Is Hip Hop Influence on Fashion Killing Affluent Luxury Brands?

Is Hip Hop Influence on Fashion Killing Affluent Luxury Brands?

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Lauryn Doll • 12 Comments
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Web Smith recently published that Hip-Hop influence on fashion is destroying luxury brands. The constant name-throwing of popular labels such as Yves Saint Laurent and Maybach have led to unfavorable marketing and sales results, forcing companies to either re-brand or shelve their product lines.

“With the exception of artsy, venturing rappers like Shawn Carter or Kanye West, who average between $30 and $100 million per year, brands seem to have a problem with hip hop’s enthusiastic adoption,” Web Smith wrote. After Atlanta rapper 2 Chainz bragged about his YSL belt buckle in “No Lie,” YSL’s management decided to drop their “easily mentionable abbreviation” and adopt Saint Laurent Paris instead. “By my estimation, it is to send a signal to artists who throw the name around playfully. This distances the brand from hip hop but it also distances the brand from caricature.”

The highly articulate post outlines the continuing “downturn that Hip Hop has played in consumer marketing,” including speculation that Hip Hop’s un-fluence, if you will, is behind the souring of the Mercedes Benz Maybach. He concludes that, above everything, Hip Hop’s influence is not only negative, but dying. YSL’s rebrand is fiercely indicative of things to come, as nobody wants to be associated with the Hip Hop community and any members of its demographic, or it’s “young, hopeful artists who are well-intentioned but macroeconomically naive (or otherwise ignorant of the larger economic picture) [as it relates] to their actions as popular influencers.”

Debunking Myths re: Hip Hop Influence on Luxury Brands

So Hip Hop marketing is washed up?

Nobody, I mean, nobody, wants their luxury brand to interact with Hip Hop culture?

I strongly beg to differ.

I wouldn’t say that hip-hop’s influence is waning in and of itself. There are a few things going on:

1. Street Rappers + Affluent Dreams = Luxury Brand Nightmares

2 Chainz’s frequently discusses his love for YSL. Rick Ross loved Maybachs so much he hijacked the name for his record label. So now, because these two dudes – one who weaves pure urbanized fiction based off his former conversations with inmates during his days as a CO - and do. not. make. me. go there on the fact that his name is a blatant hijack of a real street hustler – destroyed Hip Hop influence for everyone? Nope, not even.

First off, I understand why YSL would run for the hills with repeated marketing from a rapper who boasts about drug dealing and slanging. And I understand why people want to blame Ricky Rozay (*insert a fleur-de-lis eyeroll for that nickname*) for the ominous and untimely death of the $350,000 Maybach.  Both these artists influence a demographic that glorifies the questionable lifestyle associated with street life. Who the f*ck wants to openly admit they want to attract “blood money”?

Associate those same luxury brands with a less violent artist – say Lupe Fiasco or Beyonce – and watch them brands snuggle up on these Hip Hop influencers like a cuddle buddy on a cold night. Lupe doesn’t push the drug game or streets to his fans and he’s upwards on the preppy yet casual side, an ideal blend for YSL aka SLP. Beyonce on the other hand, well, she has Maybach money herself, and she probably won’t drop a name unless she purchased it or got paid for it on the low.

2. Certain Hip Hop Influence Destroys the Brand Story

When you’re building a brand, you’re selling a story. Part of that story’s development is the lifestyle and values of that brand, which linger in the backdrop and are subliminally communicated to your audience.

Mercedes created their luxury vehicles for the “legitimate” working elite and their employees who “work hard” to afford such prestige. If 95% of your audience is white, affluent and regularly employed and/or business owners with a high level of disposable income who can travel wherever they want and mingle with nearly whomever they want – and then suddenly your audience is flooded with nods from a largely assumed black poverty stricken and working class audience that glamorizes the idea of breaking the law to achieve the same level of financial success, then of course there’s a problem. In such an instance, it’s a damn culture clash and embracing the new crowd can mean a loss of brand loyalty from your original demographic, who has a long-term bread-and-butter relationship with you.

YSL – and any affluent brand – wouldn’t be so quick to evade the influence of Hip Hop on their popularity if more commercially-acceptable names that had crossover appeal were throwing their brand around. Shawn Carter realistically can brand the level of hip-hop affluence needed to make respectable sales for the brand without disturbing it. So can Kanye West, B.O.B., Nicki Minaj, and everyone’s favorite crossover Drake (or Wheelchair Jimmy, because I don’t nobody wants to let that go.)

Furthermore, highly affluent luxury brands would probably do well to include “legitimately” affluent faces of hip-hop celebrities in their branding – but that requires investment, money, and *gasp* actual paid and strategic sponsorship. Since they don’t want to do that, they’ll ignore cues that their brand could use a small campaign tailored to the responsive Hip Hop community. Of course, they’ll accept the cash flowing in from a poverty-stricken subcultural audience, one who’s so interested in displaying the small level of wealth they may or may not have acquired that they’ll emulate and shop wherever their favorite artist drops a verse on; however, they don’t want their main audience to know this, so they silence their most vocal brand ambassadors – 2 Chainz & Rick Ross – and change names or discontinue lines while using the Hip Hop audience’s money to put into their children’s trust funds and for country club memberships.

 3. Hip Hop Branding Must Accomodate Flashiness

By nature, most luxury brands aren’t flashy. The richness and sumptuousness of a brand and it’s wealth factor are distinguished in subtleties only the “wealthy” would be able to pick up and appreciate.


Hip Hop strongly contradicts that.


Hip Hop’s culture includes bragging and flossing. Dropping names will never stop. Brands have to accept and accomodate that.


However, when your luxury brand experiences a flood of sales coming in from a demographic you didn’t expect and don’t market to, what happens? People freak out – especially the people in the marketing department. And the following conversation happens:


Marketing Exec 1: “Oh no, we’re not exclusive anymore… and therefore our ability to be touted as casual affluence is in question. What can we do? Oh sh*t! I know – we have to rebrand ourselves to move away from that shift!”


Marketing Exec 2: “Yes! That’s it! We’ll be able to regain the trust and loyalty of the affluent and non-flashy market, retain the sales of the rich and wealthy who have old money, and neutralize the flashy Hippity Hop effect.”


As a result, a rebrand is announced, because it keeps the stockholders, desired brand ambassadors and those previously loyal to the lifestyle and value on standby to keep “white flight” from killing their business. (White flight, not so much because this is a race issue, but it is a cultural issue… and there’s an intersectionality in race because the majority of influences and major players in Hip Hop are black, not white.)


4. Hip Hop Brands Need to Pursue the Right Opportunity – Or Kick Down the Door and Make Their Own


Affluent brands who ARE hip-hop friendly need to be sought out. Jay-Z created Armadale and Diddy created Ciroc after it was clear Cristal wasn’t interested in their money. Don’t run after the white brands that don’t want hip hop… we need to find the brands that love us – regardless of who we are and our backgrounds and psycho- and demographic profiles – or create and leverage our own brands and buying power in our own communities!

Why – because if we don’t, we’ll ALWAYS have this problem… and we’ll be blaming hip hop when truly it’s more than just that.

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Filed Under: Entertainment Business: Sports + Hip Hop Marketing
  • http://smallbizdiamonds.com/ Ashley Neal

    Girl this is an excellent article. BTW I think we have the same exact feelings about Rick Ross {YUCK} in my days of listening to hip hop listening a CO would have NEVER made it to the forefront of the game let alone run a label! He makes me cringe…

    • http://www.sexyfocusedambitious.com/ Lauryn Doll

      Hey Ashley!

      Thanks for the love – and yea, I love like maybe 2 Ross songs. “Push It” and “BMF” are them. Anything else, I can mostly pass on. Damn shame, cause we’re the same sign (Aquarius).

      • http://ryzeonline.com/ JasonFonceca

        If you can appreciate even one Rozay song, he’s enriched your life, not to mention your article ;)

  • http://twitter.com/jugrand Julian Grandke

    This article is brilliant! Probably one of the best on celebrity branding and definitely the best on hip hop branding that I’ve read so far. I absolutely agree with your argumentation. It gives a lot of inspiration for brands to reconsider certain things. To understand how to build a brand, people really need to see the bigger picture. A first step would be to stop measuring everything by the same yardstick (which happens with hip hop way too often anyway..)

    Great job! I stumbled upon that Kardashian post and I’m really glad that I followed the link to your blog. You don’t often find people, who also share a love for both, branding and hip hop (etc.).

    • http://www.sexyfocusedambitious.com/ Lauryn Doll

      Hey Julian!

      Thanks for your extraordinary feedback with this post. Brand building and storytelling requires a deep understanding of one’s values, and how they translate to the collective values of the brand one is developing. I can understand why YSL wants no parts of 2 Chainz, no matter how popular he is. It’s like The Situation and Abercrombie – they made it a point to offer to *pay* the man to stop wearing their clothes. Their branding was that deep. (This also proves that this isn’t happening just because these rappers are black – but moreso because the culture pop figures like these influence aren’t in line with brand values, nor do they reinforce the story the brand is telling.)

      Thanks for the love on the Kardashian post too! You’re right re: hip hop and branding aficionados. It’s sooooo great to meet you! :-)

    • http://ryzeonline.com/ JasonFonceca

      I agree with Julian — LOVE this, Lauryn. You effing NAILED it.

      Most people are simply scared for their business, and frightened of what the influence and enthusiasm of hip-hop *might* do.

      • http://www.sexyfocusedambitious.com/ Lauryn Doll

        @ryzeonline:disqus Hey Jason! @twitter-89539910:disqus is a gem – he totally gets where we’re coming from. And people are scared of the influence and enthusiasm, but there’s always an opportunity to use it to strengthen the brand without losing the new or old audience – you just have to be highly creative about it. Again, move away from 2Chainz, keep YSL and throw some money at Drake.

        • http://twitter.com/ryzeonline Jason Fonceca

          Creativity solves everything ;)

  • http://www.diroski.com/ Gemma D Lou

    Hey Lauryn

    Great article! I never even thought about how those luxury brands would take the name-dropping. I just assumed they’d be psyched about the extra marketing. The free marketing, albeit.

    If it weren’t for some of these hip hop artists, I would be none the wiser about a lot of brands. But luxury brands like you said, are all about exclusivity. They never need to boast about themselves. Not just anyone owns their stuff.

    So hip hop name-dropping will rightly depend on the artist, like you said. Where Beyonce is a picture of elegance, Drake comes almost like the saviour of hip hop, these brands don’t mind the association. And those guys use a lot of art and culture, especially in the visual side of their music brand. Those other artists? Too grungy for that to work.

    But I don’t think it’s just hip hop. Imagine if some postcore band started dropping Cristal in their music. They’d get the same negative reaction unless they had the same values as the luxury brand.

    Gemma

    • http://www.sexyfocusedambitious.com/ Lauryn Doll

      @GemmaDiroskiLou:disqus

      Hey Gemma! First, thanks for stopping by and reading this post! And secondly thanks for the comment.

      I definitely didn’t think too much about why a company wouldn’t want their name dropped in a song or to an audience until I became more intimate with the marketing industry. When you discover the incredible amount of work it takes to build a brand and tell a story that sells your brand effectively, you become more sensitive to the understanding of brand exclusivity. Of course you and I would be none the wiser about certain brands – you’re supposed to need a certain level of money in order to acquire knowledge of it.

      And like you, I also agree Drake and Beyonce are somewhat stronger brand ambassadors for high end labels. Both have a certain level of demonstrated affluence to their style and artistry to their visuals in their videos as well as production that would lend to the crossover appeal of the brand in a subtle manner, not just dropping “YSL” and huge names because you’ve just heard of it. To be honest, the way some rappers drop expensive names equates to a foreigner boasting about Hanes and Froot of the Loom. If we went somewhere and we saw a family of immigrants from, say, New Freakland, and they got enough money to buy new T-shirts and brought Froot of the Loom or Hanes and started boasting their ability to wear that, wouldn’t we look at them crazy?

      Affluence is something to strive for, but not without affluence of the soul first. I don’t speak for anyone but myself on this, but I’d really love to see some affluent brands from our own designers – hip hop or urban, if you will – who actually have some soul behind their brand values and vision. Can we see Sean John come out with a line that specifically donates proceeds to HBCUs? Can we look for House of Dereon and PZI to create non-profits for women of color… and raise their prices to be both financially and soulfully affluent?

      • http://www.diroski.com/ Gemma D Lou

        Hey Lauryn

        Thanks for post! It’s not something I’ve come across before…..ever. It’s true what you say about building up a story and a brand culture. You got me thinking. I notice that in a series of magazines, take the August Man, they fill the first 20 pages or so with back-2-back advertisements of LMVH companies. No call-to-actions, no go here, see this, join that, find us here. None of that. Just one, albeit beautiful photo, and that’s it. Maybe they include their logo if they really want to. But it’s so subtle, just like you said. So understated, yet so large. Like being royalty. Royalty are born into royalty, it’s nothing to shout about. They live it everyday. They keep themselves to themselves. It’s their own private party. And those rappers are ruining it.

        I’m sure the hip hop community can create an equally private party. They have enough folks in the industry to make it work. But then, I guess they wouldn’t be name dropping that if they’re exclusive to it.

        And you’re certainly right about the affluence thing. Folks who have it, rarely have to boast about it because it’s nothing new. Folks who just get it, it’s all novelty to them. And to think that these guys would donate proceeds. Maybe. I don’t know about that, though.

        :) Gemma

  • http://www.sexyfocusedambitious.com/ Lauryn Doll

    Unbranding is something marketing specialists should definitely create clear standards for in their brand. I’m glad you agree with me about the color/race issue just being part of the situation. While it’s a factor, it’s important that specialists like you and I realize it goes waaaaaaay deeper than that.

    On the flip side, I’m very much in favor of supporting companies who make time to distinguish who they want as part of – and distinct from – their desired target audience. While I don’t specifically ban anyone from interacting on my site, I know that ideally this site is for the sophisticated Hip-Hop lover, not necessarily the sweet and pure-hearted pop music lover who doesn’t understand the edginess of the culture. While it wouldn’t stop me from welcoming one or more who fit the alternative latter demographic, if I suddenly found an influx of responses from this group, I’d have to look into distinguishing my content to target the right audience more… and I *may* have to do a little unbranding myself. I definitely see both sides!