Sundance
There was a time when most great brands embodied the characteristics of the entrepreneurs who invented the products. Campbell's, Hershey's, Harley-Davidson, JCPenney, and Kellogg's came by brand personality naturally. The product's identity was the proprietor's personality. Josiah Wedgwood, perhaps the originator of the modern concept of associating a brand with a particular lifestyle, stratified his porcelain ware. He would first sell high-quality china, called "Queensware" to aristocrats and then create lower-quality line extensions for the "middling class of people." The middlings aspired to aristocracy, and everyone aspired to be like Josiah Wedgwood.
Today, brands tied to personalities often represent an idea that transcends economic status (Ben and Jerry's or The Body Shop, for example). Our case in point: Robert Redford's Sundance. You might know Sundance as a film festival or a cable channel. You might not know that Sundance was first a ski resort. In 1969, hot off his success with Paul Newman as the Sundance kid, Robert Redford retraced the road he'd followed on his way to Hollywood. He stopped in the Wasatch Mountains, about forty miles south of Park City, UT and bought a big piece of mountain.
Redford mustered up some investors and built a ski resort there. The resort has always been out of the way, as Utah ski resorts go. It is by no means the biggest resort, has minimal shopping, and is not the first place that avid skiers want to go when skiing in the Rockies. Deer Valley is only 45 minutes from the airport while Sundance is one-and-a-half hours away. There are probably a hundred ski resorts from Canada to Colorado that have similar services. Those resorts are lucky to attract 80 percent of their clientele from 100 miles away. Only the big names (Vail, Whistler, Park City) can expect to capture the larger U.S. and international vacationer market. But Sundance is special.
The fact that a Hollywood celebrity owns the resort, in and of itself, is not the reason that Sundance stands out and commands a nice profit. Robert Redford has clearly shaped the essence of the ski resort. It evokes his independent yet polished personality. Like most lodges, Sundance's are adorned with natural details-but there is a style about the plants, paintings, and crafts that somehow fit the Sundance kid. However, there's more to what makes Sundance special than just celebrity aura. Go to www.sundance.org and you'll learn about origins of the brand that stand for more than Redford-style skiing:
In 1981 Robert Redford gathered a group of colleagues and friends at Sundance, Utah to discuss new ways to enhance the artistic vitality of the American film. The result was the establishment of the Sundance Institute, dedicated to the support and development of emerging screenwriters and directors of vision, and to the national and international exhibition of new, independent dramatic and documentary films.
Personifying the brand truth that an independent lifestyle creates better art, the Sundance Institute has expanded over 20 years. The nonprofit corporation's budget of $10.6 million oversees the administration of education programs in documentary films, feature films, film music, and film writing. There are special programs for young filmmakers, independent producers, international filmmaking, and Native American films.
Oh yeah, and there's the Sundance Film Festival, a program run by the Sundance Institute that has become so successful it doesn't fit in Sundance or Park City anymore. It now also takes up a good portion of Salt Lake City every yearâ€"with some events in Los Angeles. Thousands attend. Millions wish they could. (Josiah Wedgwood would be impressed.)
Sundance is a town, a ski resort, an institute, and the world-renowned independent film festival, with a spinoff cable channel and, of course, a catalog. There is no consistent "look" to all of these entities, but there is a consistent feeling, a feeling that imparts: "We didn't sell out." The irony being that you can buy hammocks, halter tops, jewelry, clogs, light fixtures, figurines, leather couches, bean bags, mittens, candles, sweatshirts, silk skirts, and tennis shoes anywhere in Sundance, online, on airplanes, and through direct catalogs. Redford's persona soothes you with inspirational messages as you validate the independent artist's lifestyle through your purchases. Here's a sample of his tone with online buyers:
Along the coast of much of Northern California, one can still find the raw beauty and grit that binds the best of America. Much of this area is threaded by the Blue Highways that hold the traditions and personal portraits of communities still committed to self-reliance and preservation.
With Spring poised for its wild and windy entrance we focus on Point Reyes. Hamlets like Inverness, Bolinas, Tomales and Bodega Bays enshrine this lighthouse point, and the artists and their products are honed from this rich environment.
It is a place so inspirational in its vibrant connection to nature and history that we welcome the chance to share it with you.