Do brands matter?

Most of the time I'm a keen advocate for paying more attention to the fit of clothes than how much they cost or what brand they are. Even now I will still argue that fit is the single most important thing to look out for. And the secondary thing is to get clothes that you're comfortable with and that sort of feel like you. This of course isn't anything that I haven't said before (mainly, because I've said it before...).

Now, of course this might sound like I'm completely disregarding the brands. And on some level I guess I'd like to be able to disregard brands. But because I'm all too human, brands are something that I also take into account, at least to some extent. But the thing with brands is that again I personally look for a certain type of fit there. A brand typically conveys some sort of image. A brand should be able to have a holistic answer to the question: "If I lived in a world, what would that world be like? What are the values? What sort of life would it be?" Of course there are many other questions and this is a blatant oversimplification and you can read a lot more from Kottler & Keller or some other course book on the subject. But I guess that question is fair. A brand should create a vision of some world for you. And when you place yourself in the world, you should fit into the world. If you don't, then I guess the brand isn't working for you. This is all intrinsic up to this point, I guess. At this phase it's just you and the brand and the core question is: does the brand address you in any way?

Being the optimist that I am, I would like to stop here. But that would be naive as brands also have a secondary purpose. A brand is something that you typically show on some level to other people. I bet quite many people would be able to say which brands their friends wear, at least to some extent. I know Antti prefers Peak Performance and Gant, Simo prefers Boss, and Tommi prefers Tommy Hilfiger. I personally don't like wearing any brand colors as such and try to wear clothes that do not have any logos on the outside. But that doesn't mean that I don't prefer some brands over others, because I do. And it might be very obvious to people around me. And when it gets to some certain level and beyond, it's even possible to guess with a very high degree of probability the brand of a certain piece of clothing without having any actual solid knowledge. Boss coats, for instance, are something that can to some extent be seen without any logos. There's something in the shoulder line that separates them from others, at least slightly. And if you go to premium clothing, bespoke suits and such, things become even easier if you are at least somewhat familiar with what to look for (unfortunately I'm not ;-). In these cases every tailor has a more or less unique signature to the type of suit they cut, for example.

But, back to the point. Brands are relevant. They convey values. They, to some extent, tell what sort of person you are. And in an optimal case the values that the brand has (or at least markets) should create an overlap with your values. If you value outdoors activities and sports, Peak Performance clearly conveys that. Preppiness? Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Gant, etc. Those are the easy ones. And naturally the brands aren't tied to clothing. Nokia as a brand should raise some sort of feelings in you, one way or the other. Volvo raises other types of feelings. Overall, if you start opening up the values that the brands of the products you have and use daily communicate to you, I guess you can create a fairly good image of what type of person is in question. Now, at this point I should also point out that even though brands are very often conflicting with each other, it's not possible to say that one brand is "better" than another brand on any absolute scale; again it's a question of values. What works well for me might not work that well for others. And even if I can more or less clearly open up my values and analyze which brands are on the same wave length as me, it doesn't mean that the other brands would be any lesser. They're just different. And this seems to be an interesting and relevant thing to keep in mind, since some people have previously taken quite a bit of offense after I have talked about different brands and elaborated on what they mean for me and how they fit (or don't fit) into my world. Again, it's a question of tastes.

Now, for an interesting exercise, what values would H&M and similar brands communicate? Yes, I know, it's a slightly provocative question and I guess I will have to recuse myself because my views are commonly known as I am typically fairly vocal about stuff like this.

Oh, and on an off-topic note, right now it seems that I'll most likely be in London in early August, around the 7th, so if anyone reading this blog happens to be in the same area then, feel free to drop me a line and let's have lunch or go grab a pint. And if there's anyone interested in web development and that sort of stuff, a friend of mine from Germany is apparently taking part in some sort of talk there at the same time, so feel free to tag along to go listen to what's happening in that part of the internet.