Corporate Brands are Not an Identity (or: We Get it You Drink Dark Fruits)

A post discussing the people who think that corporate brands are an identity.

Image of the Strongbow Dark Fruits marketing campaign

Some Vaguely Related Background:

There's a certain type of house party that everyone's been to. You know the ones, they're at a friend of a friend’s house, and you get a Facebook invite where everyone is asked to bring a bottle. The idea, of course, being that there’ll be a communal alcohol table where you can take what you like.

Except, people are animals. So, what actually happens is you spend all night with a fifteen pound bottle of spirits clutched in your sweaty hand because you don't want to share, and if you play your cards right this will do you for the next two parties.

You know the sort of thing I'm on about, right?

Good. Then you'll also know about the specific kind of person who frequents them.

You’ve met them. You don't know how they got an invite, but they did. They got an invite, and they're at the same party as you. They are always at the same party as you.

They're the sort of person that got piercings on their gap year in Thailand. The sort of person who listens to Mac Demarco but think they’re the only one who listens to Mac Demarco. The sort of person who's always wearing a floral vintage shirt and a bucket hat, and they keep saying, "LAAADS" even though no one at the party is one of their lads.

You know that person. You also know what drink they brought, don't you?

It was Strongbow Dark Fruits.

Chill out. Who cares if someone drinks Strongbow Dark Fruits?

So, after writing that harsh paragraph about the sort of person who drinks Strongbow Dark Fruits, I will admit that I feel slightly bad about being so mean. After all, some of my personal friends drink Dark Fruits and (although they do listen to Mac Demarco), they are very nice people.

As well as that, it isn't as though Dark Fruits is a particularly offensive brand. It's a fine, cheap cider. Alright for sitting in parks during summer, alright for picking up when you can't think of what else to get.

There's been no racist slogans in their marketing. All the adverts have been okay. Hell, I even have a couple of cans sat in my kitchen right now.

So, my issue here doesn't specifically lie with Strongbow Dark Fruits. Or at least, it doesn't really lie with Strongbow Dark Fruits.

However, the brand does work as a particularly potent example of a bigger issue currently happening in our society.

Gaining traction with Fiat 500 Twitter (follow the link to understand what I'm on about), and morphing further with Dark Fruits Twitter, there's become a unanimous mentality that a person is no longer identified by their personality.

Rather, they are identified by what brands they like.

Okay, explain what you mean:

In current society, advertisements and branding are everywhere.

It's almost impossible to avoid them. Every social media platform, every shop, every street, is littered with signs and posters telling us what we need to buy, how we need to look.

Generation X and Millennials have been particularly exposed, due to the rise in online platforms using ad revenue instead of paywalls. Now, because of this, certain brands take the forefront in the public consciousness.

A good example is the headphone company Beats by Dre. It's a billion dollar company, considered one of the largest headphone companies in the world.

However, for people that are actually interested in the price and manufacturing quality of headphones, Beats are considered overpriced and cheaply built. Yet the majority of consumers don't care about this, they want to own Beats purely for the aesthetic.

Rather than an issue of product, it becomes an issue of brand. In short, it is an issue of choosing style over sound. Or, brand over identity.

This choice of branding over individuality and personal identity has been pushed even more into consumers heads since corporate presence on social media really began to thrive.

Twitter is the best example of this, with company accounts often having thousands of followers. Recently, they've been gaining a lot of media attention due to the innovative ways they've been tweeting and interacting with consumers.

A good example is Sunny D's twitter account being featured in several articles after the tweet from their account, "I can't do this anymore" was posted. Out of context (it was initially about the Superbowl in America), the tweet looked rather like a cry for help.

In response, several large brands on Twitter responded enthusiastically, offering their support to Sunny D.

Now, on the surface, this sort of brand interaction seems fun, sweet, even. It's a simple way for consumers to be reminded that there's people behind the Twitter accounts.

From a cynical perspective, though, this is really just an insidious marketing technique, used to create a more desirable persona for the company, and gain more money from the consumers.

So Where Does Strongbow come into this?

Overall, Dark Fruits as a brand have not leaned as heavily on celebrity endorsement or social media to cultivate their image. Yet they, like Beats headphones, have become a status symbol - particularly among students and young adults.

This brand has permeated the public conscious to the degree where I can write the introduction to this blog post, and people my age will know what I mean. Buying a can of Dark Fruits is no longer buying a less sweet version of Koppaberg. Instead, you're buying into a certain strand of people.

Dark Fruits are completely aware of their image as well, and they've been doing everything they can to continue to promote it.

In August 2018, Strongbow opened a pop-up tattoo studio for two days in Shoreditch. There, people could go to get one of two Strongbow Dark Fruits tattoos designed by artist Alice Perrin (as seen on Channel 4 show, 'Tattoo Fixers')

And, you know what? People actually went. Like, people decided that they liked a cheap, fruity cider enough to get it permanently marked on their body.

Alex Perrin (right) showing off the design for a Strongbow Tattoo

Now, I actually have several tattoos. I also have a pretty big fondness for Ben and Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup ice-cream (I'm eating a tub of it as I write this post, in fact.) Still, I don't love Ben and Jerry's enough that I'd get a homage to them permanently placed on my body.

And yet, somehow: multiple people in the UK are currently walking around with Strongbow Dark Fruits tattoos on them.

It's ironic that "brand" is what we refer to a company's personal image.

I mean, think about it. Strongbow have successfully managed to get their consumers to literally brand themselves with free advertisements. Like, they didn't even get free cider for their trouble.

We are at the stage now where corporate presence and marketing is so pervasive that companies giving away free tattoos didn't even make mainstream news. It's just normalised.

It's just okay.

So Where Do We Go From Here?

I think, out of all the stuff I've talked about so far, people identifying with brands is probably the least offensive, concerning or problematic thing. After all, having a tattoo of some purple grapes isn't technically hurting anyone (except maybe your own reputation).

However, I do think that we all need to be more aware of how much value we place on capitalistic ideologies, particularly when it comes to the relationship between brands and the consumer's personal identity.

After all, throughout London and the rest of the UK, multiple independent stores are closing, and yet people generally aren't too concerned. In fact, rather than shopping locally, we're pushing people to save up hundreds of pounds just to own a certain label.

So, while I understand the need to have certain brands be your 'go-to', it would probably be healthy for everyone if we all took a couple of steps back from the whole situation. Really. Companies can't form actual, human friendships with you, and you aren't hurting anyone if you buy from someone else.

Corporate brands aren't your friend. They aren't your personality.

Don't try to make them be.