IMCA Research Seminar - Benoît Heilbrunn, ESCP Business School

The cultural contradictions of branding

Abstract

Marketing theory usually implies an over simplification of brand messages, since positioning and memorization are the key drivers of strategic focus. By reducing brands to mere marketing tools, one might miss the point that they are devices of power that govern the lives of societies and individuals. One dimension of this governmentality specific to brands will be addressed here : their ability to take into account the paradoxical expectations of human beings. By resolving the cultural contradictions inherent in capitalism, brands nurture and reinforce their power on individuals and societies and affect the very nature of democracy, which is at the heart of our representation of the market.

Bio

Benoît Heilbrunn is professor at ESCP Business School in charge of the MSC "Marketing & Communication " and of the MBA in International Management. He has a background in philosophy and structural semiotics. He has also been working for a design and innovation agency for many years and had the privilege to help numerous brands to me more creative, more meaningful and really impact the life of people and societies. He has published many books and articles, including Psychologie de la manipulation (2023), Canonical authors in consumption theory (edited with Sören Askegaard, Roultedge, 2018) and Market mediations. Semiotic investigations on consumers, objets and brands, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).