Influx Insights Weblog

is a phone the new watch?

Influx Insights — 2008-04-08T02:33:23Z

It must be pretty tough playing in the watch market these days.

Most people under the age of 30 are using their mobile phones as a replacement and aren't even wearing a watch at all.

At first glance, it appears this might be what TAG Heuer is thinking with the launch of its new phone.

However, instead of trying to appeal to the teen and twenty something crowd, the luxury watch maker's new phone costs around $6,000 and is going for the niche uber luxury market.

It remains to be seen how other players in the watch market respond.

Do the luxury brands extend their brands into a new category?

Where would that leave Nokia's Vertu?

Do the lower cost manufacturers move into the low cost phone business?

Could they compete with Sony and Nokia?

Posted by Ed Cotton

h&m sets a new course

Influx Insights — 2008-03-17T15:38:08Z

The well-known Swedish fashion company H&M enters a new phase. H&M always followed the same route: cheap trendy fashion. Now they enter a new phase. By buying the upcoming Swedish fashion company Fabric Scandinavien (behind brands like Sunday Sun , Cheap Monday . HM enters a new role as a venture capitalist. Before HM had to produce products to get revenues, now (with acquisitions) they have to control the portfolio of stocks.

This could be a boring, dangerous and reactive way to go. Before they were forced to lead and forge a path, now they can just look and follow. In the long run, this could be a problem: when you fall back and get satisfied, the world around seems to fade away.

The acquisition strategy marks a shift from H&M’s old approach of launching sub brands (or rather sub companies in another category such as COS

Where will it end for H&M? Will it become the new PPR ?

By Claes Foxerus. You can find more writing from Claes here. He’s also the co-founder and editor of The David Report . And, for those of you looking for Swedish Planning connections Claes is the man, he is the co-founder and secretary of the Swedish APG.

Posted by Ed Cotton

new prada store in san francisco

Influx Insights — 2008-02-12T19:58:32Z

Posted by Ed Cotton

ralph lauren creates a nostalgic dream for jc penny

Influx Insights — 2008-02-12T16:05:03Z

Department stores have been trying for years to turn their private label offerings into real brands.

Most attempts have failed because they are just names with no deeper meanings making it impossible for them to compete with the genuine article.

JC Penny clearly understood the weakness in this approach and went outside to the brand master, Ralph Lauren to create its latest offering, American Living.

What's interesting about this concept, is although it has touches of Lauren's style all over it, he's created another world for the department store. Lauren's past success has been driven by the clever balancing act between present and past, His ideas were classical, but they were always believable in a contemporary context.

American Living is different, it's unabashed in highlighting the past as its inspiration. The web site suggests that the concept is anchored around the General Store and is rooted in a time when American's were practical, had a sense of humor and dreamed of a better life. This is no daily commute from the suburbs.

It's fascinating to see such a shift to the past in a country that's usually so wrapped up in the future.

Something has changed and perhaps the future no longer looks so bright.

In such a world, we are going to cling to the icons of the past for re-assurance and confirmation of who we are and where we stand.

American Living is just one example of the nostalgia for the past that America is now craving in everything from its cars to its politicians.

It's a force that cannot be ignored.

Posted by Ed Cotton

spike jonze for lakai

Influx Insights — 2008-02-12T04:30:45Z

Spike's played with fire and skateboards, now he goes one step beyond.

Posted by Ed Cotton

why didn't the gap think of this?

Influx Insights — 2007-11-22T21:20:20Z

Uniqlo continues to push the envelope - mixing utility clothing with cool brands, art and ideas.

This time it's a partnership with Pantone for cashmere sweaters.

Posted by Ed Cotton

tokyo: design week and beyond

Influx Insights — 2007-11-15T22:08:28Z

One of our designers at BSSP, Vince Montelongo, just got back from Tokyo. He attended Design Week and took shots of other interesting stuff.

Here are his photos.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Posted by Ed Cotton

brands and private label clash at the department store

Influx Insights — 2007-11-01T12:52:52Z

Fortune has a good story about VF's Nautica brand, which seems to be having some trouble competing with department store brands and the category leader Polo.

VF has long adopted a strategy of acquiring brands with limited distribution and leveraging its muscle at a department store level, to grow them. It now looks like this strategy is coming undone. Department stores are in love with the margins that private label can achieve and some have even gone out to seek the services of Ralph Lauren to help them develop their own-label brands.

This makes life tough for VF, it can no longer rely on department store distribution as a given and has to invest in building these acquired brands through broad scale communication and brand experiences.

Fortune, even notes one of Nautica's major weaknesses is that it has no stand-alone stores and I noticed it doesn't yet have e-commerce on its website, although this is coming in 08.

Posted by Ed Cotton

mcdonald's branded jeans

Influx Insights — 2007-10-03T03:50:25Z

McDonald's Chinese workers get their own branded jeans.

Via McChronicles.

Posted by Ed Cotton

dove is back

Influx Insights — 2007-10-02T04:59:10Z

The latest offering from Dove.

Posted by Ed Cotton

crocs set to open brand stores

Influx Insights — 2007-09-25T12:00:36Z

Seen in London's Covent Garden last week.

Posted by Ed Cotton

get your wine through a straw

Influx Insights — 2007-09-13T05:04:22Z

Cordier is currently testing a new wine concept in Belgium.

It's wine that borrows something from the juice category; small Tetra-Pak box packaging and the all important extra, the straw.

Apparently, the test is going rather well.

Posted by Ed Cotton

braun's design

Influx Insights — 2007-09-04T02:22:39Z

A film showing 50 years of design innovation from Braun of Germany.

If you watch carefully you will see where Apple got the calculator design for the iPhone from.

Posted by Ed Cotton

crocs- fast branding

Influx Insights — 2007-07-11T13:17:58Z

The ugly footwear brand Crocs has in a couple of years come from knowhere to cultural phenom. I don't recall ever having seen any form of traditional communication for the brand- no ads of any type, but a ton of people talk about them and you sure remember them when you see them around.

Clearly Crocs is trying to battle the "fad cycle" that often destroys fashion companies; they are expanding globally and diversifying the brand beyond footwear.

Anyone remember Von Dutch?

"The future for Von Dutch seems to be limitless. The unofficial princess of white-trash glam, Anna Nicole Smith, has signed a development deal with the company--just one of the many promotional plans that they've set their sights set on. Fashion fanatics can also expect to see cosmetics and haute couture lines in the upcoming months, as well as an onslaught of celebrity involvement."

From a 2003- web news story

How Crocs engineered it's rapid expansion is fascinating; it brought in an expert from outside the category, Ron Snyder from Flextronics, an electronics manaufacturer that makes X-Boxes for Microsoft among other things.

According to Fast Company, Snyder's contribution is all about making Crocs more responsive to the changing color tastes of consumer.

"And he brought on some of his pals from Flextronics to set up more-sophisticated operations that would bring to footwear the speed and flexibility of electronics manufacturing. For one, they set up systems allowing Crocs to respond quickly to demand: If the lime-green Athens shoe is hot in mid-June, the company can make more in two to four weeks."

They might be getting this right for their core business, but their diversification strategies have met with criticism.

"But now my ardor of last year has cooled. I am underwhelmed by the company’s choices so far. It seems like Crox moved in this direction before thinking it through. Sure, ball caps are a must, but the backpacks are just backpacks. White socks with prints on them? Who cares? The spin-off products so far sadly lack the funky style that made Crox shoes so in your face and I dare you to make fun of me. Why isn’t Crox teaming with Swatch to make big, bold watches a comeback? Why don’t the arm and wristbands do something teens and fashion-firsts would value, like hold an iPod? In fact, why aren't they anklebands just to be different? Why aren’t there Crox gummy bears or funny-colored sunscreen that blends into the skin? Crox needs a product designer with a funkier vision and a tighter grip on what it is about Crox that got it to this level. The new products on offer now look like the company borrowed an aging product manager from the Mattel’s Barbie doll division."

Seeking Alpha

Crocs have defied convention, built a powerful brand that people have strong emotions towards, survived the intiital fad phase and have taken on the mutitude of copy-cats. Bringing outside expertese from the fast-paced world of electronics has clearly helped, but it now appears they also need to bring in critical design skills if they want to innovate behind their core product and survive.

Posted by Ed Cotton

all fashion brands need their own mobile phone

Influx Insights — 2007-06-21T05:20:05Z

Dolce and Gabbana started it, Prada was next and now Levi's plans to continue the trend by launching a mobile phone of its own. It makes total sense that fashion brands should move where fashion is moving. Since technology has now acquired fashion status, fashion brands should be there.

How they do it will be the secret ingredient to success.

Just another phone with a fashion brand's name on it, isn't going to seal the deal, but if it's different and truly represents the equities of the brand, it might stand a chance.

Perhaps the real win, is for partnerships between the handset guys and the fashion houses.

You can understand why Levi's wants a piece of the fastest growing element of teen expenditure in the last ten years, but it's got to compete with brands who've been building credibility and equity in that space for a long period of time.

Handset makers aren't going to be rushing out and embracing deals with the fashion houses, they don't think they need to do it.

The houses will need to come to them first, perhaps the opportunity to gain additional distribution avenues could be very attractive for the handset guys.

Any takers for a Gap phone?

Posted by Ed Cotton