1,345,000, or one in 44 people in the UK have significant disfigurement to their face and body (Changing Faces). Bibi Aisha was 18 when she was disfigured as retribution for fleeing her husband’s house in Oruzgan province, in the center of Afghanistan. Men arrived in the middle of the night, and at the orders of a Taliban commander, she was held down, had her ears sliced off and then her nose. (See blog post about Bibi Aisha)
(Time Magazine, 2010)
“Face perception” refers to an individual’s understanding and interpretation of the face, particularly a human face. Facial disfigurement can be extremely traumatic and threatening to a person’s self-image and self-esteem. Although, this in itself raises an important psychological question as there is no apparent relationship between the severity of the disfigurement in terms of the person’s appearance and their psychological adjustment to it. British Photographer Steve Pyke describes his career-long fascination with faces as the study of Physiognomy, which is the assessment of a person’s character or personality from his or her outer appearance, especially the face. Acceptance of this study was practiced by the Ancient Greeks and has been used and questioned throughout history. What people’s faces looked like was used as a serious indicator of what the people were like who owned them. However, in the late 19th century it became discredited and rejected. Until 2009, when the NewScientist magazine reported that Physiognomy is living a small revival, researches around the world are re-evaluating what we see in a face, investigating whether it can give us a glimpse of someone’s personality or even help to shape their destiny.
My project will use the “selfie” (at time of writing there are 88,385,073 selfies on Instagram alone) to investigate in a very practical sense how these issues unfold and manifest themselves in a current meme.
(Screenshot of Instagram, 2014)
Using a mixture of found and collaborative images and taking inspiration from Australian artist, Anthony Luvera, I am going to create a series of assisted self portraits with people affected by disfiguration, taking careful consideration of recognizing the individual creators of the images. By introducing my participants to traditional portrait making, using medium format equipment, it will give them total control over the photograph, which is being taken.
This area of investigation builds on my interest of working and collaborating with people within communities to create something bigger with a narrative and meaning. The collaborations I plan on making are to inspire the participants and to give them a new sense of aspiration. My project has derived from past projects such as my picturing the body project, where my participant took part in the editing process of the photographs taken, I am going to build on this further and have my subject involved in the whole process. My project will work towards my longer-term goals of teaching. I aspire to work within communities teaching them about the visual arts in hands on environment, and how you can gain empowerment and use it to express yourself. My goal with these workshops will lead to projects, which will send a message and tell a story about the people within them.
Here is my digital presentation which I made on premiere pro, through screen recording my presentation and adding my voice recording from the symposium day. Unfortunately, I am unsure as to why the video is so shaky, however, when it comes to putting up my digital presentation on img19.0rg, I will recreate my digital presentation.
When practising my presentation, I tried to learn as much of it as possible without having to read of from my sheet. However, the closer it got to the symposium, the more I was worried about forgetting something important. However, on the day, I realised I knew it a lot better than I thought. With my script on the lectern, I was able to look at the first line and read the rest blind. This made me feel a lot more confident when actually presenting.
Customer Relationship Marketing and The Brand Persona
When thinking of my title this is one which changed a lot from the beginning of the module. A lot of people had a question, whereas I thought having a subject title would be more appropriate, as I covered a few topics within this area.
(Slide)
When you think of the meaning of a friend, you will normally think of a person who has a bond of mutual affection. These days friends could be anyone, or anything. Even an ‘online’ friend, Google’s definition talks about a ‘person’ being a friend. So why can’t a brand be your friend?
Fashion brands are now becoming the consumers new best friend, they are becoming personified by customers because you are able to interact with them on social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.
For my introduction I wanted to engage the audience, this is why I kept it short and asked rhetoric questions. I feel that using a definition helped with underlining my whole presentation, as I refereed to brands being friends all the way through.
(Slide)
The brands which I am identifying are fashion related who typically target young males and females, around the ages of 16 – 25.
The way brands are doing this, such as Jack Wills, American Apparel and Abercrombie and Fitch, is by speaking to their customers directly, they do this through social networking pages. When they do this, they make the consumers feel more valuable to the company, making them want to be involved with the brand even more than they already are.
(Slide)
These brands retweet and share, to make the consumer feel appreciated, along with responding to comments to show a form of communication between brand and customer. Through using social media platforms they are reinforcing the power of word of mouth.
(Slide)
Brands must understand the chaotic context in which people live and use their products. Rifkin, an economic and social theorists, said,
“Consumer is defined as a creative interpreter, reciting the various scripts staged by the cultural market”
This is where social identity comes into play,
(Slide)
There are two types of ‘self’.
The first being, The independent self, this is where one searches for the true autonomy and uniqueness with respect to others. Meaning that this person is self sufficient and can get by without anothers opinion or approval.
Whereas, we then have,
The interdependent self, this is a person who looks for consent and approval, from those who they repute to be important.
(Slide)
Those who repute to be important, are brands who sell products that are a symbol of status, signalling and possibly helping to improve on an individuals social status. Brands have also responded in recent years by reinforcing the dialogue with the customer through reversal of information and a new focus on customer relationship marketing systems.
(Slide)
This shows that consumers are becoming obsessed with the brand, maybe because of the experiences that may have been gained from them. Through the use of new digital media, such as blogs and social networking sites, consumers are able to use these to express themselves even more.
Giving my opinion within this presentation was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I feel that this was because I didn’t want my opinion to be influenced too much by what I had read. However, I feel that I managed to get the balance just right.
(Slide)
These consumers are defined by Millward Brown, a global company focused on brands, media and communications.
There are five levels, that goes from Presence, which means the brand is known by reputation, by the relevance of its brand promise or a past experience of use. All the way through to Bonding, the consumer manifest a strong brand loyalty, which leads him to rule out most other brands upfront. Climbing the pyramid increases the so-called share of wallet, or the proportion of purchases that consumers dedicate to the brand within the reference category.
Factors that contribute towards the relationship that evolves between the customer and the brand is the bond of the emotional appeal. Fun, excitement, prestige. Brands want to convert generic customers into loyal ones or even into potential brand ‘Champions’. (Slide)
The phase of establishing a dialogue between the brand and it’s consumers is evolving as well. The generic ‘talk with your customers’ is not enough if the dialogue is not aimed as a result. In a society that demands authenticity and value through innovation, the brand must have set it’s own vision of the future and set out to achieve a positive impact on the lives of its customers.
So what vision does a brand see for it’s future? (Slide)
Brands use imagery, it is the tangible and intangible elements that consumers associate with a brand. It could be a package, an experience, a smell, a feeling, a taste. Brand imagery is visual, auditory, or factual. In other words it can come from all 5 senses and can be unique to each customer.
For example, the Blue Tiffany’s box, there has been a reason why this has been around for so long. It means something to it’s consumers.
Another which more of you may relate to, (Slide) are the Abercrombie and Fitch carry bags, they act as a souvenir to the customer, making them feel like they have come away with a lot more.
It is important to the brand that their consumers develop an emotional connection to them. (Slide)
Monica Skipper (Marketing Manager for FedEx Global Brand Management), said, “Once you know your promise to customers, you need to deliver on that promise.That’s what branding is all about. Every time you keep the promise, you strengthen your brand identity. When you break the promise, you diminish the brand.”
This means, that all the money that they spend on marketing is a waste of time if the consumer doesn’t believe in the brand’s promise.
Before I show you a few examples, I must say that, even though I am in the targeted age range of these fashion brands, I didn’t realise how many young male models there are who all have that ‘Abercrombie Look’, the square chin and the chiseled abs.
(Slide)
So, in this Abercrombie and Fitch advert, we can see a rather attractive young male, wearing only a pair of jeans, while on the beach and holding a cute dog. As much as this might actually happen in ‘real’ life. Here, abercrombie and fitch are selling you a lifestyle, and a promise, they are telling you that if you buy and wear these Abercrombie jeans, you will either be able to get with, or even be the man in this photograph.
They use these techniques in a lot of different types of advertisements, here is another fashion advert, from American Apparel.
(Slide)
this advert is a lot different to the Abercrombie and Fitch one previous, it is saying that if you wear these socks you will love them too. But we don’t just walk around with nothing but long socks on do we? So is this a true representation of how we would wear these socks?
I think not.
However, there is a similarity within these adverts, they both introduce the consumer to the model in the photograph.
(Slide)
They are doing this so that you develop that emotional connection, as you can find out more about the model, and feel like you are then connecting with the brand. This then develops a customer who then looks for approval with what they then buy and wear.
But does this then mean we need to ask the question, who is a brand?
(Slide)
Every brand has a persona. Think of your brand as a person. (pause)
What is that person like? (pause) What can you expect when you interact with that person?
Here, again I engage with the audience, I paused after each sentence to give the audience members a chance to degest what I’de just said, especially because i was asking them questions.
(Slide)
So I have mentioned Lifestyle Brands, but what are they?
Here’s an example..
(Slide) Jack Wills, offers an intern competition, which is offered to a very specific audience, ‘University Students’. Every part of this contest reinforces the Jack Wills brand. They associate themselves with beaches, mountains and adventure. Jack Wills uses this and other events such as parties and social events which include like-minded people to create the perfect ingredients to attract the University demographic.(Slide)
These types of lifestyle brands are established through the experiences they associate themselves with. Abercrombie and Fitch, a similar, American Version of the ‘Fabulously British’ Jack Wills, also does this. They show their advertisements with their models on beaches and at desired locations which star a particular attractive look of model, which you automatically know as Abercrombie and Fitch.
(Slide)
A little different from the University demographic consumer which Jack Wills appeals to, Abercrombie and Fitch use another nostalgia, which are their male models. Abercrombie and Fitch draw on the positive endorphins which are created when most people see the half dressed, well exercised male models. You see these models on adverts, billboards, shop windows and even on their carry-a-bags, which people carry around as a novelty handbag, all of these things help endorse the Abercrombie and Fitch brand.
Here they are also selling their brand values, the endless summer, good health and the beauty of the people you see within their adverts. And we buy into this, thinking that we can actually have this life, through buying a pair of their jeans.
(Slide)
To conclude, according to Mike Leahy, senior consultant at Interbrand, New York, said “The number one rule in branding is don’t over promise and under deliver”. However, I feel that the brands I’ve spoken about today do over promise their consumers, so that they buy into these lifestyles and become brand ‘champions’. I do not believe that I will have that fabulous lifestyle if I buy and wear those American Apparel Socks, and if I buy that top from Abercrombie and Fitch, I will not automatically become ‘popular’.
But these brands need to establish their credibility with their consumers over a longer period of time before this can happen, this helps the brand build faith and trust in its consumers.
But what if a brand fails to make their promise?
(Slide) When they fails to keep their brand promise, consumers become confused and dissatisfied, it’s a normal human reaction. And it’s likely that you’ll look for another brand which does meet your expectations and keeps their promise in every interaction. Consumers are more likely to repeat purchases and are more likely to talk about the brand. Becoming brand loyalists and vocal brand advocates. This reinforces the word of mouth strategy, which I mentioned earlier, this makes marketing that money cannot buy.
But the fashion brands I spoke about earlier are taking lifestyle branding to another level and are actually making them happen for the consumer.
(Slide)
Abercrombie and Fitch are bringing the lifestyle advert experiences to life. You are able to go to these stores and meet the famous models which you see on the ‘nostalgic’ bags’, and you can even have your photograph taken with the topless male model, on a polaroid camera, so that you can even take the photograph away with you. All of this reinforces the relationship which brands are trying to build with the customer. You are now able to have more of a physical, face to face relationship, rather than a cyber one. Brands are creating new, memorable, experiences for you, which will always make you have positive connotations with the brand.
(Slide)
Lastly however, I believe that you cannot have any kind of ‘friendship’ with a brand. The brand doesn’t want to be your friend and build a relationship where you can share experiences together, the only experience a brand wants the consumer to have. Is the one where the consumer is increasing their sales and making them a more notable company.
Even though my conclusion starts a while before my presentation actually ends, I did this so that I could include other points which backed up my research, and that brands go things to become the consumers friend, but not to interact, but to get the consumer to purchase, to spend money.
After the presentations had taken place, we were asked a series of questions as a group. When answering these questions I felt very confident as I knew exactly what I wanted to say and was able to back up my answer with facts from my research.
Overall I am very pleased with how everything turned out. My presentation included all the relevant information, which all linked together to form a well knitted presentation. Along with this I am happy with how I presented myself on the day. Even though I am confident when speaking in front of people I m glad I had a few nerves on the day, as I feel I presented better than ever. My voice was loud and clear, and after the presentation was over I felt an overall relief and self achievement.
This research project has really helped with myself. I feel like I have been able to broaden my mind to new things. Knowing I have learnt a lot over the past few months has really broaden my perspective and has even made my creative side a lot more open. Since researching about marketing and advertising, I have realised that this is something I have a strong interest in, and would potentially like to delve into it further and possibly even make a career within this part of the industry.
On the day we were to meet at 8.30 at The Herbert Galley, most people were there on time, which was great. We went over to the reception so that we could gain access to the room. This is where problem one occurred. The reception had to confirmation of our booking. This problem was quickly resolved once we spoke to the lady who had actually confirmed our booking. Once in the room, we were asked if we had everything we needed, we asked for a table, and then soon realised there wasn’t a lectern in the room We checked our invoice and soon found out that one hadn’t been booked. This is when I started to stress out even more. Fortunately, the lectern from the Ellen Terry building was free and available to use. I went over to fetch it and we covered the Coventry University sign on the front with our symposium catalogue.
These were the only issues we seemed to have, and as soon as the day got underway my nerves started to calm.
As I had been nominated to introduce and MC the day, I began at 10, and introduced everyone to the IMG19 Symposium,
Hello and welcome to the Image Nineteen symposium. We would like to first of all thank you for being here today in support of our research into contemporary photographic issues. We would like to take this opportunity to invite you to our exhibition which will be opening on Friday 30th May at the Lanchester Art Gallery here in Coventry. Today’s symposium will be divided into five genred groups of speakers, which can be found on your programmes. After each group there will be a questions and answers session in which you can ask your questions to the speakers. For a more detailed look on the day please visit our website which can also be found on the programme. You are all more than welcome to log-in with the Herbert Wifi the username is free f-r-e-e and the password also f-r-e-e, all lower case. Could we now please ask you to switch your phones onto silent, but we encourage you to tweet your thoughts throughout the day using the IMG19 hashtag. So first up we have Vernacular Photography on memory and travel and to start us off Hollie Woodward with her presentation ‘Family Snapshots: authenticity and memory’.
We when had the first set speakers, each of who introduced each other at the end of their own presentation. After this, I thanked them for speaking and invited them all back up for a question and answers session.
Now I invite back up Hollie, Heidi and Caroline for their q&a session. If you have any question please raise your hand.
When we had breaks I also informed the audience about these.
It is now time for a coffee break, and we will be welcoming you back at 11.45 with Representation and Perception of Social Demographics Coffee Break Welcome back, we now have Representation and Perception of Social Demographics, and I welcome, Lee Hassall and Exploring Visual Representations, which Challenge the image of homosexuality.
This format ran throughout the day, and ended with a final note from Shaun Hides, our head of department, here at Coventry University.
Overall I was extremely happy with how the day ran, and everyone performed exceptionally!
10.00 – 10.45 Vernacular Photography on Memory and Travel Hollie Woodward – Family Snapshots: Authenticity and Memory Heidi Culverwell – Development of Tourism Photography Caroline Walker – Redefining Human Connection Followed by a Q&A session
Now I invite back up Hollie, Heidi and Caroline for their q&a session. If you have any question please raise your hand.
10.45 – 11.30 Importance of Education and Collaboration with Photography Ioana Bultoc – How can we Empower People through Portraiture? Alice Martin-Smith – How can Photography be used as a Communication Aid by People Affected by Autism Tania Merriman – The Application of Photography and Literacy within Primary Schools Followed by a Q&A session
Now I invite back up Ioana, Alice and Tania for their q&a session. If you have any question please raise your hand.
It is now time for a coffee break, and we will be welcoming you back at 11.45 with Representation and Perception of Social Demographics Coffee Break Welcome back, we now have Representation and Perception of Social Demographics, and I welcome, Lee Hassall and Exploring Visual Representations, which Challenge the image of homosexuality.
11.45 – 12.45 Representation and Perception of Social Demographics Lee Hassall – Exploring Visual Representations, which Challenge the Image of Homosexuality Talha Muhammad – Questioning the (Mis)Representation of Africa Through Photography Sophie Moet – We’re All In Drag Rachel Appleby – The Age of the New News Reporter Followed by a Q&A session
Now I invite back up Lee, Talha, Sophie and Rachel for their q&a session. If you have any question please raise your hand.
It is now time for a lunch break, and we will be welcoming you back at 2 with The Reconfiguration of Images Lunch Break Welcome back, we now have The Reconfiguration of Images, and I welcome, Kate Green and The Archive and it’s digital responsibilities.
14.00 – 15.00 The Reconfiguration of Images Talks by Kate Green – The Archive and its Digital Responsibilities Joseph Kesisoglou – Alex Mason – Reflection on Appropriation Alex Edwards – The Photographic Craft in the Digital Era Followed by a Q&A session
Now I invite back up Kate, Joseph, Alex Mason and Alex Edwards for their q&a session. If you have any question please raise your hand.
It is now time for another break, and we will be welcoming you back at 3.15 with Manipulation of Brands and Icons for Consumerism. Break Welcome back, we now have Manipulation of Brands and Icons for Consumerism, and I welcome, Theo Ellison with Icons and Illusion.
15.15 – 16.15 Manipulation of Brands and Icons for Consumerism Theo Ellison – Icons & Illusion Melissa Stapleton – Customer Relationship Marketing and The Brand Persona Melissa Santos – Celebrity representations; Idolising False Self Lauren Thatcher – The Icon – Spirituality vs. Physicality (Melissa Stapleton on behave of Lauren) Followed by a Q&A session
Now I invite back up Theo, Melissa Stapleton and Melissa Santos for their q&a session. If you have any question please raise your hand.
I also got up at the end for Lauren Thatcher and played her video presentation on her behalf.
We also had this day plan stuck on the lectern so that everyone knew how the running of the day was going to work.
Along with fundraising, Kate and I, made a bid to Shaun, head of department here at Coventry University, for funding towards our symposium. This involved writing up a funding plan, explaining why we were asking for this money, and how it would benefit both the University and ourselves.
what funding you need and why
what funds you can raise by yourself
what funds should come from the department and why…
Our third year photography class is identified as IMG19; we are working as a group to talk about contemporary photographic topics on a shared website and will be developing our individual projects for a group exhibition at the Lanchester Gallery in May and June 2014.
We are applying for funding for our photography symposium, which takes place on Wednesday 26th February 2014 at The Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry. This is a popular space for the community; it is used commonly with schools, artists and researchers. Our goal is to host 19 ten minute presentations on contemporary photographic topics; from extensive research we believe that our topics are informative, interesting and of importance to people beyond the university’s walls. This is why we have chosen to present the symposium in a well established public place. Furthermore, as we have set up a website to engage with remote audiences we will be recording and publishing the symposium online; this means that Coventry University will have international affiliation with our event.
Hosting the IMG19 symposium means that us as third year photography students will be in the public gaze and representing Coventry University’s Media and Communications department. We have endeavored to organise an event so that we represent Coventry University in a professional manner. During the day, our marketing team will be tweeting along with notes of the talks so that there is a wider audience engagement with the event past Coventry’s city limits. Already we have had a great deal of traffic to our website so that Coventry University is already getting international recognition. With followers who are unable to attend, we are accommodating for their absence by publishing the talks online; therefore, Coventry University will have a long lasting legacy with this symposium.
Organising a symposium with the intention of reaching public audiences requires monetary investment. We have booked the full day of Wednesday 26th February for the event and a half day 17th February for finalisation of the planning; because the Photography course have been loyally returning to The Herbert for the last few years, we have negotiated a reduced fee of £150. In order to spread recognition of this event, we will be designing and distributing posters and flyers leading up to the day; we will be looking at printing from the university’s facilities in order to cut costs.
Furthermore, with our outfacing approach to sharing the symposium and the research, we created a blogging website with our own domain name and a large amount of server space to host content, this came to a sum of £24.34. This website is connected to social media platforms to engage with a wider audience.
On the day, we would like our audience at the venue to have a physical programme; we aim to keep the budget for this low, as well as keeping our carbon footprint to a minimum. Therefore, we are proposing to print 60 postcard style programmes with a QR code (link) to a page on our website which will act as the programme. Judging from a quote from the University Print Bureau this will cost a sum of £45 as 75p per postcard.
As a group we have a designated fund raising team who are pioneering the way to sourcing funds: we have three cake sales planning in the next two weeks which we hope will be as successful as our previous sales for our #Picbod exhibition. We made a 200% profit; however, as the symposium is in three weeks we are tight on how much we can do. With this in mind, we are looking for monetary support from the department to secure our symposium venue costs; we feel that we can raise enough money to cover the majority of the print funds. Nevertheless, this is the first hurdle to the degree show which will require more investment into print-marketing, so any generous contributions from the department would be well received.
During tweeting, we even managed to get questions from people who weren’t even at the symposium, it was great to know that other people were getting involved and were interested in what we had to say.
At the beginning of the year, teams were chosen, which were as followed….
Marketing
Holly
Kate
Melissa Santos
Joseph
Day Planner
Rachel
Tania
Venue Joanna
Fundraising Heidi
Alice
Lee
Finance Sophie
Alex M
Tania
Rachel
Melissa Stapleton – Money Pot
Unfortunately when it came to fundraising the ideas we seemed to be coming up with were a bit dreary. Nothing shouted out at us and nothing was particularly planned.
A member of the group who wasnt part of the fundraising team decided to take a lead and plan a series of bake sales. She created a rota and created dates and times with people who could help out.
Unfortunatley the day which I was rota’d on was written down for the wrong day and when rearranging, the stall wasnt booked and it had to happen a different day with different people, which caused a lot of trouble with people not wanting to help out. However through the series of bake sales so far, we were able to raise a total of £87 .
A few days before the IMG19 symposium, me and Kate were worried about having enough money to pay for the venue, so we decided to try a new technique in selling. Which was to sell breakfast. Bacon sandwiches. We targeted the first and second year photographers who loved the idea.
We did this 2 mornings before the symposium and managed to raise £50, which for a first time event we thought we did pretty well.
We are currently also in the fase of putting together a raffle where we are going to use prints as prizes and have photo shoots and photo books which you are able to win.
Since the beginning of the year , we needed to brand ourselves, this is when we all came up with the name, IMG19 (IMAGE19), photography related, and that there are 19 of us in the group.
This meant creating a logo, Along with now having a brand and a logo, we needed to create an online presence. This involved both a website and a twitter account.
Our website is ww.img19.org, on this website, we each had our own profiles and are able to upload anything and everything related to photography and our projects. This, along with the twitter account had been great for networking. I have gained more followers and people taking more interest in my work.
Melissa Stapleton 
