Virgin Group Brand Case Study
Shelley Mantei
[email protected]
Virgin: Branding Culture
Subject: Virgin Group Ltd.
Sir Richard Branson started with a student magazine and a mail order record
company in 1971. His Virgin empire is now comprised of over 200 companies
[Fig.3] and spans three continents. Not only is Virgin one of Britain s most respected
brands, but it is also becoming an international superbrand. They are involved in
planes, trains, finance, soft drinks, music, mobile phones, holidays, cars, wines,
publishing, bridal wear, and more. What unites all these businesses is the values of
their brand and the attitude of their 30,000 employees. Total 2003 global revenues
exceeded CAD$7.4 billion.
Virgin has positioned themselves as the ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Vague neologisms leave individual minding to define what the new word means and
creates the opportunity for language to create a new reality.
What is known of a virgin is through carefully selected words and images that narrate
what ought to be thought and understood. If language changes the reality of what
virgin becomes (Lakoff, 2001, p.20), what does the company Virgin then stand for?
В•Traditional: Untouched, pure, raw, innocent, inexperienced, naГ Їve. В•New Brand:
Exciting, alive, fun, confident, unconventional, bold, provocative.
В•Mediating:Virgin employs tactics to counter potentially negative pre conceptions
of the word virgin e.g. Virgin Atlantic s slogan more experience that our name
suggests.
The Ultimate Sign
Virgin has been described as the brand that is so many different things for so many
people. In fact, Virgin is often cited as an example to silence those claiming that no
brand can be everything to everyone. They are able to do this because they have
successfully leveraged polysemy В – the potential of signs to carry multiple meanings
(Lewis, 2002, p.260). Audiences variously draw on the raw materials and the
deliverables of the Virgin culture to make sense of these signs.
Virgin s most recognizable sign is not their logo В – it is CEO and Chairman, Sir
Richard Branson. Branson has become an integral part of the brand itself and is
regularly