Last updated on September 22nd, 2017 at 11:03 pm

Following in the footsteps of Michael Jordan’s Air Jordans, pop singer Rhianna, who had a big hit last summer with the song “Umbrella” is endorsing her own brand of fashionable…. you guessed it, umbrellas for Totes.  As this article notes, this is the singer’s second collection of umbrellas.  Which means that the first collection was so successful (at $20 -50 a pop) that Totes has been motivated to release a second collection.

The fact that this has been successful really underlines the power of celebrity advertising.  This is not a case, like basketball superstar like Michael Jordan endorsing a pair of basketball shoes.  In that type of endorsement, the endorsement is tied to Michael Jordan’s qaulifications, i.e…. a great player woudl be qualified to recognize what would make a great basketball shoe.  This is an endorsement based on a song that the performer sang.  While it is arguable that this is Rhianna, a performer with a strong sense of style, endorsing a stylish accessory, this is really just Totes relying on her song title to “qualify” her to endorse their product.

What those of us who are not celebrities can take from this is that a strong personal or business brand can act as a springboard to new advertising ideas.    If we take the time to establish the brand to our customers, we can use the built in strength of the brand to ask our customers to try new things that may only be tangential to what attracted our customers to our brand in the first place.  But it comes back to making the brand interesting enough to inspire confidence in customers that they will try these new ideas.

Check out our custom printing options.

Related posts:

Featured Business Review: Arch Environmental Equipment, Inc. – A Study In Flexibility and Innovation What Google thinks Google Means Nine Inch Nails is Giving Music Away for Free?