the management of brand equity demands first and foremost the management of brand meanings, or semiotics.
The book uses structural semiotics, a discipline that extends the laws of structural linguistics to the analysis of verbal, visual, and spatial sign systems, to shed light on the cultural codes and discourse of brands. It proposes that semiotic research should form the cornerstone of brand equity management, since brands rely so heavily on sign systems that contribute to profitability by distinguishing brands from simple commodities, from competitors, and engaging consumers in the brand world.
The book includes dozens of global business cases where semiotics has been used to refocus, reposition, or extend the brand to new products, customers, and markets. Drawing upon twenty years of academic and consulting experience, the book provides actionable direction for steering brands through technological and cultural change, differentiating brands in the competitive environment, and counteracting the natural depletion of brand meaning over time.

Just because you are a nonprofit does not mean that you can ignore marketing. Marketing impacts every aspect of your organization from your fundraising and friend-raising to your community credibility and relevancy. This book provides you with the fuel to quick-start your marketing efforts-public relations, golf outings, advertising, guerilla marketing techniques, Web sites and so much more. So before you hire another marketing director you need to read Nonprofit NonMarketing. In short order this book will have you creating a brand image that is sure to propel your organization for years to come.

Consuming Reality examines TV's response to the increasing pressure to brand content in a post-advertising era. June Deery's comprehensive analysis of the commercial practices found in popular reality programming reveals links to larger trends such as the sentimental dissemination of capitalist and nationalist ideologies, the professionalization of social relationships (including conceptions of self), and the mainstreaming of PR techniques in everyday life. Examining topics such as reality formats as pseudo-events, product placement, donorship, TV-web branding, making over homes/bodies as properties, consumer identity and pathology, Disney, and the American Dream, this book engages in a comprehensive examination of RTV's advertising and promotional strategies, as well as the commodification of viewers, of TV participants, of ideologies, dreams, and ideas.

Stop Discounting Start Selling For more than seven decades, David Oreck has been successfully marketing products to the American consumer. He took his little startup vacuum company and turned it into a household name and not by relying on big advertising or slick sales pitches. He understood that the customer does not want to be 'sold'; they want value Just like many small business people today, Oreck started his company on a shoestring and a dream but to compete with the national brands and big corporations, he had to get creative. This meant taking his product directly to consumers and bypassing the middlemen. Success was not easy and there were many challenges that could have suffocated his small company - but his persistence and marketing prowess kept the company going - and growing. It is easy to think that times have changed, but the truth is the consumer hasn't and once you really understand your customer you have the key that will solidify your place in the market. This is good news for all the little companies that may be wondering how they could ever compete with the bog box retailers of the world. Through unconventional wisdom that flies in the face of conventional marketing notions, Oreck explains how today's entrepreneur can create their own profitable niche in a very crowded market - no matter the economy. This specific time-tested knowledge can be the key to your business becoming profitable or falling by the wayside this year and offers more than 70 years of priceless real world marketing experience. Don't miss your chance to learn from one of the masters of business

A fun and authoritative guide to writing masterful copy

Great copy is the heart and soul of the advertising business, whether it's for print, television, radio, or any other medium. In "The Adweek Copywriting Handbook," legendary copywriter and ad man Joseph Sugarman provides proven guidelines and expert advice on what it takes to write copy that will entice, motivate, and move customers to buy.

Sugarman walks you step by step through the entire copywriting process--from getting prepared to researching products and markets to getting ideas down on paper and polishing them to a brilliant sheen. He explains the vital elements that make great copy and explores the emotional triggers that convince consumers to buy. Sugarman gives you all the tools and tactics you need to write the same kind of effective selling copy that has brought him fame and fortune.

For anyone who wants to break into the advertising business, or ad pros who just want to get better at what they do, this is the ultimate companion resource. Complete with real examples of high-quality copy for various media, this practical and authoritative guide will tell you everything you need to know to write great copy--and get ahead in the cutthroat world of advertising.

"Sugarman is a living legend and by-God genius at writing copy that sells. This book is his masterpiece. It reveals all of his hard-earned secrets. The writing is riveting and the wisdom is worth gold. This is the best book on copywriting in the entire history of marketing."
--Joe Vitale, author, "There's a Customer Born Every Minute"

"There are a lot of great copywriters, but Sugarman is the best. He knows how to build a story and close asale."
--Richard Thalheimer, President, The Sharper Image

"[Sugarman has] a real talent for promotion and writing advertisements."
--Albert Gore, former Vice President of the United States

Advances in Advertising Research are published by the European Advertising Academy (EAA). This volume is a compilation of research presented at the 10th International Conference on Research in Advertising (ICORIA) which was held in Berlin (Germany) in June 2011. In the face of an ever increasing number of products and services, as well as an increasingly cluttered media environment, advertising research is confronted with multiple challenges. Against this background, Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 3) is gaining significance in advancing, promoting, disseminating, and stimulating high quality advertising research. This book provides state-of-the-art research in international advertising with twenty-nine articles by renowned advertising and communication scholars from the worldwide ICORIA network."

A hilarious collection of personal anecdotes from the wacky world of advertising including stories about everyone from Peter Ustinov to Raquel Welch and Ted Kennedy to Jesse Jackson.

Measure, manage and get the most out of your marketing. Key Marketing Metrics is the definitive guide to today's most valuable marketing metrics. In this thoroughly updated and significantly expanded book, you will understand the pros, the cons and the nuances of more than 50 of the most important metrics, and know exactly how to choose the right one for every challenge. With leading experts, discover how to build your reputation by: Using marketing dashboards to view market dynamics from multiple perspectives, maximize accuracy, and "triangulate" to optimal solutions Applying high-value metrics for virtually every facet of marketing to maximise the return on your investment and identify the best new opportunities for profit Building models to assist with planning to give you the best tools for decision-making In its third edition, this award-winning book now includes the latest web, online, social, and email metrics, plus new insights into measuring marketing ROI and brand equity.

This study argues that the defining feature of contemporary advertising is the interconnectedness between consumer participation and calculative media platforms. It critically investigates how audience participation unfolds in an algorithmic media infrastructure in which brands develop media devices to codify, process and modulate human capacities and actions. With the shift from a broadcast to an interactive media system, advertisers have reinvented themselves as the strategic interface between computational media systems and the lived experience and living bodies of consumers. Where once advertising relied predominantly on symbolic appeals to affect consumers, it now centres on the use of computational devices that codify, monitor, analyse and control their behaviours. Advertisers have worked to stimulate and harness consumer participation for several generations. Consumers undertook the productive work of making brands a part of their cultural identities and practices. With the emergence of a computational mode of advertising consumer participation extends beyond the expressive activity of creating and circulating meaning. It now involves making the lived experience and the living body available to the experimental capacities of media platforms and devices. In this mode of advertising brands become techno-cultural processes that integrate calculative and cultural functions. Brand Machines, Sensory Media and Calculative Culture conceptualises and theorises these significant changes in advertising. It takes consumer participation and its interconnectedness with calculative media platforms as the fundamental aspect of contemporary advertising and critically investigates how advertising, consumer participation and technology are interrelated in creating and facilitating lived experiences that create value for brands.

This comprehensive book is designed to serve as a primary text for the Advertising Management course that follows the more general Principles of Advertising course. It can stand alone, or, for instructors who prefer a case-based approach, it can be adopted together with "Cases in Advertising Management" (978-0-7656-2261-7) by the same authors. "Advertising Management" covers a full range of topics for a semester-long course, including financial management, business planning, strategic planning, budgeting, human resource management, ethics, and managing change. There is even a unique section on 'managing yourself' and your own career in advertising. The text includes plentiful figures, tables, and sidebars, and each chapter concludes with useful learning objectives, summaries, discussion questions, and additional resources.

While many analyses have examined disinformation in recent election campaigns, misuse of 'big data' such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and manipulation by bots and algorithms, most have blamed a few bad actors. This incisive analysis presents evidence of deeper and broader corruption of the public sphere, which the author refers to as post-communication. With extensive evidence, Jim Macnamara argues that we are all responsible for the slide towards a post-truth society. This analysis looks beyond high profile individuals such as Donald Trump, Russian trolls, and even 'Big Tech' to argue that the professionalized communication industries of advertising, PR, political and government communication, and journalism, driven by clickbait and aided by a lack of critical media literacy, have systematically contributed to disinformation, deception, and manipulation. When combined with powerful new communication technologies, artificial intelligence, and lack of regulation, this has led to a 'perfect data storm'. Accordingly, Macnamara proposes that there is no single solution. Rather, he identifies a range of strategies for communication professionals, industry associations, media organizations and platforms, educators, legislators, regulators, and citizens to challenge post-communication and post-truth.

For Cindy, Jamey, Rose and Bridget without whose love and encouragement I'd have never survived this business let alone had the chance to write about it.

With $8000 and a dream to create a men's lifestyle magazine that he would like to read, Hugh Hefner put together the first issue of Playboy magazine on his kitchen table. Over half a century later, Playboy has grown to become one of most well known brands in the world, and Hefner remains the face of the brand and the ultimate brand champion.
Susan Gunelius uncovers how a brand associated with sex survived and thrived despite attacks from every direction, in an increasingly competitive market and jaded consumers. For over 50 years, Hugh Hefner has lived the Playboy brand promise, and Playboy has become one of the most recognized brands in the world. It's a fascinating story of determination, dedication and belief in a product. It's the story of brand building, brand value, brand longevity and the ultimate brand champion.

"The Marketer's Guide to Media Vehicles, Methods, and OptionS" is an unusually practical hands-on reference source written for marketing, advertising, and promotion professionals to use in conjunction with their daily work. Designed as a convenient desk-top manual, this is an informative guide to the use of media vehicles. Ann Grossman covers the traditional broadcast, print, and out-of-home media formats and sales promotions as well as the increasingly used methods of direct marketing and telemarketing. In addition, she details production tools and steps in the use of each of these media.