Glamour Branding: The Line Between Authenticity and Vanity
Marketing and advertising have always been about the facade and the promise of something better. Glamour branding changes the relationship between the brand and the consumer. Taking the glamour off the brand and giving it to the customer. Here we will dive into traditional glamorous brands. How these brands use glamour to create a longing for their products. And the new dynamic between brands and consumers.
The facade and the Promise.
It almost feels like these two words should not be part of the same sentence. This post is inspired by a book all about glamour. Before I read this book I had preconceived notions about glamour. I grouped it in with concepts like glitz and sparkle. I came away from this book with a completely new perspective on glamour and a renewed understanding about myself and how my own desires are influenced by cultural values and marketing. This post is not about glamour in the way you might expect it to be. Glamour is something much deeper than a beautiful face or elegant style.
After reading this book I am convinced of the importance for marketers and business owners to see another perspective on glamour that is more aligned with how we speak to our customers rather than how we portray ourselves to our customers. I call it glamour branding.
What is glamour?
Glamour is not a style, it’s not shimmer and glitter. It’s not beautiful people in gorgeous locations throwing parties on expensive yachts. These things alone are not glamour, they are props marketers use to create glamour. This is not glamour branding, this is a glamour brand.
Virginia Postrel is the author of The Power of Glamour: Longing and the Art of Visual Persuasion. She defines glamour as, “The ability to imagine a different, better self, in different, better circumstances.”
Here is the short of the book. Glamour is the promise of escape and transformation, grace, and mystery. Marketing makes everything larger than life, this perception creates desire.
There is a problem with this definition. It paints glamour as a facade designed to create desire through perception, not reality. The ideas in this book are powerful and made me think deeply about the way I market my own products and services.
Our New Desire for Authenticity
In this new world of the internet, everything can be polished and perfected to the extreme. Instagram is the poster child of glamour. Life is always perfect and slightly out of reach on Instagram.
With authenticity being the new black, things are changing, even on Instagram. Now that the new idealistic world has shown us what is just out of reach, we want something more.
Authenticity.
In this new authenticity starved world, we want to see the photo that made the cut. We also want to see everything that went into creating it. Why? Because the consumer is exhausted. They’re tired of trying to measure up and they cling to the idea that “If she can look like that I can too.” The facade is no longer the entire picture. It’s just the icing on the cake.
But how do we get past the facade without being burned at the stake by comments from strangers? The ones that pick you apart for not being the most beautiful, talented and perfect. What happens when the filters go away? How do we respond when the stories become real and the sobering reality that life is not perfect settles in?
How will we as marketers walk the line of reality and possibility? Every business owner is selling possibility in some form or another. The dress has to look good on the model. Even the local coffee shop wants to be the most beautiful and photographed place in town. If the atmosphere is not just so. If the lighting is not perfect. No one is going to add this background to their perfect life collection on social media.
Your glamour is not my glamour
“The story of glamour is the story of human longing and its cultural manifestations. Like other forms of rhetoric and art, glamour can embody good ideas or bad ones. It can inspire life-enhancing actions or destructive ones. Its meaning and its effects depend on the audience. But one thing is certain: glamour is not trivial.”
Virginia Postrel
The attributes of glamour are the same for everyone but the object of glamour is not the same for everyone. My experiences and how I perceive the world are different than yours. Glamour is not a specific ideal. There is no one size fits all ideal view of the world and how the world should be. We build glamour from our own perception.
Desires created through glamour are different things to different people. We all see the movie star life played out in reality tv so we have an idea of how the other half lives. We try to emulate that with a Gucci purse and Instagram photos in stunning locations. This is the generalized idea of glamour but this form of glamour does not appeal to everyone.
Glamour and the never-ending struggle for more
People who know true wealth live in different mind space, they are seduced by glamour in a different way. Travel, possessions, exclusivity are all attainable to the one percent. They are susceptible to glamour all the same.
Glamour is a perception. It takes our personal dreams and aspirations and melds them with what society expects and what we know is possible. We see what other people have achieved, so we long for it too. There will always be someone with more money, more power, and more achievement.
For me, and I’m guessing the majority is with me here. A Chanel suit is a glamour purchase. Far out of my price range. Still, the experience of going into the store, trying it on and knowing I’m going to buy it is a glamour experience. For others, it’s just a suit. Some women feel the name on the handbag reflects quality and status. For others, it’s just a name.
Glamour cannot be defined by things, images, people or places. Glamour is created from our own perspective.
How to make your brand desirable
I want to take you through the concept of glamour from a different perspective. If you are a marketer in any capacity, business owner, influencer, blogger bear with me. I know you will find this valuable.
According to Postrel, glamour has three parts. These are the things that make a brand desirable to the ideal customer of any brand. These three things are: escape, grace and mystery.
Escape
Escape is the need to remove ourselves from everyday life. Our need to transcend to something greater. This is why video games, social media, and movies are so appealing. In a video game, you can become a great warrior. You can fight battles, go on great quests. The fantasy without the hardships of actual travel, threats, violence, and pain.
Grace
Grace gives us the impression of something being effortless even though we know that it’s not. Waking up fully made up, perfect clothes picked from the wardrobe in seconds. A perfect figure without hours of primping and gym sessions.
There are two ways to make the magic of grace
Theatrical grace
Behind the scenes effort to create effortless glamour. This is where the countless man-hours come into play to make the models look perfect. The hundreds of stylized product images are taken to get that perfect one. Let’s not forget the loads of equipment and assistants that come in to get the perfect lighting.
There is nothing graceful about the process but none of that matters. Only the one perfect shot in the perfect place with the perfect lighting matters. This is the image the world will see, the hundreds of others will live in a digital wasteland.
Darkroom Grace
Postrel also talks about darkroom grace. This is where everything is made perfect though retouching after the final shot is taken. Even the perfect shot is not perfect. Photoshop, Instagram filters, Facetune, Snapchat filters are all part of darkroom grace.
You can wake up and look stunning by applying a Snapchat filter but it’s not real. How can we all live up to these beautiful people online? We play the game, we add the filters then they become a crutch. We need the filters to feel worthy. Then some brave soul comes along and takes a selfie with no makeup and no filter. We are mesmerized by this. Why? Because we need to know that there are others like us. We cling to this, it’s relief from the pressure to be perfect.
[Efffortless Grace] “To practice in all things a certain nonchalance [sprezzatura] so as to conceal all art and make whatever is done or said appear to be without effort“
Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, 1528
Mystery
Leaving something to the imagination. This is the “what if” question. What if my life could be like that? What if I could have that house, car, partner? This is the dream, it looks amazing from the outside looking in. We have never experienced that car, that life, that success…etc.
Mystery draws us in with vanity. At the same time, it hides the flaws and the inevitable pain that comes with “that life”. We know that the grass is not always greener. Still, we fill in all the amazing details with our own imagination. It’s our own sensibilities that make this glamorized thing larger than life. This is why it works so well to drive us. We fill in the details, we all see the same images but how we fill in the details makes it that much more compelling for each of us.
The Mystery of Distance
Time Distance
To keep the mystique, our object of desire also has to be just out of reach. The past and the future are always out of reach.
We long for the past, or the future but never where we are. It’s human nature to romanticize the past and the future but never the present. 19th-century dresses, castles, the roaring twenties, Mad Men. All of the stories by Emily Bonte and the like make us long for the time when life was so glamorous.
We forget that not everyone lived so gracefully. Hunger and poverty still existed. Those stories didn’t transcend because they’re not glamorous. We always long for how things used to be, so nostalgia is glamorous.
We also desire the things that represent the future. Modern architecture, sophisticated technology, flying cars. The future is mysterious and that makes the future glamorous.
Physical Distance
Travel is glamorous because new places are mysterious and out of reach. The big house at the top of the hill is glamorous because we can see it at a distance but we don’t know what’s inside. That much is out of reach.
The exclusive clubs and restaurants are also glamorous. You have to have means and connections to join. This exclusivity creates longing. A desire to have something that is currently unattainable. It also creates feelings of inadequacy all at the same time.
Is Glamour Branding Such a Bad Thing?
People crave authenticity. So, it makes sense that brands should be moving to be more authentic and open with their followers. They have to if they want to build long term emotional connection.
The idea of glamour as a brand strategy seems to promote a stylized false perception of a brand. This false perception has the sole purpose to create a desire in the consumer. The real question is, where do we draw the line between fantasy and reality?
The task of gaining engagement online is a real and difficult challenge. Add to that the need to also be authentic while projecting a glamorous facade. Now the task becomes almost impossible. It’s already a challenge for brands to cut through the marketing noise.
At what point do we as consumers realize that marketing is glamour and take it as such? At what point do brands open up the velvet curtain and let us in to see just what it takes to create perfection?
Where do we draw the line between what stays mysterious and what stays authentic?
We all know Superman is not real, but we are still entertained by the stories. We all buy into the fantasy even if we know it’s not real.
I believe that every brand can be like fantasy comic book stories. The audience wants the dream. They also want to know that they are not a horrible human being for not living up to that ideal at all times. This is the idea behind glamour branding. It’s a very tall order to enchant the audience without becoming the villain. The intention is never to create false promises. The intention is to sell products.
Can a brand be authentic and glamorous?
Glamour branding does not move us away from authenticity if it is true to its values. Instead, glamour presents an opportunity for brands and consumers to interact in a better way. Glamour can show us what’s possible without taking away the truth.
Another approach is appealing to the glamour of the consumer and not the glamour of the brand. Do this by sharing customers wearing your clothes or using your product. This is real life. It appeals to the customer and it shows social proof that you have a good product. This is only one example, of course. Social media is a great opportunity for brands to make consumers a part of the story.
In this sense, glamour is not magic or fake. It’s a way for brand and consumer to be closer and share in new ways. For a brand to be authentic everything it does has to align with its core values. This will attract consumers who also share these values. It cannot be forced.
Glamour and Fulfilling the Need for Self-Actualization
If you subscribe to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory then glamour, when realized, fulfills a need for self-actualization. The experience of achieving your full potential is profoundly satisfying.
Take Las Vegas for example, where all the ultimate glamour brands live. The allure to Las Vegas is that you don’t have to be part of the elite to experience the things you find glamorous. Nor surround yourself in glamour.
Las Vegas is aspiration realized. Here, anyone can be a VIP, anyone can win, anyone can experience the best life has to offer.
“Bring out the best, conceal the worst, and leave something to the imagination.”
George Hurrell
Glamour is fantasy, excitement, adventure. It is an aspiration for many of us to become larger than life. Glamour branding isn’t for every business but it can be applied in every business. It can be for a candy shop as much as a fashion house.
This idea of glamour and the experience of fantasy and longing can take place anywhere. After all, candy is just as desirable to some as fashion and luxury are to others. Ask any ten-year-old to choose between Willy Wonka’s chocolate room and a six-diamond luxury villa.
This very thing, glamour is what made Vegas and Disneyland for that matter, the places people flock to for escape. To become someone else, experience life to the max. You don’t have to be a Las Vegas mega hotel to provide this experience to your clients.
Glamour Branding and the Marketing Powerhouse
A person wants to know what it’s like to live out their dreams. Perhaps just a small part of their ideal story. Glamour branding fulfills this desire. In the process, a business has aligned itself with a marketing powerhouse. The consumer. Pictures are shared, a conversation happens. Not for the benefit of the brand but for their own need to prove where they are, what they’ve done and who they are.
A brand helping people realize their full potential is a unique opportunity. They can let consumer create and to some extent control the marketing of their business. I’m almost positive that mom and travel blogs talk more about Disney than their own marketing department. Consumers control social media and online conversations. This is the power of strong branding. Companies using glamour branding can use social ideals to their advantage.
How to Make Your Brand Glamorous
Since glamour is about perspective, you have to know where your ideal customer is in their life. You also need to know where they aspire to be.
Meet them in that place. Even if the experience is fleeting. A glamour brand helps this customer reach self-actualization. Even if for a brief period.
Limits of Glamour Branding
You can’t make anyone instantly successful. Success is up to the individual. You can highlight their success (with your product or service) by sharing their posts or otherwise engaging with them. You can turn your brand into one that is associated with successful people. Highlight who’s who on your social accounts and give them an outlet to share as well. Bring in influential people for talks, meet and greets and of course photo ops.
You can’t make life more luxurious. Only a person’s hard work and ability to create income can do that. You can provide good lighting for amazing pictures. Give them amazing backdrops. Provide a stunning atmosphere and a service that caters to your customers. These things are simple but they add to the glamour.
Would you take a picture in a place with bad lighting? Even this small slice of our lives is helping us to realize who we want to be. These are the things we share on Instagram. These are the places where we check in on Facebook. This person wants to be identified by the places they choose to spend their time. Sure, they go to Walmart once in a while but they don’t take their Instagram pictures there. Those shots are saved for special places.
VIP Treatment
Glamorous branding starts with making your customers feel like a star. The line between glamorous branding and being a glamour brand is definitive. One is a facade while the other helps customers realize aspirations. It is taking the glamour off of the brand and focusing it on the customer. A glamor brand lets the client experience all the benefits that they aspire to.
This star experience is not about restaurants and bottle service. I’m talking about bakeries, coffee shops, ice cream parlors. Online brands like Marie Forleo and Amy Porterfield have glamour as well. These are the best of the best for online entrepreneurs. We all want to know the secret to their success. We want to be in their orbit because then we will look smarter, more successful, etc.
Walk into a high-end beauty salon and you’re guaranteed to find the essence of glamour. Beauty salons cater to their customers. They give their clients the fantasy. They make their customers feel beautiful, important, and yes, glamorous.
Another good example of this is a glamour photography studio. These are few and far between these days but the ones that are still around have taken glamour to the next level. These businesses hire makeup artists. They have wardrobes and a photographer spouting praise at every move you make.
These studios are not selling a service or a product, they sell glamour. That is the distinction between a photography studio and a glamour studio. You don’t buy pictures, you buy the experience of being a glamorous model for a day. You buy the experience of the photographer doting over you at every pose. This is the fantasy and that is glamour.
Other Posts You Might Like
What Next?
If you like the informational videos that we share here on Prettywebz, then make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive notifications when we send out new videos or blog posts. You can sign up in the footer of any page on the website. Plus, get exclusive design resources you can’t get anywhere else!
Also join me on Youtube as well to check out the playlists I’ve set up for Photoshop, PowerPoint and other software you can use to design your online graphics.
Did you like this post? Share it with a friend or save it for later by pinning this image!
