Branding the man: why men are the next frontier in fashion retail

It was only a matter of time before a new contemporary men’s brands would arrive on the scene targeting the ever-expanding market of hipster-inspired clothes for the modern Millenial.

Enter Onassis, a brand backed by Chinese investors and developed by a creative team in New York that, to our surprise, has nothing whatsoever to do with the legendary shipping tycoon, Aristotle Onassis.

So if you were hoping for a store with bar stools covered in the skin of a whale’s penis (yes, Ari famously had those on his yacht, the Christina), then you will be sadly disappointed.

A brown wool herringbone jacket with buttoned flap pocket, $338. A classic varsity jacket in brown wool with leather sleeves is cut slim and features a fully-lined quilted interior. $498.

“We were actually inspired by New York City,” explains Michelle Li, vice president of U.S. operations for Onassis. “Back in the day, New York was a huge seaport where people from all over convened for trade and the exchange of ideas.” I am still a little lost on how this ties into the brand and why the name Onassis, a name that can only be associated with the aforementioned second husband of Jackie, has anything to do with any of that, but OK, I’ll play along.

The 2,500 square foot store offers a wide range of tailored classics like a quilted vest ($198, already a best seller), a leather and wool varsity jacket ($498), or an English tweed three-piece suit ($650). A black chesterfield top coat featured a pick-stitched collar ($398), while a brown wool herringbone hunting coat had all the earmarks of the British classic but was shorter and more tapered ($338).

A three-piece suit (also sold as separates) in the brand’s signature British tweed. As a set, $650.

“I think our customer is the creative professional who wants to look good but also wants to be practical,” says Mitch Silverstein, store manager for the newly opened San Francisco store.

“Creative professional” is a relatively recently defined target customer and one that seems to flourish here in the bay area’s Silicon Valley, where plenty are one or the other but not always both. The brand offers a striking collection of dressed up casuals that might certainly make sense for young professionals seeking to make a subtle statement with things like pick-stitching, Japanese denim, and ironic bow ties.

Onassis head of global brand, Shigay Tajima has infused the brand with a kind of Japanese preppy sensibility that is still relatively new to mainstream customers. Details like high-quality buttons, interior linings and finishings, and the use of imported woolens give these classics a modern, more youthful twist. “I think guys are starting to really notice the quality of clothes,” says Silverstein. “I think you are getting unique pieces at pretty amazing prices.”

A wool topcoat worn with an one of the brand’s British tweed vests. Topcoat, $398. Vest, $168.

The Onassis brand was more or less wooed by San Francisco’s Westfield shopping mall which has recently begun repositioning itself to compete with an increasingly crowded downtown retail scene.

The San Francisco store has that vaguely “authentic” vibe that is now so prevalent with many of the city’s local boutiques like Union Made, Taylor Stitch, or Freeman’s Sporting Club.  The San Francisco store features a lounge space with Bicycle Coffee and bottled waters, and a flat screen TV. One section of the store was identified as “a suit shop” although that wasn’t immediately evident since it was floating in the middle of the selling space.

“I’m not sure a mall would have been our first choice for San Francisco, maybe a neighborhood would have made more sense,” admits Silverstein, who previously worked for the Theory. “But actually we have a lot of guys who work around here who appreciate the fact that a brand that’s less commercial is here in the Westfield.”

The idea of a “neighborhood boutique” in a traditional mall setting could very well be a strategy worth watching. Less than three steps away from the store’s front door lies the entrance to Bloomingdale’s. Next door, J. Crew. Men who pass between the two are precisely who Onassis hopes to influence and convert.

“Our main focus has always been to concentrate on delivering the best possible product at surprisingly accessible prices, in a welcoming ‘boutique’ environment,” says Li.  The brand currently has three U.S. stores and has plans to open more in 2013, including one in Los Angeles.

YOU’RE INVITED. Readers of our blog are invited to the San Francisco store’s opening party on November 8, 2012.  6:30PM – 9:30PM. RSVP to onassisrsvp@morris-king.com.  845 Market Street, Level 2.

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After a nearly three months, it’s hard to say if anyone is entirely clear on what the call to action is with the Occupy movement.  Have they lost their mojo after that initial demonstration on Wall Street?

Their most tangible and visceral message, encampments in cities around the country and the world, have not only lost their clout, they’ve become a health hazard and tiresome cliche.

The various demonstrations and marches that tepidly disrupted Black Friday  felt ragged and messy. In many cases signs are illegible. If you’re going to go to that much trouble to write on a piece of cardboard, at least make it so people can read it.

On numerous occasions, demonstrations and encampments have become almost embarrassments with random nitwits, vagrants, and hooligans coming in and confusing the situation.

So the question is: now what?  I say some branding is in order — that’s because a political or social movement IS a brand. It requires the same development and marketing that one would apply to anything where one hopes to gain a following.

1) Cultivate leadership. As much as many in the movement have decried the need for a leader, it seems like leadership is just one part of what’s missing in making Occupy truly revolutionary.No matter how anti-establishment, any organization looking to build momentum and grow its constituency must find its leaders who can help give a unified voice and message.

2) Craft a manifesto. The fact is, every great revolution or political movement has had leaders and a clear manifesto. The Civil Rights movement of the ‘60’s had Martin Luther King and Malcolm X; the Women’s Liberation movement had Gloria Steinem. These were grassroots movements that targeted demands and, while sometimes violent, were able to clearly voice a process for change.

A clearly articulated manifesto would unite all Occupy movements around the country (and around the world) with a strategic call to action and program for coordinated demonstrations, speeches, as well as open forum discussions with city, state, and financial services organizations.

3) Develop a marketing and brand strategy. A movement like Occupy must have a clear strategy that includes how it is branded as well as its key marketing messages and deliverables. What does it stand for? What will it accomplish?

In the case of Occupy, it has become unclear just what they are doing and what it is they want.  We understand that the movement— quite correctly — places much of the blame on the banks. However there has not been a strategic plan for how the movement will continue forward, with a cohesive message that everyone from the elite to the proletarian can understand – whether they agree or not.

4) Communicate a call to action. I get it – you’re a “startup.”  That doesn’t mean the medium is not critical to the message. As with any marketing campaign, there is a tagline, and then what follows is a series of other memorable messages that are tied to action. How is that going to be communicated, beyond bedsheet banners and scraps of paper? Why hasn’t social media been used as the powerful (and free) tool that it is to drive home a manifesto and call to action?

5) Be bold. Embrace dissent. Spearhead measurable change. Hanging your hat on the encampment can’t be the single means for communicating your message — one that is powerful for a growing number of Americans who are finally realizing that they are indeed the 99-percent. Unfortunately in the minds of the media and the general public, the encampments are simply a passive sit-in that lacks creativity and doesn’t give confidence in its inhabitants to truly generate positive ideas for the evolution of our economy. Champion discussion and create visible change that proves what you’re doing is right. Start your own credit union. Create a socialized marketplace for goods and services.

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In the past several years, politicians, marketers, entertainment personalities, and just plain ordinary people have waxed poetic about their “authenticity.” To be authentic is to be grounded, honest, and unabashedly sincere — or so one might believe from any number of pundits on the subject.

Even when I worked at an architecture firm, a client meeting was not complete without at least one reference to “authenticity,” but this was in regards to design principles. We would deliver a store design that “spoke authentically of the brand” and gave customers an “authentic experience.”

In a recent New York Times article, reporter Stephanie Rosenbloom writes that the digital age has caused an increased preoccupation with what it means to be “authentic,” with even the Pope himself weighing in on the subject, saying that life in the age of social media “inevitably poses questions not only of how to act properly, but also about the authenticity of one’s own being.”

Authenticity is now applied to people, events, brands, causes, and art; to be branded “authentic” is essentially a ne plus ultra that ultimately means that one’s purity and integrity cannot possibly be called into question. “Hey, I’m just being me — the real me.”

The truth is, it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish the authentic from the inauthentic, perhaps because it has become easier and easier to masquerade as authentic. In the world of branding, that’s pretty much the message that so many brands are beating to death. It certainly makes a marketer’s job easier.

All those “designer collaborations” with the likes of Levi’s, LL Bean, Carhartt, and a countless other so-called heritage brands? Thats the work of celebrity-designer starpower bringing cachet to a dull, drab brand you had long-since forgotten about [Read my previous post on designer collaborations.]

Consider how many brands have dug up their “vintage” labels and reused them, or simply invented a vintage label altogether (Hello Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and even Banana Republic.) Or how about a store that features antiques, reclaimed wood (yawn), and archival photographs. Gosh, which store were you thinking of — Confusing isn’t it?

Maybe it’s that old feels good. Old feels “authentic” because it existed before everything became disposable, redundant, and insincere.

Before a brand twittered.

The fact is, as much as one might want to believe one is being authentic, the culture of social media has potentially made us entirely too self-conscious to actually be truly “authentic” — and that goes for most brands too. In short,  authenticity has simply become another word for, what Rosenbloom calls, “stage management.”

Which might mean, judging from what one sees on facebook, that some people might need a bit more stage management than others. Joe Pine of Strategic Horizons LLP, a guru of sorts for those who preach at the altar of TED seminars, puts authenticity this way:

1. Don’t say you are authentic unless you really are authentic

2. It’s easier to be authentic if you don’t say you’re authentic

3. If you say you are authentic you better be authentic

If you understood any of that then you must be really authentic. But don’t tell anybody I said so. Afterall, my facebook page is nothing more than a stage-managed version of me. But you knew that — right?

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