Vista Group - Branding, lovemarks, lingerie and The Nod
Over lunch at Vista Cafe again today, business bloggers Jack Yan, Mark Di Somma and I had another ramble around the world of branding and strategy. Between Jack’s scarily accurate impressions of UK ex-PM Tony Blair and Mark’s stories of outrageous conference speech openers. we did actually talk about some other stuff.
- Do methodical cook-book approaches to creating brands work? Is Kevin Robert’s Lovemark idea a valid branding concept or just adman hoopla? And can you deliberately turn your brand into a cult icon?
- Does your brand have the power of ‘The Nod‘? (thanks for the link, Mark). Do you see a stranger in the street and nod to each other to acknowledge being co-customers of the same brand? Think Harley Davidson riders or Mercedes SLK drivers (like Jeremy Clarkson and me, except his is the top of the range model and mine, um, isn’t).
- How lingerie branding works - think Elle MacPherson versus Trelise Cooper; the difference is more in the brand personality and not so much the product.
- This morphed into intellectual property suits and when they’re a wise move or not.
The picture shows fashion mag publisher Jack explaining lingerie branding (really). Draw your own conclusions! By the way, guys, since it looks like we’re now a regular monthly date, I’ve dubbed us The Vista Group. Do you think we’ll get sued?
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February 21st, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Would not worry about getting sued.
Always better to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission in this world.
Some interesting brand thinking for you:
http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/2008/02/the_shrinking_advantage_of_bra_1.html
Umair Haque has some very interesting thoughts about what strategy looks like in the new economy.
February 21st, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I think we’re fine being called Vista Group, Jim, as long as we don’t sit by the windows.
February 21st, 2008 at 8:21 pm
On second thought, perhaps sitting by the windows is compulsory, otherwise Vista won’t be able to talk to us.
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:49 am
We mightn’t get sued by anyone locally, at least I don’t think so!
February 23rd, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Let’s sit by the windows.
February 27th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
I had never really experienced ‘the Nod’ until I bought a pair of Nike Air Force 1 shoes (November 2007). I hadn’t even been aware of the Air Force 1 until I saw a fabulous exhibition in Beijing…the story behind the production of this product was a triumph for the retailers who insisted on Nike relaunching the product.
The pulling power of those sneakers is huge, and I’m not talking with the opposite sex. As a late 40’s male the younger hipper males at work show me more respect (OK, that’s going a bit too far) but I definitely get “The Nod”.
And, now when I’m gliding down the street I’m looking out for other ’sharp’ dudes in their AF1’s.
P.S. My complimentary copy of Lovemarks lies gathering dust, unread, under a shelf in my garage.