Kim Kardashian is getting married — and it’s causing a minor rift with her mother. Not because Ma doesn’t like the fellow, New Jersey Nets forward Kris Humphries. And it’s not because of the wedding preparations for the reality TV star’s big summer event. No, it’s because 30-year-old Kim Kardashian plans to lose her last name, the golden family brand, and become Kim Humphries.

“I don’t think she should take his name and be Kim Humphries,” her mom, the 55-year-old Kris Jenner, reportedly said. “I think she needs to be Kim Kardashian because she’s worked so hard to get where she is.”

Of course Jenner ditched the last name of Kardashian, too, when she married Olympic legend Bruce Jenner. But her daughters — the K-named trio that is Kim, Khloe, and Kourtney — have made their names household ones since Keeping Up With The Kardashians debuted on the E! Network back in October of 2007.Continue reading...

In the branding world, becoming a "lifestyle brand" is seen as something akin to grabbing the golden ring. If a brand can represent a particular lifestyle, the theory goes, it can gain a huge competitive advantage over other products in its category, because the lifestyle brand connects with consumers on a very personal level.

Harley-Davidson, for example, may be a motorcycle brand, but it embodies a lifestyle that creates fanatics who live and breathe the brand and what it stands for. Case in point: "Harlistas," the moniker for Latin American Harley riders, as highlighted on Harley's website and above.

As much as it may seem desirable to have consumers identify their lifestyle with a favored brand, now, it seems, that very strength can actually be a liability.Continue reading...