How to Destroy Your Brand
The following post is from the ArmaniTalks Newsletter
When many people think of building a brand, they think about who the brand caters to.
But what is not often talked about is who the brand does not cater to.
I recall when I was a kid, I’d see my mom watching the Lifetime network.
Every now and then, I’d watch the shows as well.
Not going to lie…
The shows on Lifetime were lit!
There was this one time I was reading a book called ‘Killing Mr. Griffin.’
And they were showing that movie on Lifetime.
One day, I was going to introduce my other friends to Lifetime, but then I heard the station go to commercial break.
I heard the station say their motto.
‘Lifetime, Television for Women.’
What?
Women?
I didn’t know that!
Technically speaking, I wasn’t in their market.
They’d be happy to have me on board, but I wasn’t their ideal avatar.
Imagine if I began getting defiant and telling the Lifetime executives:
‘I demand you make X, Y, and Z changes.’
They will laugh at me.
It’s because their brand has CLEAR boundaries.
The reason a lot of brands fail nowadays is because they have 0 boundaries.
No story.
They are bags floating in the wind.
This happened to Gillette a few years ago.
When they made that cringe Toxic Masculinity ad.
It was a debacle from the very get go and they knew it.
It backfired spectacularly and made them lose the trust of their core group.
Now, I see GQ falling for the same mistake.
Yesterday, they made Kim Kardashian the Man of the Year.
It’s because her company has signed a long-term deal to provide men’s stretchy clothes to NBA players.
Still….
Really?
Making a woman the Man of the Year?
There was not a single man to give the Man of the Year award to?
Simply asking this ^question will trigger people nowadays.
They’ll say stuff like:
‘What’s wrong with a woman getting a Man of the Year Award? You’re not some kind of misogynist, are you?’
I’m a lot of things, but misogynist isn’t one of them.
I like street smarts though.
And the thing I despise is when excessive book smarts, fancy words, and hypotheticals muddy sound judgment.
Give a woman, Women of the Year.
Give a man, Man of the Year.
So simple that a kindergartener can understand!
The mainstream brands usually dig their own graves.
They have no core identity.
They have no clue who they serve.
They have no clue who they don’t serve.
And due to that, they are an aimless bag floating in the wind.
