Can one pair of shoes save a Company? It all depends on whose feet the shoes are worn. The right feet can change the fortunes of a struggling brand and so too can a Political or Social ideology surge to popularity if its message is delivered from the mouth of the right person.
We say that it is a modern phenomenon, this brand recognition and marketing strategy that can see a complete transformation, seemingly overnight, from failure to success. The opposite is also true: Bad marketing decisions can see the destruction of a Company faster than a rat up a drainpipe. However, selling a brand is a very old concept. It is only the sophistication of the selling tools that has changed.
In 2016, Volley Shoes, an Australian Company, was struggling. One day, at the Airport in Hong Kong, Chinese singer-songwriter and actress Faye Wong was seen wearing a white t shirt and jeans. On her feet, a pair of Volley shoes. Straightaway, everyone in China seemed to want a pair of Volleys. By 2020, it is anticipated that there will be 50 Volley stores in China to accommodate the direct retail sales demand. This is over and above online sales. One photo on instagram; one pair of feet and one hell of a big payoff for one very happy Aussie company.
During the Victorian era, the newly crowned Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert became trendsetters. When Victoria broke with tradition and wore a white wedding dress, she started a fashion that is still very much alive. When Albert brought a tree into their home at Christmas, everyone around the Empire started to follow suit.
Twitter can change the course of a company. It can also change a Nation. President Trump continues to use Twitter to great effect. The power of social media is immense. No wonder Social Media itself is censoring those that they feel may use their platforms to promote views with which they do not agree. Even Governments now are censoring social media and websites in an effort to subdue unfavourable debate and dissent.
Recently, we have seen a rash of companies make some very poor decisions. When the Target stores decided to embrace gender neutrality and transgender inclusion in their toilet facilities, customers boycotted their outlets. Of late, Colgate Palmolive and Pizza Hut bowed to the pressure of the online group Sleeping Giants and withdrew advertising of their products from Skynews. The backlash was swift: customers objected and have boycotted their respective products. I am among those who find it ridiculous that high profile companies allow their advertising to be dictated to by a group of less than 20 people who sit in their basements trolling twitter and telling gullible marketing executives how to run their businesses. In the case of Colgate and Pizza Hut, they chose the wrong feet.
Companies in Australia pay the halal fee every month to Islamic businessmen who, in exchange for this fee, somehow wave some magic camel dust and declare that the food or product is safe for use by moslems. The rest of us who are not moslem have to pay for this magic dust waving, despite objecting to it utterly. Cat food is halal certified and my cat assures me that she is not a moslem and has no desire to ever become one. However, she hastens to add that, should another cat who is moslem wish to pay the fee, then who is she to argue?
Like some Companies, some Politicians are making decisions that could destroy their brand. As I have often observed, those that kow tow to the vocal minority have failed to notice that those that bully them have never been supporters of their brand and likely never will be. As one commenter observed on another blog “ the members of Sleeping Giants who cost Colgate/Palmolive so many of its base probably don’t brush their teeth or wash anyway.”
As Nancy Sinatra sang all those years ago
“ These boots are made for walking and that’s just what they’ll do. One of these days these boots will come and walk all over you.
Are you ready boots? Start walking. “
Like many others, my boots are ready and I have started walking. And once I start walking, I will never go back.
