New beginnings
Pioneer, author and entrepreneur, Danilo Venturi tells us about his move from Director of Polimoda to founder of Brand Persona, an independent agency providing managerial, editorial, and educational services to public and private institutions based on the four-step method described in his latest book.
Book cover: Brooke Suzanne Chamberlain (model); Anna-Maria La Germaine (photographer)
Manuel Mari (designer)
In conversation with Alison O’Byrne
The last time we spoke to you, you were the Director of Polimoda and launching a fashion retail management masters degree in partnership with Gucci – the first-of-it’s-kind collaboration between a luxury brand and an educational institution. During your tenure with Polimoda you were known for spearheading such partnerships and increasing the school’s intake enormously. What prompted you to leave and has your mission changed since then?
Polimoda was more than a job. I regarded it as home because it is the school where I studied. However, when I agreed to become Director in 2015, I also accepted the idea that one day it would end. Fashion is made of life cycles; things change not necessarily because they go wrong but because the time has come to change. So after the stricter wave of lockdowns when we got out of the catacombs, I found a completely different world out there and realised that it was time to take a new path.
You can’t be the man for all seasons but my mission hasn’t changed. The way I am now advising companies is still a form of teaching: I don’t just give tips (the doors) and run away! I pass real knowledge to their managers (the keys), so they can keep on growing together with their company in the long run.
What is Brand Persona?
Brand Persona is a very informal manual, almost like a journal of the branding method I invented based on my personal experiences. The main idea is that brands have a human personality, which must be in tune with the personality of its customers. If you want to create or relaunch a brand, you must understand the teen spirit; you must have a three-dimensional business model that fits to the current post-demographic chaos; you must define the brand identity in a distinctive way; and you must know how to tell all this, both to stakeholders and to the wider audience. Brand Persona teaches how to create value out of values. Numbers come consequently, which may sound weird to those who have a classic business background but pretty obvious to those who work in fashion. Ultimately, Brand Persona is meant to humanise business language.
Did the Covid-19 pandemic motivate or influence your four-step approach to brand management?
Covid-19 somehow reinforced what I already had in mind. First: people started to select more, which does not mean buying less but better, so there is less room for fluff in their wardrobe. Second: social media is redundant and the web is a dinosaur. The new horizon is the metaverse, where unprecedented convergences take place (for example, between art, technology and finance – think NFTs). But be careful, where there is a convergence there is always a divergence too. Indeed, second hand and vintage are equally on the agenda of the contemporary consumer. Third, brands can make a difference only when they provoke an emotional, cultural or social impact. The traditional line of produce-communicate-sell is over, people now crave passive income but not passive spending.
Writing Brand Persona (the book) has given rise to your exciting next adventure: Brand Persona (the agency) – who is that for?
Actually, the Brand Persona book explains the method of the Brand Persona agency, which is a rather atypical one, liquid and relational. There is no office or employees, just me and a network of professionals that I involve according to what clients need. In fact, I wouldn't even call them clients, but rather collaborators on editorial, educational, and managerial projects. Is it about Creative Direction? Whatever. Now that I can enjoy the luxury of being nobody, I also have more time to research primary sources, such as travel, observe phenomena and speak directly with those who produce them. Taking notes on my iPad has become my main activity, as data is available to everyone, but feelings and thoughts are not. This is the plus of advising by being a writer first and foremost. This is a cultural approach to business. This is Brand Persona.
Does the Brand Persona agency work with only fashion brands?
Honestly, fashion is my main territory. But then it depends on what you mean by fashion. For me it's not only about collections, shows and shops. Look at what Virgil Abloh, rest in peace, has represented in recent years. For me, fashion is the most complete of the creative industries because it involves all the others: from art to music; from literature to cinema; up to technology and politics. I remember an interview that Coco Rocha gave me for Forbes France and which I then reported in the book. She said: "Fashion is not created in a vacuum. It is moved by history, politics, culture. And in turn history, politics and culture are sometimes moved by fashion. We are all a product of the times we live in, and fashion is no different". I fully agree. Therefore the final answer is NO, Brand Persona doesn't only work with fashion brands but with any entity that seeks to match ethics and aesthetics.
ALHAUS exists to tell brand stories; create and maintain cultural identities; and initiate dialogue with client communities. How important is storytelling to your branding and marketing strategies?
Brand Persona teaches that every brand has an archetype. This primary identity element is present in all of us since birth. Archetypes are very well defined in mythology (e.g., the hero, the king, the mother, the lover, the warrior, and many others). We also see that they are related to each other, and from here springs the energy of each mythological tale. In a more recent form of storytelling like films, we see that stories can take different forms and present several details, but in their essence, they always trace mythology. For Brand Persona, storytelling is not presented as a marketing activity but as a spontaneous display of an identity. The storytelling of a brand must be the natural consequence of its own archetype. A brand without an archetype does not attract anyone. And a brand that forces a storytelling and doesn't fit to its own archetype can be at serious risk. Nowadays, people recognise fakes and immediately spit them out.
How do you currently tell your own brand story and/or advise your clients about telling theirs?
Usually, companies expect from me to arrive with answers, instead I come with questions. The fact is, they've been so used to having to present a certain image of themselves that they no longer remember who they are, what they do and why people should buy their products. In other cases, their formula is almost perfect but there is a wrong detail, such as a colour, a word, or a graphic element. Others completely lack culture and think they can just rely on business plans to launch their brand. Cases vary but the solution always starts the same way: to make them speak their truth, honestly and consistently. My personal truth is that my content must be enough for those who read it. I am known in a certain community and if I do something good, word of mouth will spread it. There are many marketing tools nowadays, some easy to use and relatively cheap, but I don't use them. I do not participate in any conferences, and I do not give interviews (this is the only exception because I strongly believe in your project). I am exercising the presence of absence. If someone is looking for me, they know where to find me.
Where can we get a copy of Brand Persona (the book)?
Brand Persona is available on Amazon. You know, after two books with traditional publishers I took the pandemic as an excuse to self-publish and understand how it works. I must say, it was very tiring but also very interesting because I had to go through all the steps of how a book is really created. Writing is the minor part. If you want to do it well, self-publishing requires entrepreneurial and curatorial choices too. I also think self-publishing is enhancing freedom and diversity. I mean, it can also be understood as a political choice. However, it is now too polluted by low content and no content. Just to say, there are so many remakes in circulation that it is hard to find the original Divine Comedy.
But there is only one Brand Persona, you can't go wrong!