My Pick on Today's Brands
Branding is an essential part of capitalism. Its strength in manipulation lies in the foundation of today’s economy. Out of the millions of brands that surround us today, we, as individuals, relate only to a handful. We save up to own the products of those brands and get perishable bubbles of satisfaction and pride when we reach our goals. We make our decisions by evaluating hundreds of variables and push for individualism and personalization in a market of mass production and consumption.
So, when it comes to my own selection among the millions of brands today, I, like most of us, have only a handful. The most important aspects I evaluate on are:
- The originality of the invention and its impact in daily life
- The logo, color and packaging
- Customer service
Based on this criteria, here are some of my favorite brands:
Apple
iPod wipes out the cases of CDs we were carrying around to listen to the music we like. It brings digital music to life and comes in a sleek black case with minimal writing, reminding its owner of a precious jewelery to which not everyone is entitled to.
Ralph Lauren
No other fashion brand can compete with the sophistication found inside a Ralph Lauren store. The ancient oil paintings with libraries of books and dark wood reflect the impression that whatever this place provides will be a product of wisdom and comfort.
LaDuree
The soft lime green box decorated in gold can only mean one thing: the most delicious macarons and pastries in the world.
IWC
Not many are a fan on IWC, but I have been one for a long time. It might be the fact that my father loves and wears its watches and I have always known him as a man of refined taste or the fact that unlike many other brands, IWC has focused on nothing but watchmaking since its foundation in 1868. It never designed jewelery or got into leather goods, it was always there to make watches.
Aston Martin
If you read into Aston Martin’s history you will see a company of financial troubles, but a brand representing refined taste, strength, speed and modern design. When compared to the Ferraris, Porsches and Bugattis I will always see Aston Martin a unique, personalized machine of beauty, integrity and speed. Ferraris might be flashier, but when an Aston Martin comes up the driveway, it is the heavyweight champion of class and intellectuality. It has not only achieved this rank through the 007 movies, but also a history of hand craftsmanship and a founder who has chased speed all this life at the Aston Hill in the UK.
TOMS
My girlfriend was the one who first introduced me to TOMS and since than I have been a fan of its shoes and their purpose. The founder of the company is a true entrepreneur in the sense that he has previously founded multiple successful companies before he finally started TOMS. His first endeavor was the EZ Laundry Service he started with a partner at during college to service his classmates. His idea for TOMS was formed during a trip to Argentina where he saw farmers wearing the traditional alpargata (means ‘espadrille” in Spanish). He had the vision to play around with the alpargata and turn it into a fashion item worn by the metropolitan crowd, whose purchase would in return allow the company to provide extremely poor children in the 3rd world with shoes. Having enough guts and vision to take something so simple, turn it into a profitable worldwide-known brand and then give some of its success back to the people makes TOMS and its founder a great source of inspiration for me.
Cartier Pasha
I can’t say that I am a big fan of jewelry brands making complex watches. In my opinion the idea defeats purpose and destroys focus. Yet, I have always liked Cartier’s Pasha Watches, mostly because of the history behind their creation. The Cartier Pasha line was formed when a Sheik from the Middle East heard of the success of Cartier and asked him to come up with a watch that would withstand the sand storms of the dessert. Cartier created a watch, which had an extra screwable lid that would block the tiny sands from getting into the mechanism.
Hästens Sangar
The blue and white checkered beds might look really simple from a distance, but they are packed with history and hours of stitching. Swedish, family-owned Hastens started business in the 1800s as a saddles and carriage furniture maker. It was using genuine horse hair as the filling inside its furniture and got solely into the bed business after receiving more orders than it can handle. Since then the company has not changed its approach or logo. Hastens has been the registered royal bedmaker for the King of Sweden since 1952.
Prada
Prada family started the company with the use of English leather, but it wasn’t until Miuccia Prada took over the business that the company became a world-wide known fashion brand. Her rain-proof textile became the core of the company travel bags. I have never been a fan of the clothes, but the shoes have been my favorite for a long time because of their comfort and durability.
Dyson
Dyson wipes out the dirt bag accessory in vacuum cleaners. It has since overflown with innovation and reached a new ground with the new Dyson Ball. A surname written in orange over a black background has never looked this good.
“In the land of excess, the consumer is king”, exclaimed Robin Lewis, whose life revolves around strategic business planning and forecasting. Retailers must know their target market and be aware of the demands of consumers, who chime in saying, “don’t just fulfill my needs; satisfy my dreams!” This is the only way retailers will survive in the ferociously over-competitive retail world, where it gets harder and harder to make a buck every single day, according to Lewis.
The dreams of consumers can be satisfied by having vertically integrated retailers that focus on creating an “experience”, rather than just a “lifestyle”. These types of retailers are dubbed “brandscendentalists” by Lewis. They effectively control the space and location of their store as well as the aura and minds of the consumer. In addition, they have excellent supply chain management, high productivity, superior marketing and advertising, creative innovations, clear value proposition, and a dominant brand. Most importantly, these types of retailers are pre-emptive, perpetual, and precise in their distribution dominance, which trumps all other retail strategies.
Retailers must also be aware of the six trends prevalent in the industry currently, known as the “6D’s” by Lewis. These trends are the declining share of wallet, decelerating retail growth, devastating retail expansion, deflating prices, dead retail sales, and the demographic downside concerned with baby boomers being more interested in directing their money towards adventure as opposed to purchasing apparel. In order to compete with these trends, retailers must work hard to be the first to target a consumer. They must also be the fastest and the most frequent retailer to target prospective consumers.
Lewis paints a dim picture of the retail world, by adding that “we have too many stores and no one business can do anything about it”. The only hope for retailers is to become vertically integrated and take on characteristics of the “brandscendentalists”, since they have the greatest chance of satisfying the dreams of consumers, who rule the world of retailing.
This is what I am learning in Fashion School kanka,,,,amongst many other things, a single straight young man can learn in the beautiful Campus of FIT…..
peace
I am positive that one day Spanglish will be in this list Guindi!
butun wanted ini yaptiklarin toplanip senin de bi wanted ini yapmak lazim arada!!! :)
bunun icin de bence her yazdiin brand innovation, social responsibility, ve clever/simple-design criterine uymali! yani criteria lar constant olmali:))))
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