Courtesy AMC/Lionsgate Television

When a man goes into battle, he dons his battle dress. Well, not exactly a dress—a suit.

The classic suit — a pair of tailored trousers with a matching jacket – has been augmented and arranged in a variety of ways but regardless, it always acts as the ultimate modifier of manhood, making a man more than a man.

In AMC’s “Mad Men,” Don Draper is most himself when he is in an impeccably pressed steel grey suit, his Teflon coating against the perils of a boozed-up advertising client.

I grew up watching my own Don Draper, my father, a Frenchman who didn’t work in advertising but dressed just as impeccably. In the early 1970’s, he dressed for work in button-fly, thin flannel trousers, crisp cotton shirts with very small pearl buttons and French cuffs (no pocket on the front – only Americans do that), a bold tie, and narrow zippered boots in glove leather. With his wraparound sunglasses and leather wristlet clutch (which my brothers and I were terribly embarrassed about), he was chic and suave. Now, several decades later, I wanted some of his mojo.

When my book, Branding the Man was published in 2009 I similarly found myself in need of a suit that could ready me for the arrows of critics and personal appearances at big city cocktail parties or even strip mall bookstores. In this country of men dressed as 35-year-old boys in baseball caps, fleece jackets and sack-like jeans, it is time I implore for them to learn what every Don Draper used to know: the clothes do indeed make the man.

Finding the perfect suit is no easy task. There are acres of homeless suits dying to join a power lunch, wanting nothing more than to emerge from a four-star restaurant with a beautiful woman clutching its pure virgin wool. There are suits languishing on hangers that would be grateful just to attend a funeral, or clothe the man who will be buried a short time later. Suits are plentiful, good ones are not.

Recently, I toured dozens of outlets and stores, and saw hundreds of suits, from Men’s Wearhouse to the Nordstrom; Macy’s to the wholesaler on the corner. What I found was that most men’s department stores have become kind of like bugs trapped in amber; nothing more than a time capsule of the way men have shopped and dressed for the better part of the last 100 years.

One afternoon at a crumbling suburban Macy’s found a men’s department that was virtually unchanged from my high school years. A salesman, looking like a sportscaster in a plaid jacket, Countess Mara tie and gray slacks, was in the midst of assisting a 13 year-old boy with what was likely his first suit. For the boy’s father, this was probably an auspicious moment: his son, on the threshold of manhood and poised to be molded into a “little gentleman.”

For the boy—skinny, slouched, pimply and as awkward as any boy can be at 13—this was a less than thrilling moment. The jacket hung on his little shoulders like a waterlogged Sunday paper. “You look great, sport!” beamed the father. An indifferent sigh from his son followed. “You want the gold buttons?” asked the salesman. “They’ll make you look sharp!”

When I buy a suit from a conventional men’s retailer, I feel like that 13-year old boy. Can the American man be liberated from the poorly fitted suit and not spend a fortune? It depends. The anatomy of a finely made suit is actually fascinating, and like wine, once you learn the about the details it makes the final product that much sweeter. In Europe, tailoring is an art, and what every American man must learn is that a great suit is an investment. Nevertheless, consider that if it is the right suit, you’ll discover—as so many men have—that a beautifully tailored suit opens doors.

My fantasy store would be one that doesn’t bother stocking every suit imaginable, in every shade of gray and black. A great store needs to help a man discover his inner peacock with an edited collection of suits with a point of view. Forget the pleated trousers – who really looks good in them? Let David Lettermen wear the double-breasted windowpane plaid. Give me Bond, James Bond—shaken or stirred! I want a suit that makes ladies swoon and men bow.

Short of taking a sewing class, I recommend that every man have at least one suit custom-made. A great tailor is like a great barber: he can work miracles on that poor carcass of yours. Learn from your tailor what looks best on you. Let him teach you about the marvels of high-twist yarn, the subtleties of a hand-canvassed shoulder, or that the shoulders and lapels are the make-or-break details of a great suit. Contrary to what the department store salesman tells you, that suit you are trying on does not look like it was made for you — in fact it’s meant to fit about fifteen other guys of varying proportions, like a police lineup.

Alas, with the clock ticking before my New York press tour, I didn’t have any time for a custom tailored suit and instead found myself at Yves Saint Laurent. There I discovered an exquisite suit of smoky blue wool with softly drawn charcoal stripes. The generous lapels recalled Johnny Depp in Blow. I slipped into the lean, button-fly trousers and looked at myself in the mirror. It was expensive but, after all the miserable suits I had seen, this one was the one. I felt tall, fearless, and suited for battle.

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.

Black Friday may be blacker than most this year — and that’s not a good thing.

That’s because so many retailers are getting a jumpstart and offering discounts and well before the landmark shopping day with special offers that could threaten to kill the rest of the Holiday shopping season.

The soft push for retail sales was visible as early as late October. H&M’s decision to launch its Versace collection last Saturday was more than likely to build momentum for Black Friday and the rest of the holiday shopping season.

However, it’s social media sites that are driving the bulk of discount sales before shoppers even have a chance to step through the door of a store.

In a recent Nielsen survey, consumers are actually “liking” a brand simply for giving them a discount, with North American leading the way in the trend, with 45% of those surveyed saying they’ll shop and like ‘em — if they get a discount.

Across a sample of ten major markets*, nearly 40 percent of active Internet users visited Coupons/Rewards sites such as Groupon, Coupons.com and Living Social from home and work computers during September 2011.

In the U.S., NM Incite, a Nielsen/McKinsey company, reports that almost 60 percent of social media users visit social networks to receive coupons or promotions, with 23 percent saying they do this on a weekly basis.

During September 2011, 43 percent of visitors to Social Networks and Blogs also visited a Coupons/Rewards site, while 44 percent of Facebook’s audience and nearly two-thirds (63%) of Twitter’s audience visited these sites.

Facebook was a key source of traffic for Groupon and Living Social during that month – meaning Groupon’s and Living Social’s visitors came directly from Facebook.

Meanwhile, Black Friday is going head-to-head with Cyber Monday (one of the lamest names I’ve ever heard) with deals starting as early as 9 P.M. on Thanksgiving Day. So much for foreplay.

And just in case you were feeling less than cheered about shopping this year, Occupy activists are planning to demonstrate in order to protest the ultimate symbol of greed and consumerism with an “Occupy Black Friday.”

Bah, Humbug? No it’s just Christmas in America — 2011.

As a brand development and marketing consultant, I am often asked whether an organization should make an investment in corporate philanthropy. In official lingo, it’s called CSR, or “Corporate Social Responsibility.” For MBA-types, it’s “Cause Marketing.” Regardless what you call it, it still means the same thing: “a strategic positioning and marketing tool that links a company or brand to a relevant social cause or issue, for mutual benefit.”[1]

But that definition is already becoming outdated. That’s because CSR is rapidly becoming less a “positioning and marketing tool” and more an expected way of doing business in a world where natural resources are becoming increasingly limited, and globalization is forcing companies to reexamine their supply chain policies. In the last twenty years or so dozens of companies have made corporate philanthropy the hallmark of the modern, “socially responsible” business — no matter how big or how small.

It’s a far cry for how things used to be, of course. In the early part of the twentieth century, philanthropy was the good deed of the elite and titled, who cemented their status in society by being the benign benefactor, giving alms to the poor or building libraries or hospitals in their own name.

Now it’s practically impossible to find a Fortune 500 company or even small startups that do not make charity a part of their corporate philosophy and social responsibility, and able to see measurable gain in their overall brand identity, talent pool, and community relations. Indeed for many it is an extension of one’s brand image, a marketing tool for communicating the “softer side” of a company, not to mention a tangential point of differentiation in the marketplace.

In fact, research indicates that many consumers demand more than just a product and actually make a conscious decision to purchase from brands that in some way resonate with their values.[2] From a purely business standpoint, CSR is an opportunity to leverage the emotional border between the consumer and a brand’s value. But more importantly, CSR helps build a corporate foundation that places a company higher on the world stage, proving that the leaders of that company have an eye towards the future, and a sense of responsibility towards the community that gave them their success.

Then again, for others, CSR is a continual battle, a desperate attempt to gain credibility. Chevron Corporation has spent billions of dollars trying to make consumers believe that they are committed to protecting the environment — with varying degrees of success. Still, ever since the disastrous Exxon Valdez oil spill, oil companies have been forced to deliver annual reports on their environmental responsibility.

Measuring the Benefits

There are measurables for how a company benefits. They include:

• Brand differentiation
• Enhanced employee recruitment and retention
• Building newer and deeper community networks
• Fostering talent and teaching new skills to employees, especially in regards to leadership, integrity, and responsibility
• Improved relations with regional and federal governments

 It’s been heavily researched and proven that companies that are perceived as “ethically neutral” stand to gain the most from corporate social responsibility. For instance, consider the fact that most fashion houses have only recently seen the need to embrace causes; most notably breast cancer and AIDS. While these are clearly issues which resonate with their consumers, they are also personal causes for many companies: Liz Tilberis, the editor of Harper’s Bazaardied of ovarian cancer in 1999, and countless fashion designers and artists lost theirs lives to the AIDS epidemic.  Consider how the uproar over working conditions for garment workers in Indonesia and China has led many companies to prove their ethical standpoints.

The easiest way to determine the necessity for corporate social responsibility is to evaluate how the brand is perceived by one’s target market. How do our top tier customers view us — are we simply a store with great brands, or a product that performs? Do we, as a company, have a “personality” and if so, who is that person? Is our brand the kind of person who would give you their umbrella in the rain? Would they anonymously pay for your child’s education?

You’d be surprised just how much consumers actually rate a brand or product based on a company’s investment in socially responsible activities.

A pair of independent studies with university students asked them to rate how a cause-related campaign would affect their perceptions of certain companies. In the majority of cases, pairing a company with a cause measurably changed their perception of the brand. Ben&Jerry’s Ice Cream exemplifies an extremely ethical (albeit, at times controversial) company; Timex watches are ethically neutral; Philip Morris is perceived as unethical.[3]

Case Studies in CSR |  Home Depot Raises the Roof on Community Housing

Corporate social responsibility at Home Depot has its origins in the values of its founders, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, who came from modest backgrounds and whose families were very involved in local community affairs. They believed strongly that their company should give back to the community in whatever way they could. As the company grew in size and philanthropy became a formal part of doing business, its owners realized that the program had to move from an ad hoc approach to one that was more structured for greater and more lasting impact.

Home Depot’s four focus areas are: 1) affordable housing; 2) environment; 3) youth at risk; and, 4) disaster preparedness and relief.  Corporate social responsibility at Home Depot has been a process of gradual evolution. In 1991, the company set up “Team Depot” to coordinate and support employee volunteer work. Team Depot has since evolved into a significant component of Home Depot’s efforts to give back to the communities where it operates.

The company continues to align its internal policies and practices with its core values and priorities, making CSR a pillar of the brand.  By the early 1990’s, the company had cemented its environmental principles to this day the company publishes an annual Social Responsibility Report.  Home Depot has been at the vanguard of informing their customers on products that can reduce their environmental footprint, earning Fortune magazine’s Most Admired Specialty Retailer award (which includes environmental criteria) eight consecutive years and receiving an ‘A’ rating in the Corporate Report of the Council on Economic Priorities and the President’s Sustainable Development Award.

Nike Challenges Consumers to Live Strong

You might be as sick of those yellow wristbands as I am, but the Nike “Live Strong” campaign is perhaps one of the most successful CSR projects ever. An alliance between the sports shoe manufacturer and a cancer non-profit organization associated with Lance Armstrong, the champion cyclist who is a cancer survivor, sparked a massive consumer craze for the yellow wristbands, which subsequently spawned a slew of copycat campaigns.

Nike underwrote the production and distribution of the entire first run of 5 million bracelets with the organization’s motto (and Nike’s), which means 100 percent of the proceeds went straight to the foundation. It was an easy sell for the consumer: Nike customers could easily purchase the bracelet for only USD$1.00.

As Armstrong cruised to victory in the Tour De France, sales of the bracelet grew exponentially. Celebrities wore them. John Kerry wore one while campaigning for president Soon they were showing up on eBay for $10 each.

So why were people willing to pay for cheap, plastic bracelet when they can just as easily send money directly to the foundation?

Because the bracelet gives them wearable proof of their goodwill. This is a perfect example of philanthropy posing as style and vice versa. In short, Nike did several things right with this particular example of CSR:

1)    They chose the right time to run the campaign (before the Tour de France)

2)    They chose the right cause to appeal to the masses (cancer, which crosses all boundaries of race, sex, and politics)

3)    They made the cause a fashion statement

4)    They chose a “heroic” celebrity and athlete (Lance Armstrong) to represent the brand

American Express Charges Against Hunger

In 1993, American Express and Share Our Strength joined forces to create one of the U.S.’s largest cause campaigns ever: Charge Against Hunger. In just 3 years they raised US$21Million benefiting over 600 anti-hunger, anti-poverty groups. During November and December of each year, American Express donated 3 cents from every card member transaction to Share Our Strength’s cause, which totaled $5Million each year.

American Express used this campaign as a leveraging tool to get other brands, i.e. the restaurants and retailers who were already disappointed with the high fees in using their services. The campaign became a new way to establish relationships with the brands and the customers, making Charge Against Hunger a win-win public relations campaign for everyone. It helped small and large businesses give back to their local communities, and encouraged merchants to display point-of-sale materials.

The campaign single-handedly changed American Express’s image. Before, both merchants and customers complained that the card company was greedy and charged too much for the privilege of using the card. Instead, they turned their image around and people actually began using their cards more.

In terms of American Express’s corporate structure, it revitalized the company’s employees urning many into volunteers for the company’s cause and encouraging “team spirit.” Fifteen years after the campaign ended, however, Amex would go on to even greater success with the current RED campaign, which has turned into a multi-brand program involving dozens of partner companies.

Brand Identity and CSR: Making it Work for Your Brand

Finding the “right” cause comes down to an evaluation of a company or group’s values. Most major corporations start with an internal audit of their values and company’s mission. These “values” could be the leadership philosophy of the head of the group, such as the Chairman. Take Cartier, which has been a sponsor of the Women’s Forum and partnered with McKinsey&Co. and INSEAD. At the Women’s Forum and Society in Deauville, a Cartier representative described the rationale for their involvement this way: ” “As we are a company with lots of women employees it appealed to us. It was the right thing to do in a company with 60% women.”  The company does not discuss their jewelry at these events and makes it’s total focus on the 76 women entrepreneurs from around the world, and all walks of life. “We are a very ‘people’ company and there is a real entrepreneurial spirit here. We have innovative edge, it’s a sort of audacity and part of our heritage as a pioneering brand.”[5]

However it is determined, a company’s CSR strategy must organically demonstrate and reflect the business and social objectives that have made the company successful. With some companies, it is the working employees — not upper-level executives or shareholders — who have rallied together towards a meaningful cause.

Smaller companies often collaborate with a charity and the reasons for that are quite simple.

Partnering allows one to borrow equity and bond with consumers towards a “brand name” charity, and allows a company to ride tandem on an established communications strategy with an existing infrastructure (i.e. volunteers and staff) to address the issue.

While directly founding and managing a CSR charity program offers a majorly increased clarity in marketing communications, top-line messaging, and a more streamlined in-kind donations decision-making process, the management, marketing, staffing resources needed to create and build awareness and credibility is sizeable. It’s for this reason that usually, only large corporations are able to fund such an endeavor and make it a success.

For Ann Inc., which operates both Ann Taylor and Loft retail stores, CSR became a major commitment ten years ago. They instituted a code of conduct which includes third-party monitoring of suppliers, supplier development programs, a green initiative, and a website called ResponsiblyAnn.com which makes their policies completely transparent to their constituents — their customer.[4]

CSR, no matter how it is scaled, remains a critical part of how a business today must do business, building partnerships with like-minded merchants, suppliers, and service providers, and  more critically, build a lasting relationship with the consumer that is meaningful beyond a simple transaction. And with major legislation being proposed such as the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act, it’s likely to be sooner rather than later that CSR will not be an option, but a requirement.

Read more | From Luxury Society, “Luxury Brand CSR: No Longer Just an Option?” From WWD, “Expect Expanded Reach for CSR Policies”

> Want to learn more about how CSR can benefit your brand or how to develop a compelling cause marketing program? Contact us at info@bonbrand.com for a complimentary consultation.

[1] Hamish Pringle and Marjorie Thompson, Brand Spirit: How Cause Marketing Builds Brands. Wiley, 1999.

[2] Cause Marketing Forum, 2006

[3] The Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing, Vol. 11, Number 1, Haworth Press

[4] Arnold Karr, “Expect Expanded Reach for CSR Policies,” WWD. 10/11/11

[5] Maria Doulton, “Luxury Brand CSR: No Longer Just An Option?” www.luxurysociety.com. 10/24/11.

A fashion director with a major U.S. department store once advised me to mark the passing of a decade and one’s advanced years (how “advanced” am I?) with an “important” and luxurious gift.

He had already “gifted” himself a massive black Kelly bag that seemed to enter the room before he did.

At a recent Hermès men’s event at the retailer’s San Francisco store, there were more than a few young men who clearly weren’t waiting for their later years to carry a coveted Kelly or Birkin. The event was clearly targeted to San Francisco’s affluent gay demographic — or at least those who aren’t shy about carrying a handbag.

The bronzed, buffed, and polished boyish-types entered as casually as they could, but were oh-so-keenly aware that all eyes were on the luxury bag slung in the crook of their arm.

With a starting price of roughly $7,000 (and upwards to $100K or more), you would think one bag would probably be enough. However, tonight raised doubts in the minds of many.

There were two new arrivals at the store on this balmy evening— a 40cm “Kelly” in olive-brown and a 50cm Birkin in deep Indigo. Within forty minutes, three contenders came forward to claim the bags, each gravitating from one to the other.

With white cotton gloves, the sales associate carefully removed the giant Birkin from the vitrine, and one rather sweaty man pawed it and then put it on his arm. It appeared the sale was done. Nevertheless, after wearing it in the store for almost 25 minutes, the bag returned to the counter. Other less likely candidates took the bags out for a spin on the floor, enjoying the attention from admirers.

Largely ignored in the center of the store was the in-house leather craftsman, Dominique Michaux, who was in the process of assembling a fuchsia-pink Kelly. He carefully sewed each piece, fusing the leather seams with a heat-rod, and then painting them with matching dye. It was a strangely mesmerizing process.

“This is only for demonstration, “ explained Michaux. “Because Hermès bags are only made in France.” This “Theatre of Manufacturing” was for me, the real highlight of the evening, watching the zen-like simplicity of how two hands and a handful of tools can slowly materialize an object that is so sublimely beautiful — and deceptively simple.

Alas, most at the event were transfixed by a different kind of theatre, the “Theatre of the Purchase.”

The two bags continued to make their way around the room from one sales associate to another, each hoping that their customer would follow through on closing the sale.

Enter contender No. 2, a tall, slender Asian man wearing head-to-toe Hermes (and already carrying an Hermès Evelyne shoulder bag) came forward and murmured to the associate that he wished to purchase the 40” Kelly.

Contender No. 3 quickly replaced him; a young man in a checkered shirt (and Hermes loafers) with dyed red hair and a face powdered an opaque white. He made it very clear he was definitely going to buy the giant Birkin — once his mother wired the money to his account.

“His mother is also my client,” confided the associate. The man spent the better part of the night on the phone. Like a stock trader, he paced about the store and spoke quietly behind a cupped hand; on his wrist, a diamond bracelet studded with perhaps twenty large baguettes that sparkled as he gestured, in time with the giant diamond studs in his ears.

Meanwhile others hovered over the Kelly, caressing it gently as if it were a newborn baby.

Across the room, two nearly identical men in beards tried on matching Alligator coats, at approximately $100,000 each. They paused to sip their champagne and admire one another.

At last, the young man in the checkered shirt was able to call the Birkin his own. One could only imagine his father in a boardroom somewhere, succumbing to a feverish campaign from his wife and son to allow the wiring of $11,500.

By evening’s end, there was little left but empty champagne glasses and two very empty spaces in the main vitrine where the two bags once sat. Through it, we could see Monsieur Michaux working away on a bag that would very likely never be finished.

Hermès San Francisco is located at 125 Grant Avenue. For inquiries please call (415)391 – 7200. www.hermès.com.

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?

This week marks the official beginning of China’s National Holiday, one of the biggest travel periods for the Chinese and a time when Hong Kong in particular becomes a major target for mainland tourists. Dubbed by HK retailers as “Golden Week” (guess why), it has grown into an all-out phenomenon of manic Chinese consumerism as thousands flock to the city and literally shop until they drop.

Why Hong Kong? Mainland China’s regulated economy includes taxing foreign goods as high as 50 percent (but generally 30-40 percent), which means luxury stores in on the Mainland become just a place to kick the tires before consumers make the trek to Hong Kong for the big purchase. But recent studies have shown that Mainland Chinese are increasingly become more confident in traveling abroad, and with soon-to-be relaxed visa restrictions, the numbers of tourists visiting — and shopping — the United States will likely triple in number by 2013.

A recent study from the CLSA, a brokerage and investment group, suggests that the PRC will account for 44-percent of global luxury sales by 2020 and reach that level through an annual growth rate of 23-percent. Certainly nothing to sneeze at, which is why Hong Kong retailers have unabashedly begun to tailor their operations to servicing the mainland customer.

Rolling Out the Red Carpet

Case in point, Lane Crawford, the uber-luxury department store which several years ago, rebranded itself from dowdy to deluxe, has steadily resigned itself to making the mainlander their primary target. However, that was not always the case. As recently as 2006, the brand went to considerable lengths to distance itself from its local Chinese heritage with complicated visual merchandising “installations” and advertising campaigns featuring Caucasian models. For the most part, signage and printed collaterals were in English and had a distinctly Western tone of voice.

Now that is changed. For more than a year, the brand’s advertising has featured Chinese celebrities and models, and their most recent campaign showcases highly stylized Chinese models that look decidedly….er… mainland. Truth is, it’s about time luxury brands bagged the white-washed approach of using caucasian models and hire some of the fabulous faces available in China: Liu Wen, Fei Fei Sun, Shu-Pei Quin, and Lily Zhi are just a few who have shot to stardom and are featured in Lane Crawford’s campaign.

At Lane Crawford’s IFC flagship, an entire section once allocated to small leather goods and accessories has become a luggage center — since it is not unusual for mainland shoppers to buy suitcases in which to store their purchases. On a recent Wednesday at Kowloon’s Harbour City, the mall corridors were crowded with shoppers carting large roller suitcases in which to carry their treasures.

Some skip the suitcases altogether and are buying apartments in Hong Kong, —- one of the most expensive cities in the world. Hong Kong real estate developers have begun creating commercial projects created expressly for the mainland customer. Outside subway stations and malls, young men in suits hawk colorful photos of apartments for sale.

An Endless Hunger

With such exponential wealth being earned — China boasts an ever growing number of billionaires, that number doubling in two years to 271, second to the United States — it’s no wonder they’re looking for ways to show off. Last year alone, Chinese consumers shelled out $US 9.4billion for luxury goods, coming in second behind the United States. Which is why brands are investing heavily into expanding their retail reach into second and third tier cities. Burberry will expand its China network from 57 to 100 stores in the next three to four years, while Roberto Cavalli — hardly a household name in China — is set to add 85 stores in a deal with Shanghai’s UCCAL group.

For it’s part, Lane Crawford, which opened it’s first major China flagship in Beijing in 2007 (after some feeble attempts at licensed stores), boasts that it will add three more stores in China starting next year, with a second store in Beijing, a store in Chengdu, and a massive 14,000 meter flagship in Shanghai.

On a recent Friday night in the always- bustling Tsim Sha Tsui, lines stretch down the street in front of Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Hermes and Cartier — with a second Cartier store just around the corner. By 10 P.M., the lines have barely diminished nor has the energy of those who waited somewhat impatiently for their turn to enter the store. An exhausted family — parents with their son and daughter — sit on the ground in front of Gucci, surrounded by shopping bags, while nearby,  a woman struggles with stuffing yet another purchase into her overfull suitcase.

And it’s not just the big foreign names who are profiting. Local Hong Kong jewelers like Luk Fook and Chow Sang Sang (among others) are crowded with shoppers buying mostly gold and jade pieces. Mainlanders tend to believe that these jewelers will have higher quality gold than what they would find at home, and these venerable HK retailers are respected by Mainlanders, often more than foreign jewelery brands.

This manic shopping behavior isn’t simply an act of making up for lost time — although that certainly is a factor when you consider China’s twentieth-century history. The symbolism and psychology of gift-giving in Chinese culture means that many of these purchases will become tokens of respect for in-laws, bosses, or for those one needs to impress for the purposes of guanxi — influential connections — potentially opening the golden doors of opportunity and power.

The Big Apple in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is still the benchmark for retail operations in Asia, with some of the best examples of branded experiences available in the world. That said, challenges persist in motivating employees and ensuring consistency in service and product knowledge. At last Saturday’s opening of Hong Kong’s first Apple store at the IFC mall, that didn’t seem to be much of a problem — but then, this is Apple.

The glittering store was brimming with blue-shirted staff, with a surprisingly high ratio of employees to customers. That apparently is intentional, with a brochure boasting of  “One to One” services including “Personal Setup,” “Personal Training, “and  “Personal Projects.” Sounds pretty personal to me.

Customers eagerly tried out merchandise and an enormous Genius Bar was swamped with consultations. “I don’t want to buy anything, I actually have everything already. I just want to feel the experience,” said  27-year old Henry Men Youngfan, to a reporter from the Washington Post. He traveled from Beijing just to see the store.

Apple has five stores in China and plans for 25 more by 2012. The Hong Kong store is strategic in positioning the brand and its technology towards a customer who is generally more apt to buy a PC than a Mac. But all that will most likely change.

The U.S. Challenge: Getting Ready for the Deluge

However, the challenge continues to be how to get the Chinese shopper to shop at home rather than just in Hong Kong.  According to shoppers we spoke to, the allure of Hong Kong is not only the considerable discount on products but also the level of service. Indeed service continues to be the Achilles Heel of most luxury retailers in China. There is the story of a Louis Vuitton executive who, in the late 1980’s, walked into one of the first LV stores in China to discover the sales staff eating their lunch on the display cases.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported that Chinese tourists spent $5billion in the U.S. last year, up 30-percent over the previous year. Despite the major obstacle to obtaining visas, 802,000 Chinese visited the U.S. last year — more than four times the number who visited in 2003.

So why aren’t retailers here doing anything about it? Good question. In France, department stores like Galleries Lafayette have signage in Chinese as well as dedicated staffers to handle Chinese groups and individuals, but U.S. stores are curiously devoid of any programs. Nevertheless, that’s changing. The fact is, Chinese visitors spend roughly $6,000 per person when they shop in the U.S. — more than twice that of say, people from the United Kingdom. “You look at Printemps or Harrods and 30 to 35 percent of the business is Chinese tourists,” says Saks CEO Stephen Sandove in a recent WWD interview. “It’s unbelievable … I’d like to see visa issues eased up so they’ll come here.” The typical Chinese tourist had to wait up to two months to receive a visa to the U.S. Retail lobbyists and hospitality professionals are working hard to change that.

b. on brand is currently advising Saks Fifth Avenue’s San Francisco store with a pilot program for this year’s Chinese National Holiday featuring custom window signage, advertorials in Chinese language magazines, discount cards and gifts, and designated Mandarin-speaking staffers at the ready.

It should be noted, though, that a China program should not be just a once-a-year marketing activity, and with forecast growth in Mainland Chinese shoppers, more and more retailers will need to commit marketing dollars to customized programs designed to support this growing consumer market.

If you blinked, you missed it. Hordes of fashionistas and just plain ordinary people bewitched by all those bold Missoni prints and colors, descended on Target stores this morning long before the 10 A.M. opening time.

At dawn, the Target website was already crashing from so many people trying to grab any one of the pieces from the sizeable collection. Compared to other collaborations (last year it was Liberty of London), the Missoni for Target collection is one of the largest, with 400 pieces in total. The collection was slated to sell at all 1,762 Target stores in the U.S. and online through Oct. 22. Whether Target will restock is yet to be determined, according to one customer service employee.

By the time we got  to the Target at the Serramonte Mall in Daly City at a little after 10:15 A.M., the shelves were completely bare and the store oddly quiet.

Staff reported that within minutes items were torn from shelves and some even damaged in scuffles that included raised fists. In housewares, a martini glass was all that was left — it had a chip on the rim.

Latecomers picked over the lonely leftovers, which included one dishtowel and three eyemasks. A women’s wide-wale corduroy coat was left hanging in the candy aisle, while a pair of Missoni print ballet flats were discarded near the umbrellas.

Two fashionable women sauntered in at 10:30 trying their best to look only casually interested: one wearing all black, a large black sunhat, and black glasses, while the other wore her own Missoni top with a Louis Vuitton Suhali bag. After a brief tour through the empty shelves, they smartly went to customer service, where carts of “go-backs” held a few discarded Missoni pieces. They fingered the baby jumpers and left.

Meanwhile at the Target in Colma, A posse of five young women were just finishing a solid two hours of trolling the aisles and were now idling before checkout deciding what to keep and what to toss. Their cart was heaped with Missoni goods from virtually every department.

Those less fortunate circled nearby like sharks, eying any items which might get tossed away. “This was worse than Black Friday,” said one sales associate. “It was just crazy in here.”

By 11 A.M., Target staff were already pulling down the Missoni displays and filling shelves with other miscellaneous merchandise from their own in-house brands. Missoni accomplished.

See what you missed. View the entire collection here.

When Karl Lagerfeld collaborated with H&M in 2004, it was hailed as a marketing coup and both critics and consumers alike universally praised the collection. It was the dawn of the “designer collaboration” which by now has become nearly ubiquitous from virtually every name-brand designer.

Macy’s was late to the collaboration party but nonetheless, has churned out several in association with its Impulse department. You would have thought Macy’s would lead their efforts with Lagerfeld rather than with Matthew Williamson, who’s collection launched the Macy’s Impulse collaboration series on April 13. One had to wonder if the Macy’s customer was even remotely familiar with the designer.

At yesterday’s launch of the Karl Lagerfeld for Impulse Collection, which will be available in 235 doors, it was hard to tell if the collaboration would make as much of an impact as it did when the designer famously launched a sold-out collection at H&M.

While pieces like the crisp, white blouse were instantly identifiable as a “Chanel-like” look, other pieces — like an extremely heavy coatdress with the texture of an oven mitt — did not seem to win anyone over.

You simply had to wonder what they were thinking when, with a simple LBD, a very Lagerfeld white collar was ruthlessly tacked down to the dress itself, instantly turning it into a See’s Candies uniform.

The winners were few but they went fast: a soft chiffon dress in a burnt brown with a starched white collar; a ruched black dress with a high neck; or one of several super-soft t-shirts and tanks with a sketch of Karl on the front.

And just in case you forgot you were shopping at Macy’s: racks were merchandised with the large sizes on the outside rather than on the inside. With price-points starting at $50 and hovering at $100, this will most likely be Macy’s most successful collaboration to date.

The Karl Lagerfeld for Impulse Collection is available at select Macy’s stores and at Macys.com.  See the entire collection here.

With a roiling stock market and warnings of an impending double-dip recession, you’d think some would do what they did back in 2008 — or even last year: hunker down and see what shakes out.

Not so here in Silicon Valley, where the sun seems to be shining for more than a few start up firms. These aren’t “me-too” companies — those seeking to replicate the Facebook and Groupon formulas. These are bona fide innovators who are finding new ways to get your attention and your dollars.

What’s the biggest trend? Online advertising and marketing is making bold inroads into a terrain that has had its share of turmoil. But dollar for dollar, internet advertising sites and applications — and I include social networking sites dedicated to pushing retail sales — are still an open opportunity for business.

TrialPay (www.trialpay.com) is an online advertising start-up based in Mountain View, California is just one which has found new ways of making transactional advertising a means of building a customer base, drive traffic to specific sites, and then build incentives to add on purchases through post-transaction marketing.

Loffles (www.loffles.com) is another start-up created by two Brown University grads that makes a game out of watching online advertisements. The more you watch, the greater opportunity you have to win prizes, from a electronics to apparel, and even discounts on “experiences” like a 7-day resort pass or a free meal at a restaurant.

Are we heading into another internet boom such as we saw in the mid-1990’s? A look at the numbers certainly makes it seem like that. According to the New York Times, “twenty-two tech companies went public in the second quarter alone worth $5.5billion,” the highest dollar amount since 2000. Almost 1,000 raised $7.5billion from venture capital in the second quarter, that’s up 19-percent from the first quarter and just over sixty-percent from the same period in 2009.

What’s that mean in terms of consumer sentiment — will people still spend even if they’re watching their pocketbooks? I think they will. The internet offers an insulated bubble where purchase decisions are made in a different way than in a real-world environment like a store. Online retail and incentive-based advertising also allows key information and comparisons to be made by the consumer that might not be made in a bricks-and-mortar situation. Add to that social media testimonials and uploads and you have a potentially rich opportunity to rally a consumer to push that purchase button.

Read my post, “Social Shopping Application Offers Compelling Way to Connect with Customers.” Click Here.

Read “In Silicon Valley, the Night Is Still Young,” from the New York Times. Click here.