This chapter conceptualises clichés as socio-cognitive representations in advertising and branding discourse. It draws on social cognition and argues that clichés are useful resources for the construction of brand identity. Two current UK print advertisements and a corpus of UK corporate mission statements are analysed combining corpus linguistics tools and textual analysis of cliches and their collocates using tools from SFL’s transitivity system, social actor theory, appraisal theory and conceptual metaphor theory. The findings demonstrate that, ideationally, cliches are used to construe an ideal self for the brand evoking models of superiority, difference and wholeness and interpersonally building a relationship of trust with the customer or stakeholder who is the ultimate addressee of the mission statements.

Straddling the line between knowledge and business, public and private, or between its local ties to the state and its reach toward the global economy of higher education, the modern university seems to have found in brands a tool to construct a coherent and attractive image, if perhaps only skin deep, of itself, its role, and its “excellence.” This chapter looks at the specificity of academic brands compared to their corporate counterparts, focusing in particular on the distinct notion of “origin” that they signify (and how that frames the ways in which such brands may be tarnished), the relationship between academic brands and academic rankings, and the fundamental role of students in the establishment of such brands. One of the suggestions put forward here is that, rather than an adoption of a corporate trend, academic brands may have in some way predated that trend.

Personalization is the branding choice of the day. In a world of nearly endless choices, brands want to make consumers feel like their product is uniquely for them, and universities are no exception to this marketing ploy. The rise of individualization and a saturated marketplace have led to the “personalized generic” brand, where you are both “one of a kind” and “a kind of one.” For example, many universities in the UK began using the term “MyUniversity” as part of their educational platform, which doubles as a branding tool. The rise of this branding technique is partly due to increasingly consumer-specific data tracking and collection systems coupled with the wise-use of linguistic shifter language, such as “my.”  As the market continues to be inundated with more of the same, the competition to distinguish one from the rest of the pack will be crucial to universities. Their branding model focused on personalization may be what it takes to prevail.

Higher education misunderstands branding. Fears that embracing branding leads to commodification show the problem. When higher education institutions strive to meet ranking systems’ metrics, they take the path to commodification and cede power to outsiders. Branding, however, does not force such an outcome. Instead, applying the logic of branding to the realities of higher education today opens a way, especially for public institutions and systems, to define their purpose. This change can free schools from traps set by following systems that quantify education in the hope that it can be analyzed in economic terms. This chapter explains problems with ranking systems and examines California’s approach to higher education as a template for a broader understanding of education.

This chapter explores the paradoxical logics embedded in the Swedish policymaking elites’ rationale for exporting advanced conventional weapons to the so-called developing world. Using the South Africa JAS-39 Gripen fighter jet deal as a case study, the chapter demonstrates how the policymaking elite consciously pursues a dual strategy regarding the production and circulation of weapons – one that is driven both by the Swedish internationalist tradition of “doing good” and “being good” in the world, but also for instrumental purposes. Overall, the investigation illustrates how such processes have become embedded societal symbols of Swedish identity in the post-Cold War era – a phenomenon that serves to conflate the operations of a militarized state with the perceived ideals of Swedish mediation, honest brokership, and overall as a significant contributor to frameworks of promoting ethical and peaceful methods on a global stage. These paradoxes, it is argued, raise important questions about so-called “Swedish exceptionalism.”

This chapter situates the emergence of marketised global justice in the 1990s. The period between the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the new millennium gave rise to new conceptions of branding as well as a new anti-impunity movement. To date, these phenomena have been treated as entirely separate, but this chapter suggests that the connection between them is key for understanding the marketisation of global justice – and the consolidation of the neoliberal order more broadly. In the 1990s, branding turned to branding lifestyle rather than branding products, and moved outside of the commercial space. At the same time, international law partly reimagined itself as the discipline of ‘new interventionism’, the discipline of the institutionalisation of an international economic order, and a new regime of individual criminal accountability. As these new conceptualisations of marketing and international law fused, they created an alliance in marketised global justice.

Starting from the premise that discourse is what brings organizations into being, this chapter presents a state-of-the-art review of research on corporate discourse. Its main goal is to evaluate the contributions that discourse analytical perspectives and methodologies have made to the understanding of organizational practices, showing how corporations use discourse strategically to create and maintain corporate identity and perform ideological work. This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part reviews studies concerned with aspects of internal communications, highlighting discursive strategies for “doing” business and adopted across contexts and media including business meetings, job interviews and business emails. The second part discusses studies investigating external communications, focusing specifically on communications with investors and stakeholders as well as with the wider world. Studies exploring CEO letters, annual and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, advertising and branding are reviewed. This part also discusses research that examined corporate communications in “moments of crisis,” showing how corporations strategically employ discourse to maintain a positive public image. The final sections summarize the implications and the need for “doing” discourse analysis in corporate environments and conclude with avenues for further research.

Chapter 4 provides background on the ten aspiring global cities and their theoretical and empirical comparability. Despite important variations, the cities examined share these core features: (1) They are key national and regional nodes of business and politics. (2) They experienced major and controversial redevelopment, which has caused different forms of displacement. (3) They have intensified the use of branding and cultural policies as engine of economic growth, often thereby promoting the “creative class.” The chapter presents data showing their shared prominence and discusses the high degree of institutional variation between the cities. There is significant variation in how markets and governments combine to pursue international competitiveness policies and the associated urban redevelopment. In developmental states, an essential feature is the elimination of informal settlements, with the consequent massive and brutal displacement of the poor, as examined in Seoul, Istanbul, Buenos Aires, and Santiago. In more advanced economies, a key dynamic is the erosion of public-sector housing, as illustrated for Hamburg. Redevelopment policies were supported by city branding and legitimized by connections to cultural industries as new engines for economic growth, as examined in Tel Aviv, Seoul, Buenos Aires, and Los Angeles.

Within his lifetime, Mark Twain established his alter ego as a brand, a recognizable commodity used to sell books, of course, but also inventions of his like Mark Twain’s Patented Self-Pasting Scrapbook. His name and likeness were used to sell cigars, whiskey, and a number of other products. After his death in 1910, his popularity and brand endured, even grew. He became a character that others used for their own purposes, until he has today become an icon and symbol of America. The history of Mark Twain’s use in popular culture is a fascinating study.