HOW HAVE COLDPLAY USED ICONOGRAPHY TO CREATE A BRAND?

Theyve made extensive use of graffiti style imagery as well as paint splatters, this imagery is found within their music videos, on their album covers, and also on their website. Their brand presents the idea that theyre quite artistic and willing to rebel/go out of normal restrictions. Their brand is created using black, red/pink, blue and green and adds to their suggestion of being a very public and in the limelight band with a very public image. Though theyve decided to break away entirely from their previous image and styling they have still made allusions to their previous image by making use of plain grey tones on some parts. This helped to make their brand identity more consistent over the separate albums theyve produced.

HOW DO THEIR PRODUCTS APPEAL TO A TARGET AUDIENCE?

Their products appeal to a target audience through the creation of a brand identity and artistic suggestions. These suggestions appear as a result of the eclectic mixture of colours and symbols. These symbols on their clothes, album, website and within their video are very repetitive and in the style of typical graffiti. The use of graffiti helps the brand to appear more personal and causes the viewers/fans to feel a stronger connection to the artist and their work. Their Products also appeal to audience as a result of their diversity, for example first albums of Coldplays would make use of fairly neutral colour and very subdued tones, while the newer products use bright vibrant colours as a counterpoint to the previous CDs.

WHAT ARE THEIR IDEOLOGICAL VALUES?

The bands ideology is that which suggests a sense of vibrancy and life. The ideology of this band is to create emphatic reflective songs that they feel will help the audience to feel closer to them, which reflects the way in which the band is currently using graffiti style imagery in order to give their albums a more personal and relevant touch that will establish a connection between the audience and band members. The band is very supportive of various causes such as amnesty international and Oxfam which shows that their values are for everyone to be equal and for people to be treated with respect and the care that they deserve. Their ideology is very much that they appear to be an approachable band whom the public shouldnt feel estranged from as such meaning that they intend to be a band of the people who can influence and cause aspiration in others.

WHAT IS THE GENRE AND HOW DO YOU KNOW?

The genre of this band is a combination of indie/alternative rock/pop, which can be seen mainly within the lyrics and sound of the music that they produce. We can see the influence of typical alternative rock bands such as U2, Oasis, and Travis etc. Travis is a Scottish alternative rock band who Coldplay have cited as being one of their major musical influences. I know that the genre is a combination of this, independent and pop as a result of their popularity in the charts and also due to their more unique style of music wherein the lyrics and song itself are more important in many ways than their popularity. However more recently the band has become more subject to social whims and much more inclined to try to fit in with societies wants and demands.

HOW HAVE THEY CREATED SYNERGY ACROSS THE 3 PLATFORMS?

The band has managed to create synergy across the three platforms of the music video, website and album art, again as a result of the use of graffiti style art. They create synergy by referencing each other as a result of the use of brand identity and colour scheme. Particular symbols and shapes are also found repeated within the video, album cover and website, for example consistent use of spiral shapes and circular patterns can be found across the platforms. They create synergy by using imagery from the graffiti wall that they themselves created for the album in all of the platforms they promote their music with.