SELINA WILLIAMS - UOC - 1912302
For this part of the module, we were asked to develop a personal brand concept looking in depth at our personality and aesthetic. This is needed to be well thought through with detail research in influences and refection on ourselves. I have put together my own brand and will guide you through my final outcome. To begin my research, I did a self - reflection on how I feel I understand myself to which I progressed in asking my peers in university and close family and friends. Initially, I understood that I am a harsh faced first with a very soft interior which is easily bruised, and it was interesting to compared how I saw myself to how others saw me. I have been very lucky with my upbringing of a very loving family and close friends which I see as extended family, but it does make me very protective over the ones I love. Speaking to my peers, their thought in a nutshell would be bold and confident whereas close friends and family describe me more as a tough cookie who is very protective of their feelings. I think that this sort of had stemmed from a slight insecure upbringing as I was born with an impairment in my left arm to which makes me understand the concept of if I’m a confident attractive girl no one can comment on something which makes me stand out and draws attention to myself. This has unfortunately made me adopt a sort of ‘bitch’ status as I don’t really let anyone new get to know me. In addition to my self-analysis, my personal branding is also influenced by an edgyretro yet quite traditional style which reflects into my areas of work I aspire to work towards.
Over the summer, we were given two briefs, it was to understand each of our brands by responding to questions given. During the early stages of the assignments, I did struggle getting into it as I was struggling with myself and not really understanding who I was. To get into stride with my work, I looked closely how I am portrayed to close family and friends as I trust and respect their honest thoughts. With their opinions all looking the same, it was the route I decided to go down with a hard-shell sort of trait. It was very clear my almost don’t care but care aesthetic would apply well with my work and previous years’ work as I always ended up doing my own thing and going with my gut. With struggling to get into grips, I decided to look back on previous work as I thought it would help me get into flow. I decided to do a 10 x 10 on myself which summed up myself, which lead to having a more in-depth self-reflection. Some of the word which I described myself with were perfectionist, confident, poised and edgy. I also researched the sort of colour and flower would connotate myself and with speaking about it openly to the closest people around and I thought of a red rose. The red connotates a determined and energetic aesthetic with a fiery personality which I think is me. It is also my favourite colour as it connotates bold and confidence. On the flip side, the rose has the connotations of love and I think the thorns symbolise the sort of hard exterior which I think I have with a more vulnerable interior which symbolises the actual rose.
During my finding I understood my branding sat in a luxury sector, I believe this because I’m a very structured worker and I feel the traditional views would contrast well with a luxury market. Once I had understood my marketing sector, I began to understand how I could put together how I could link it with my dream job of working in PR. Since beginning my course I felt that I have changed massively in my confidence and my entire personality due to progressing in the course and also my personal and everyday life. As I’ve got older, I’ve understood slowly to always put myself first and sometimes you have to be selfish in order to be happy and protect myself. When I started, I was quite in my shell and it took me time to get used to people and become more confident in order to lead myself to my ideal job in PR. PR is someone who plans publicity strategies and campaigns. writing and producing presentations and press releases. dealing with enquiries from the public, the press, and related organizations. organizing and attending promotional events such as press conferences, open days, exhibitions, tours and visits. I’m very good at voicing my opinion and have a persuasive personality which I think links well to the must haves of a job in PR.
As a second part of my summer research, I decided to look at articles and look closely at designers and brands which I thought corresponds well with my brand. Talking about how they inspire me and how they complement my own branding. Brands in which I thought went the best with my branding was Haper’s Bazaar magazine, Rihanna and Helena Christensen. I also had an interest in pop culture within luxury fashion houses. Haper’s Bazaar magazine, I found the most inspiring as it was been bringing out issues since the late 1800s and its interesting to see how it’s been progressed into appealing the new generations over time. And it is something which I think is important to understand, with keeping up to speed with new generations. As it a widely known magazine firm, it is known for empowering and being bold which is something which connotates well with the branding of myself I’m trying to promote. I also think the traditional yet controversial aesthetic which is portrayed through the photography is admiring and which I think appeal to a wider audience. When researching singer Rihanna, I specifically looked at her album covers as the edgy yet very feminine look she portrayed is best seen on her albums. Rihanna has done a lot over her famous year to empower women with opening cosmetic lines and lingerie lines which any woman can enjoy and I think within my own branding, I want it to fill a gap in the market to appeal to a wider audience of Gen Z.
Looking at Helena Christensen, I found her sort of split lifestyle and modelling very inspirational. With how she shows controversial images in a traditional way is a good way of being eye-catching and standing out which I think broadens horizon’s in the targeted community. I also looked into Highstreet band Zara to gather a comparison of luxury and Highstreet and understand how they advertise to the generation. They show more the actual clothing and how it is best styled which I think helps with them to understand and discover their own style and what is trending. Finally, the music industry really does influenced fashion to Gen Z and I think whichever route they inspire, is always a successful way of influencing the target audience. Popular artists and how they wear clothes and what they support has a huge impact on the public and I think it is a crucial way of filling a gap in the market and promoting to the target market sector.
Twitter.com/rihanna
Facebook.com/Helenachristenen
Harpersbazzar.com
Facebook.com/rihanna
GQ
I felt that in order to get the best understanding of myself was to ask my closest friends and family as I feel they have the best knowledge of my persona. All my immediate family are very honest, so I trusted their opinion. I got everyone to give me five words which they thought described me. From this I was able to put together how I view myself and compare it to how others perceive me. My family talked about how I’m quite elusive and guarded whereas my friends would describe me as confident, bubbly and no filter sort of girl. After these findings, I understood my persona is a harder shell but very vulnerable on the inside, which is an oxymoron. Bringing all of my research together, within my responses I found that I do lack confidence which I tend to mask with a bold and vibrant personality which I was already aware of. I also found that I am someone who will give a careless and untouchable persona in order to protect my own feeling and insecurities. A big reality check I had been that I am very closed off and I don’t like opening up to people as I don’t like people knowing what I am afraid of, which is something which I feel I need to work on in order to progress in life as well as my career. I also found that my friends and family agree with me being quite a perfectionist and I feel the need to make sure everything is in uniform and everything is in the way I aspire it to be. I think that one of my main downfalls includes my demanding trait which I feel stems from usually having my own way from my parents, I believe I need to learn to take everything at a steady pace and life isn’t always about a race.
Once beginning the term, I felt I was finally ready to do a final analysis on my personality and was happy enough in myself to do a true analysis. After having many months of being very hard on myself through decisions I had made and wrong paths I went down, I felt I was finally on track to be myself in life which was the best for me and my work. I felt this connotated well into my word as it was vital in order to progress. With the assistance from my work over the summer, I came to the understanding that I needed to stop focusing on the bad and look at the many more positive traits I withhold. Positive traits being loyal, loving and caring of the people around me, which has taken me a long time to realise. Having been able to use software which involves Adobe I felt from this point, I can express my personality in an original way which reflects well to my traits. I was now ready to show myself refection in an original and bold way. I understand that I may come aross quite challenging and controlling, I am someone who refuses to take myself seriously and I love company of my friends and family. Being someone who has no filter and has confident personality, I feel this is good to use within my progression. I want to create something which fits in with the gap in the luxury market which fits perfectly with Generation Z. I feel from my personality analysis, it is something which I could do in a bold and careless way which will appear to the target consumer well.
The next step in identifying my brand was to research and explore what inspires my work and my everyday life. The sort of themes which came out of it were, edgy, streetwear, pop culture and social media. Brand which particularly influenced my findings were Gucci and Balenciaga which I think all in all suits my persona and personal branding well.
However, I don’t think this has worked in its favour as in order to engage with Gen Z, it’s important to aim at something which applies to a majority group of the Generation rather than a minority. Discord is a brand which isn’t widely known by the consumers and I think the collaboration wasn’t necessarily successful as not many are familiar.
When I consider what fashion houses I’d love to work for, Gucci would be one of the top brands. The brand is a traditional luxury house which looks at different ways to be controversial in order to keep up to date with the new consumer. Originating in Italy, the luxury brand stays in uniform, showing off new designs which always attract the new consumer. I chose this brand because I think the contrast with traditional and controversial connotates well with my own sort of branding by the use of colour and approach to a fresh and young aesthetic. I feel this sort of brand aesthetic is vital for me to use within my brand because it connotated to my uniform, traditional yet niche branding. Gucci’s collaborations tend to reflect on attempting to attract the new consumer, using influencers, music and brand which connotates the generation. Recently, Gucci has collaborated with a brand called ‘Discord’ which is a game streaming brand specifically targeted at Gen Z. I believe, the thought behind it was to engage with the new consumer and to shy away from a more Millennial audience.
My second brand I chose to connotate my brand is Balenciaga. Balenciaga is a Paris based luxury house which looks into a more futuristic look. I think this connotates well to my desired personal brand as I think with the futuristic look applies well in appealing to the new consumers. like Gucci, I think the brand looks at controversial in a traditional way which I think applies to my traditional views of perfectionist in a feminine way. I also feel Balenciaga would be a good brand because it has very formative and ironic aesthetic which applies well with my personal branding of an ironic form. Previous collaboration with Balenciaga, they used Fortnite which is a widely known gaming platform with Generation Z. with the brand being quite popular as a majority, they understand the new consumer which I feels narrows the gap in the luxury market. This is something which is why I chose the brand as the back-to-back understanding of the new consumer is bold and controversial showing a new path.
Putting together everything I have research, I understand my branding being an oxymoron of a bitch with a heart of gold, which plays well with the traditionally controversial way of my influenced luxury brands. whilst putting together my project, I understood my aspired job I needed to have a name. I want something which is fresh and something which shown professionalism and sophistication. I settled on the name ‘Poised’ due to a personality trait and it shows the young and vibrant yet sarcastic view of the targeted consumer. Now understanding my brand clearly, I am now ready to move on in using my brand in order to fill the gap in the luxury market sector which is going to be designed for the new consumer in Generation Z. Finally beginning my 360 campaign, researching and planning how I am going to use my research in order to create my final project. I want to continue with my influences, particularly looking into the new consumers majority enjoyed elements. I think that for this I must ensure my final project is suitable for the future, in which I need to identify issues within the market. Furthermore, I will start to look at a variety of elements within the consumer in order to fill the gap in the luxury markets successfully. However, I understand I will be doing this in promotion and the advertising planning.
My target consumer typically is classed as a Generation Z. Aging between the years of 1825, in which they are very fashion conscious, to which they follow fashion trends from celebrities and influencers in order to fit in to the perfect look which is considered within the society. As the target market tends to go for an edgy yet sophisticated look which is the typical look id would go for. As the brand is gradually becoming more attracted to more luxury houses, I think it is important to appeal to them in a fresh, modern way which they would appreciate. This new consumer are slowly becoming more buyers of investment in clothing rather than quantity in order to show knowledge of designer brands and also wealth. In order to appeal to this consumer, it would be useful to show more known influencers which can actively show their liking to the brand through their social media and using this throughout the brands advertising to engage with Gen Z as I think this will appeal them to the brand, creating brand popularity. The new consumer, are very heavy users of social networks in order to play games, share content of their everyday life and communicate. Main social media networks which are used are snapchat, Instagram and TikTok. With around 43 million users of gen Z globally, I think it is an obvious way of communicating best to this consumer. According to a fobes article, a person is on average to see around 4,000 to 10,000 pieces of advertisement per day which many tend to be online, therefore, this is the best way of communicating.
As I am a Gen Z, I have a well knowledge of how they understand advertising and what will catch their eye. I decided to do a small data collection of how advertising would be more appealing and grab their attention. I decided to speak to my peers and some of my friends from home to get a broad range of views. It was clear that from the data base, that social media as digital advertising is the best way of grabbing attention. Popups during scrolling through social media and in-between videos is more noticeable. This is the route I am going to take as its obvious that through the internet is the way it is going to get recognition. Another strategy for my work is a pop-up shop. This will show importance and will create a rapid response and will attract many as it will show a look quick before it goes.
The module outcome of filling the gap in the luxury I think it gives me time to think futuristically in order to appeal to Gen Z. Within the promotion sector, I can use my knowledge of advertising and really show something which will appeal to the targeted market and also others showing a successful project. It is vital within my project of personal branding as it gives me chance to be creative in my own original way. I have decided that I am going to incorporate popular elements as a majority of the consumer. I feel that within the Generation Z market, they’re hugely influenced by social media and how you are perceived on Instagram. Making sure they capture those ‘Instagrammable’ settings in order to get the best picture for Instagram. This is something which many would find appealing if it would look good in a photo which is why I am going to use this to my advantage. As I recently said, I think it is important to go for something which is liked by the majority of the consumers rather than a minority as it is more likely to be more successful outcome. By having something visually appealing and that can be captured for social media will have a positive response. Another element is that I plan to look into virtual music artist appearances. As the generation is massively influenced by celebrities and music artists. I think whatever an influencer wears, it is quickly noted by this age group and is copied or used towards their own fashion choices. Fitting into the perfect look, this shows the uniformity of the generation and proves that unfortunately everyone is slowly fitting into one desired look and beginning to look very similar towards one another. I think that in order to fix the gap, it is important to have a bold and original event and I personally think a pop-up shop would be sufficient in a way I think a lot of the target consumer will understand it isn’t something to miss.
SELINA WILLIAMS