Insitution and Branding

Branding is a very important part of promoting a particular product, is helps to enable a reputation and a relationship between the brand name and the actual product.

"Competitive branding became a necessity of the machine age-within a context of manufactured sameness, image-based difference had to be manufactured along with the product" Naomi Klein,No logo.

For this reason, branding is very important to our industry. The design of our logo, the genre and choice of institution, all need to be a brand of our soap and trailer. It is important to have a familiar, recognisable image that the audience can associate the product with time and time again. It creates a sense of relation between the audience and the product. The use of logos, slogans, and choice of institution all create a brand image for a product which, "provides customers with a consistent, compelling experience in order not to confuse them as confusion can lead to doubt." mudvalley.com

However a brand is not the same as our product, for example a TV soap is a product but Eastenders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale are all different makes of a soap.

All british soaps that we had researched have a brand image that easily allows the audience to associate a particular logo for example with a particular soap.

Our brand image, is similar to Eastenders with the dark, gritty, realistic feel to it. Our Tv trailer, logo and advertisement posters will all promote and push this brand image. The idea of being sly and gangster like will be pushed in our trailer with the portrayed image of our main protagonists.

Below is a number of brand logo's for different british soaps. It is clear that the image of the logo allows people to automatically link it to a specific soap or by watching the first few seconds of the opening sequence, the audience is clear as to what soap they are watching, just by the logo, and music being played.

Just looking at the logo for Coronation Street it is clear what the soap is about. It connotates family life, an old working class society, northern, friendly, old fashioned, war-time spirit feel to it and in some respects uncontroversial compared to other soaps such as Eastenders and hollyoaks. It is aimed at an older audience and just from the colours, and the mise en scene from the logo such as the old fashioned milk float make it clear what Coronation Street is about.

The Eastenders logo is very simple with a birds eye view of the East End of London. Although there is nothing much to this logo it is very clear of this soaps location-East London. This connoates city life, urban, controversy, working class, crime. The colours on the logo are grey and dreary which relate well to the location and weather of London.

This soap trailer for Eastenders helps to create the brand image. At the end of the trailer a brand slogan is used which helps to create the identity of the programme. The slogan "there's more to Eastenders" relates well to the brand image by creating a sense of grittiness and secrecy.

The Emmerdale logo clearly initiates the soap with being set in a small village in the countryside with the greenery ,the village pub and the land rover. It is not really controversial and more a more local feel where everyone knows everyone elses business.

The name 'soap opera' first coined in the 1930's in the USA. It was used to describe radio series that were sponsored by the manufacturers of soap powder;hence "soap." The opera part came from the fact that they were about dilemmas, or other dramatic/melodramatic situations. By the 1950's, these serials had made the transition to the TV. They spread across the world and grew in popularity. ITV's soap Coronation Street, is the longest running soap in the world.

We researched Soap Opera viewing figures to see which Institutional Soap was watched most, at the beginning of the week (monday) 15th November 2009. Below is a comparison of several soap viewing figures which helped us to establish which was most popular by the viewing public. These figures, were found on, http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyTopProgrammesOverview?

BBC 1- Eastenders 9.5 million

ITV 1- Coronation Street 10.7 million

ITV 1- Emmerdale 7.51 million

Channel 4- Hollyoaks 1.80 million

Channel 5- Neighbours 1.67 million

Channel 5- Home & Away 1.25 million

Evaluating these figures, it is clear that Coronation Street was the most popular viewed soap on this particular night, having over 10 million viewings. Eastenders was the second most popular viewed soap.

Although ITV1's Coronation Street was the most highly viewed soap and could therefore suggest it is most popular, we have decided to create our Soap and TV trailer for the BBC institution as it is most like Eastenders with the gritty, realistic, dark feel to it.