putting lipstick on a pig

I apologize for the video being a little short this week. After I reviewed the video I realized that I didn’t completely explain myself. Im calling this post “putting lipstick on a pig” because I really wanted to talk about brand positioning and its potential to portray a specific message/idea of a product/service to its audience/consumer (in some cases making the pig prettier than it really is…). Wikipedia has a pretty simple was of saying it.

In marketing, positioning has come to mean the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand, or organization”

My main point that I wanted to get across was the branding phenomena that Vegas has become. Call it wrong or right, but Vegas has managed to build a reputation and position their brand as a place of luxury and exclusivity. Obviously, we all know that there are some sleazy things that happen in Sin City, but people continue to buy into this idea of Vegas, that (in short) is a lie. It amazes me that branding is powerful enough to make a bunch of tacky building in the middle of the dessert a world wide destination for tourists and locals. This pig definitely got its makeover!

FYI…Another topic I didn’t talk about in this post is ethics in design. I will probably do a follow up post about this, but I mentioned the issue of branding and designing for clients that might not have the best product/service. I think we really have a responsibility to be as honest as possible in our designs and with our clients….I’ll get into more detail later, but I didn’t want this post to seem like I condone branding unethical products/services. Ill keep you posted.