What is a Brand?

Point out to students that none of the ads they’ve seen come right out and tell you to buy the thing they’re advertising: instead, they make them look cool (the way the family looks amazed in the forest ad) or try to grab your attention (the snake around the bus in the zoo ad.)

Now project or have students access the Image Slider in the student chapter What is a Brand?

Show the first four images and ask students if they can identify the products being sold. (Skittles, MacDonald’s, Pringles, Honey Nut Cheerios.)

Explain that these images represent different ways that advertisers help you like and remember their products by creating a brand. Some common ways of branding a product are to come up with a slogan (“Taste the rainbow”), to have a logo that stands for the product (the Golden Arches), to have a distinctive package (the tubular Pringles can) or to have a mascot or branded character (Honey Nut Cheerios bee).

Ask students if seeing the images makes them feel anything – whether they seem familiar, friendly or funny (or make them hungry!).

Point out the use of cartoon characters, bright colours and fun lettering.

Branding is especially important in ads for kids: even if you can’t read yet, you will still be able to recognize the bee from Honey Nut Cheerios or the Quik bunny. Using cartoons and characters also helps tell a story that you want to keep watching because it is funny and entertaining to watch.

Now  tell the class that a lot of the time branding isn’t about making us think a product is good, just making sure that we can tell it apart from other products that are like it.

Show the fifth image. Can they recognize the first product just by seeing its colours (Coca-Cola)?

Show the sixth image. Why is the waffle round? (So you can tell it’s an Eggo and not some other kind of waffle.) 

Show the seventh image.  How can they tell exactly what kind of corn chip the second product is? (Only Doritos are triangles and are that particular orange colour. You can point out that Pringles, from the first page, also have a distinctive shape.)

Show the eighth image and explain that even the sound a product makes can be part of its brand: when the people who make Rice Krispies noticed that they go “snap, crackle and pop” when milk is poured over the cereal, they made up cartoon characters with those names to make it a part of the brand. The noise that Rice Krispies make doesn’t make them taste any better, or make them any better for you – but it does make them different from other cereals, and that helps you remember them.

Have students access the student chapter Can You Spot the Brand? and then click or tap on the branded characters. Ask them how they could tell which ones were branded characters and which ones were not.

Students may be confused by the fact that “Spongebob Squarepants” appears twice.

Make sure students understand that a character that wasn’t created as a branded character can become one if they’re used to make people notice or buy something. Even real people, like athletes, musicians, or YouTubers, can become “branded characters.”

But a character who starts as a branded character, like Tony the Tiger, is always an ad, even if they’re in something like a game or a video, because when you see them you always think of the product.