'[We] would like to see Posters depicting vessels...' The shortcomings of British shipping posters and the decline of the British merchant marine, c.1840 to c. 1970.
A Centre for Maritime Historical Studies seminar | |
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Speaker(s) | Dr David Clampin (Senior Lecturer in History, Department of History, Liverpool John Moores University: Centre for Port and Maritime History) |
Date | 27 February 2013 |
Time | 14:30 to 17:00 |
Place | Amory B308 |
Event details
Extant literature on the decline of British shipping in the period c.1919 to c.1975 finds fault in a number of aspects of the business but, to date, there has been no serious study of how the marketing of British shipping lines might have both contributed to this state and how this might add to and extend these ideas and theories. This paper seeks to examine just one line of marketing communication, posters, and questions the extent to which the general approach of these companies to self promotion may have played a role in their decline.
The underlying thesis is that these old, well-established companies, which tended to be family concerns, were less inclined to innovate or take risks in their creative output, as reflected in posters produced between c.1840 and c.1970. It is argued that these old shipping Lines were hamstrung by an outmoded way of operating and infatuated by their own omnipotence, or at least confident enough to laud it over their customers, and thereby failed to move with the market or adjust their marketing output accordingly.
Content analysis of these posters shows how the ship/product is placed at the heart of these messages as opposed to anything more ethereal, creative or imaginative. Thus, an outmoded marketing message is presented, across all time that fails to ‘de-commodify’ the object in a manner in which other more creative marketers had been from the mid-nineteenth century. This was a practice that persisted into the mid-twentieth century when British India Line declared in an advertising meeting of 1949 how they liked ‘to see posters depicting vessels’.
Please note: refreshments will be provided
Location:
Amory B308