Twilight of the brands
It’s a truism of business-book thinking that a company’s brand is its “most important asset”, more valuable than technology or patents or manufacturing prowess.
But brands have never been more fragile.
Twelve months ago, Lululemon Athletica was one of the hottest brands in the world. Sales of its high-priced yoga gear were exploding; the company was expanding into new markets; experts were in awe of its “cultlike following".
As one observer put it, “They’re more than apparel. They’re a life style".
But then customers started complaining about pilling fabrics, bleeding dyes, and, most memorably, yoga pants so thin that they effectively became transparent when you bent over. Lululemon’s founder made things worse by suggesting that some women were too fat to wear the company’s clothes. And that was the end of Lululemon’s charmed existence: the founder stepped down from his management role, and, a few weeks ago, the company said that it had seen sales “decelerate meaningfully”.
We are living in charmed times. The Internet has exploded consumer choice and the world is opening up and coming together as a single, huge market. Has there ever been a better time to start a new business?
Full article on The New Yorker.
Notes