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Consumer Insight
Ralph Lauren is an expert in terms of telling its “American Dream” story and build brand equity. “I am not a fashion person. I am anti-fashion. I am interested in longevity, timelessness, style.” — this fascinating but controversial opinion on fashion by its founder makes Ralph Lauren different with other brands. For most fashion brands, the ability to establish and guide fashion is a major reason that these brands can gain consumers' favor for a long time. However, Ralph Lauren is against fashion and he wants to establish is a classic American style apparel brand that will never go out of fashion. To some extent, Ralph Lauren has already established a “Ralph Lauren’s fashion”. Like most of washing powder brands, when advertising is full of "clean" and "whiter than white," OMO has advertised "dirty is good" to encourage its consumers not to care about stains but to enjoy life to the fullest. This contrast can give customers a label of “anti-fashion” and more envy to enjoy the specialty of products. Ralph Lauren recognizes the consumer's pursuit of fashion, but uses an anti-fashion strategy to stimulate the consumer's motivation and guide it correctly.
Another difference of Ralph Lauren’ clothing from other brands is that it knows how to combine latest trends with classic designs — that is the other core of Ralph Lauren. Thus, its product lines are able to cover all areas of apparel, including menswear, womenswear, children’s wear and sportswear and by meeting the needs of consumers from different age groups, Ralph Lauren gets a sustainable attraction for broad consumers. Furthermore, Ralph Lauren is an expert of keeping a balance between class and simplicity, its apparels have a simple design but various colors to choose, allowing its clients to express their personalities by matching apparels or accessories flexibly so that they can show their style on the final image. The style of Burberry is, to some extent, similar to that of Ralph Lauren, simple but consistent. Since every consumer advocates personality, Ralph Lauren observed this, it does not create a personality for customers, but provides customers with a platform to create personality.
So, now we can answer the question — Why do consumers buy Ralph Lauren? What are the motivations? Firstly, just as mentioned above, its simple design ensures that customers can show their clothing matching ability to the greatest extent. Secondly but generally, when customers wear Ralph Lauren products they are representative of the "American Dream" through the iconic logo. A brand is more than a product. Its small logo, modern design with a reference to its American roots, and core products that are timeless all year around. Thirdly, in the sight of millennials, affected by some influencers and celebrities on the social media, millennials have a new understanding of Ralph Lauren, who “seems to be out of date” for them before. (The age group of consumers has changed, as well as their consumption habits. Fortunately, Ralph Lauren has realized this and has moved to the millennial generation with more potential for consumption by vigorously promoting digital commerce.) And what is interesting is that millennials are very happy to pay for the vintage fashion because of their affinity for the older items. “There’s such a massive influence with social media that the younger generation sees Ralph through a different lens, and then they walk into the flagship”, said Procell, who started selling Polo Sport in his Lower East Side store ten years ago.
Photo source: Gettyimages.ca
Photo source: Pinterest.com
Advertising and Emotional connection
We cannot ignore the fact that the key of a brand's sustainable growth is that the brand must express emotions!
After a comprehensive consumer insight, Ralph Lauren succeeded in spreading the brand image and culture through advertising and TV series and making it rooted in the hearts of consumers. In the advertisement of Ralph Lauren Big Pony for Women in 1981, Ralph Lauren created an atmosphere of “passion of polo sport", "young vitality and fragrance" and "high-end life in the upper class of the United States" for female customers, which enabled the target customers to produce a brand impression and a specific connection with the brand, that is, Ralph Lauren allows female customers to regain self-confidence, control life like a man, and enjoy sports.
In the 1990s, Ralph Lauren also gained an exposure in the famous TV series ‘Friends’ — Rachel acquired a job of Ralph Lauren and met its founder in the elevator. This can give consumers an impression that Ralph Lauren is a high-end luxury brand. By the way, I am a Chinese consumer from the millennial generation. To be honest, the first time I learned about Ralph Lauren was through this TV series!
Photo source: TV serie <Friends>
It feels like saying: Look at these celebrities! They are wearing Ralph Lauren and love it so much, so why do you hesitate if you want to be like them?
This advertisement Involved dynamic young people while playing polo sport and rich Ralph Lauren's apparels with logos, which can remind consumers that they can feel part of luxury lifestyle of community by consuming Ralph Lauren.
Photo source: Pinterest.com
In addition to advertising, Ralph Lauren also focuses on creating emotional connections with customers in store decorations. For example, Ralph Lauren Mansion store in Madison Avenue in New York would be redesigned every 6 months to reflect the latest collections. And for general Ralph Lauren’s stores, there is a unique way of displaying its apparels — create a family atmosphere, which proved very successful because its classic designs, elegance of the store decoration and luxury apparel materials have managed to gain all desire of clients for a luxury brand.
Hope you enjoy in the world of Ralph Lauren!
Cheers,
yifei Huang
Sources:
https://www.bartleby.com/essay/How-the-Polo-Ralph-Lauren-Brand-Has-F38SH6AQU8A5
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