3rd Year – Concept Direction and Development (Brand Me) and 360 campaign

The Brand Me, Concept Direction and Development module, was a hugely enjoyable and highly beneficial module to undertake. As the module developed, and I began to distinguish my concept and personal branding, it became clear how I could pinpoint my specific skillset and career path based upon previously modules completed and the journey those modules and research had taken me on. I then through the brand me research came to realise and identify my personal visual aesthetics, message, brand characteristics and identifiers of ‘Brand Anna.’

After recognising and fully engaging with my skillset and the luxury market I wish to work within, I discovered that my branding is highly glamorous, sleek, powerful, stylistic and nonchalantly elegant in terms of my visual communication style, rather then it being conceptual, gritty and edgy, and that the colours ‘red’ and ‘turquoise’  distinguish my work and visuals due to the meaning behind these colours and their significance to my personal life. Tatler Magazine, I found, was the luxury publication I my personal branding matched the most, and it’s marketing of a rich, idolised, and unattainable lifestyle was a narrative I engaged with, and again this helped me to form my branding concept.  Moreover, during the Brand Me research I identified that academia, The Arts, Politics and Culture very much drive my brand, due to the importance of these factors and their significance and rooting in present society, and this brought me to perceive and determine my specific branding message and concept of ‘Woman Up!’

My brand name and message of ‘Woman Up!’ encompasses and celebrates Feminism. Inspired by my understanding and emotional connection to the political stance and message of Feminism within Fashion and wider culture, my feminist brand concept of “Woman up” with the tagline “Fragile like the bomb not the flower” encapsulates the strength, determination, ambition, power and beauty of women, and the idea that woman can overcome obstacles, that we are not weak, and that we are not fragile like little flowers but like explosive bombs. We use our tools to enhance our confidence, in my case my red lipstick, and attack on. Equality and the need for unity was also an important factor. I feel my brand is very personal to me, and looking back to my past a number of personal factors in my life influenced my strong opinion of Feminism, and I came to the understanding that my ‘Woman Up’ message, had been a subconscious undercurrent I had carried with me for a long time, however, It took the physical Brand Me research to vocalise and solidify this message, so it could manifest into a strong, personal concept.

This then led me onto planning my 360 campaign to bring all of the separate elements of Brand Me together to form a cohesive and thorough project plan and marketing message that would lead into our Final Major Project, which for myself personally, was writing and designing three books; a past, present and future book on Feminism, each of which was aimed at a different consumer within the luxury market, and creating an interview series and podcasts, to push and practise my contemporary Journalism Skills further, in order to fully explore and communicate ‘Woman Up.’