Kim Kardashian is now worth around $350 million. The star has ventured into numerous markets including TV shows, food, clothes, beauty, and even computer games; transforming herself into the ultimate brand! Much more than just a pretty face, Kim has built an empire in a short space of time with much of the credit going to her prosperous personal brand strategy. Love her or loathe her, she can teach us all a few things about brand strategy:
Optimise your Brand Strategy by Crafting The Perfect Message
As an expert in carefully crafting a brand strategy and message, Kim has successfully moved away from the idea that she is only a socialite and is now seen as an influential businesswoman and couture fashion icon.
Like all brands, personality and positioning are sculptured through clear messaging and when crafted effectively can change the way a brand is perceived by the audience.
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Kim and her army of publicists have worked hard to create and implement her new personality and the role of social media has played a significant part in shaping this. Kim's Instagram is full of images of luxury garments and a Twitter full of beauty and fashion-conscious posts. Kim tailors her brand strategy message around the interests of her desired audience.
Consider who your audience is, and post content that will entertain or solve problems for them.
We can now find Kim in the front row of Fashion Week, (apparently) raking in $500,000 from a single post or donning the cover of Vogue- a stunt that truly cemented her role in the fashion industry.
Understand – and Use – Influence
Influencers come in all shapes and sizes, we must be sure not to revert back to basics by solely targeting journalists to spread our message. An influencer can be a blogger, a TV personality, a singer, etc. The formula of influence is simple: Trust + Reach= Influence. Influencers earn this position based on their reach, quality of content, and how well they/ the publication are respected.
However, don’t underestimate the impact of influencers with a small following. After all, reach can be manipulated by buying fake followers. So when choosing influencers, remember to look at the kind of engagement they’re getting on each post and whether they’re involved in the community conversation.
With a predominant image in the music and fashion world, Kanye West was the perfect influencer to endorse the Kim Kardashian brand. Now, we’re not saying Kimye hooked up for publicity purposes, but rather the advantage this has had on the success of her brand strategy and influence this has had on them becoming the ultimate power couple.
Build relationships with influencers for maximum success.
As marketing and PR professionals, we must ask ourselves the below questions, the answers will point us in the right direction of the best type of influencer we should be targeting to endorse our brand strategy.
- What are we trying to achieve with our brand strategy?
- What is the brand strategy message we’re pitching?
- Which potential influencer’s values align best with our message and desired outcomes of our brand strategy?
- Whose endorsement of our brand strategy will mean the most to our audience?
Increase Brand Awareness through Engaging Content
Kim is often involved in publicity stunts to ensure she stays relevant in the media. Take her attempt to break the internet for example. Posing nude (for free) for Paper magazine was no financially driven deal, but rather a very successful attempt to further fuel awareness of the Kardashian brand.
Companies use news and social media mentions as a core metric for measuring brand strategy success. Media exposure & share of voice shot through the roof for Kim after the snaps were published. What made this stunt so successful was that it was crafted with engagement in the forefront.
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Give your audience something to talk about
Kim knew the images would make people talk, whether it was her fans going crazy for her curves or critics poking fun at the photos with witty comments and user-generated memes. The self-assured hashtag #BreakTheInternet came very close to doing just that.
Give your audience a sneak-peak at new content & products
Kim and her team are also pros at extending the life of buzz by integrating various platforms into the brand strategy. A teasing image of a new shoot may be posted on Instagram, fed into Twitter, and then shared on her blog days later, only to resurface once the shoot is made public.
With such an active presence on social media, Kim often shares news about her life, career and responds to fan's comments, knowing how powerful they are as a marketing tool. Moreover, Kim shares fashion industry-related content. Being a part of the conversation we desire to be associated with only enhances our position as experts in that field and our social profiles become a ‘go-to’ for our audience wanting to know the latest news around the subject.
