brand analysis

While the previous section focuses on my personal identity, this part develops the idea of analyzing “WE” clothing line. My first contact with this brand goes back to 2004. At that time, this brand looked different from the others just because the name, “WE”.

The name (and the logo) “WE” instantly stole my attention and simultaneously bounded me with it. That because the word “WE” brought a sense of togetherness, which was not offered by others. It simply stood out and immediately became top clothing brand in my mind. It was apparently just the beginning of something bigger.

In 2007, “WE” came up with a tag “I’m a little bit of everything” for their marketing campaign. “WE” then struck me with its commercial. A video clip was filmed based upon the tag. It showed a passionate couple in their late 20s – early 30s on their daily life. The video portrayed how this couple went through their days. They were sometimes childish, romantic, or perhaps angry with the other. It was made in a way that looked very similar to the audience may also be going through day after day, a life full of turnaround of emotion/feeling. Part of the lyrics from this video is as follows:
I’m a bitch, I’m a lover
I’m a child. I’m a mother
I’m a sinner, I’m a saint

Enjoy the video here:

By showing different types of emotions, this video sends out a clear message of different characters of individuals within each person (in this case, me). For example, there may be more than one “me” appeared in day: the nice “me” at work, the passionate “me” with my love, or the angry “me” when meeting someone annoying.
Aside from the commercial itself, another contact with this concept was made by watching the making of this video clip on CNN television. The program showed the concept development, the involved actors, the band (Room Eleven), the dance guru, and behind the scene activities. All these ingredients made this commercial as one of the most memorable clips in mind.

Some snapshots from the video are also shown in the store in form of banner. These banners are designed in a way so that people can see different statement from different side. Thus, for example, in one side, the banner shows the message of “I’m a bitch”, meanwhile from the other side, it has “I’m a lover” as the tag (these are two of some tags “WE” came up to support the main tag, “I’m a little bit of everything”).

The concept of that commercial also reflects back to the slogan of “WE”, i.e.: WE is ME. Although it sounds grammatically incorrect, this slogan does convey the message of the company. It, personally, wants to inform the message of there is more than one personality that may appear anytime on a day, depending on internal and/or external factors, on every individual. This message will reveal itself instantly when one relates this slogan and the commercial.

Related to discussion in previous section, I do see the reflection of myself in this commercial. Different versions of “me” may indeed appear within one day. Additionally, this video highly values human emotions. This is simply the same with me. As mentioned in personal analysis, the value of human emotions is personally very high. Therefore, once this marketing concept was watched, the connection with it was instantly made.

That connection has also somehow led me to see “WE” store in a different way. I do think that the concept is resembled in the way the clothes and accessories are located in the store. Although other clothes shop also put their products in a same way, but I only feel fit in when being in “WE” store. That is perhaps because only “WE” who comes up with the idea to approach its customers as “human”.
Having said that, it may sound that my brain has been totally washed with the commercial and other marketing campaigns of “WE”. However, that is not completely true.

Due to all these campaigns, “WE” has indeed become one of the top brands in mind. Should there someone ask me the brand with which I associate myself, I would instantly answer “WE”. However, that does not turn me into an impulsive buyer. In a matter of fact, I have only three or four products of “WE” until now. That is more because the difficulty in finding the right size for me.

The fact about the number of “WE” products I have becomes the end of this brand analysis. This has shown you the meaning of the commercial, products, store of “WE”, as promised in the beginning of the report. To wrap this section up, the most important point addressed here is the reflection of my personal identity with the marketing campaign of “WE”. This has therefore created a strong link between the brand and me. The last part of this article will wrap up the whole discussions in a nice short conclusion.

personal identity

“Who am I?” It reminds me to a Hollywood movie, with this question as the title, about a person who suffers from amnesia. Amnesia is however not the case for me. This question is a kind of reflective question to know myself more. My answer to it will vary from one period of life to another. Today’s answer will be different from the one from four years ago or perhaps four years from now. Why?

The obvious reason is that people simply change. Although the seed of liberalism was already in me four years ago (due to the internet development and people with progressive way of thinking around me), my mindset was still under the influence of the culture of my country. It more or less saw the world differently from Westerners. It was conservative, which tended to see black and white of everything and less grey area. Rule was rule; no human emotions should be allowed to influence the process. That was until I left for the Netherlands in 2004.

2004 was the beginning of a new era, so to speak. My old mindset met the common ideologies in this country, liberalism and individualism. That old way of thinking started to erode gradually, especially the concept of black and white in seeing the world. The seed of liberalism that had been in me started growing. All those combined together with experience in working with teams, interacting in multicultural environment, and especially working experience in recruitment and Public Relations (PR) areas have constructed the current identity of mine ever since.

My current identity has more human-emotions involved and less rules influence. This consequently has brought me a new way of seeing the world and its daily phenomena. Involving human-emotions, while simultaneously keeping logic, has taken a strong position in my life. For example, I begin to understand a lot more of the reasons for people take certain decisions in life and cause – effect relation in this world. Humanity has therefore become more important than just a set of rules for me. Rules do exist to ensure that everything is in order. However, human interest should not be sacrificed for the sake of rules’ existence.

The development of my identity and the answer of the question “Who am I?” (the current me) have hitherto been discussed. It has pointed out the main difference in my identity. The old concept of conservative thought has changed into a more liberal one. The basic principle in this personal identity analysis is going to come up once again in the third part of this article, Brand Analysis.

introduction

Introduction

Guessing someone’s identity (such as age, nationality, etc) is not always easy. It often happens that we end up having a wild guess, which may be completely different from the right answer. Take for example myself. From a small “research” carried out on my last birthday (September 2007), 4 out of 5 people (randomly picked with
various age) thought that my age was between 24 and 26 years old. The result was somehow some way off the truth.

As it is now, knowing even the first layer of someone else’s identity is already difficult; let alone the inner parts. However, it is not always easy for one to understand himself either. A question of “Who am I?” is therefore often asked, especially by those who do reflect back on what have happened. Who am I? How
do I become who I am now? How does the difference of living abroad and in my hometown influence my mindset? All these questions – and some more – are from which the first section of this article evolves.

After that, this article goes on analyzing a brand. How does it affect me? What are the meanings of the commercials, products, store location, etc for me personally? Discussion on that section relates to the content of the previous part in a way to show the connection between individual’s identity and the brand’s. For your information, analysis in this article develops based upon personal own experience. Therefore, the feeling, the impression, and other contents may different completely from the others’.

This article ends with a conclusion to wrap up the preceding discussions. It hence provides you with a red line that bonds all parts. The beginning of that line starts in the following page.

2 more weeks

imagine u’re approaching the end of a project, but u’re not even sure that it’s gonna end well? even worse, you dont even know if u can beat the deadline. add also the fact that you have two side jobs, and let alone your own personal life. so, what you feel and what you are going to do?

well, luckily enough, it’s just two weeks from the end. and two weeks after that, i’ll be coming home. uuh … after years in wilderness, i finally go home, on business trip though. hihih, in a business trip! sounds that im so important and having a really good position. but yea, that’s what im doing in 4 weeks from now, flying back to indonesia. cool …

i dont know with you, guys. but, i have a strange feeling in my stomach. it’s as if butterflies were flying around in it. by then, it’ll ve been almost 3.5 years since the last time i was there. many things have obviously changed. either my friends, my hometown, parents, and more importantly, myself. im curious to know if i even still fit to live there.

well o well .. the last sentence above is actually the reason for me to write down this post. i want to document this feeling and concept in mind to later compare it when im there. i hope the outcome will be interesting though.

v.