As I wandered around the Grand Design's show at ExCel last week, I realised that this TV programme on modern home follies had evolved into a fantastic brand, and that it had me hook, line and sinker.
Like Apple, it's a brand that can do little wrong in my mind, and I want a little piece of the dream it dangles in front of my 30-something nose. Hundreds of exhibitors, such as Huf House were all there to grab some of it's brand equity for their their own products and its a relationship thatseems to be beneficial to both parties.
The image of presenter Kevin McCloud hangs heavy over the event - it appears twice on the massive entrance banner alone, and on the day I attended, he was also chairing two open seminars. Grand Designs know he is critical to the brand's success, just as Chris Tarrent is to 'Who Want To Be A Millionaire', and Alan Sugar is to 'The Apprentice'. But while WWTBAM offers the ultimate dream, once you take it out of its original context of TV and it loses most of its resonance - the board game is nothing more than that. By being (a little) more obtainable and investing heavily in McCloud's charisma, the Grand Designs brand has been extended to different media, like the show and the magazine, and be made stronger and stronger.
I know little about the success of Martha Stewart's broad range of products in the US, but it's a model that is being increasingly used in the UK - the power of the celebrity. Grand Designs is not named after its charismatic presenter, but it might well as be as I am hooked.
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