Sometimes I’ll get pretty into a band, or a t-shirt company, or any other sort of business, and I find out that they are not what I think they are. They are in fact ‘a lifestyle brand.’
According to wikipedia:
A lifestyle brand embodies the values and aspirations of a group or culture.
A successful lifestyle brand speaks to the core identity of its customers. Individuals each have their own sense of self, based on their background (e.g. ethnicity, social class, subculture, nationality, etc.). A lifestyle brand provides a powerful supplement to this core identity, by allowing the individual to publicly associate themselves with the brand.
Alternative lifestyle brands are the present and the future of the arts & entertainment industry. Bands will no longer be bands; they will be lifestyle brands. Designers are lifestyle brands. Films must exists as lifestyle brands. Blogs and Websites are lifestyle brands. Humans will be lifestyle brands.
In order to be a lifestyle brand, you must do any combination of the following:
- Make Music
- Make T-Shirts
- Make totebags
- Have an e-commerce website
- Have ‘inventory’ of something cool within your apartment
- Participate in yardsales/own a vehicle from which you sell your goods from
- You have hired your best friend as a ‘designer’
- Have placed an ordered in bulk quantities from American Apparel
- Have a myspace page with 500+ friends
- Have exchanged emails with another ‘lifestyle brand’ about collaborating to make a cross-brander product
- Have a logo
- Have a website with over 100 images
- Have an internship program
- Have executed a ‘guerilla’ and or ‘viral’ marketing campaign
- Have been blurbed in an alternative magazine or blog
- Other crap that I’m sure people will cmmnt about
The best part about being a ‘lifestyle brand’ is that you are really easy to blurb about in alternative magazines that people may or may not read/take seriously. You supply writers with multiple ‘talking points’ that they can reference in blurb-style mentions. For example, HEARTSREVOLUTION.
Part of being a lifestyle brand means you don’t have to know what the hell you are talking about. Here is an interview with some people who work in an ice cream truck.
Lifestyle brands are the only way to reach alternative markets. If you are a band or a business, and your audience is not willing to let you steer their identity, then you should not exist. We should all strive to be lifestyle brands, and take over the psyches of your friends, family, and any one who ever encounters you. When other people see you, they should say, “I wish that person made a t-shirt that I could wear so that other people would know that I associate with him/her.”
For example, these kids love the Ed Banger Lifestyle Brand.
Should bands stop being ‘bands’ and start being ‘lifestyle brands’?
Do you know any one with a startup lifestyle brand that deserves to be blurbed about on HRO?
When will HRO officially be a lifestyle brand?
XX BONUS LIFESTYLE BRAND COVERAGE XX
A few of my favourite lifestyle brands:
- Communist China
- Nike
- Michael Jordan
- Pedro Winter/Tommy Banghalty
- Supreme
- McDonalds 50 Piece McNuggets
- Pizza Hut ‘Book It’ Program
- Broken Social Scene
- Erlend Oye
- Apple Computers
- Wal Mart
- Rickrolling
What are your favourite and least favourite lifestyle brands?
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IAmCarles.com
68 Comments
lifestyle brand sounds like a blanket term for everything to me, carles :(
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I´ll exchange “make music” with “shoot photos”
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least favs: ed banger crew/so me shit, urban hipster/”blipster” thing that kanye made popular in the last year, brobrasnake shit (t-shirts, yard sales, etc.)
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erlend øye?? whats up? hahaha
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AA hoodies/tank tops, PLAID
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god damn dat girl in the video needs to be killed. i dont think she even has a brain up in there anymore. if ever.
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apple (mac)
http://nattybakes.blogspot.com/
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//////////Reply by Nattybakes
//////////Posted July 14th, 2009 at 2:25 am
@Anonymous,
Please remove this link!
How did it get here?
Many thanks,
A bashful self-googler named nattybakes
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justice has this marketing concept mastered; jackets, pants, belts, underwear, dildos
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it seems to me that bands/etc are not becoming ‘lifestyle’ so much as people are becoming one-dimensional, thus allowing a singular influence to permeate throughout their collective psyche.
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this post just set me on my life’s path
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Holy shit, you know about the Pizza Hut “Book It!” Program! I loved that back in the day–my mother’s an elementary school teacher and she would forge free personal pan pizza coupons from the program when she didn’t want to make dinner for my brother and me. The Pizza Hut/Book It collaboration is definitely my lifestyle brand.
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//////////Reply by C_TA
//////////Posted November 17th, 2008 at 4:42 am
@molly, The Pizza Hut “Book It!” Program was a wonderful drug-like incentive. Free pizzasz if i reed.
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u depress me and therefore suck balls, hairy balls
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pps. post a picture of yourself, or reveal your personal myspazz, otherwise i’ll just assume yr f@ n ugly
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FAVS: WFMU, HRO, AUSTRALIA, WEARING A KEY AROUND YOUR NECK
LEAST: CHE GUEVARA, TUCKER MAX, CROCS
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//////////Reply by JonasBro
//////////Posted March 1st, 2009 at 11:09 pm
@John Negroparty,
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I hate these music “lifestyle brands”, who are bands…where it’s their goal to be a f@CKING brand. what tools. just do music or make icecream you DB’s.. I hate hate hate these bands that are trying to be a product before they’re really anything, in essence trying to hype up their “brand” to try and grow their image and their popularity.
it’s capitalism sure – and everyone needs to play the game to grow their business – but they are as ridiculous to me as some DB marketing people at some consumer goods company and get as much respect from me as those people. Most of the corporate marketing people I know are faker FKCERS who just want to make money. it’s never about the product – it’s about the FCKING hype.. the brand .. the corporation.. the money.. the growth.
I can think of no worse offendor than those ice cream tools and the blogs that support them. sorry Im trying to be nicer here but you aren’t making it easy 4 me HRO by bringing up these topics.
big in 2k9 = being a polite cmmtr on HRO??
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//////////Reply by vdieselfor20
//////////Posted June 30th, 2009 at 2:14 am
BRO!
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another qustion about the ice creamers.. are they trust fund babies?
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CARLES
sometimes you can’t hide that ur such a huge B-school FGGT!
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STUFF BY HILARY DUFF!!!!!
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shutter shades = worst life brand since limp bizkit
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that girl from the asian country of heartsrevolution is super cute
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WHAT THE HELL IS A B-SCHOOL??
SOMEONE RESPOND QUICK. I THOUGHT CARLES WENT TO UCLA
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Lifestyle brand condoms are responsible for my bastard kids…
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its true, being a party photographer fits in there too. thanks, markcobrasnake!!
HRO is 3 tshirt designs away from being a lifestyle brand.
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Book It! <333
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Favorite: Panda Bear’s and Fernanda’s 2nd things sweaters
Least: The Cobrasnake, gag.
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FAVORITE: TapouT, SRH, FOX RACING, FAMOUS STARS AND STRAPS, SKIN INDUSTRIES, METAL MULISHA, DIRT ALLIANCE.
MAN, I CAN’T GET ENOUGH FROM PENNYWISE, KOTTONMOUTH KINGS, SLIGHTLY ST00PID, KINGSPADE, ICP, TECH N9NE, AND CRAZY-TOWN
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//////////Reply by vdieselfor20
//////////Posted June 30th, 2009 at 2:40 am
@Anonymous, i lol’d
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CAN I STILL LIKE SUPREME EVEN THOUGH IT HAS BEEN ON HIPSTERRUNOFF
I’M TORN
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fav: fecalface, anti-fav: college humor/bustedtees
bonus pic of carleser for ppl who are weak at google stalking
http://i28.tinypic.com/24opuzt.jpg
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favs: Futurecop! \ SymbolOne \ any other cool Valerie Records band, Colette, High School Musical
least favs: KANYE WEST :(
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Hillary Clinton
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really obscene boob jobs OR nipple piercing with a gun necklace?
they seem like opposites but there is some overlap.
B-school = business schooool
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If HRO made t-shirts I would like to be friends with anyone that would wear them.
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haha BOOK IT PROGRAM!!!!!!!
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OMG FZ THAT REALLY IS CARLESER
CARLESER UNCOVERED: SCANDALOUS!
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adorno and horkheimer would bitch slap these alt bros and their lifestyle brands.
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carles – never stop.
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Aw, the ed banger kids came to the alt costume party as fggts! so kute!
xxx
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The Jonas Brothers
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I’d say Perez Hilton is becomming one..
and Bob Dylan. he has def made a good job.
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the NRA
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Hannah Montana.
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Bob Marley = lifestyle brand juggernaut
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“If HRO made t-shirts I would like to be friends with anyone that would wear them.”
this is pretty true
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cadillac.
carles, please share your view on the cadillac commericial ft. justice “genesis” so i can continue living…
i don’t watch tv very often so yesterday was the first time i heard about this, my world has been destroyed.
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your post is dead on. perhaps we should integrate our lifestyle brand placements in a diversified cross platform integration of unheralded coolness.
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you all can suck a fat one.
get a life.
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u should notable-post this, Crls, i want 2 b able to come back and show it 2 my friends &c.
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daft punk. lifestyle brand with celebrity the endorsment of kanye west.
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http://mallcrue.blogspot.com <– upcoming lifestyle brand.
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Posting Anonymosly On H-R…..Wait…
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//////////Reply by HRO-bro
//////////Posted March 1st, 2009 at 11:05 pm
@Johnny The Anomaly™, you were saying?
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Um duh – you forgot Che Guevara. How could you forget Che? Yesterday I saw his face in rhinestones. Plus – he’s so hipster http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara
see: disgruntled facial hair and member’s only collar.
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these decisions are too difficult. can one simply not purchase a complete identity set including hoodie, ring tone, social network friends, etc?
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open source = lifestyle brand even though LIFESTYLE BRANDS ARE OPEN SOURCE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHQ!!!!!!!!!!
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if blogging isnt a lifestyle brand its a the least a lifestyle, let me tell you bitches i dont sleep
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hm. nirvana was a lifestyle brand as they were the first band out of this seattle movement who made it big time and the brought a “lifestyle” from subculture to mainstream and fuck they made loads of money with that.
bands = fashion = lifestyle. not since the 21st century starts. it´s happen since many years. and these days, it´s even more harder to buy your bills if you make music. so alternative strategies to gain money are important. if you haven´t one, you can´t survive in the music biz. k. if you wanna have a daily job and making music as a hobby..then its ok. but the music biz in a full time way, no chance. you need a good marketing as you can´t live from selling records.
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//////////Reply by ANON
//////////Posted May 5th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
@stylishkidsinriot, NIRVANA NEVER MADE MONEY IDIOT HE HAD TO CALL HIS FRIEND IF HE WANTED TO EAT A SANDWITCH.
this blog is pretty good tho
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^werd
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the hro lifestyle brand is already taken off, as the word asian is rapidly being replaced by azn even among non-hro readers, including my mom.
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Subway / Eat Fresh
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i dont see bands as lifestyle brands at all
but i feel obligated to say broken social scene never finds its way out of rotation in my honda
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//////////Reply by fuckface
//////////Posted December 22nd, 2008 at 10:39 pm
@kyle,
AGREED X10000
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I think this is incredibly true. Some of my fave lifestyle brands:
Music – Coldplay
Website – PopSense.com
Business – American Apparel
Country – Singapore
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fred perry
star wars
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WTF IS A HIPSTER RUNOFF??
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ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN
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Fatlace = shitty lifestyle brand.
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KEYSTONE LIGHT
MANSWERS
RAY BAN
guess that lifestyle
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England:: – Jack Wills, highlights, Private School Girl look
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I think lifestyle brands are dope cause they give the people a place to fully expirence their intrest. From clothes to music to parties…..Dirty Jeenius is my favorite lifestlye brand…check them out.
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Sounds like YOU need a life if you have to get your life from your fucking underwear or tshirt brand.
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