The Art of Unselling

In the world of prestige branding, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a brand that doesn’t “unsell” or seduce consumers- especially in the fashion and beauty areas of the industry. The tell-all book, Rethinking Prestige Branding: Secrets of the Ueber-Brands, co-written by W. Schaefer and J.P. Kuehlwein, provides a variety of ways brands unsell, such as by being exclusive through their advertising. Any ads found for these types of brands feature models with serious facial expressions. All smiles are absent as to not give off any indications of inclusion, which would damage the seductive and prestigious aura of the brand. Other ways brands unsell are covered in the book’s case study of Australian beauty brand, Aēsop, who does not mass advertise, use celebrity endorsements, label their products as organic (despite its use of natural ingredients), or have a flashy design to the outside of their store. Aēsop, along with other prestigious brands, instead focuses on a customer’s personal experience with the products and brand.

While unselling is common-even the norm- with these prestigious brands, this concept fades as you begin to look at brands that are not considered prestigious and do not market themselves as such. Fast-fashion retailer, H&M, provides a great example of this. Although the brand is highly regarded among the masses, H&M is neither a prestigious brand nor does it take on a prestigious strategy, which is widely seen through the accessibility of their marketing mix. In 2015, Statista recorded the total number of H&M stores worldwide to be 3,924, with 415 of them being located within the United States. Furthermore, Forbes reports that H&M’s CEO Karl-Johan Persson stated, “he could see the company growing beyond 8,000 stores”. These numbers are astronomical when compared to the mere 62 Aēsop stores worldwide.

Further contrast with Aēsop is seen as you look at H&M’s description of their own brand. While it was mentioned that Aēsop avoids the word “organic” because of its over-use and selling capacity, H&M frequently uses words such as “sustainable” and phrases such as “Fashion and quality at the best price” to not only describe their products, but their brand as well. This emphasis on price can also be seen through various promotions advertised in store and online, as well as the brand blatantly including the prices of products in their advertisements.

Although H&M is in a widely different sector than those described in Rethinking Prestige Branding, the book does give a few recommendations for unselling that could prove helpful if the brand ever decided to shift gears and take on this strategy:

1. “Be proud”

Here the book calls for brands to “keep a distance” which would require H&M to decrease their accessibility in a variety of ways such as cutting down on the number of H&M stores in addition to the amount of mass-market ads. Removing all pricing from their ads would also be a good idea.

2.“Don’t skimp”

In order to achieve this, H&M would have to put a greater focus on quality than they already have by using better materials and practices in the production of their clothing as well as redesigning their stores, retraining employees, and redesigning and formatting their online presence to fit their new, prestigious image. This, in turn, would force the company to increase their pricing model, which would also benefit their aura of exclusivity.

3.“Do more than you talk”

This would require H&M to take a much more passive direction to their advertising. Instead of mass marketing wherever possible, the brand would need to decrease or even get rid of these advertisements all together and instead rely on its owned and earned media.

4.“Be the medium that you are”

H&M could achieve this by focusing more on their idea of sustainability (without over-using the word) and create a loyal customer base that is mindful of their consumption. To do so, I would recommend that the brand decrease their ecommerce availability and instead use online efforts to tastefully build their owned media, such as a blog or social media page, and make it focus on mindful consumption.

Sources

http://www.statista.com/statistics/268522/number-of-stores-worldwide-of-the-hundm-group-by-country/

http://www.aesop.com/usa/ustorelocator/location/map/

http://about.hm.com/en/About/facts-about-hm/about-hm/business-concept.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/paularosenblum/2016/04/07/hm-plans-for-more-expansion-across-digital-and-physical-landscapes/?utm_campaign=yahootix&partner=yahootix#122a6369aa52