Vince Staples & Defying Conventional Principles of Branding

Song of the week: Vince Staples - Big Fish

It’s a Vince Staples kinda Friday (for me, at least). This joint is a few years old, but it’s one of my favorite joints by him. Highly encourage you to check out the catalog at some point.

Now, let’s get to today’s piece.

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When it comes to branding, there are a few principles that generally every iconic brand abides by.

Usually, those principles include having a solid visual ID, a clear strategic platform, and an overall promise being made to the consumer.

Think about Nike, for example. One of the greatest brands ever.

Their vis ID includes the swoosh.

Nike’s tagline, "Just Do It" helps to reinforce their strategic platform, which more or less promises that anyone who wears a pair of their shoes is an athlete.

The same principles go for rappers.

This is something we talked about in an earlier SNOBHOP post about how rappers have mastered branding.

When you think about the greatest rappers of the past few generations, they all have similar attributes working for them.

They’ve got great a visual identity (especially when it comes to merch), a strong platform that’s been working for them, and a brand persona that aligns with an archetype.

As Byron Sharp would say, all of these things combine to create memory structures that encourage people to buy.

But that begs the question…

Can you create memory structures while subverting conventional laws of branding?

That question leads us to today’s focus:

Vince Staples

Looking at the way Vince has built his brand over the past few years has led me to the realization that a lot of the principles we’ve come to cherish in the world of marketing are important to have, but they aren’t the end all be all to cultivating a successful (or distinctive) brand.

Think about the countless businesses that have had these things and failed.

It’s partially because what makes a brand iconic comes down to the intangibles; Appearing in the market at the right time, getting consumers to sing your praises, having a co-sign you couldn’t possibly plan for, etc.

It’s bigger than the principles. Regardless, let’s talk about these conventions for a second, and how Vince subverts them.

Convention #1: A Definitive Brand Archetype

Typically when a brand describes themselves within the context of the their competitors, or the market, they’ll either reference themselves a challenger, hero, or something similar.

Moreover, they generally fit under a particular brand archetype. Peep the ones below for reference:

Part of what makes Vince special is that he bounces between brand archetypes depending on the medium his art uses.

For example, his TV show has him show up as The Everyman: The situations Vince goes through are slightly surreal yet extremely relatable. Moreover, some of the things that his character face are easy to grasp even if you’re not from a similar background.

This scene from the Cookout episode feels super relatable:

The same can be said about Vince’s music — as mentioned earlier, with the difference in mode off expression comes a slight shift in archetype.

While the Vince Staples show is relational in its expression, Vince’s music feels more personal and provides a context into how he presently feels, and what he’s feeling at the moment.

In short, it presents him as more of The Creator.

It’s a medium where he takes a ton of creative risks, includes layers of messaging between the song and music video and it’s a place where the viewer/listener can get a really in depth view of Vince’s opinions on everything from Class to race.

In interviews, his archetype takes another shift. He often says what people are afraid to say. It’s equal parts controversial and prolific.

Vince’s presence in media makes him The Sage.

Peep the interview below for example. He provides his theories on everything from Haters to what really happened to Michael Jackson.

Examining the different shifts Vince makes, it led me to the realization that the archetype that your brand embodies doesn’t have to be static especially when the medium of expression changes.

Sometimes your brand is a Hero brand, other times it’s the Explorer. It’s all contextual.

In fact, I’d go as far as to say some brands take the archetype thing too seriously. — so much so that they don’t veer to far from what they’ve defined themselves as. But as Vince shows, at times, that’s a shifting goal post.

Change archetypes with the medium — it’s all coming from the same brand anyway.

Convention #2: An Explicitly Stated Brand Promise

A core tenet of branding has always been about messaging i.e. what are you communicating to the consumer about who you are and what you stand for.

Brands like Patagonia do a great job at this, as does Ben & Jerry’s.

Immediately hearing their names you get a sense of some of the things they do to help the world, and all of goes hand in hand with the product.

With Vince’s art, he doesn’t go out of his way to sway you to his way of viewing things. Rather, he makes it clear that his goal is to make you think.

Specifically, when talking about his new Netflix show, Vince references the fact throughout the series he isn’t telling any jokes yet some viewers are finding humor in the struggles of the characters in the show.

It’s an interesting way to position your brand, and something that only an artist can do.

Convention #3: A Definitive Visual Identity

The interesting thing about Vince’s visual ID is it doesn’t seem defined by one aspect of his identity.

Harkening back to an earlier point, when you think of 90s and even early 2000s Hip-hop, there was a lot of emphasis placed on Vis ID.

Every rapper had a logo or stylized version of their name that pretty much stayed with them through their career. Over time it might appear slightly different in some ways but it’s more or less the nucleus of what you’ve seen from them in album one.

For reference, look at some of some of the logos below:

Vince subverts a lot of those Vis ID rules established in the 90s.

Aside from the different hues of blue you’ll likely see in his merch and videos, Vince experiments with the visual aspect of his identity as an artist.

The fonts may change, with the theme, and so on. It’s all very intentional.

Moreover, he’s from California, and frequently wears brands that are popular out there, but if he never uttered a word you may not know it. If you’ve ever met someone from LA then he may have the same vibe, but again, that’s an intangible.

The dope thing about that is that it makes it harder to box him into a specific category.

With Nike, you know it’s them as soon as you see the swoosh, or their iconic silhouettes. Both come with whatever associations you think of, good or bad.

But when your Visual ID is as fluid as Vince’s you don’t know what to expect.

He shows that he’s less aligned with corporate interests and more aligned with true expression. As a result his visual id can change at will and still feel genuine.

EPILOGUE

Vince is continuing to put out new art, and no matter the medium, his work shows that the only true principles are being authentic to who he is, and not leaning into the customs that many have come to know in marketing are the recipe for success.

Netflix has yet to say whether they’re going to give the Vince Staples Show a season two, but I think it’s safe to say that the culture would really appreciate it.

After all, he owes Dougie the fade, right?

One.