Why does marketing and design cost so much?
Dan went to a premium brand store to find a shirt. The store was well laid out: not overly packed with racks of clothing and decorated in an urban-cool style. The assistants greeted him and were friendly. After browsing for 10 minutes, Dan saw a shirt he really liked. After trying it on, he purchased the shirt.
A week later, Dan was wearing his shirt and saw a shirt similar to his on sale in a shop he was passing by. Dan went into the shop and saw the shirt in the shop was priced at 50% of the price he purchased his shirt. It wasn’t exactly the same: he preferred the cut of his shirt and the material was different, though he didn’t know the difference between the materials used. He walked away thinking he still preferred to pay twice the price for his shirt.
Legitimately, top designers have higher costs. Top designers are not bulk sellers, so they need to have high profit margins; otherwise the business model does not work. Design talent are highly-paid. As in any industry, reaching the top can and should be beneficial to those individuals who strive to get there.
With that said, it is difficult to justify the prices set by brands that are mass-sellers. Their cost structure is based somewhat on research and design, but a big budget item is sales and marketing. All those sports stars and adverts cost a lot of money! Why spend so much on marketing? To push the brand and not necessarily the clothes, so how much better are the clothes?
Brands oftentimes increase prices to give the allure of prestige and exclusivity. This is an illusory game to give a feel good factor to the customer. In the example, Dan is happier that his material is superior without knowing the difference between materials. Also, are the cuts that different? Sometimes yes, but also sometimes no. It depends on how the clothes retailer is setup. But Dan will be confident his cut is better, after all why pay more for something that is not better?
Dan tells his friend Jim about the “knock off” shirt he saw in the store nearby. Jim is not a “clothes person”. He likes what he likes, but was never really into fashion. He thinks that Dan is just into brands, and that Dan would not be able to tell the difference if the shirt he saw today was rebranded with a recognisable brand. Jim knows this is an argument he is unlikely to win with Dan.
Paying so much on marketing creates brand loyalty. The more brands spend on marketing and the more sports and movie stars associate with a brand, the more ordinary people buy into a brand. It is then hard to make the emotional switch into a new brand which has no brand background, but equally good clothes.
Look at the sweatshop stories: people know that it happens, they even see their preferred brands linked to sweatshops; however, people still want to buy from those very same brands. This is partly because the issues are so far away, so people do not have to worry about them. Many people say they don’t see an alternative, but alternatives (like ours) are popping up all the time. Some say it is because the clothes from brands are better, but this is a myth and considering new production methods, the myth is easy to dispel. The main reason is brand loyalty, and it is consumers that pay to hook themselves to the brand, as the price they pay for clothes are reinvested into marketing campaigns that deepen that brand loyalty.
Clothes are staple goods. People will always need clothes. That does not mean that clothes can’t be stylish or well-made if you don’t pay-up. Our motto is to give people chances, and that runs from designers to tailors to support staff. We give designers a chance to get their designs out there. The design world is incredibly competitive, but it is not always the most meritocratic. We don’t care about a person’s background, just about their ability. And consumers who buy our clothes are the best test for designers’ ability.
Our production process ensures tailors are paid properly and treated well. In turn they produce quality clothes from the quality materials we provide, and our support staff ensures you get your clothes on time after you order. So if you get good designs, good materials and are served well do you really have a reason just to choose clothes from brands that spend some of your purchasing money to hook you further?
