OUGD601 - Research - Lifestyle Brands

Lifestyle Brands by
S. Saviolo & A. Marazza

Saviolo, S. and Marazza, A. (2013). Lifestyle brands. Basingstoke [u.a.]: Palgrave Macmillan.

Social Identities

- Individuals do not make purchasing choices using a rational logic of economic convenience; men and women, as social beings, share values, symbols and a common language that ratify their belonging
- Consumption is a social phenomenon in which goods are the instruments that promote self-recognition and the ties with those who share the same values
- 'The Distinction' by Pierre Bourdieu sheds light on the fact that consumes buy and use products following distinctive and demonstrative logics
 > products are symbols of status, signalling and possibly helping to improve an individual's social status
- Anthropologist Ted Polhemus suggests brands, being signalling systems with a great communicative and symbolic power, allow an individual who adopts them to share a belief, to communicate a point of view in respect to society

Lifestyle & Lifestyle Brands

- 'Lifestyle' is a term often misused
- It's an analytical construct and originates from the famous text by Thornstein Veblen's 'The Theory of the Leisure Class' (1994)
- Diffused by Alred Adler, an Austrian physician
- According to Adler, each individual has his or her own unique and inimitable lifestyle with which he/she approaches the world and interprets with originality
- According to other scholars, the term 'lifestyle' refers to aspects of cultural trends as well as aspects of value that are strongly associated with consumption

How Lifestyle Brands Work

- Lifestyles, and therefore styles of consumption, reflect a person's attitudes, interests and opinions
- By adopting this meaning, the concept has been increasingly used as a basis for explaining postmodern consumption

- Lifestyle brands describe who we are. They communicate our status and our aspirations
- They indicate the way we deal with our life
- In truth, a 'lifestyle brand' status is achieved by the type of benefit and symbolic value that the customer associates with brand
- Consumers are increasingly adopting brands to express their identities = consumer self-expression
- A brand becomes a lifestyle brand when it promotes social benefits through a point of view on the world that a significant number of people adhere to by becoming customers, because they are represented in terms of attitudes, opinions and interests

Lifestyle Brands

- The world lifestyle suggests a way of life to which people associate patterns or relationships, behaviour and especially of consumption
- Lifestyle brands are able to generate a social benefit (when I buy this brand, the type of people I relate to are...)
- These are the brands that are the bearers of an ideology, which dictates the rules, or that indicates a way of life
- Patagonia promotes an environmentally friendly way of life. With Nike, one enters the community of those who want to push their limits

- A lifestyle brand almost always takes energy from the world of youngsters to assert and enforce the change

An Interpretative Model

- The core mechanism of Lifestyle Brands is based on a simple premise: in order to represent the attitudes, opinions and interests of a group of individuals the brand must first and foremost have a clear, original and coherent point of view
- This has to; be based on socially relevant values, expressed through an interesting and authentic storytelling; be explained through a distinctive and distinguishing manifesto that goes beyond the classical brand positioning and a simple value proposition; be expressed in a recognisable and consistent manner across all consumer/brand touch points
- What the brand believes in, how the brand states it, and the way it expresses it are the three cornerstones of a successful Lifestyle Brand
- Cornerstones are the Background > the Manifesto > the Expression
- Lifestyle brands have these cornerstones working in harmony

The Background

- The background of a Lifestyle Brand includes both its Credo and series of stories capable of involving its 'followers', fuelling the desirability and the brand mythology
- The Credo is represented by a few simple, fundamental attributes that describe the unique and original perspective the brands has of the world
- More specifically, it identifies the pillars on which the brand's ideal world should be based
- E.g. adidas Originals Credo consists of Originality, Authenticity and Creativity, while for Gucci it's about seduction, power and self-realisation
The other key component of the background are the stories that can be told about the company, its products, its customers/users, its founder etc
The stories can be seen as a practical and concrete reflection of the Credo
All successful Lifestyle brands are a treasure trove of anecdotes, starting from the biography of the founder up to his/ her memorable undertakings
- E.g. the life of Mademoiselle Coco remembered for the empowerment of women, from haircuts to the introduction of trousers to womenswear

The Manifesto

- If a Lifestyle Brand wants to represent an individual or a group of individuals, it needs to propose a distinctive and original perspective on the world and make immediately recognisable through some codes that represent it
- This is the manifesto or Lifestyle Proposition
- A set of intentions and topics
- Volcom, a sporting brand, has a manifesto declaring that the company was founded on liberation, innovation and experimentation while remaining dedicated to the breakdown of established traditions
- Their lifestyle proposition promotes the free and creative spirit of youth culture, addressing kids who share the same passion for art, music, movies skateboarding, , surfing, snowboarding and motorcross
- Lifestyle brands are not made to please everyone, but to be adored only by those who recognise themselves in the Proposition and intended to join
- Adidas Originals - 'we have become part of hip-hop, skateboarding, and high-fashion simply by being adopted by these communities'

- Typically, Lifestyle brands are instantly recognisable. 'If you say something is "very Ralph Lauren", you're immediately understood' said Audrey Hepburn in 1992
- L Brands acquire Lifestyle Codes that become permanent signs communicating a particular point of view on the world
- These signs may include logos, shapes, patterns, materials, colours etc
- E.g. Prada's 'dignified' nylon has established itself as an unmistakable symbol of innovative and sophisticated functionality on top of representing Prada's take on fashion
- Burberry's tartan design symbolises the Brit chic spirit or the brand
- Lifestyle codes influence the expression of the brand
- The culture of origin of Lifestyle Brands is the basis of their system of values
- E.g. in its first collection, Victoria's Secret purposefully evoked the English upper-class style whilst Uniqlo recalls Japanese Zen and manga cartoons

The Expression

- The three components of expression are communication activities, direct interaction with the consumer and through its products or services
- The expression has moved towards a holistic expression across all touch points and relationship with the customer
- A brand like Ralph Lauren has built stores that reproduce the environment of an American upper-class home, communicated with campaigns showing beautiful young and elegant people
- The critical success factors for Lifestyle Brands are consistency and authenticity, since the acceptance of a proposed way of life is based on a critical evaluation of real-life experiences, at all levels

Patagonia

- In 1993, after finding out that industrial cotton fibre had the highest environmental impact, Patagonia decided to convert all its production to organic cotton in less that 2 years
- In 2008, the company won the Eco Brand of the year
- The strong relationship with the community of users/customers rapidly transformed Patagonia into a cult brand
- All the sports that Patagonia promote are all 'silent' sports; lacking an audience, engines and environmental impact
- Customers are defined as Patagoniacs, they are evangelists of nature as well as of the brand itself

Background

- Credo can be summed up with the values of Simplicity, Freedom, Integrity and Love for Nature
- Patagonia is rich in stories that have built and continue to nourish the legend
- The logo is the skyline of Cerro Fitzroy looking West in Patagonia during the epic journey made by the founder