Does your dress sense signal your personal brand?

The other week two of my friends told me that they thought I was a vegetarian.  Their rationale was something like "Well, it's the way you dress, a bit hippy-ish, you know?".  I thought that was incredibly odd, as I am not a vegetarian, I never have been.  It just made me think that the Louise Kennedy brand has gone a bit off kilter. 

Having a hippy-ish value is actually quite a cool and laid back sort of thing, and that that has somehow come across wasn't the intention as I am not really that laid back.  I was wearing a high collar dress the other week and a work colleague thought that I was an internet geek!  I blog, but I'm not World of Warcrafting - which I hope is not what she was implying.  

So, am I a techy hippy?  No.  I'm not left wing, I eat meat, I find the internet has a practical purpose.  I am a bit of a geek though, I go to brass band, but that's about it.

So, two different outfits, two completely different ideas of what kind of person I am and both of them were wrong!  I think dress sense is a fantastic differentiator yet a lot of superficial judgements can be made on it, but as mine encompasses a wide range of vintage styles and often peoples' does, some values don't seem to be overarching and some judgements are definitely not accurate. 

One day I could dress like a china doll, another day like your grandma and people would think that I was a completely different person, with completely different values and beliefs.  So, does your dress sense tell you what kind of person you are? No, not really, not if it is inconsistent.  Consistency is key.  As is being explicit.  If you turned up in cycling shorts everyday, I would guess that you enjoy cycling.  But who dresses like that?     

Sharp Focus campaign for Lynx Dry

I couldn't work out if I liked this one or not.  It's extremely arresting, in a weird way and it sticks with the overall Lynx brand strategically, it's still about men pulling women by being compelling and attractive rather than sweaty, weird mingers - like that bloke!  It's a clever angle to take on the sweating issue - it's extreme.  I quite like the idea of taking this issue out of all proportions because it is human, people relate to it, as they do with attracting the opposite sex.  I think the initial awkwardness coupled with Lynx's remedy is a  fantastic contrast.  It's about making the problem bigger to make the solution bigger and it works wonders for the Lynx brand.  Despite my initial skin-crawling reservations, this one is a bit of a winner!

Pringles are NOT crisps!

 As pointed out to everyone's great despondence last week, Pringles are not crisps.

Everyone's party favourite have been consigned to the label of 'more like a cake or biscuit'! Argh!  So, how is this going to affect the brand? 

Now that I know that they are only made from 42% potato, and that this raised a few concerns, I can't really look at Pringles in the same way.  I'm glad of the honesty though.  It's like when I found at that crab sticks were mostly made of fish 'remnants' and bulked out with paper I believe, I may be wrong. 

After that, it didn't feel that right to eat them.  The thing is, I don't think I am totally anti-Pringles after this.  On the plus side, they're now tax free and still taste the same, maybe the compromise that I'd be eating less than 50% potato, it not that hard to stomach.

I don't think this ruling will affect them that much.  No-one was under the illusion that they were the healthiest things in the world, and no-one thought that they were 100% potato.  I guess putting the information out there is appealing to that idea that consumers want to know what they're eating so that they can make informed decisions.

Being a crisp is all a matter of degree really, like that age-old philosophical quandary that if you slowly replace every piece of wood on a wooden ship with another material, at what point does it become a different ship?  Answers on a postcard!
 

The brand power of the celebrity couple

A lunchtime discussion recently got me thinking about celebrity brands and how the famous can become powerful commercial tools beyond the discipline for which they were originally made famous.  I'm going to say it... David Beckham, in fact, brand 'Beckham', is a great example of this.  Despite the fact that they are probably a pair of idiots, they have a massive brand presence in the UK and abroad. 

With David Beckham now endorsing underwear, razors, soft drinks and whatever else and him and Victoria launching their own fragrances, brand Beckham is a strong lifestyle brand for a stylised youth.  And to think, it all started out because David Beckham could kick a football round quite well and his wife could sing (arguably) and they were brought together, creating a commercial powerhouse.  But it wasn't just about their first flirtations with fame, their personas and lifestyles from this began to lend themselves to being ambassadors in other, more fashionable and cultural sectors.  Victoria was labelled 'Posh' well before Mr. Beckham came along, and it is this aspirational and stylish value that has stayed with her to this day, helping to fuel brand Beckham. 

Being in the public eye out of public interest can be a strength as well as a burden for the celebrity brand, as consistency has to be kept at all times.  Victoria Beckham is often in the media sporting the latest fashion garb, lending to her fashionista credentials, yet that's not been without hiccups. 

If we are talking about consistency, remember when Britney Spears was endorsing Pepsi but was papped drinking Coke? And all that hoo-ha over naivity.  If there's an image to play, then it must be played well.  With her style of pop music, came a complimentary naivity, yet growing up in the media spotlight made this even more difficult to play.  Ultimately, her recent fall from grace, which happened right in the media spotlight, meant that her transition from teen pop icon to savvy mother, died a rapid death.  Her positive brand image crumbled.  The media builds them up and knocks them right down, it seems.

But when a union works, it can be commercially great.  In a way, it's kind of like when bacon and eggs were brought together, diamonds and engagement rings, that sort of thing.  The end product works culturally because there is a strong idea around what the union means to people, but also, there is an importance to what they separate elements have to say, where they came from and how they got to where they are today.   

Think Ant and Dec, and Brangelina - these all conjure ideas in our minds.  From cheeky Geordie teen soap-pop idols to prime Saturday night comperes and the world's proudest eco-couple.  The brand power is enormous.