Nerd Acumen

Rob Walker wrote an article about the brand underground in New York City for the NYT Magazine back in 2006.  It details how brands like aNYthing operating out of NY, which exist for the sole purpose and sake of being a brand, rather than having a branding initiative attached to an existing product, are emerging and how they’ve become viable business models.  As Walker rightly points out, we’re living in an age where emotional connections are being developed towards brands by consumers, in part due to the efforts of agencies and businesses to market their brands within certain social or cultural contexts that elicit those emotional connections.  He uses the example of certain fast food chains or beer bottlers and how they use iconography associated with so-called masculinity to develop emotional connections with their target demographics.  In other words, Joe the Consumer, who likes Miller Beer and Burger King, will associate certain male-centric imagery and messages with those products due to their respective branding, and feel empowered or supported in his personal idea of masculinity by consuming those burgers and beer.  So, in essence, the product existed before the branding and the branding was a means of pushing the product.

In stark contrast to that then we have brands like aNYthing, where the branding exists first and then the tangible goods are added to the mix.  Meaning, instead of Hanes tees, it’s Hanes tees with the aNYthing logo attached (although I don’t know who manufactures the goods in this case; that’s merely an example – and before you say, “hey, wait, brands like Nike push tees with their logo on it”, I will point out that in those cases the tee itself represents a product that existed first and is therefore selling an overall image associated with those pre-existing products, e.g., sports and athletic apparel/equipment).  With an underground movement like aNYthing, you create the brand then find ways to exploit it.  In that, it becomes adaptable to any number of durable goods or services.

So what is the strength of the brand, what makes it sell, and what the heck am I getting at in that headline about memes and egoboo? (more…)