The most impactful marketing
is timely.
To follow the outcome of Tuesday night’s election, Kenneth Cole had two variations ready
and waiting to print. Up early in time for Wednesday’s morning rush, New
Yorkers taking the Westside Highway were greeted with this:
Advertisement or personal status update on Facebook? |
In what has become signature KCole style, the black-on-white
clever, play on words celebrates (what we
assume to be) Kenneth Cole’s personal preferred election outcome.
Shortly after the erected billboard began to go viral, the
designer tweeted out the alternate copy – should Romney have clinched the
nomination:
Both short, sweet, and full of Big Bird. Two clearly
different tones.
Is it smart for
brands to talk politics?
Forget the undecided. For most Americans, political
association has taken on an almost a cult-like blinded pride. Members of either
party stand ready and willing to defend their deeply-rooted allegiance however
possible; verbal spars, animated .gifs, and, when appropriate, vows to ban
brand patronage.
That’s the danger of taking
a side when trying to appeal to the mass market.
Kenneth Cole’s personal twitter profile clearly states “My
tweets are not representative of the corporate @kennethcoleprd feed.” But it’s
hard to separate the two, especially with synonymous naming conventions.
What originally got me thinking in this direction was a
statement Starbucks made last week on their Facebook page.
Case and point.
Here, Starbucks felt inclined to comment on the rising chatter surrounding the
organizations founder and CEO Howard Schultz’s personal support for Barack
Obama – to make clear that, as an inorganic business enterprise, Starbucks has
NO official political leanings.
Basically, don’t stop buying our goods, GOP-backers. WE love
everyone!
The right tone to take, when you are looking to grow
market/wallet share (better still if you
don’t have to clarify in the first place).
What it all boils
down to…
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. We don’t grow up
we just grow old.
As adults, we can still be big babies. Pressuring one
another to conform, chiding one another when we don’t.
Social media affords brands the opportunity to play human –
to have a voice alongside an individual’s friends and family. It’s a great tactic
but one that exposes the brand to direct attacks. Humans act on emotion and one
never knows what might trigger a response.
Just ask Chick-fil-A (banned
personally by this blogger for more than a year now). It’s hard to
concentrate on business when you are pulled into a political juxtaposition
between a polarized American public.
Pledging allegiance (whether
real or perceived) seems to work for some and not others.
For Kenneth Cole, it
seems to work.
It’s not our intention to stereotype, but as a NYC-inspired,
youth-focused designer brand, there’s no doubt the bulk of KC buyers are
liberal. (And are Republicans even
fashion-conscious enough to discern between KC and other competing brands as
they thumb through dress shirts at the local Sears?). :)
The ads get people talking;
they’re current event-conscious and hip. Success!
I suppose it’s just
another gray area each brand to feel out for themselves…
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