The Decline and Fall of the Brand of Ye

Ye (aka Kanye West) is a brand, so much so that he is included in WPP’s longest-running study of brands, BrandAsset Valuator (BAV). In the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen what happens when brand partnerships fall apart. In ideal situations, partner brands are strong complements to one another. The problem is when one brand’s values, reputation or equity begin to harm the other. With BAV, we talk about this in terms of knowledge, differentiation, relevance and esteem. 

For years, Ye’s said and done 'controversial' or 'outrageous' things that people explained away by saying he’s a genius or speculating on his mental health. For years, it seemed that there was no way to truly tarnish the brand of Ye. But the data indicates otherwise. 

BAV data shows that since 2020, Ye’s esteem with respondents has dropped significantly while knowledge has increased. That means that as people felt they knew more about him, they respected him less. The esteem rankings for Ye in BAV are so low that they barely register (.10 in Q2 of 2022), and that was before the past couple of weeks and his antisemitic attacks on the Jewish community. 

The Brand of Ye

If we look at the personality types in BAV used to describe Ye, his top ones are consistently distant, bold and distinguished. Among his lowest are purposeful, accessible and dependable. Surprisingly, he also ranks very low on 'inventive,' which anecdotally I would have said was at the heart of his brand. Also notable in the data is the huge drop in his ranking for 'hip,' going from 77.8 in 2020 to 40.3 in Q2 2022.  

If we dive one level deeper into the BAV data to imagery attributes, his highest-ranking attributes are arrogant and unapproachable. At least in 2020 those were offset by his being seen as daring, different and trendy — but in 2022, all of those attributes began to drop in the general population.  

Overall, he fares better with younger folks, especially men - but across all audiences, his differentiation, relevance and esteem have dropped since 2020. The esteem aspect seems especially compelling as it measures imagery attributes such as quality, trust, respect, and admiration, and personality traits such as likability. 

A Dismal Brand Outlook

BAV data shows that Ye’s brand has been declining for some time, even if the profits from some of his brand partnerships and collaborations have not. No one should have been shocked that his brand partners started dropping him. He was no longer shoring up where they might have been weak. He no longer brought a surprising sparkle to the partnership. He wasn’t bringing strong brand equity to the party, and that’s not my opinion - it’s data. 

It took the mobilised outrage of the Jewish community after an unrepentant antisemitic screed topped by additional antisemitic activities by others for brands (both companies and individual people) to realise a partnership with Ye may no longer have enough value to continue forward. Ye has not been 'cancelled.' Data shows the brand of Ye became badly fatigued due to his own actions, and eventually there were consequences. Ye’s brand just isn’t worth it anymore. 

In the end, as much of a brand as Ye might be, he’s a person. If people loved that person as much as they loved the brand and what that brand does for them, they would protect him. They would recognise that this is a person that is either truly having a mental crisis or has just bought too much into his own idea of his genius. If people really loved Ye the person more than the brand, they would not give him platforms to spew hate against Jewish people, women, his ex-wife and his many other targets.