A large part of defining our personality is based upon the links that we have. There is a lot you can tell a lot about a person by the friends that they have. In a digital context you might find out a lot more about a person by looking at their facebook friends or links on their blog, rather than reading the personal details they have provided.
A brand is essentially a personality and there is no reason reason why the same rules don’t apply. Peoples’ perception of a brand will be altered and defined by the links a brand holds.
Brands can make use of links and associations to their advantage. They can collaborate with other brands which posses associations or audiences they desire. For example recently LG have been collaborating with fashion brands such as Gucci and Hugo Boss, to obtain associations of luxury and style.
One of my favourite examples was when classic British shoe makers Loake collaborated with sports brand Puma. Puma gets a healthy dose of luxury, and history, while Loake gets an injection of style and potentially opens up to a new younger audience.
Get it right and everyone’s a winner. On the other hand, get it wrong and you might have quite a job to end the perceived associations.
3 Comments
February 27, 2009 at 2:22 pm
[...] Get people walking and talking your brand Jump to Comments Recently Trendplanner looked at Brand collaboration, and how brands can join together to share in each others positive associations and audience. One [...]
May 12, 2009 at 11:37 am
[...] – Mr Bump and yellow coke bottles Jump to Comments Trendplanner loves a good bit of brand collaboration. It can be a great opportunity for brands to share each others positive associations, and obtain [...]
July 15, 2009 at 6:09 pm
[...] they have made their own online content, and put themselves in the places people already are. More brand collaboration has enabled Lego to turn competitors into partners with the likes of SpongeBob Squarepants and [...]