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The Groucho Marx Dilemma in Media Branding: Audience as Part and Signal of Media Brands

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Handbook of Media Branding

Abstract

This chapter deals with the idea that a target group evaluates the media on the basis of their respective users. It is important for the recipients to know about their fellows. They want to identify with them; they do not want a possibly negative user image to reflect on themselves. Thus, users become an integral part of a media brand. This assumption is based on three theoretical approaches: social distinction, impression management and social identity. A literature overview shows that media use represents a means of social distinction and that other persons are judged on the basis of their media use. These results in the following implications for media branding: Media companies should try to control their audience’s image of their media brands. A marketing strategy that is very blatantly focused on a large range may be risky because it endangers the exclusivity of the media brand and its potential for distinction.

I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.

Groucho Marx

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I have to admit that I have some problems applying the term management to an unconscious behavior. Management always implies a strategic and rational approach. But one may argue that the attempt to control one’s own image in everyday life is to some extent habitualized so that not every related behavior is really planned and deliberated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, Hanover, Germany

    Helmut Scherer

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  1. Helmut Scherer
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Correspondence to Helmut Scherer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. IPMZ Institute, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Gabriele Siegert

  2. Institute of Journalism, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Kati Förster

  3. College of Journalism and Communication, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA

    Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted

  4. Transformation Center MMTC-Media Management, Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping, Sweden

    Mart Ots

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Scherer, H. (2015). The Groucho Marx Dilemma in Media Branding: Audience as Part and Signal of Media Brands. In: Siegert, G., Förster, K., Chan-Olmsted, S., Ots, M. (eds) Handbook of Media Branding. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18236-0_18

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