Is Vogue a brand?

This is a question that has popped up into my head a couple of times since I started this blog. So I looked up the definition of the word "Brand".

1. (Business / Marketing) a particular product or a characteristic that serves to identify a particular product

2. (Business / Marketing) a trade name or trademark

(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/brand)

My favourite definition was :

"A brand is a product, service, or concept that is publicly distinguished from other products, services, or concepts so that it can be easily communicated and usually marketed. A brand name is the name of the distinctive product, service, or concept. Branding is the process of creating and disseminating the brand name. Branding can be applied to the entire corporate identity as well as to individual product and service names."

(http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/brand)

Reading these definitions you could say that Vogue is a brand. This question has been in my head because I tried to think of how Vogue has changed because of the digital age and this question was always the first to come to my mind. 

First of all Vogue is a fashion magazine, always has been.

But now there is so much more to it. There are the social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Pintrest that help us get closer to the idea of Vogue and that give us insight into the amazing lives of Vogue girls.

Now there is also Vogue TV - http://www.vogue.co.uk/video/ 

Of course it's only online but who knows, perhaps its a start for an actual TV channel.

They also have a youtube channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/voguetv 

But that's not all, interestingly enough Vogue has an eyewear brand called Vogue - http://www.vogue-eyewear.com/international/

In recent years Vogue has organised a very popular event called Vogue Fashion Night Out -  

http://fashionsnightout.com/ 

Its an event where shops, mostly luxury, are open longer and they offer some kind of entertainment like DJ's, food, drinks and celebrity appearances - also discounts and limited addition items.  Since the launch of this event in 2009 it has become very popular in the big fashion capitals all over the world. The main reason for this was to boost retail sales but it has become a part of Vogue image.

Looking at all of this it is difficult to argue that Vogue is not a brand - not only its selling us products but also experience and a lifestyle.

Vogue would never have evolved into a brand so quickly if it wasn't for the digital revolution. The information now travels much faster and you don't have to wait a month to get some fashion news from Vogue. They can promote their events and products more effectively because of social media. Now their promotion campaign is much more cheaper, they just post something online and usually it gets the attention that they need.

Vogue Fashion Night Out probably wouldn't have been such a success if it wasn't for all of the social media promotion and later digital media coverage straight after the event has happened, maybe even during the event.

Now when we talk about Vogue we don't only think in terms of the magazine but also in terms of glamour, luxury and going out to posh places.

The point of this blog was that Vogue has become a brand because of the digital age, if the digital revolution didn't occur then Vogue would probably still be just a magazine and its transition from that to a brand would have taken a lot more time then it did.

Closer Look at Vogue

So I thought that it would be interesting to take a closer look to Vogues online present and maybe analyse what are they trying to achieve with it.

I wanted to look at the Vogue app but since I am not a Apple user and the app won't open on my PC I cannot do that. That is why I will look at the official website, Facebook account, Twitter account and any other social media account that they have.

Official Website: 

So this is the first thing when you open British Vogue official website (31/10/2012) The layout is very clean and minimal, so its very easy to work you're way through the website.

I outlined the trending part to show how the website is using words that have become popular with the help of Twitter like trending. That section automatically shows you what is popular right now and what are people looking at. Also they way it reminds me of Twitter is that Twitter also has the trending section on their website and it was their idea, which proved to be very successful. So, apparently Vogue is embracing it. So from the moment you enter their website you are guided to articles to read.

When you scroll down a little bit you see the Today's News. This shows that Vogue updates their news everyday. Supporting the previous posts and statements in them that Vogue needs to be constantly updated to stay on top of the game. Also you can see or assume, if you are not a Vogue reader, that so far the content of the website is very different from the magazine. Magazine might talk about events that will happen this month but it will not discuss anything too recent or have statements/news of Lady Gaga and her wanting Adele's confidence or Kate Mosses breakdown. The magazine will be more fashion focused. 

If you scroll a bit more down you have the 100 Best Shoes and Best Dressed articles (shortcuts to them). Those are the articles that stay there for longer then just a day. Vogue probably changes them once a week or once every two weeks. 

So these two pictures is what you would see when you would scroll till the end of the webpage. At the end you can find on going articles, like the on with Pixie Geldof and you can also find articles - the most read articles (not sure if most read of the day but logically it should be so). Also links to Vogues social media is seen at the bottom of the opening page of their website. It is interesting that Vogue shows the numbers of their followers, if  a lot of magazines an publications don't like to do that.

I pressed a random button on the menu the explore the website better. As you can see I pressed on Trends and this is what came up. I would also like to note that the website doesn't have a lot of adverts and when they do show them they are not "in your face" so they are not distracting the readers from the content.  

 

After I pressed on the first article and this what showed up. You can see on top (outlined with a red circle) the social media buttons, so any reader can like or retweet this article or a link to it. The buttons also show you the number of likes and retweets that this article already has. Personally I find the menu on the left side very interesting because I haven't seen anything like it before. Most of fashion magazines (also Vogue in the past) had the menu on top and had a very similar layouts to each other. This also proves that Vogue is the leader of fashion magazines, because its being different and embracing its online presents. 

This is a picture of what you can see when you scroll down - at the end of the article. There you see relevant pictures to the trend but also a place to comment about the article. As it can be seen the comment section looks a lot like Facebook in its design because it is. If a person comments in that section that will be seen on their official website and on their official Facebook page under the relevant post. 

It is fascinating how to different website are merged together and are so closely connected. The impression that I got from the website is that all their social platforms are well connected and that they are trying to make it easier to post about their articles - example of Facebook comment section being on their website. This shows how Vogue is using their social platforms to promote themselves and mainly the magazine, which people were scared will stop existing. With this Vogue is reaching a bigger audience then just with their magazine.