Campaign trail bolsters Ivanka Trump’s brand, analyst says

So far the campaign trail has been good for the Ivanka Trump brand. Marshal Cohen, the NPD Group’s chief industry analyst, said the Ivanka Trump brand gets a lift, particularly in the dress category, whenever Trump appears in public while on the campaign trail for her father, Donald Trump. Ivanka Trump has been wearing dresses from her collection for many of her public appearances.

The same effect doesn’t appear to be true for her footwear line, which is manufactured under license. In fact, negative publicity from labor issues on where the footwear line is produced suggested a drop in footwear sales for the brand, Cohen said.

According to NPD data, Cohen said if Donald Trump gets elected as president, it should help elevate the Ivanka Trump brand. The NPD analyst compared the elevation of the brand to when First Lady Michelle Obama wears an outfit from J. Crew, much of it from social media postings. Once the election is over come Nov. 9, Cohen expects a return to the “normal state of affairs,” where the ones that care are the ones who are loyal to the Ivanka Trump brand.

But Cohen cautioned that Donald Trump’s personality and brand power could outweigh any brand power she has, and if he becomes a sore loser, that could affect her brand status among consumers.

The findings are similar to an earlier survey of consumers conducted by Brand Keys, which found that female Millennial consumers are still willing to keep the Ivanka Trump brand on their shopping lists. That’s in spite of some groups calling for a “boycott of all things Trump” following the release of a video clip of her father speaking about “women in vulgar sexual terms,” according to Brand Keys founder Robert Passikoff. He said her comments have been balanced regarding the “campaign overall.”

Ivanka Trump has been tweeting as she’s been stumping, using the hashtag #womenwhowork and finding a way to link what she’s wearing to where consumers can buy her collection. In more recent weeks, there’s been an ongoing campaign via hashtag #grabyourwallet calling for a boycott of the retailers — they number 21 in total — that sells the Ivanka Trump line.