Brand Guru: Aussies can just be who they are

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

This article was in todays paper
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,18609687%255E5000113,00.html
extract:
What''s in a name? by sally Morrell 27mar06

ISN''T it wonderful that the people behind luxury brands such as Gucci and Dior find Australia a tough market.

Professor Michel Phan, the Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton chair of the ESSEC business school in Paris, sobbed into his YSL hankie last week as he accused us of not consuming nearly enough of the name brands.

"The Australian casualness means you can just be who you are, rather than having to wear Gucci shoes and carry a Prada bag," the French marketing guru sadly told The Australian, no doubt pensively staring at his hand-stitched loafers.

It seems the good Prof is worried that we Aussies do not buy nearly enough branded goodies – We can just be who we are because we lead ‘casual lives’.

Certainly many Australians are not that sophisticated (we call the worst of them Yobbo''s). Anecdotally more than half the top end LVMH and similar brands goods are sold to Asian Aussies or tourists. However as I write I should declare my wife and I do buy branded goods, like the Zenga suit I am wearing right now. But we avoid stuff with the labels on the outside.

Another trend many brand guru’s ignore; under my nice suit are things from Safeway and Target (the last t is silent

). Well heeled shoppers do not only buy upmarket brands from fawning assistants. The best branded products sell best; take Cartier for instance, they have beautiful designs that have become classics, but they are not where the rich and famous go for large expensive diamonds or gemstones.

As a society we (and many other nations) are moving up the ladder of Maslow’s Heirachy. The further up we go, the more we want brands to honour their original promise: the assurance of quality. The closer we get to the top, the less we need to display labels. I strive to ensure that is what my brand, Precious Metals means to our clients.

 

[belle]

what a great and refreshing post garry

when shelling out my $$$$$$ i want to be assured of fine quality and craftmanship. there are many brands that i depend on for that, but i do not want to be a walking advertisement. a good brand speaks for itself, no matter what the cost.
no outside labels needed

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

What about brands like burbery where the product IS the brand?

And here is another example of good branding:

I believe if you took all the badges and logo''s off all the new cars launched at a international trade fair - most attendees would be able to guess the manufacturer and brand of most of the new cars. Those that could not be identified would be probably low on the "branding" scale - i.e. generic.

If that was true then you would have to say that many car manufacturers are leaders.

Of course some producsts are more difficult to brand - like wine for example - you need the label and packaging to help.

And other products are almost only about the brand - like perfume for instance. Drena and i wear one of my competitors fragrences because we like the smell - but then I have never bothered sampling the $5 copies, which are probably just as good.