We promise this will be the last dispatch from our friends at ‘Glasgow: Scotland with Style’, but we couldn’t let it pass without copying you all in on this wonder of brand-induced double-speak: (extract from press release 07/04/06)
The focal point of each of the two ads is a â??thirty-somethingâ?? woman who epitomises style, confidence and success. She can be seen sitting in the rear seat of a luxury car as she arrives at her destination â?? Glasgow.
The carâ??s windows meanwhile, provide a tantalising glimpse of the floodlit cityscape beyond.
In addition, a revolutionary communications strategy for the advertising campaign has been devised by Feather Brooksbank that has the development of a â??style pyramidâ?? at its core.
The style pyramid has four tiers: tier one focuses on the exclusive style setters; tier two the early style adopters; while tiers three and four contain respectively the capital leaders (ie, leaders and followers in London) and the UK style followers.
This approach is based on research, which demonstrates how the lower tiers of the pyramid aspire to, and get their style cues from, the influential higher tiers.
By targeting the top two tiers of the style pyramid – the exclusive style setters and early style adopters – rather than adopting a mass market approach, Glasgow: Scotland with style will be filtered down through the pyramid establishing it as an iconic and enduring style brand.
â??Itâ??s not about traditional destination marketing, itâ??s about a strategy that builds the equity of a style brand over time and ultimately leads to maximum return on investment and iconic status.â?
To me this strategy sounds not disimilar to the ‘mate-ism’ so eloquently dissected by Ekow Eshun in Dazed and Confused magazine. He pointed out the downfalls of this approach – that ad execs are obsessed with fetishising mundane aspects of friendship and selling to a declining youth market. He writes: “The final rotten conceit of mateism is the idea that ‘cool’ (still a standard industry term) is disseminated by an opinion former within a group of friends — yet ‘cool’ isn’t about who’s first to buy something, it’s about imagining something that doesn’t exist or having the front to make it or wear it or play it irrespective of what the world thinks.”
The point is well made that this pyramid system only appeals to a very market-led idea of opinion formers or style leaders, i.e. those without the imagination to see beyond the fairly paltry offerings spoon fed to them by ad agencies. The real style leaders, if indeed such a thing exists, think brand is bland and it’ll take more than a few â??photosâ?? of a â??thirty-something woman who epitomises style, confidence and success’ to convince them otherwise.