[With T.I.’s Akoo Clothing holiday collection in retail outlets this fall/winter, VP of Marketing Sabai Burnett talks to SOHH about what challenges the company has faced and overcome.]
I think our biggest challenge right out of the gate was trying to come out of that box of being looked at as another brand with a hip-hop artist.
As soon as you tie your brand or partner with a personality, you automatically lose 50 percent of your audience. The ones that don’t like certain individuals are going to say, “No, I don’t like that brand.”
When that happens, you have to create some type of plan and execute around that. For us, one of the good things with T.I. is that he transcends across the board. Yes, you’ve seen him with ten albums deep on the music side but he also does film, he’s done TV.
He’s been able to get into certain households that traditional hip-hop artists may not be able to get in to.
That’s a pro for us.
At the end of the day, you might get people who aren’t fans of Tip. Just because you’re not a fan of Tip, we don’t want that to kill an opportunity for you to become aware of our brand.
Our focus remains being focused on the product. We have to push that messaging first. You love the product, you love how it feels when you put it on, you love how it fits, the quality.
We have worked very hard for people to love us for what we do which is making clothing. That remains our focus all the time.
Akoo=G-Unit=RocaWear=Sean John=Vokal
Basically the brands you see people wearing at the plasma center or who are homeless.
Akoo=G-Unit=RocaWear=Sean John=Vokal
Basically the brands you see people wearing at the plasma center or who are homeless.