Martha, Unfettered And Back in Business
The Ankle Bracelet Is Off, and a New Round Of Corporate-Image Rehabilitation Is On
Martha Stewart ,who will retain her non-executive title of founder at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., is back as a brand, and with a vengeance.
(By Mary Altaffer -- Associated Press)
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Wednesday, August 31, 2005
NEW YORK, Aug. 30 -- The music in the promotional spot is stark, pounding. Big, black letters fill the screen. "She didn't just INVENT the business. . . . She IS the business."
Flash to Martha Stewart. "I don't want to lose my patience," she says sternly but with a slight smirk. "None of you want me to lose my patience."
This is the Martha Stewart viewers will see if they tune in to her version of NBC's reality show "The Apprentice" next month. The show is the biggest, and perhaps the riskiest, element in one of the most audacious image-rehabilitation campaigns in recent corporate history.
Along with the reality show, Stewart will appear in a daily, syndicated lifestyle program starting Sept. 12 that will air in 98 percent of country, including on WJLA in the District. She will soon launch a show on Sirius satellite radio. She will also begin selling how-to DVDs in retail stores in October along with a business book called "The Martha Rules."
In short, she will be everywhere.
It is what branding experts described as an effort essentially to restart Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. now that the company's namesake and founder is free from prison and, as of Wednesday, free from the ankle bracelet that monitored her during almost six months of home confinement.
The campaign is similar to one launched by shoemaker Steve Madden Ltd. when the company's founder finished a prison stint for stock fraud this spring. Ads for the company carried such phrases as, "There's been one pair of shoes that's been impossible to fill. Steve returns spring 2005."
Branding experts said the campaigns are an indication that, as long as the offense is not violent or sexual, convictions need no longer crush high-profile corporate careers. "I think doing everything just right is not as important a message these days," said Allen Adamson, New York managing director for brand-consulting firm Landor Associates. "It's not as salient a message as doing everything with style and panache."
Experts said the blitz is also clear evidence that any effort to separate Martha Stewart the person from Martha Stewart the company is emphatically over. "This is not just another chapter in the Martha Stewart story," Adamson said "This is a total relaunch."
The strategy is not without significant risk, foremost that Stewart's turn on "The Apprentice," while buzz-worthy, may reinforce her reputation as a haughty ice queen who deals mercilessly with underlings.
Larry McNaughton of brand-development firm CoreBrand said it will be essential for Stewart to come across as different from Donald Trump, the show's original monster boss.
"Trump is a huge, powerful brand, but there is an incredible level of crassness associated with the brand, and he plays to that crassness on the show," McNaughton said. "If Martha comes across as an interesting counterpoint to that, then she's got it knocked. But if she comes across as a female version of 'The Donald,' as 'The Martha' if you will, then she will have problems. I can't see people flocking to a mean, arrogant, crass person to help them make their salads and make their beds."
