Marketing Decoded

We’ve talked quite a bit this term about giving up control of your brand.  Brandchannel has an interesting article about Jay-Z, Cristal and brand control.  You may know about the famous feud between the CEO of Cristal and Jay Z.  The CEO of Cristal was asked about his thoughts on how Cristal had been lifted from a luxury brand known to connoisseurs to a bling brand via rap mentions.  His response:  we can’t stop people buying it.  Yikes!  Enter Jay-Z.  By including the brand name, along with Dom, in his song, Jay-Z introduced Cristal to a whole new segment and gave the brand a new meaning:  audacious, kind of subversive, associated with the good life in an cheeky, intrepid way.

Is this a problem for the brands:  what if they don’t want the association with hip hop’s values?  Can they do anything about it or should they just drive on and wait until the next thing takes over?   Is there any real risk to the core segment that buys the brand being alienated by the infusion of new buyers or will the groups even notice each other?  Should the CEO have said anything or just kept his mouth shut and been thankful that his brand’s sales had dramatically increased?  Interesting decisions around brand control and when to let it go…or if you can even control it the way you’d like to.