If you were a brand, what brand would you be?

Innocent, of course.

http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/

That’s probably more aspirational than honest.

They have dancing vans! Covered in grass! That DANCE!

http://innocentdrinks.typepad.com/innocent_drinks/2007/08/a-dancing-grass.html

Posted by Tom Haczewski on 2 November 2009 @ 10pm

I’d probably be M&S. Desperate to be cool (and *very* occasionally manages it), but is really quite safe and dependable. Will never be achingly fashionable, but compensates with food.

Posted by Lori Smith on 2 November 2009 @ 10pm

Ohhhh good answer Lori!

I’d be something similar. Desperate to be ‘different’ and set my own ‘trends/fashions’ but deep down more middle of the road than I care to want to admit.

Posted by Gordon on 2 November 2009 @ 11pm

I’m probably something like Cotton Traders – not quite High Street, but not Bond Street either. Deeply Un-cool, but practical and hard-wearing.

I tend not be very “brand-aware”, which doesn’t help, but yeah, something like that.

Posted by Lyle on 3 November 2009 @ 7am

Hang on a sec – what brand would YOU be, Ms Pixel?

Posted by Tom Haczewski on 3 November 2009 @ 2pm

This one really taxed my powers of analysis and interpretation, but I reckon the Virgin Group is the one that represents me the best. Semi-radical, arts-based roots, even though the reality these days is something more conventionally mainstream. An apparently haphazard, eclectic collection of superficially entirely unrelated businesses. A desire to keep pushing into new territories. The belief that what sets you apart from everyone else is the way you relate to people. The self-awareness to bale out when something isn’t working, rather than keep flogging a dead horse. The occasional “WTF?” moment of lunacy (Virgin Galactic, anyone?).

I reckon that’s fairly honest. If I was being aspirational, I’d go for something more left-field like Factory Records or (the original) Rough Trade. And yeah, I’m intrigued as to your own answer too.

Posted by Hg on 4 November 2009 @ 7am

I suppose it’s time to own up to what I said :)

I gave the honest answer which was that the first thing that popped into my head was IKEA.

I thought that I couldn’t say that out loud and tried to think of something else, but I just couldn’t, so I tried to think of the reasons why.

My reasoning was that IKEA does a wide variety of things, some well, some not so much, but it’s always striven to do them in a way that embraces clever design, and to make that clever design more accessible in daily life.

It can be sleek and modern, elegant and traditional or off the wall and funky (and sometimes a random mix of any of those elements), and I like to think that I have my moments of all of those (the elegant part may be a shade aspirational).

I did try and think of some others, but the IKEA thing seemed to fit so well that I couldn’t think of anything else that wasn’t wildly aspirational (like, Liberty of London, although I’ve gone off them a bit since getting really shocking service in the cafe on Saturday) so decided to go for the first instinct.

Curiously, it seems the usual answers to that question are Apple or Nike, both of which are clearly aspirational and neither of which occurred to me at all (which may be good or bad, I can’t tell).

Posted by Ann on 4 November 2009 @ 8am

Well I have to say that if any of us had picked “Nike” I’d probably have popped a thrombo with laughter. (Dragon might be able to get away with it, but no-one else I know really qualifies in that ‘insanely sporty’ way)

I think Ikea sums you up pretty well actually – it was either that or something like Red or Dead, who probably come under a similar description/banner. (But also do footwear…)

Posted by Lyle on 6 November 2009 @ 11am