Design and Corruption
What makes a lifestyle brand a lifestyle brand?
In the modern world, the market for products and services is oversaturated. The money we spend on these products is fiercely competed for in today’s market. In an effort to take precedence over one another, brands must make an effort to market their products as something more than just a valuable good, it must sell an attractive lifestyle.
It’s important to note that some brands and corporate identities are conceived with creating a lifestyle or aim to enhance an existing lifestyle. Brands like Vans were built from the ground up promoting a product that may not have already existed for a certain type of person and has always slightly modified or adapted the direction the brand takes to suit how their target market’s lifestyles are developing.
In the case of Vans, this is particularly noticeable. Vans have transcended their image through time and culture to remain as one of the largest lifestyle brands ever, despite existing for fifty years. The brands seen itself attached to the culture of surfing, later skateboarding and finally snowboarding. This has been further diversified via celebrity endorsements, other brand collaborations and has since solidified the Vans name as a global identity encompassing street and outdoor cultures under one banner.
In a 2015 interview, the president of Vans Doug Palladini stated that “The Phrase I always use is ‘off the wall’ is a state of mind… As the brand that wants to be the global icon of youth culture we’re very much focused on that powerful point of view that thinking differently and being a true individual is really an important thing to us.”
Vans’ marketing guru Neil Schambra credits this ideal as what made Vans stick, explaining this concept of the product being something larger than in identity than it is in form stating “Paul (Vans founder) wanted to make it a people company rather than a shoe company. That’s been critical for us in terms of how we develop our products. We have credibility in footwear, apparel and accessories, and so the opportunity to expand into new product groups and categories has been a key part of keeping us relevant.”
This ideal is hammered home by Vans via their adverts, packaging, storefronts and staff. Vans led initiative global creative adopts this psychology also with Jamie Reilly, Vans vice president “Vans has been engaging with creatives around the world for more than 50 years. Whether it’s making the first shoes for skateboarders, building skateparks, hosting concerts, or putting on art shows, we love how creativity brings individuals together where they can learn from and inspire each other.” It is from this historical impact that Vans can portray a rich history in culture.
This effort to identify Vans as a lifestyle decision rather than simply just a shoe design is and has gone a long way in building up the company. Association to a lifestyle is working for them. High profile figures, celebrities and other influences help to sell this identity to people who want to emulate them, again by simple product association.
All of this begs the question however, is all of this latching onto youth cultures still genuine? This is a question we see asked often but just paraphrased differently, is the drive to become a lifestyle product fueled by a genuine passion for that lifestyle, or is it an effort to reach more people, catch a trend and appease shareholders? A pessimistic viewpoint of course but not one without reason or factual evidence to back it up. An unfortunate example of this is Apple’s supposed to passion and drive to curate the best headphone and audio solutions after purchasing Beats By Dre. After dressing the product in luxurious packaging, advertisements and massive celebrity endorsements, it was later discovered that the product didn’t match or resemble the audiophile lifestyle. With random metal insertions into the ear cups to make the headphones feel more weighty, indicating quality.
This is a morally grey area in design, is designing with the consumer’s preconceptions and placebo feeling of quality fair? This is a case of capitalism that finishes with the end user feeling burned or cheated, but it’s not without its backlash for business. By failing to capture their intended market, the Beats brand name is largely inactive and especially disliked by the very people they aimed to sell to. In either case, genuineness or disingenuous, people need to assess their purchases, which brands do we align ourselves with? Ultimately what is deserving of our money?
