In brand we trust

Unfortunately I have five years of working experience in retail (I had to check my resume for this). These were quite evenly split over fashion, food and electronics. What I've noticed during those years is that most people tend to stick to one brand regarding any of these products. It's simply because they have deemed this particular brand to align with their preferences: it all comes down to each person's taste. And, as we all know, these tend to be different for everybody. Sometimes brands do try to manipulate our tastes hoping theirs will become the new standard. A common practice is product sampling which is a mainstay in food. The amount of times I've seen these stands in supermarkets, in high streets and near train stations of Belgian cities is innumerable, with brands from The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo being the ones represented the most.

The Flower Seller on the Champs Elysées by Louis Marie de Schryver

Product sampling is also done by retailers who specialize in consumer electronics. These stores might offer demonstrations or might even let you, the customer, try the product out for yourself. In the phone section you can even have a hands-on experience with every model. This has definitely evolved over the years as when I was younger stores would only have dummy phones on display. I'm aware this is way better for the consumer as you can immediately see what the product can do but I honestly miss them. Someone I knew used to be a cleaning lady for multiple phone stores and she would often receive some discarded dummy phones. She figured these would be perfect toys for me and my siblings and she was right: we loved them. Finally a toy phone that doesn't look or sound like a toy! As a side note, I enjoy this kind of brainrot a lot (I mean like a lot a lot). In the tech industry, however, the freemium business model will remain king.

It might not seem obvious but product sampling is customary in fashion retail: you can try it on in the stores and you can immediately see how it looks and feels on your own body. Lamentably stores have been picking up on this tactic of not having enough fitting rooms for customers to try on the desired garments whilst advertising that you can bring them back within 30 days as long as they are in a resellable state and accompanied by the receipt. This often leads to shoppers buying something they didn't like or wasn't in the right size. These clothes tend to get buried in the deepest part of their wardrobes so they can be forgotten as fast as they were conceived. In my region, H&M even went as far as to discourage people from waiting in line and to just buy it online where you can "skip the line anytime." Of course this is also a way for them to promote Klarna's "buy now, pay later" service which is just another fast lane to overconsumption and possible debt.

A London Furrier by Anonymous

In Faux Fashion, Faux Pas I discussed counterfeit products in fashion and in this post I wanted to come back to it from another angle since fake designer goods are also a gateway for some to become loyal to a specific brand. One way this can happen is by consumers seeing others - usually of a lower class - sporting a specific handbag or pair of shoes, even though they might be fake, and them thinking: Am I doing something wrong because I don't have that? This causes some of them to go and purchase the real deal to make sure they aren't thought of as less due to not possessing these perceived status symbols. Another way for shoppers to become loyal to a brand is actually having a replica. Some people can buy a replica or a dupe and be so into the article that once they have the capital they will buy the real deal. This is actually why I'm obsessed with Vivienne Westwood's Rocking Horse Shoes as I'd purchased a pair of dupes from Bodyline and they made me realize that I (desperately) needed the real deal! Last year Lululemon realized that this was a valid way to get more shoppers to turn away from dupes and become loyal to their brand. In May 2023 they launched a campaign where people could exchange their Align pants dupes for the real deal: Align Legging Dupe Swap. This was a huge succes as people didn't mind lining up in L.A.'s Century City Mall to get their hands on a free pair with 50 percent of them being new customers.

Lululemon trying to embrace the people that have bought dupes as possible new patrons instead of marginalizing them and branding them as a demographic you weren't targeting in the first place is quite admirable. With this campaign Lululemon's brand equity surely reached an all-time high. Needless to say, we cannot expect designer brands to do the same. And even other athleisure brands won't be able to do this as they aren't a community-based retailer. Lululemon customers all want to "attain a healthy lifestyle through yoga, fitness and commitment." Some Nike shoppers might want to attain that as well but that isn't Nike's core business as they sell gear for sports from fitness to golf. A company that tries to be a bit more "stealthy" about gaining people's loyalty is Google. Over the past decade they've gained a reputation as a company trying to aid children's education with their affordable Chromebooks. These are used in secondary schools and even in some primary schools in a bunch of countries. Unfortunately this isn't a plan to revolutionize worldwide education, but rather a ploy to gain these children's loyalty from a young age. This will cause these kids to be dependent of ChromeOS instead of loyal to it.

The Flower Seller on Rue de Rivoli by Louis Marie de Schryver

Corporations will always try to win the favor of consumers. The way they do this can often be rather questionable. Some can be rather blatant about it and don't hide the fact that they want your coin. While others try to hide it and act like they are just the morally best option there is. The latter is often achieved by banking on shoppers who can't or don't want to do research about the workings of the labels on the products they're purchasing, like Nutri-Scores for "healthy" food and Ecolabels for "ecological" goods. Even in fashion it's expected nowadays that consumers read the labels so they know what textiles their future garments are made of, which wasn't always the case. As technology advanced we discovered other textiles that aren't made from natural fiber which need to be cared for differently. Yet, not every household has the luxury of washing some garments separately as water and electricity are involved. This has caused some of them to cling to retailers like SHEIN and Primark because at least being fashionable won't have that high of an economic barrier to entry. This turns economic power into a form of forced brand loyalty. I think this just goes to show that in almost all places of consumerism classism still plays a part.

Thank you, and take care.