4 ms·

Most of clothing sales are based on branding, not quality, and buying a certain brand means buying into a certain image you want of yourself. People will avoid

by abnry 8y ago

Most of clothing sales are based on branding, not quality, and buying a certain brand means buying into a certain image you want of yourself. People will avoid WalMart like the plague because they don't want to be "someone who gets their clothes at WalMart," not because their jeans are too crummy for them to wear.

sonnyblarney 8y ago
Design is a real factor, and the difference in design between what you get at wallmart, and what is offered by 'premium luxury' is clear. The article may be upside down: "Luxury" is the real hustle, because they are selling you 'good design' that is 'inaccessible' to others, i.e. the 'inaccessibility' is the key point. "Tory Burch" may actually be selling you really great design. But it's affordable and accessible. Nothing wrong with that, although it's probably positioned as less accessible than otherwise. It's all misleading because this is a category in every consumer product and has been for a long time. Even in finance and private wealth management. It's a segment in the marketing mix like anything else. The King of this segment though by far is Apple: they sell you aspiration and a hint of exclusivity without actually being exclusive. But remember: + Tory Burch stuff is a lot nicer than the stuff at Walmart by almost anyone's measure. + Before Starbucks, you couldn't get a cappuccino anywhere. + Premium Economy in flights is worth a lot if you get bigger seats without the service. No hustle there - it's what I want, it's the best thing. I think where it gets ridiculous is when there's are seriously overpriced items, like the $200 keychains etc.. That's so sad.
- pessimizer 8y ago
  > + Tory Burch stuff is a lot nicer than the stuff at Walmart by almost anyone's measure. Including the measures of people who both couldn't identify Tory Burch, and have never shopped for clothes at Walmart. That's how branding works. > + Before Starbucks, you couldn't get a cappuccino anywhere. There were coffee shops everywhere in the US before Starbucks. The trend migrated from the Pacific Northwesterners who created a coffee culture so the rain wouldn't make them kill themselves, and then that coffee culture collided with the urban leftover memories of 50s Beat coffee culture, back-to-nature hippie tea culture, and europhile intellectual coffee culture (a lot of tables had inlaid chessboards.) This was homogenized by the aggressive expansion of Starbucks, starting in the Pacific Northwest again, wiping out most of the variations that we used to enjoy. And I lived in places like Northwest Arkansas and Mississippi at the time, so this is not a big-city perspective.
  - sonnyblarney 8y ago
    "Including the measures of people who both couldn't identify Tory Burch, and have never shopped for clothes at Walmart. That's how branding works." If someone sees the value in something, never having heard of the brand, then that's not 'branding' - it's the opposite, it'd seem there's a universal appeal of Birch beyond what Wallmart provides that is not derived from brand. + Starbucks didn't wipe out 'coffee' - coffee was a total commodity and there were no 'varieties'. It was just called 'coffee' by everyone. Moreover, Starbucks spread Italian style coffee: Cappuccino, Late, Espresso - without that, there'd be no Starbucks.
siruncledrew 8y ago
If Kanye wore Wranglers, I bet a ton of people would flock to Walmart to grab them to show off they wear the same jeans as Kanye. Champion Athletic hoodies is something I’ve strangely noticed has caught on more after celebrities starting wearing them. I remember Champion used to be the “lower-tier” athletic wear below Nike and Adidas that was sold at Walmart, but now is being sold on streetwear websites.

by abnry 8y ago

sonnyblarney 8y ago

Design is a real factor, and the difference in design between what you get at wallmart, and what is offered by 'premium luxury' is clear. The article may be upside down: "Luxury" is the real hustle, because they are selling you 'good design' that is 'inaccessible' to others, i.e. the 'inaccessibility' is the key point. "Tory Burch" may actually be selling you really great design. But it's affordable and accessible. Nothing wrong with that, although it's probably positioned as less accessible than otherwise. It's all misleading because this is a category in every consumer product and has been for a long time. Even in finance and private wealth management. It's a segment in the marketing mix like anything else. The King of this segment though by far is Apple: they sell you aspiration and a hint of exclusivity without actually being exclusive. But remember: + Tory Burch stuff is a lot nicer than the stuff at Walmart by almost anyone's measure. + Before Starbucks, you couldn't get a cappuccino anywhere. + Premium Economy in flights is worth a lot if you get bigger seats without the service. No hustle there - it's what I want, it's the best thing. I think where it gets ridiculous is when there's are seriously overpriced items, like the $200 keychains etc.. That's so sad.

pessimizer 8y ago
> + Tory Burch stuff is a lot nicer than the stuff at Walmart by almost anyone's measure. Including the measures of people who both couldn't identify Tory Burch, and have never shopped for clothes at Walmart. That's how branding works. > + Before Starbucks, you couldn't get a cappuccino anywhere. There were coffee shops everywhere in the US before Starbucks. The trend migrated from the Pacific Northwesterners who created a coffee culture so the rain wouldn't make them kill themselves, and then that coffee culture collided with the urban leftover memories of 50s Beat coffee culture, back-to-nature hippie tea culture, and europhile intellectual coffee culture (a lot of tables had inlaid chessboards.) This was homogenized by the aggressive expansion of Starbucks, starting in the Pacific Northwest again, wiping out most of the variations that we used to enjoy. And I lived in places like Northwest Arkansas and Mississippi at the time, so this is not a big-city perspective.
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
  "Including the measures of people who both couldn't identify Tory Burch, and have never shopped for clothes at Walmart. That's how branding works." If someone sees the value in something, never having heard of the brand, then that's not 'branding' - it's the opposite, it'd seem there's a universal appeal of Birch beyond what Wallmart provides that is not derived from brand. + Starbucks didn't wipe out 'coffee' - coffee was a total commodity and there were no 'varieties'. It was just called 'coffee' by everyone. Moreover, Starbucks spread Italian style coffee: Cappuccino, Late, Espresso - without that, there'd be no Starbucks.

siruncledrew 8y ago

If Kanye wore Wranglers, I bet a ton of people would flock to Walmart to grab them to show off they wear the same jeans as Kanye. Champion Athletic hoodies is something I’ve strangely noticed has caught on more after celebrities starting wearing them. I remember Champion used to be the “lower-tier” athletic wear below Nike and Adidas that was sold at Walmart, but now is being sold on streetwear websites.