Branding
Bakery Bake-off
These bakeries have leapt from low-key following to fully baked cult status, and with that, leveraged lateral business opportunities along the way. And best of all, they boast bundles of styled character and warm charm, provoking an emotional connection that is somewhat lacking from those slick designer bakeries.
Homes Away From Home
Soho House Group is a collection of members clubs for those in Arts, Media and Fashion, and, since the founding home in London’s Soho in 1995, has extended to four London clubs, Babington in Somerset, New York, and recent additions in West Hollywood, Miami and Berlin. Each of independent character, yet with underlying similarities – a feel, an atmosphere, an air. And it’s not the styled surrounds and service that make it, that provoke that sense of belonging and membership – it’s what Soho House represents, it’s brand, that makes these Houses feel like your second, third, fourth homes.
Foodies for Thought
Jamie, Nigella, Heston, Delia. You know to whom I refer. As instantly recognisable as Brad or Angelina, or those celebrities who seemingly don’t even have a surname, like Adele. Just Adele.
Anyway, these chefs/cooks/culinary gods and goddesses are all brands. Or are they Personalities? No, they’re definitely brands, each with their own distinct personality whilst cooking at the centre of a huge cookery empire bubbling with branded books, kitchenware, restaurants and supermarket endorsements.
A Winter’s Tale… of Summer
We know exactly what these brands are up to with their sun-bleached, slow-motion, photo-moment ad campaigns that jog the memories of our own good old summer times. Whilst the big airlines are currently offering appealing, black-and-white big discounts on flights (British Airways, Virgin Atlantic…), they don’t have the same adrenaline-inducing impact of the warmth and fuzziness of EasyJet’s latest campaign, or that of the new home of all-inclusive, First Choice. Both ‘holiday-makers’ showcase an alternative reality of what your summer could be, to a feel-good, party time track.
New Year, New Man
Not only is GQ The World’s Leading Men’s Magazine; this brand has built itself to Lead The World’s Men. Well, a certain type of man.
The Irrationality of Infectious Affection for Inexplicably Russian Meerkats. Simples.
Insurance price comparison site Comparethemarket.com is a brand. Uniquely, a brand packaged around comical and inexplicably Russian meerkat mascot, Aleksandr Orlov. Objectively: irrational. But how could you rationally market Comparethemarket? It’s difficult to distinguish one comparison site from another. Novelty is the only way to cut through. And for Comparethemarket, the novelty of its meerkats has become its USP.
