As the saying goes, imitation is the ultimate form of flattery. I suppose that saying can be applied to the “art of branding” — when an artist interprets a brand in his or her medium of choice. Think of the Campbell’s Soup can painting by Andy Warhol?
I arrived back from a great beach getaway this week to read this article on Yahoo! about the $2500 X-box and Nike shoes created by artist Sole Junkie out of California. With that kind of price tag, this certainly isn’t going to become a widely popular pair of sneakers (neither Microsoft nor Nike endorse it), but for art-loving XBox devotees, this might be the splurge they’ve been waiting for.
Regardless of the price, there certainly is value in both the XBox and Nike brands. Even Sole Junkie recognized that (check out his website, he has some interesting work).
The question on every brand manager’s mind should be this — how can I make my brand interesting enough for someone to create art from it and how can I create a loyal consumer following who would want to buy art with my brand on it? Maybe not sneakers, but some form of art. Take that to your boss when it’s time for performance reviews!
Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc. and Founder & Editor in Chief of an award-winning blog, WomenOnBusiness.com. She is a 25-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored 10 books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing.
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