Case Study #2: KIM-OH-NO

For one of my classes, Strategic Public Relations, we were expected to lead our class in a crisis/issue management presentation. For my presentation I chose to do Kim Kardashion-West and her new shape wear line. This line was under fire due to the proposed name 'Kimono'. This put Kardashian-West under public disapproval because the public viewed her proposed name as cultural appropriation. The problem was the fact that she intended to make a play on her name like she does all of her other product lines, but this hit too close to home for some individuals. A kimono is a T-shaped wrapped garment with set sleeve lengths, variations and a set way of construction. It is simply a coverup garment in the Japanese culture and the issue became a problem when Kim decided to name shape wear something it is not.

Kim Kardashian-West is a big-time American media personality. She is ‘famous for being famous’ in the world of media. She is known for being controversial with the things she wears, does and shares it all to the public. She is apart of varies projects like makeup lines, criminal justice reform and staring in a television show. She is now making her way into the undergarment production by creating a new shape-wear line. This line was released on September 10, 2019. Although the line was very inclusive with the sizes, the colors, and the versatility of the products, she was under heat due to the proposed named of the line. “Kimono” was the original name for the line and sparked some controversy and essentially bad publicity for the brand and Kim herself.

In class, we talked a lot about loyalty and this begged the question to me for KKW; If you use digital and social media to become and remain famous, do you obligate yourself to change dependent on the notions of your audience? As a famous personality must you remain loyal to yourself or your consumers first? Although that may seem like a large and broad question it is still very much relevant. This line title confused her audience because she is very involved with the reformations in our country but still forms to cultural appropriation.

West truly tried to create a play on words with this name being as though her name is Kim and some of her brand names play on that as well, i.e. “KIMOJI”. If that is who she is, and truly wants to represent she should have the freedom to do so. With that being the case, should her freedom to do so be at the cost of the Japanese culture or any culture offense she has taken a part of? That is the question of loyalty again, where does her true loyalty lie? Although, her taking it down and creating a new name could be viewed as a show to loyalty to her publics, could the initial trial and error be that she is truly loyal to herself first and backtracked because it's wasn't ethical to not care?

In my opinion, the name was stupid and clearly shouldn't have been used because of its shape-wear. Shape-wear has no connection to kimono’s regardless of close names. I do believe in order to stay famous she must stay conformed to the original beliefs of herself and her followers because if they are her true fans they already appreciate her beliefs from her original rise to fame. I do believe the back and forth can confuse the audience which is not beneficial to her brand and should be dealt with within a reasonable amount of time.

If I was a part of KKW's PR team I would have gone through multiple names and sent them to a set group of influencers, took a pole and given them to KKW. Depending on how she was feeling about the names it is ultimately up the her and how she wants to represent her brand. If the result was the same, I would then pull out a plan set for issues that result like this case did. I do believe they reacted in the best way they could have, but I do believe they could have had better risk management plans set in place for if this was to happen being as though society finds a way to be angry at anything.