Chasing Cool pt. 3 - Borrowing equity

I think that that Borrowing Equity was my favorite chapter so far.

Marketing people try to use celebrities or attach their product to a culture without really thinking if that celebrity fits or if there is any reason that a culture would want their product. The authors effectively use examples of where advertisers have tried to borrow the 'sound', 'street cred' or 'personality' to attach to their product to make it seem cool and boost sales. These schemes end up in boosting sales but only for a short time. If you're racking your brain  trying to think of an example of this type of advertising, look no further than ads on MTV or BET where every product in the world is trying to become 'urban'.

There are other times when a 'culture' or 'personality' finds or attaches itself to a product. Most of the times these are outside of where marketer's targets. How marketers react to this attention is key. Many marketers will turn their attention to the new audience without any research or investigation.

Consider Hilfiger. When the clothing line was first introduced, it was targeted to a young, upscale audience. It was embraced by urban youth, probably because it didn't represent who they were as much as who they wanted to be. It was also an expression of who Tommy Hilfiger was as a clothing designer:

"I knew exactly what I wanted to do: I wanted to build a brand of clothing around my own attitude and my own lifestyle." -Tommy Hilfiger

Unfortunately when Hilfiger saw the urban trend they re-focused their campaign on this audience, in other words, they tried to make their product more 'cool'. When they made this shift, maybe because they really didn't understand this audience and the reasons they were using the product, sales fell and the product was no longer cool. They've since reversed course.

There are other products who haven't lost their focus. An example from my own experience is Patrón. There are a lot of rappers and famous celebrities who mention the tequila in their songs and in appearances. However, the company hasn't attempted to leverage these relationships at all, allowing them to exist organically. Maybe that's why the popularity of the brand has increased dramatically over the last year, as well as sales.

Stay tuned, I'll be finishing up the book this week. - Paul Herring

Comments

[mvellandi]

Since you mentioned alcohol, I'm curious if sales of Kristal were ever (even slightly) negatively affected by their producer's reaction to hearing it was popular among hip-hop stars in the US, and the subsequent reaction by Jay-Z announcing a personal ban on the brand.
I highly doubt it....nonetheless it reminded me of a premium brand reacting to a unique market share.