Branding loosing control

There is a very interesting article today in the WSJ today about "Chavs," a group of, well, partying-loud kind of persons, that may be a threat to luxury branding...

Their sartorial choices are, ahem, on the flashy, if not the gaudy side. Lots of big and, probably, fake, jewelry, and brands, brands, brands! They favor (favored?) a certain Burberry baseball cap. Since Chavs have been very naughty, and have been partying quite hard, Burberry baseball cap became a symbol of infamy, and has been banned altogether by some night clubs. Burberry has decided to stop producing them.

But that's not all. Prada has stopped distributing a certain type of black Prada shoes, that became also part of the Chav's uniform. A Prada spokesman is quoted in the article as saying:" When you are a brand appealing to many people around the world, it's impossible to control what gets into the imagination of people."

This comment reveals quite a bit about branding. Let's take a basic shoe, stamp it Prada. It is now a shoe, with the name Prada on it. Marketing professionals must now sprinkle Pixie dust on these shoes, to create an aura of good taste, luxury, around them. Alas, a group of unpolished youngsters start using the shoes, and thus interfere beetween the product and the marketing efforts.

Will H.R. 683 be urgently amended to include dilution of a trademark by unpolished consummers?