2016 promises to be a complex year for brands. After decades of an annual economic growth averaging nearly 6 per cent, Goldman Sachs predicts economic growth this year will be down to just 2.5 per cent.
Bloomberg predicts that the global market of personal luxury goods is heading for the weakest period since 2009, as a combination of stock market turmoil and a stronger dollar in commodity prices cut the demand. The new norm for the luxury market is a growth of only 3 to 4 per cent of total spending. The total spending will pass 1 trillion Euros by the end of 2016.
If that’s the case, and all the brands out there that are in competition in order to secure a continuing relationship with existing customers, or to introduce themselves and engage a new customer base, how do you go about that? How do you distinguish yourself? How do you grab and retain that individual? How to position yourself within the marketplace, in terms of identity. How you can also engage new, interesting customers. I believe the key is to leverage culture and the arts.
Believe it or not, as far back as the 15th Century, there has been a long-established history regarding the marriage of business and the arts. Leonardo da Vinci had banker Lorenzo di Medici. You have Michelangelo and Julius II, which resulted in the Sistine Chapel. Again, it would not exist unless there was a relationship between art and business.
Societies, tastemakers and executives have all routinely adopted the arts as an instrument of self-definition, and a means of shaping the public persona for business and personal gains.
Let’s take the Tribeca Film Festival, which was founded shortly after 9/11, in order to re-ignite and re-engage lower Manhattan as both a business and commercial residential area. American Express stepped up and became the lead sponsor of the festival, and it’s now in its 14th year. Robert de Niro is the co-founder. This is probably one of the best modern-day examples of a corporation working and partnering on a cultural event.
Another example is Texaco, which sponsored the Texaco broadcast for over 40 years. In America, during the 40s and 50s, people all over the country would sit by their radios in order to hear the live broadcast that Texaco would sponsor.
Forward-thinking companies have moved beyond the one-dimensional aspect of direct dollar for logo placement. They have adopted a model that is more strategic and organically designed for marketing platforms, to solidify brand identity and to amplify customer loyalty.
First, I want to point out what art and culture will not do. It will not produce the kind of mass click-through impressions that are pervasive in the media. You will not be able to pull something off like Doritos does at the Superbowl. It is the personalisation and customisation that is going to develop, and sustain these relationships.
In turn, those people become your brand ambassadors, talking directly to their friends. The other thing to remember is that luxury brands, like the arts, are about the experiential. They are designed around an audience that demand a one-of-a-kind opportunity.
The watch and jewellery brand Van Cleef & Arpels is famous for this, having developed workshops that you can either do as a one-time hour presentation, or you can actually take a series of classes that teach you the craft of jewellery and gemology. This is open to the public, and something that anyone can go and participate in.
That sense of engagement, that sense of involvement, is what brands strive for in order to solidify a relationship. Once you engage those customers and once you engage those individuals, they become your storytellers. They become your brand ambassadors, and help extend the relevancy of your brand to the next level of consumer.
Being involved in the world of art creates lasting impressions. They do not fade, but they echo. They ripple over the course of time, and they create memories. Think about witnessing a ballet, an opera or seeing a work of art for the first time. That initial reaction, that visceral emotional connection is something you really want to capture, and want associated with your brand. That’s the power of art. That it is truly strong, unique, organic and genuine.
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One of the stellar brands that utilizes arts and culture in order to engage customers and introduce themselves to new ones, is Louis Vuitton. They opened up a new facility in Paris, called Foundation Louis Vuitton, that opened a little over a year ago. It houses some of Louis Vuitton’s earliest collections, but more importantly allow the curatorial voice of different individuals to bring in artists and exhibitions from around the world.
Again, this underscores the value of what Louis Vuitton is trying to do as a brand. The building was designed by Frank Gehry, and it speaks to the energy and the vitality of a brand that helps support this institution. This example underscores the needs to align with the right partner, to improve a brand’s social credibility, and increase consumer endorsement.
The question I get asked the most is, “How do I do all this?” I have a few rules, the first being that the CEO must be fully engaged. There is an old saying, ‘a fish stinks from its head’. It’s an old adage, but it means that whatever the leader supports people get behind, it sends a definite message for everyone else down the chain to step in to line and get behind the company.
Without the successful engagement of the CEO, changes of a successful program being funded or taken seriously is very limited.
Customisation is also essential. You can’t just pick some creative artists, and tell them exactly what you want them to do. The idea is to commission them, and allow their interpretation in a creative way. Not only does this engage the artists, but allows you to target a different kind of customer.
Speaking to your arts partner is one of the most critical aspect of any partnership. The business sector, for lack of a better word, has a distinct culture to it. It varies from brand to brand, company to company. The same is true when you are dealing artists and art organisations, they too have a culture. It’s important to sit down and clearly define what both your objectives are. What do you want to achieve?
No matter what, any program to do with the arts must withstand the scrutiny of the media. It must be authentic above all else.
One luxury company, let’s just say that they are a major one, wanted to celebrate the 50th anniversary of an iconic product. It partnered up with contemporary artists, built a traveling pavilion built by one of the most celebrated architects of modern times, and kicked off a world tour in New York. The visual arts media tore it apart, as they walked into the exhibition and saw nothing more than a display of a product.
They saw it as commercialism, as a way to taking the brand and literally pushing it down the throats of people. The feedback was not positive. What the brand did wrong was they did not consider where the pavilion was. It was on public land in Central Park. Which, if you know Central Park, it’s sort of sacrosanct. You don’t take a public amenity and commercialise it.
I have seen companies attempt something similar, or tried to enact an ‘off-the-shelf’ program. A company has seen another company do something well in the arts, and they go, “Oh, this looks great. Let’s do the same thing”. There are examples of this in fashion and in art. It never works, not as it’s supposed to, because it does not resonate. The message rings false and inauthentic, because it is.
Ultimately, no society or business can be successful without the creative impulse of art and culture. You can’t flourish for long, and you can never achieve greatness. That was true during the Renaissance period, and the same is applicable today.
Good art is good business. And helping to develop art and culture, even in today’s marketing-dominated world, will not just benefit your bottom line but, but the world in general.