Spider-Man Brand Image

Introduction

There have been a countless number of super heroes created over the years, each with their own stories, and villains, as well as their own personal gifts and personal battles, but none that have been as iconic as “The Amazing Spiderman”. Spiderman has had a number of comic book publications designed by the Marvel corporation over the years, as well as a trilogy of films, and now another set of films with a different take on the story have just been released. The Spiderman character brand provides a relatable emotional sense of moralistic values, attitudes and a beliefs towards what is right, with the slogan “With great power, comes great responsibility”. Spiderman aka Peter Parker, is just a normal teenage boy until he’s bitten by a radioactive spider which alters his DNA and gives him the superhuman abilities similar to a spider. One thing that makes Spiderman stand out from other Marvel superheroes is while he is a super hero; he battles very human conflicts both mentally and emotionally, while trying to balance his crime fighting, his studies, his work and his personal life.

Brand Identity

Brand identity can be defined as (BusinessDictionary.com, 2014), “The visible elements of a brand (such as colours, design, logotype, name & symbol), that together identify and distinguish the brand in the consumers’ mind”. Spider-man’s brand identity has a number of visible elements with the famous spider on the chest logo, the name Spider-man evoking superhuman abilities, and the symbol of the web-swinger that promotes strength in difficult times.

Logo

The logo is designed in a similar way to Superman’s ‘S’ and Batman’s ‘Bat’, by having the spider on the chest, the logo suggests that while he is the amazing Spider-man, he is still human at heart, and fights to protect his friends, family and the people of New York City. The logo is designed with the colours of the Spider-man costume, red and blue which is also two of the three colours that represent the American flag, suggesting that Spider-man is looked (albeit fictitious) as an iconic hero to America. An online journal article talks about how the iconicity of Spider-man’s costume coincides with the theory of “amplification through simplification” (Heer and Worcester, 2009) by “stripping down an image to its essential meaning”. In other words, taking away all the details of what the costume logo could be and simplifying it into just a spider, but through the simplification, the image presented provides a deeper meaning to the consumer.

The overall meaning of Spider-man is to use our strengths for a good purpose, which also ties in with the slogan “With great power comes great responsibility”.

Name

The Spider-man name was taken from the powers he developed after his altercation with a radioactive spider. Similar to other heroes such as batman, he takes his name from something that frightens people, which evokes fear into criminals. When consumers think of Marvel the comic book corporation who has designed hundreds of superheroes and villains over the years, they automatically think of Spider-man, as he is essentially the most famous character that the company has produced, and can be considered the ‘face’ of Marvel.

Symbol

The symbol of Spider-man can be defined by the slogan of the hero, “With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility”. Throughout the original Spider-man 2 movie, he is constantly tested to either hang up his mantel and have a normal life or stay as the crime fighting hero, and for a time he stops being Spider-man, however, the slogan stays with him and he decides that it’s his mission in the world to be Spider-man, to put the safety and lives of others before his. An online journal article (Cooper, Schembri and Miller, 2010) discusses brand consumption as “serving as a symbolic function establishing who that consumer is, or perhaps who they want to be”. In other words and in the context of this report, consumers use heroes such as Spider-man as a symbol to develop their own attitudes and beliefs as to how they live their lives by. Due to Spider-man’s constant real-life conflicts, consumers can relate and utilise his attitudes, values and beliefs as symbolic meanings and influences in their own lives, for example, Spider-man is always trying to do right by everyone in his life with his work, studies, relationship and family and it’s a constant struggle but he battles through it, which is something consumers can aspire to do themselves, while it is a struggle, they’ll battle through it because their hero, Spider-man, battled through it.

Overall the Spider-man brand identity influences the consumer through its simple but amplified logo, his well-known name and origin, as well as the symbolic meaning that the Amazing Spider-man represents. The brand identity provides consumers with visual stimulus to evoke thought processes towards what the brand itself represents.

Brand Image (Psychology)

The effectiveness of the brand image of Spider-man can be largely contributed to the fact that consumers can relate to him so well. His popularity comes from his real human problems such as (Robinson, 2014), having trouble paying rent, wasn’t the most popular in school, didn’t get the girl, doesn’t get paid well enough and is struggling to get his homework done on time”. What separates him from other well-known superheroes such as Batman and Superman is his ability to balance his life around the super hero mantel. Batman’s alter ego was born rich and doesn’t have the same problems as everyone else faces, Superman was an alien from another planet and is more or less unbeatable. The psychology behind the brand image largely reflects the demographics and psychographics of the consumer, which in this case, those that can relate to Spider-man through his characteristics and attitudes, values and beliefs.

Demographics

Peter Parker, Spiderman’s true identity, is a young male just graduating from high school at the time he gets bitten by the spider. While developing his new found abilities, he also is in college studying to become a scientist. Just like most college students, he’s also trying to hold down a job to earn money to pay rent. The demographics of Peter Parker/Spider-man are what make him the unique super hero he is because the consumers can relate to his struggle with everyday life. Demographically, Spider-man is the “Average Joe” or “Every Day Guy” super hero.

Psychographics

“With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibilities” is the slogan to which Spider-man lives his life by after an event whereby he had just got the hang of his powers, but had allowed a burglar to escape, which resulted later on in the criminal killing his uncle. From that moment, Spider-man looked to protect the people of New York City. In the movies, he is portrayed (Marvel Movies, 2014) as a “righteous hero with an indomitable sense of justice and responsibility”. His behaviour is a little different, as he’s shy, awkward at times and is seen as an individual; however an important trait which makes him one of Marvel’s most beloved characters is his sense of humour, even when the odds are stacked against him. The behaviour of Peter Parker appeals to those consumers that don’t conform to the standards and image that society as a whole expects people to be. Batman for example is known as billionaire playboy who has great social skills, but how many everyday people can relate to that lifestyle? Spider-man is a more relatable character due to his unique psychographics by not adhering to the ideologies that society expects everyone to conform to. A psychology article online supports this by suggesting that we as a society (McLeod, 2014) “expect people to behave in certain ways in particular situations”. Spiderman for example is to take bad situations seriously, but in the movies and comics, he makes a lot of jokes and doesn’t take on the behaviour you’d expect in that certain situation. Peter Parker’s activities outside his life as a super hero, are working for the Daily Bugle (local news corporation), trying to make his relationship work with his girlfriend, as well as designing ways to make his crime fighting easier and ready for any challenge. He once again exhibits certain qualities that (excluding the crime fighting part) make him more relatable to consumers through his real-life commitments with work and relationships.

Overall the brand image of Spider-man has strong marketability through his relatable demographics and psychographic behaviour. An online journal article suggests that (Nisar, 2014) “Brand image has a strong impact on consumer buying behaviour as it’s an implied device that can change people’s buying behaviours”. As consumers can relate to Spider-man’s positive brand image, it enables the Web-slinger to influence consumer buying behaviours.

Brand Community (Socially)

Spiderman has a number of different aspects in regards to the brand community of the superhero. Brand community can be defined as a (Kalman, 2009) “term social scientists use to describe like-minded consumers who identify with a particular brand and share significant traits”. Spiderman’s brand community can be split up into different target markets of like-minded consumers such as those that relate to his demographics, those that relate to his psychographics, and those that are superhero fans, etc… Spiderman over the years has influenced his brand community through other avenues such as positive propaganda towards real world problems such as the youth opinion on police, and other such controversial issues such as the Vietnam War and the problem of drug abuse. Spiderman also appeals to younger generations by inspiring children to better themselves mentally and emotionally with them aspiring to be like him.

Making a stand against Issues in America

During the late sixties and early seventies, publications of Spider-man were released detailing him witnessing people being addicted to drugs (which had been a problem for ghetto youngsters at the time), and he has been quoted in saying in another online journal article, (Mondello, 1976) “I’d rather face a hundred super-villains than toss it away by getting hooked on hard drugs!”. Another example shown in the article of how Spider-man has had an effect on the brand community is him thinking to himself, in regards to his friend leaving for the war in Vietnam, “Which is worse… Staying behind while other guys are doing the fighting… or fighting in a war that nobody wants… against an enemy you don’t even hate?” These quotes both suggest that the creators of Spider-man have looked to influence his brand community by discouraging the youth of doing drugs and informally standing up and putting an end to the Vietnam War.

Inspiring the Youth

A superhero to the youth, in particular children, develops a role-model characteristic which can inspire children to be like them through positive influences. The creative mind of children looks towards role models such as Superheroes to which they aspire and pretend to be like, and in some instances can grow up mirroring the attitudes, values and beliefs of the particular hero, such as Spider-man. An online book on Google discusses how students in a class room have (Dyson, 1997) “used popular cultural symbols – like the media superhero – to assume identities within stories that revealed dominant ideological assumptions” for example, distinguishing between what is good and what is bad, or what is right and what is wrong. This is yet another way in which Spider-man has developed a brand community, through aspiring children wanting to imitate their favourite superhero.

Overall, Spider-man has a vast brand community through different generations, cultures, ideologies, etc… but also has a lot of potential to increase and expand further to reach out to other groups or demographics through both the movies and the comic book publications. Nowadays the publications have declined in their world issue campaigns, but they could start inspiring people again like they used to back in the sixties and seventies.

Recommendations

Future recommendation for the Spider-man brand is firstly, taking advantage of the influence it has on the youth by repeating what they did in terms of taking stands against issues in society, such as drugs (again), binge drinking, and under-age sex, etc… Another recommendation is to promote the brand as a separate entity to the movies and comic books by making him an international icon rather than just an American icon.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Spider-man brand has a strong influence with consumers, through its brand identity, its brand image and its brand community. Its brand identity provides a visual stimulus for the consumers through Spider-man’s logo, colours, name, and symbol. The brand image of Spider-man and its success can be attributed to the way his demographics and psychographics can be related to by consumers. Due to the popularity of the brand image, the brand community of Spider-man is vast through different target markets to which the Web-Slinger has influenced and can influence further in the future.

References

BusinessDictionary.com, (2014). What is brand identity? definition and meaning. [online] Available at: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/brand-identity.html [Accessed 3 Jun. 2014].

Cooper, H., Schembri, S. and Miller, D. (2010). Brand‐self identity narratives in the James Bond movies.Psychology & Marketing, [online] 27(6), pp.557-567. Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mar.20344/full [Accessed 3 Jun. 2014].

Dyson, A. (1997). Writing superheroes. 1st ed. New York: Teachers College Press.

Heer, J. and Worcester, K. (2009). A comics studies reader. 1st ed. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

Kalman, D. (2009). Brand Communities, Marketing and Media. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: http://www.terrella.com/bcmarketingwp2.pdf [Accessed 3 Jun. 2014].

Marvel Movies, (2014). Peter Parker. [online] Available at: http://marvel-movies.wikia.com/wiki/Peter_Parker#Character_traits [Accessed 3 Jun. 2014].

McLeod, S. (2014). Social Roles and Social Norms | Simply Psychology. [online] Simplypsychology.org. Available at: http://www.simplypsychology.org/social-roles.html [Accessed 3 Jun. 2014].

Mondello, S. (1976). Spider-Man: Superhero in the Liberal Tradition. The Journal of Popular Culture, 10(1), pp.232--238.

Nisar, Q. (2014). Impact of Brand Image and Advertisement on Consumer Buying Behavior. [online] Academia.edu. Available at: http://www.academia.edu/5037457/Impact_of_Brand_Image_and_Advertisement_on_Consumer_Buying_Behavior [Accessed 3 Jun. 2014].

Robinson, B. (2014). Why Spider-Man Is Popular. [online] ABC News. Available at: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=101230 [Accessed 3 Jun. 2014].

Please note that the following article has been taken from a University assignment i did in an undergraduate course back in 2014 and predates Tom Holland's portrayal of Spider-man.

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