madcomments

One season wonders

Posted in Advertising, Marketing, Nikki Preston June 1st, 2007 by Nikki Preston

Monsoon had Liz, Accessorize had Lily Cole (pictured), La Senza had Gemma Atkinson and of course Marks & Spencer has Brian Ferry, but of course all of them were only the face of the brand for one season.

However, according to the Monsoon, which is in the same family as Accessorize, this is no reflection on Liz’s or Lily’s ability to sell their products – it is simply the group’s corporate policy. Its long list of past celebrities it has used in ads include Kelly Osbourne, Sophie Dahl and Heidi Klum, and with its autumn/winter campaigns being shot right now – one can only wonder who is posing in front of the camera.

But just as consumers are beginning to associate Liz Hurley with Monsoon and its sister retail chain’s Lily Cole as the ambassador for Accessorize – they drop the beauties in favour of new faces.

I have to question Monsoon’s strategy as surely by switching celebrity endorsers as quickly as it changes its stock – it is ruining any chance of building brand awareness and recognition with the consumer via the celebrity.

Sure we all loved to see a new face, but when it changes so often will we really be able to keep track of who is promoting what?

After dropping Brian Ferry as the face of its men’s wear campaign M&S conveniently adopted a line saying that it only used one model for a season. Impeccable timing for the retailer to adopt such a line because it came just a month after Brian had been quoted describing Nazi architecture as “really beautiful”.

However, this new rule seems to only apply to its men’s range as Twiggy, Myleene Klass and Jodie Kidd have repeatedly starred in campaigns for its women’s, home and insurance divisions. So it is less likely to have adopted any new corporate policy – just a clever PR angle.