#2018MITSloanBrandingB

[adsmithas]

KanYe has always maintained interest in the fashion world and has worked for and with/pitched to almost every relevant house out there.  He constantly reflects on his experiences with frustration stating that he was seldom given a chance or fair shot when articulating his pitches.  Unfortunately, for him, his brand preceded him as those in positions of power at the various fashion houses saw elements of his approach as valuable but ultimately would continue to dismiss him.  He generally was seen as a “car salesman” type of pitcher and became very frustrated with the scene.  He would end up getting smaller projects here and there, but his ultimate vision for impact/control did not come until Adidas took a chance and gave him the “keys to the castle”.  West remains one of the most fascinating stories of self-branding and reputation management.

[natilerner-blog]

Should we have to “pitch” our ideas?

Picture yourself in this scene: You’re sitting in a luxurious leather office chair, around a large, beautiful mahogany conference table, in an executive conference room with floor-to-ceiling windows. You have pitched an idea to your boss, who is sitting at the head of the table, but the conversation has progressed with no acknowledgment of your idea. A few minutes later, your male colleague, who is sitting across the table from you pitches an idea - your idea. This time, your boss acknowledges the idea and discussion ensues about how it can be acted upon. If you are a woman in the business world, this scene has probably played out countless times for you - maybe there was no leather chair, no mahogany table, or no floor-to-ceiling windows, but it feels like there will always be a male colleague to repeat your idea and get the credit for it. The internet even has a term for it: “hepeat”.

Source: https://www.allure.com/story/hepeat-twitter-reactions My friends and I used to joke that someone should invent a buzzer that automatically goes off when a man pitches the same idea that a woman said a few minutes earlier. We often play it off as a joke and try to make ourselves feel better by acting as if it isn’t a big deal. But it is a big deal. And my biggest concern is that even those who acknowledge that it is a problem, usually blame the woman and offer solutions for why her behavior is the reason why the idea was not heard. They offer advice on how women should act when they pitch their ideas in order to ensure they are heard, but they don’t come across too assertive. In the article, How to Pitch a Brilliant Idea, Kimberly Elsbach asserts that in order to get buy-in for his or her ideas, individuals need to take on one of three personas: The Showrunner, The Artist, or The Neophyte and that if you don’t exactly fit into one of the three groups that you should “match yourself to the type you feel most comfortable with.” In fairness, it is worth noting that Elsbach is not giving this advice specifically to women.

I struggle with the tension of the advice about pitching that one should act authentically and confidently, but also pretend to be someone their not and not appear too “know-it-all”. I recognize the value in learning and practicing pitch delivery and communication strategies, but I think there is often a fine line between acceptable and unacceptable techniques. I find it acceptable to pull in the person you are pitching to as a collaborator, as Elsbach recommends. I find it unacceptable to pretend to be naive or unintelligent and act as if you desperately need their help in order to pull them in.

Part of the reason that I struggle with some of these tactics is because I question the idea that it is the person pitching who should always have to change the way they deliver their idea. As Caroline Turner points out in a Forbes article:

“Although women who behave in feminine ways aren’t seen as powerful, women who “overly” use masculine approaches (like being competitive and assertive) are not liked. This is the double bind.” 

The double bind is real and something that most women in the workforce have felt. And while it is great to get coaching on effective communication, the system often receives communication from men and women in different ways. Jokes aside, this is why I love the idea of the buzzer. It questions the system and puts the burden on those receiving the ideas to question their own practices and perceptions.  With this in mind, I’ll leave you with two major questions to ponder:

How much of ourselves should we need to change to have our ideas heard?

How do we train ourselves to put aside unconscious bias and evaluate the value of an idea regardless of the way in which and by whom the message is delivered?

Article Referenced: Elsbach, Kimberly D.. How to Pitch a Brilliant Idea. Harvard Business Review. September 2003. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2003/09/how-to-pitch-a-brilliant-idea.

[jerryko0906]

Goldman Sachs wearing lululemon

In 2006, Mr. Solomon , co-head of Goldman’s investment bank, showed up to pitch for the Lululemon Athletica initial public offering wearing a maroon jacket and long sweatpants made by the brand. His colleagues were similarly outfitted. “Everyone on the other side of the table is in suits and ties,” Mr. Solomon recalled. “It threw people off.” Goldman won a lead role on Lululemon’s I.P.O. (nytimes)

In many cases, a founder of a company doesn’t enjoy the process of IPO. Some of them confessed that they felt like they’re selling their own child to the other. Such feeling can make them to see the underwriters as greedy wall street people who doesn’t care about the future of his/her company.

For the founder, underwriting proposals might be very boring, not enjoyable, and even all look the same. By wearing not a suit but a lululemon, Mr.Solomon spreaded his tail feather to seduce the founder of lululemon, sending a signal that Goldman Sachs wants this job very impassionedly and they really like the product of lululemon.

He understood the pain customer had and delivered solution through the first impression. As he said, “It threw people off.”

[bubblybrandingbeaver-blog]

#myNYPD

Government agencies and organizations have to be careful about their branding and marketing initiatives too. In New York City Police Department’s case, the hashtag it started is still going strong, but unfortunately in a negative way.

With a Valentine like this, #myNYPD is an abusive lover. Show NYC a little more of the tenderness & respect it deserves @NYPDONeill. pic.twitter.com/1pbKNlcrvU

— placard corruption (@placardabuse)

May 7, 2018

late 90s me had a huge hackysack advantage, given that the police observed no loud music when they got around to it 6 hrs later #myNYPD

— Dr. Crowbotnik (@crowbotnik)

May 1, 2018

How #mynypd does #VisionZero:. Double parking during pedestrian outreach making it more dangerous for people crossing the street. https://t.co/NxEn1XMjdO

— Ollie #carfree and proud Oliver (@Ollie_Cycles)

May 6, 2018

Considering that throwing on the lights/siren is literally the least they can do, I usually give this a pass....but c'mon #myNYPD look at that open space! You can be better than this!

— Cops in Bike Lanes (@CopsinBikeLanes)

May 5, 2018

#VisionZero You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.#myNYPD #VisionZeroIsAJoke

— Cops in Bike Lanes (@CopsinBikeLanes)

May 5, 2018

[acrogers-blog1]

Three cheers for #WomenofWorth and #CVSHealth. Now what do these two organizations have to do with one another? They’re both standing for beauty, justice and most importantly, change. 

Women of Worth, a non profit organization focuses on women’s empowerment and created a campaign called ‘Dark is Beautiful’ to combat India’s obsession with fair skin. WOW partnered with actor Nandita Das to help make skin-color based discrimination a subject of national conversation. Similarly, CVS Health has pledged to create a national conversation, but of digitally altering images of models and superstars. Young girls flip through magazines, watch movies and follow instagram accounts where women are digitally altered to be flawless and perfect. These perfect images speak deep insecure messages to young girls that this is what beauty is, that this is what you should look like. Girls growing up today strive for this unattainable perfection and thus become insecure and even harmful to their own selves. The Dark is Beautiful campaign reminded me of CVS Health’s recent decision to add a ‘beauty mark’ to images that had not been digitally altered.  The company will “no longer change or enhance a person’s size, shape, proportion, skin or eye color, wrinkles or any other individual characteristics in imagery created for their stores, websites, social media and marketing materials.” As a women, I applaud WOW and CVS Health for taking a strong stance of issues of women empowerment and standing a step to create a world in which everyone is unique and perfect as they are. However, the skeptic in me wonders if this message can really ever be fully received by this global world that obsesses over image. 

[jlovett2018-blog]

The story of the creation of My Black is Beautiful

Over the past 15 years, global consumer brands have recognized and capitalized on the fact that a majority of their customers do not look like the models used to market their products. 

During my time at Procter & Gamble, I was able to meet the products researchers who created and championed the “My Black is Beautiful” marketing campaign. The initial idea came from employees in Beauty Care R&D and marketing, who recognized the gap in credibility P&G’s brands had with women of color. These scientists and marketers saw their family and friends choose non-P&G products that generated worse results for their hair and skin based solely on the fact that those products were promoted by a model or Youtube blogger who looked like them. 

After fighting for resources and finally getting a budget, the group created a hashtag (#myblackisbeautiful), and generated educational videos for women of color using P&G products. They also contacted Youtube bloggers and brought them in to test new product designs that were targeted for black women. 

P&G is still figuring out how to capture the value created by the My Black Is Beautiful campaign; they have explored packaging to signal products that would work well for black men and women. However, the campaign and the non-P&G products that have sprung up around it has generated billions of dollars in revenue and has created an in-group of fashionable, passionate users who look nothing like the traditional image of beauty we held 15 years ago. 

[pilarbranding-blog]

What Is Value in Health Care?

The New England Journal of Medicine asked the renowned  Michael Porter, “What Is Value in Health Care?” . His answered has been summarized by Fortune Magazine as follows:

“Value should always be defined around the customer, and in a well-functioning health care system, the creation of value for patients should determine the rewards for all other actors in the system. Since value depends on results, not inputs, value in health care is measured by the outcomes achieved, not the volume of services delivered, and shifting focus from volume to value is a central challenge. Nor is value measured by the process of care used; process measurement and improvement are important tactics but are no substitutes for measuring outcomes and costs.

Since value is defined as outcomes relative to costs, it encompasses efficiency. Cost reduction without regard to the outcomes achieved is dangerous and self-defeating, leading to false “savings” and potentially limiting effective care”.

In the early 2000s American Well had the revolutionary idea of telehealth and created a B2B business offering these services to health insurance companies that could later on offer these services to their own customers and also to other Americans that do not hold insurance. The clever idea of American Well of implementing this through B2B business instead of going directly to the end-consumer I think it was a key ingredient for their success.

 American Well offered a product that added value to their B2B customers, the health insurance companies, but also to all the other actors in the healthcare industry such as patients and doctors. This efficient method of implementing of telehealth benefited end consumers by for example reducing the time spent going to the hospital, the costs of actually seeing a doctor in person and also gave the possibility to people with no insurance of seeing a doctor without having to pay a ridiculous amount of money. On the other hand it also benefited doctors by giving them the possibility to make extra money while working from home and more flexible hours.

Looking at the graphs below we can see that by 2015 American Well telehealth services as well as other online and mobile services offerings had already gained a great number of adopters and for example in the case of telehealth had an overall adoption of 7%  with a 72% of customer satisfaction. Also in 2015, a report from the firm IHS Markit said that by 2020 the doctor’s virtual consultations will double and will have a cumulative annual growth of approximately 25% a year from the years 2015 to 2020.

My question now goes back to Porter’s point of view. Is this creating value to the patients? Not in terms of the volume of services delivered, not in terms of costs, but in terms of effective care?

I really think that as the telehealth business continues growing, insurance companies should not only focus in saving costs but in giving the customers an effective care, otherwise, as Porter’s says, costs reductions without considering the real consequences can lead to risky results and to false savings and therefore to an overall inefficient healthcare system.

 Sources:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2015/08/09/as-telehealth-booms-doctor-video-consults-to-double-by-2020/#45a8f0eb4f9b

https://rockhealth.com/reports/digital-health-consumer-adoption-2015/

http://fortune.com/2018/01/03/health-care-industry-2018/

[ppmir]

Airlines: Make more money...by charging more(?)

In a world where airlines have been constantly trying to compete on price and every day that passes it becomes cheaper to get to almost anywhere in the world, there is one airline that has not fall into the game, and it is none other than the highly awarded Singapore Airlines.

Singapore Airlines has focused its efforts on exploiting the highly profitable first and business classes segments which generally represent over 50% of the airlines’ revenues. To do so it has embarked in the mission of providing the best service in the industry not only while flying but from the exact moment you decide to purchase a ticket, to a long time after you have completed your travel. And they are willing to offer all this and heaven too, but for a fair price. 

But how do they do this? Well in my opinion is a mix of 4 differentiating factors.

Airplanes: Singapore Airlines has one of the youngest fleets of the world, helping them to look as an innovator and usually the first of offering its clients the latest technologies. In order to do this in a cost effective way, SIA leverages on their buying power as a “launch customer” and bulk buyer to negotiate deep discounts with airlines. Also, by having newer aircrafts, SIA benefits from lower maintenance costs as well as more efficient operation of the airplanes, bringing overall costs down.

On-board Service: If you could only use one word to describe SIA, “service” would be the most accurate to do so. On board personnel has been intensively trained to deal with anything that could happen on-board. From wine-pairing, to in-the-plane cooking process, to most probably bed time stories if you are having a hard time falling asleep (although I would doubt it on those truly comfortable first class seats). If a flight attendant can’t help you with something she/he will make its ultimate mission to find someone who can help you. In the end, what they are selling is an experience rather than a plane ticket. And if they can make happy Japanese clients, they can deal with anyone.

On-ground Service: How many time we have complained for the lack of proactivity from personnel in the check-in desk at the airport? Well you can be assure that if traveling with SIA, their employees will approach you even if you have nothing to complain about. Not only this but also they try to make the “boring part of traveling” more bearable by improving the boarding process as well as the delivery of your baggage in the carousel. Furthermore, they might even send someone to stalk you outside your office until you are free so they can apologize for any inconvenience you might have had during your flight (bow included). 

Constant Measurement of Satisfaction: In order to maintain their standards high-in-the-sky, the company is constantly reviewing its operations, leveraging on customer’s opinions, flight crew reports and by intensively benchmarking against their competitors. This approach helps identify any issue before it becomes relevant and also help anticipate clients’ needs, even before they “need” them.

These competitive advantages have allowed SIA to charge a premium for their service, without eroding their client base, as usually clients feel it is worth the value, but still being competitive. 

To close my post, I would like to leave you with a thought about the high value experience provided by SIA.

“First think, how much less profitable for the airline is to serve $200+ wine accompanied by the gourmet dinner recommendation coming from a sommelier to a passenger traveling on a $15,000 suite (as the one shown in the video) from Singapore to New York? Now ask yourself, would you value your experience the same if instead” 

[jerryko0906]

Fair skin and the poverty porn

There are many people consider fair skin more desirable than dark in India. The cosmetics industry has offered skin-lightening creams, making great success.

However, is it fair that their commercials seem to describe fair-skinned people as superior to those with darker skin colors?

This case evokes minds me controversies around poverty porn.

Poverty porn is an advertisement that exploits the poor's condition in order to generate the necessary sympathy for increasing charitable donations.

There’s a reason such poverty porn becomes popular among humanitarian aid organizations. This is because poverty porn delivers on its promise. In fact, audiences are more likely to make a donation when an ad shows a child that is suffering. 

But, is the profitability of poverty porn worth the perpetuation of false ideologies and stereotypes? No. Sustainable development can be possible with not only financial support but also having a deeper understanding of the issue of poverty and the necessary structural changes. 

If the humanitarian organizations keep displaying the suffering sceans to raise their fund, low-engaged donors might stop to donate, being sick of watching uncomfortable reality which cannot make any difference for a while.

<controversial skin fairness advertisement>

<examples of poverty porn>

[nikitakfan]

Name Bias in Resume Reviews: How Quick  Judgments Affect Minorities

Self branding is incredibly important. People we interact with make judgments and perceptions about us: 150 milliseconds to categorize us and 30 minutes to make lasting opinions on our character. 

How does this affect the hiring process, and more specifically, the resume review process? Turns out, minorities have to think about this a lot. An article in HBR finds that “African American and Asian job applicants who mask their race on resumes seem to have better success getting job interviews, according to research by Katherine DeCelles and colleagues.” The name bias when reviewing resumes means some people may not even get a chance to make an impression in person.

While not surprising, I think this is a topic that not everyone is attune to. As seen in the graphic below from the HBR article, whitened names on resumes produce more than twice the number of interview call backs for Black applicants and just under twice as many for Asian applicants.

https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/minorities-who-whiten-job-resumes-get-more-interviews

“People … want to have like an awesome black worker but they want one who they feel like fits within a certain box and like very much will conform and like lay low and just kind of do what’s expected of them, and they’re not necessarily looking for the outspoken like political radical person,” a black college senior said. “I feel like race is just one of the many aspects where you try to just like buff the surface smooth … and pretend like there’s nothing sticking out.” -HBR Article

I only actually started going by Nikki when I entered college to make my name more appealing for finance jobs (advice I received from Asian alums at my university). The outcome of this decision was confirmed when I was in an interview, and the interviewer asked me what my name was (while staring at my resume). I said “My name’s Nikita, but you can call me ‘Nikki.’” The response I got from the interviewer at the financial firm? “Thank god, that’s a lot easier.” 

[bubblybrandingbeaver-blog]

One question I have in mind upon finishing the case “Fair & Lovely vs. Dark is Beautiful”: what should be the right strategy for a business/brand that hinges stably on a belief in certain characteristics such as Fair & Lovely with the word “Fair” in its name, if WOW had successfully changed people’s perception?

[acrogers-blog1]

Human’s are weird. We perceive things differently depending on sequence, we remember only significant or specific interactions and we like to think we’re in control, even if we’re really not. So how can businesses use behavioral science to their advantage? Probably in all aspects of their business, such as hiring, negotiations, partnerships and customer service. Today I’ll focus on customer service since service is critical to any business retaining its customers.

There are five customer service operating principles that use behavioral science to approach customer service from a CUSTOMER’s point of view. So many companies think about customer service inwards out, focusing on faster call times and quicker wait times. With each principle, I’m going to explain the principle and then share an example from my own customer service interactions. Feel free to share you own with me below too!

Five customer service operating principles

1.       Finish Strong- The ending encounter is far more important than the beginning because it’s what remains in customer’s recollections

My experience: I purchased a massive ice cream cake for my mother’s birthday. I had a question about delivery time so I called up the ice cream shoppe. I don’t remember much regarding the conversation between me and the employee or how the cake tasted, but I do remember at the end of the call she said ‘Have a SWEET day’…which I thought was cute. I’d buy ice cream from there again!

2.       Get the bad experiences out of the way early - People prefer undesirable events to come first – so they can avoid dread – and to have the desirable events come at the end of a sequence, so they can savor them

My experience: At the airport last weekend, the stewardess shared that our flight was booked to capacity and that they were asking people to pre side check their bags, for free. She was upfront that there wouldn’t be enough space for all overhead baggage, but that side check could get you your bag faster without having to lift it up heavy in the air. Many people opted to side check their bag after she got that bad news out of the way early.

3.       Segment the pleasure, combine the pain- From the customers point of view, two 90-second Disney rides last longer than one three-minute ride.

My experience: I’m a routine shopper at Sephora… the more I spend, the more points I attain. With 100 points, I can receive a fun small gift at each checkout. With 500 points, I can receive a larger gift at checkout. I always opt to receive the little 100 points gift because it’s a nice feeling at each checkout experience to walk away with something free.

4.       Build Commitment through Choice- People are happier and more comfortable when they believe they have some control over a process

My experience: I’m not quite sure if this is a good example here but when I applied to colleges, I made sure I applied to some safety schools, target schools and reach schools. This way, I felt I could control some of the process and know I was going to college somewhere…I’m not sure how this built commitment, so I’ll keep thinking on this one.

5.       Give people rituals, and stick to them - People find comfort, order and meaning in repetitive, familiar activities

My experience: Every Mother’s Day, my family goes to the same restaurant. There is always a beautiful plant as the center piece and at the end of each meal, the waiter announces that my mother can take it home with her! We act surprised each time, but after 10 potted plants….we know it’s coming. I can’t imagine the uproar if the restaurant ever took away this tradition.

If businesses pay attention to these five behavioral principles, they’ll have much more success increasing revenue and life time value with existing customers. This isn’t just a hypothesis, HelpScout shared that 7 in 10 Americans said they’d spend more money with companies they thought provided outstanding customer service. This HelpScout article (click above) has tons of amazing customer service facts that business ought to pay attention to!

Next time you have a customer service interaction, try to rate the interaction using the five principles listed above!

[seahoonkim-blog]

Cosmetics for Men

Cosmetics for Men is a $1.2B market in Korea. Korean men spend more per capita on cosmetics than any other men in the world. They are influenced by Korean celebrities and commercials - just like Fair & Lovely's in India - that well-groomed men are "better." A highly competitive market, Korean brands - Amore Pacific and LG Household & Health Care - make up more than 50% of the market share and international giants - Estee Lauder Companies and L'Oreal - are eager to expand their footholds. 

However, the way those brands - domestic and international alike - approach the Korean market is highly specific and effective. One may suspect that cosmetics are only desired by millennials in Korea, but "anti-aging" has been highly popularized across generations. Take a look at this commercial by Biotherm Homme, a L'Oreal's luxury brand. It features a top Korean actor - Won Bin - and tells a story of why one should use anti-aging products from early on and for an extended time. By using a younger and well-groomed actor, the ad effectively portrays what you could be by using the product and when you should start using the product, a much younger age than one might imagine.

Another tactics - a brilliant one - Biotherm Homme uses is encouraging significant others to buy its products as gifts. Targeted for a Valentine's day, this ad features the same actor with a girlfriend and suggests what kind of cosmetics she should give him this year, depending on where they are in their relationship. Not only the brand positions itself as romantic element in a relationship (and now it does have a symbolic meaning in Korean society), it suggests that it can grow with it by showing multiple lines and functions. 

[the-mrmeowgi-blog]

For the first time in 50 years, Sports Illustrated, one of the most highly anticipated magazines featured a plus size model on their cover in February 2016. This marked a turning point for all women - one of the earliest signs in the industry to show acceptance for women with bodies of all shapes and sizes.

Ashley Graham catapulted to stardom since her feature on the SI Swimsuit cover in 2016, and since then, has used her platform to continue her mission to promote the notion of ‘beauty beyond size’, and shut down body shamers. She recently released a book that focuses on highlighting a way toward a more inclusive definition of beauty, and has spoken out at numerous events, including TedX, for her cause.

Sports Illustrated followed their historic 2016 issue with a 2018 issue featuring US Olympic gymnasts Aly Raisman and Simon Biles - again highlighting the importance and acceptance of body diversity.

As a woman, I am proud to say that since then, I have genuinely witnessed first hand how average-sized women have been increasingly not only been noticed but been pushed to the forefront of the fashion industry.

A childhood friend, Mia Kang, has struggled with body dysmorphia her whole life until she embraced who she was. “I was discovered at 13. I grew up as an obese kid and teenager. I was heavily bullied in school. When I was 13, I cut my weight in half, I stopped eating, and then as soon as I became skinny, deathly skinny, I got scouted as a model.”

Because of her modelling abilities, she landed a spot in the Sports Illustrated 2016 issue, as a rookie model:

I’ve known Mia since the day she was still in college studying for her finance degree, with 0 instagram followers. Over the last few years, I have watched her go from success to success, land her SI swimsuit cover, and go from a miserable, self-conscious, size 0 model to a healthy, confident, size 6 model who practises Muay Thai boxing. I have watched her use her new-found celebrity status (and 200k instagram following) to promote body diversity, and her hard work is paying off.

Now, brands that also increasingly want to be associated with body inclusiveness are knocking down her door. She has been featured for Clarks, Nike, Cotton On, Amazon Lingerie... and the list goes on.

My takeaway? If you’re a brand, find a celebrity that lives, breathes, sleeps what your brand wants to communicate, and from there, getting to your audience with the right message should be as easy as 1-2-3.

[marimerguevarallatas-blog]

Healthcare Marketing: Why customers easily accepted American Well products

If you were a patient, would you feel offended if a company tries to profit from you when you are sick ? Of course you would! Nonetheless, American Well successfully positioned its brand to customers by placing themselves as a ‘altruistic and friendly system of products’. These products were designed to to help a market with underserved needs and to solve people’s current healthcare issues by saving them time, money and by being less inconvenient. The video embedded in this post shows the simplicity of marketing message when reaching potential clients. Why do I think the company was successful at gaining market share?

Customer Empowerment: In the regular system where providers, health insurances and patients interact, there is no space for end-users to have a voice. They are fully dependent on nurses and a doctor’s calendar system/availability. American Well disrupted the market by allowing customers to take control back and to select how and when to manage their healthcare affairs. 

Premium Positioning without the Price Tag: Even though, American Well interactions are cheaper for the patients (between $20 and $45) and insurance companies; the product is not perceived that way by clients. Actually, American Well seems and feels like a premium service for patients as they have more freedom to do the following: choose specific times, pick doctors based on profiled, use their personal technology and enjoy a more private and relaxing place when talking about their health (calling/chatting/video from their own homes.) 

Favorable Demographic Changes: People 65 years old and over will continue to increase in the US and international markets which helps with the introduction of these type of products (older people have more more restrictions to move around). Interestingly enough, this people are also getting more comfortable with using technology and even have a higher willingness to pay for healthcare products as Forbes claims: (https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimberlywhitler/2017/07/22/the-new-world-of-healthcare-marketing-lessons-from-across-the-world/#d61782e60847). 

If American Well continues to use the ‘we solve your problems’ tactic when introducing new products (and the healthcare system desperately needs these innovations!), they will continue to grow even amidst an industry that is changing fast and drastically. 

[peter-sheffield-grace]

What happens when celebrities that people hate wear brands that people love?

In reading the Burberry case, what stood out to me was how the brand became increasingly popular among consumers outside of its target audience, including urban youth, hip-hop musicians, and reality TV stars.

This had me wondering, how do brands respond when they get so popular that icons negatively viewed by the public start wearing them? 

A quick look at the archives surfaced this gem: American clothing brand Abercrombie & Fitch politely asked Jersey Shore cast member Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino not to wear its clothes. A&F said: “We understand that the show is for entertainment purposes, but believe this association is contrary to the aspirational nature of our brand, and may be distressing to many of our fans.” 

That’s one, embarrassing approach.

When Snooki began toting a variety of high-end purses, major fashion houses aggressively sent things to Snooki. The catch, however, was that they were sending her their competitor’s bags just so she wouldn’t wear theirs.

Ok, that’s hilariously strategic.

Do these tactics damage the brand image or help distant it from these celebs? More importantly, when will the Jersey Shore cast return?!