I think a lot of what I wanted to do in 2014 was build a repertoire or a portfolio for what I can do with traditional celebrities or with brands or whatever. Maybe 2015 is the year I start reaching out to people I always dreamed to do stuff with.
I am in love with Kareena Kapoor. I have watched all her films and buy brands that are endorsed by her.
The reality of it is, we have to have an enormous amount of corporate support to fund 43 race teams and all the things that go on. So there are always going to be brands that may not be ones that you would choose, but that are willing to make a significant investment.
China approaches fashion with strong enthusiasm. And I believe that this enthusiasm can be translated into something interesting, economically speaking. Not only for my brand, but also for other brands.
I’ve seen many of those brand collaborations where, basically, the only point is sticking on a Gucci sticker. That degrades good brands.
As I’ve progressed in my career, I’ve come to appreciate – and really value – the other attributes that define a company’s success beyond the P&L: great leadership, long-term financial strength, ethical business practices, evolving business strategies, sound governance, powerful brands, values-based decision-making.
When brands advertise with sports players, it inspires people to be part of and play sport.
Sometimes we think that the more expensive brands will be more effective. Sometimes if you stick to the basics, that’s what really matters. That’s what I do anyway.
I don’t care about brands as long as I love what I am wearing.
In hindsight, most of us are also limited with our resources, one has to think about themselves too. So I put it out there that I’m open to collaborations on social media, for brands too, if they deposit money directly into the account of an NGO, I send them.
As a kid growing up, one of the brands I thought was tremendous was Karl Kani… and I don’t see Karl Kani today. I want to see SheaMoisture tomorrow.
Great brands are meant to be great aggregators.
Don’t have just anyone run your social media. I think it’s insane when brands or celebrities relegate their social media to an intern or someone who does not know them well.
Other brands I like besides Versace… Tom Ford makes incredible suits. I love the glasses as well. I have a plethora of Tom Ford shades. Who else do I like? Dolce & Gabbana, Dior Homme.
A lot of brands are saying they’re going to make ‘gender neutral’ clothing. But clothing is gender neutral.
After my first fashion week, there were so many brands approaching us, and we said ‘No’ 90 per cent of the time. We didn’t care about making a lot of money – it seemed so short term. We’ve always wanted to create something bigger.
When it comes to other celebrity brands, I think a lot of people do a great job, but it can’t be all about them. Everybody doesn’t want to just look like the celebrity, because they can’t. They just want one element of that style.
You don’t sell as many records as you used to because of illegal downloads, but I think there are other ways you can make money through your music. Whether it’s through merchandise or teaming up with other companies or brands or whatever, there are ways.
I’ve always believed about brands and media that the mistake sometimes that’s made is to think you’re just going to take what you’ve been doing and kind of re-purpose it into the new platform. I don’t think that ever works because consumers look for different experiences in different media formats.
I realized how far-reaching the effect of hip hop was when I walked by a jewelry store named Bling in a small, rural town in France. Hip hop has made a huge impact on urban culture. Yet many brands still don’t speak to young people in a tone and manner that’s representative of them.
If you look at Disney’s slate compared to the other Hollywood studios, it stands out because of big titles and strong franchise films which also extend beyond cinemas, to merchandising or theme parks given the legacy of the four brands – Disney, Pixar, Marvel and now Lucasfilm.
People are understanding what it means to really create a space that feels like a direct reflection of you and I think with brands like Living Spaces, you can really start to take those chances for the first time.
Great brands and great businesses have to be great storytellers, too. We have to tell stories – emotive, compelling stories – and even more so because we’re nonfiction.
Console game publishing has become more like theatrical release film-making and it is very hard if you are not one of the major publishers, and even for them it is hard unless they are working with major game brands.
The eight months I took off between ‘Teen Vogue’ and ‘Lucky’ afforded me such amazing opportunities, and I learned so much from so many different people – the brands that I worked with, the companies that I was consulting for.
We’re in conversations with brands worldwide for a variety of artists every day.
That image is now associated with the Portuguese coaches: the ability to adapt, to arrive and win, to assemble good teams and good structures is undoubtedly one of our brands and I think that’s the main fact for which we are most respected around the world.
Chinese brands will face many obstacles when marketing to Western consumers. Beyond the associations with poor quality and unsound environmental practices, they generally do not have the marketing capabilities or budgets to build powerful global brands.
When I first started, there really was no beauty guru community. I didn’t have the right production resources. I had to learn how to edit. I didn’t even have beauty products. I had to go out and buy them myself because beauty brands didn’t even know what a beauty guru was.
I was never as famous as all these kids. There was no social media. We weren’t celebrity-obsessed as a culture. I feel like these kids are under a crazy microscope; they’re basically brands. And they eventually implode and act out. They need a break, and they’re not getting one.
I do believe that Raw, SmackDown, and NXT are the three brands, and I think that people can come from Raw or SmackDown to NXT, and I think that people from NXT can go to Raw or SmackDown. It’s very interchangeable.
I find working on brands some of the most interesting work you can do.
I don’t think so, in that Virgin is already a global brand. Brands like Amazon have had to spend hundreds of millions of pounds you know, building their brands, whereas Virgin is already well-known around the world.
Designers still won’t dress me, and if they do, they will send a dress that doesn’t fit me because it’s the only sample that they have in their office that we can get to in time, and then it’s hard because I don’t want to support certain brands that I don’t feel like are diverse in their messaging.
Brand marketers don’t believe that ad-tech companies view brands as true partners. Ad-tech companies think brand marketers are paying attention to the wrong things. And publishers, with a few important exceptions, feel taken advantage of by everyone.
My husband is in branding. He brands places – cities, institutions.
Rentals are 10% of the sales of luxury brands globally, and we are able to achieve that in India by experimenting with location.
Branding in electric mobility is critical, but I think what Tesla has also demonstrated is that you can build new brands.
If you look at Jeep, Ram, and the premium brands, those are brands that will survive.
The ingredients for great advertising haven’t changed since the ‘Mad Men’ era: Brands win if their advertising is relevant and people like it.
In our quest to tweet, like, and trend, we have forgotten that brands can be built through advertising. Ads can generate big ideas that can never be trumped by tactics. That is the magic of an ad, and that is what is missing from many ads today.
China is a country, still, of great contrast. While hundreds of millions of people are part of the middle class and yearn for things made in America – American brands, movies, music – there are other hundreds of millions of people throughout China who are living on the equivalent of one U.S. dollar a day.
Too many brands treat social media as a one way, broadcast channel, rather than a two-way dialogue through which emotional storytelling can be transferred.
More brands are waking up to their social responsibility and doing good work through cause marketing campaigns. Yet too many still go about it the wrong way. I mean ‘wrong’ in two senses. Firstly, they are marketing ineffectively, and secondly, as a consequence their positive social impact is not maximized.
Google is in a position where it doesn’t even have to strive to become a hip, conscious choice. Brands are temporary fads. Functionality is forever. Google just has to ‘be,’ and everyone will end up there sooner or later.
If brands can find a voice that matches them, and the artist embraces it, they can find a way that would serve them that doesn’t feel like a sellout to the artists and has dramatic impact for the brand.
I am not a celebrity. I work with celebrities, and it is very difficult. When a celebrity wears a dress, it’s good for business, so brands fight for the red carpet. Me? I don’t like it, because fashion becomes a job about dressing celebrities. And it’s a bit boring.
