Social Media – one upcoming challange for brands

With all the hype about social media, facebook and twitter offers, and what not, many “experts” completely forget one upcoming challenge for brands.
And this challenge is extremely important especially for all luxury brands.

How to prevent the wrong people embracing – or better smothering – your brand?

This might sound arrogant, but it is not.

There are enough examples of how a brand can suffer, if it attracts the “wrong crowd”.

Do you remember when Tommy Hilfiger became the brand of choice among the hip-hop and “gangsta” rapper crowd? When Tommy Hilfiger went from fashionable, preppy clothes to “yo, man”?

Or worse, when neo nazis embraced Fred Perry and the brand became a political statement, you do not want to be associated with?

It is worthwhile to remember, not all brands are “social”. And the way most “experts” propagate social media, it is almost always the opposite of exclusive, luxurious, or special.