JOANNE Watkinson
How do you make loyalty on-brand?
After writing last week’s column about brand reinvention, I fell deep into an online rabbit hole, reading about brands I had long forgotten.
To most of them I bid good riddance, fast fashion empires that are no longer on the high street, but it was fun thinking about some of the brands I used to covet as a teenager (Morgan de Toi, anyone?) and the countless contemporary brands I saw come and go as a fashion buyer.
So what gives a brand staying power? Or rather what cultivates brand loyalty in order that fashion brands can keep trading?
I started looking at fashion businesses that have been around for decades.
Birkenstock, founded in Germany in 1774, and brought to America in 1966, has over the years been both highly fashionable and deeply unfashionable.
Some people wouldn’t been seen wearing a pair, even when they are the height of fashion, like right now, thanks to the popularity of the uglycool Arizona sandal and some carefully selected collaborations with high fashion labels such as Opening Ceremony, Rick Owens and Valentino.
Even when Birkenstock was in the fashion wilderness, it remained solvent, with a solid enough customer base to weather the storm.
The company reportedly sells 25 million pairs a year, so what is its secret? Comfort? Is the corkformed sole the key to its success?
Or could it be quality? Anyone who has ever owned a pair of Birkenstocks knows it’s impossible to wear them out. They are not cheap but they offer value for money.
While the classic styles are around £60, the Net-a-porter exclusive sandal retails for £320 and a Valentino design is £355. But price isn’t the deciding factor in brand loyalty. Some of the longest-standing brands are in the luxury sector. Louis Vuitton has been around since 1854, Lanvin 1889, and Chanel since 1909, while Dior launched in 1946.
Something tells me that brand loyalty is cultivated by a combination of factors: trust, quality and a feeling of knowing you’re buying into something you won’t regret.
Now that is value for money.