Understanding The Canadian Brandscape

Pique newsmagazine:

Brands are like insignia. If you wear the Nike swoosh on your chest, then you’re making something of a declaration. Same goes for posting the ad spoof postcards that come with a subscription to Adbusters — although the latter is a little more ironic. Point is, most people hoist these flags with the intent of announcing some or all of their identity. It’s often about associating yourself with a value system, and then using a symbol to communicate that lifestyle to people around you. That’s a dialogue, and, whether or not it’s consciously engaged, people do it all the time.

If you think of North America’s more prominent brands, odds are you’ll conjure an image with American roots, anything from an iPod to a Ford. ikonica: A Field Guide to Canada’s Brandscape explores Canada’s contribution to corporate and cultural branding. Written by Jeanette Hanna and Alan Middleton, it explains the national brandscape as a sort of uniform we collectively and often obliviously wear in the global community.

It begins with an essay on semiotics, which is basically the study of symbols and their meaning. Every culture is loaded with symbolic rallying points, and they’re usually so ubiquitous that it takes a foreigner to actively notice them. Our national character, a brand itself, sets out the way we produce, propel and mingle with these symbols.

The brandscape in Canada, like the country’s geography, is vast and varied. Obvious icons like Tim Hortons are so indelible that they’re basically institutions. Through persistent marketing and near viral franchising, Tim Hortons has fashioned itself as a living room away from home, a place where family and friends can blend views and enrich their relationships; that its namesake was a hockey player certainly doesn’t hurt. Read more.