Oi! Mind how you entrench that brand in my tender glutes
YES, it is me. I’ve been spotted and outed. I’m the unshaven Saturday slob walking a vocally ambitious basset hound at Delta Park in northern Johannesburg and doing battle with garishly clad mountain bikers who take visceral pleasure in shaving their pointy handlebars against my glutes as they live out their Cape Epic fantasies.
It’s the branded clothing, though, that is germane to this observation. As they swoop by at high speed, many of them display big-name brands on their too-tight shorts and shirts. In one particularly brutal morning I’ve been shunted aside by a well-known yellow network and edged into the mud by a red banking brand that exhorts me to prosper. Tough to even think about that when one is pulling out thorns and wiping down a graze.
Now, of course, this is secondary or residual brand impact — pun intended. No organisation sets out to intentionally wound weekend walkers. I hope. They simply place their logos to support a recreational pastime and entrench their brand in a niche market. Furthermore, many of these minor sports would not exist without giant corporate support. But it’s worth reflecting on the relationship between brands and cloth- ing, which, while hugely visible, is often an unmentioned and badly managed touch point.
One of the giants in this space is car rental company Avis, whose staff, when in public, are more often than not nattily turned out in red. From the CEO to front-desk staff, it’s a cor- porate requirement. A past CEO once told me, trying to defend the cult argument I was putting forward, that the company found it gave customers not only confidence in the brand but also a sense of comfort and belief in the company’s “try harder” philosophy.
But he warned of unleashing the four horsemen of the apocalypse should a button be missing or a zip undone. He said staff in the livery were essentially walking, talking billboards for the brand and human interaction was far more effective than a static representation.
In a similar vein, the Hollard insurance group has effectively colonised the colour purple and the company even has an on-site store where staff (I presume at a good price) can buy high-quality garments and corporate products such as pens and bags.
And those last two items open another line in this debate. How often have you attended a wellorganised and well-marketed conference only to be let down by the crap in the goody bag, all heavily branded, that fails to open at first click or falls apart in your hands?
Above-the-line and below-theline advertising are crucial to a brand’s success, but it is the under-the-line stuff that creates a lasting impression — and is something few seem to get right.