Marketing yourself through a mans suit

Although most of us own, or have owned a suit of some description how many of us understand the power of marketing the personality by wearing a certain item of clothing ie a suit.

1. Mao Tse-tung . Politicians that have created an image, include one of the most famous in the annuals of the human race Mao Tse-tung – leader of the worlds most populous nation China. The Mao suit was named after Sun Yat -Sen who founded the Chinese republic in 1912. Under communism the majority of the population male and female took to wearing it so when we think of Mao we in our minds eye always see him in the ubiquitous Mao suit that was the image he portrayed all over the world.
2. Winston Churchill. In 1940 Winston posed for a picture carrying a machine gun, wearing a bowler hat, chewing a large cigar in the loudest pinstripe suit. Looking more like a Chicago gangster than a publicly educated Englishman. What was he trying to portray wearing that suit, that he and the English nation would not be an easy touch in the war. The gun and cigar was making a statement “a power statement” wearing a power suit which still last today in the corridors of government and business.
3. Charlie Chaplin. Anyone who remembers Charlie will always conjurer up the image of the down trodden little guy with the world against him, who never got the girl, the right job, or the right breaks. What did he wear to promote this image – a scruffy ill fitting suit that he always wore and made him his fortune.
4. Tom Wolfe. The best-selling American author and journalist whose notable works include the very successful novel The Bonfire of the Vanities. Wolfe also created a marketing image for himself in 1962 he adopted his trademark white suit. He bought his first white suit to wear in the style of a Southern gentleman in the summer months, but it was too heavy a material for the hot summer months. So by a quirk of fate he wore it in the winter instead and it created a sensation and from that day on it became his trademark.
5. Colonel Harland Sanders. The founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken the man who revolutionized the way the world eats on the run, with a billion dinners served annually in more than 80 countries. What made KFC and the Colonel so successful – one the product but two the personality. He was brave or eccentric enough to put on the white suit and build an image that he believed in. To found a company that spans the world who we will always remember as the man in the white suit.
6. James Bond. The fictional character invented by Ian Flemming, played originally by the actor Sean Connery as the suave MI5 agent, flying round the world in the company of beautiful women, dodging bullets, drinking vodka martinis, involved in manic car chases, and how best is he summed up dress wise the tuxedo either full black or white jacket bow tie. A look that the author also was apt to imitate.

There are more numerous people to add to this list, but i think it proves the point that a mans suit can and are a great marketing tool, that can be used to influence – maybe intimidated – the way we view certain products or people in the real world.