Brand Experience

Lakers’ owner Jerry Buss on brand experience:

“Right after I bought the team, I used to go into this little lounge in Santa Monica. The owner was also musical director for MGM, and they used to perform musicals there late at night, it was just fantastic,” he says. “Just before they would start, everyone would start shouting, ‘Showtime! Showtime!’ I remember thinking, this is how I wanted people to feel about their team.”

Via The Los Angeles Times

Like any other exotic culture, Las Vegas fascinates me. The Los Angeles Times has a great story on the latest trend in Vegas clubbing — the exclusive pool party. With names like Rehab (at the Hard Rock Hotel — and clearly the best name of the bunch), Bare (at the Mirage), the Venus Pool Club (at Caesars Palace), and the Tao Beach Club (at the Venetian), these new “dayclubs” now make the Vegas “nightlife” a round-the-clock proposition:

Since it began in 2004, Rehab has transformed Vegas’ once-sleepy daytime scene into a “Girls Gone Wild” tableau of debauchery. Today, almost every major casino resort has nightclub operators managing its 21-and-over pools. They hire DJs to spin music and demand hefty cover charges. Rates vary by the weekend; on the cheapest days women pay $20, men $30.

Several resorts have separate “Euro-style,” or top-optional, pools, with half-naked women cavorting in the water. This summer, both the Mirage and Venetian — heavyweights in the nightclub arena — have unveiled re-imagined pools.

“It’s done a remarkable thing to the nightlife landscape,” [the Hard Rock Hotel’s Jack] LaFleur said. “Day life? It’s hard to even categorize ! It’s finding those ways to generate revenue. For a town that’s been known exclusively for nightlife, this was extremely daring and off the charts.”

The gamble is paying off.

What will they think of next? Whatever your reaction, you’ve got to admit Las Vegas is a one-of-a-kind laboratory for destination branding. See you at the pool.

In addition to its recent article on the resurgence of Culver City, California, The New York Times recently featured a great story on the rebirth of a much more famous Los Angeles neighborhood — Hollywood.

As anyone who live here knows, Greater Los Angeles is an incredibly diverse place.  From the Westside to the Eastside, from the Valley to the OC, LA is the most multi-cultural city in the world.

For the better or worse, though, the Los Angeles brand IS Hollywood.  The Hollywood sign is its primary symbol, and Hollywood and Vine is its mythical center.  It’s great to see then that Hollywood itself is being revitalized — it bodes well for Los Angeles as a whole.

The recent brouhaha over the Burning Man trademark got me to thinking about the role of the Otherworld in pop culture.  One common feature of Indo-European mythology (as well as of many other cultures) is the concept of an alternate world — existing side by side with ours — where the conventions of “our” society are flouted (or even reversed) and which can be entered into only at special times or places. The Welsh land of Annwfn, the Breton city of Ys, Arthur’s Avalon, and the Lord of the Rings’ elvish realm of Lothlórien are all descendants of this very rich mytheme.

I suspect this age-old tradition continues to play a major role in modern American society, exemplified by such cultural touchstones as “escapist” entertainment (In A World Where … ), Las Vegas (What Happens In Vegas … ), Disneyland (The Magic Kingdom), and Halloween (when the worlds of the living and the dead intersect). The Burning Man festival, of course, has quickly become the countercultural event par excellence (note the literal meaning of the word counterculture).  If it’s creators want it to keep that unique status and not be replaced by something else, they need to tread very carefully.  The Otherworld is by its very nature ephemeral and not to be trifled with! 

The New York Times (surprisingly) has a wonderful story on the reemergence of Culver City as L.A.’s newest food and art mecca. Anchored by the historic Sony Pictures Studios (once MGM) and the re-purposed old Helms Bakery building (now a vibrant design center), the once down-on-its-luck neighborhood is L.A.’s newest Westside hotspot, full of art galleries, architectural firms, and eclectic restaurants

I’ve got strong ties to Culver City.  My maternal grandparents lived just across the border in Mar Vista, my paternal grandfather was a chauffeur for MGM, my father was a propmaker there, I earned my M.B.A. at Loyola Maryount University (which sits on the bluffs above it), and my favorite treat as a youngster was a Helms Bakery doughnut fresh off one of their iconic yellow-and-blue trucks.

When you think about it, it should come as no surprise that Culver City has made a comeback. It’s ideally situated just east of the diverse attractions of Venice and Marina del Rey, in between the now-upscale cities of Santa Monica and Manhattan Beach (my greatly-changed hometown). It’s freeway-close to LAX and the rest of the Westside. And it’s still (relatively) affordable.

The city itself has made some wise decisions, actively promoting this kind of development and positioning itself as “The Heart of Screenland,” complete with 1950s-style street signs and palm-lined boulevards. If you’re in town, it’s well-worth a visit.

Korea’s largest newspaper, The Chosun Ilbo (in English), has a beautifully-illustrated story on the use of eye-catching architecture as brand symbols.  Their examples include the Galleria department store, the Ferrari showroom, and Hyundai headquarters in Seoul and the Mikimoto and Prada stores in Tokyo.