How the Polo Ralph Lauren Brand Has Achieved Such High Success

What does an ad say about a society? When viewing a product advertisement, many people never stop to think why the ad and product appeals to them. However, when a more critical look is taken, it’s easy to see precisely how ads are carefully tailored to appeal to trending values of a targeted demographic, and how that makes it easy to examine the society of those whom the ad is targeted at. In the analytic writing Advertisements R Us, Melissa Rubin provides an excellent example of this, as she crafts a logical and clear analysis of a 1950’s Coca-Cola magazine ad which thoroughly explains how advertisements can reveal quite a great deal about the society in which they were created.

In an essay written by Jim Fowles, “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals” he says advertising manipulates individuals to buy things they do not need. Advertisements use many emotional appeals such is the need for sex, escape, aesthetic sensation, satisfy curiosity and guidance. Today, Calvin Klein advertisements captures majority of individual’s attention. It is a well-known brand and expensive. It is known for their jeans and underwear. Calvin Klein apparel, underwear, shoes, and accessories can be found and brought online stores, malls, and outlet malls. Many famous celebrities and musician artists posed for Calvin Klein’s advertisement campaigns, wearing Calvin Klein jeans, shirts, sweaters, jackets, bras, purses, and underwear. Calvin Klein

One of Polo Ralph Lauren’s greatest strengths is its marketing strategy, which the brand actually focuses on heavily. “Creating a luxury brand is one thing, but maintaining its marketing aura across good times and bad, traditional media and new, takes genius and Ralph Lauren,” said Mickey Alam Khan, editor in chief of Luxury Daily, New York. Ralph Lauren’s products range from men, women and children’s suites, sports wear, jeans, shoes, underwear, belts and sunglasses to home bedding, curtains and furniture. The way Lauren designs most of his clothes, does not amend to current in fashion trends, an idea which he denounces when marketing his products, because he wants his consumers to feel as if they’ve purchased something more than just what they wear; “I’m not a fashion person. I’m anti-fashion. I don’t like to be part of that world. It’s too transient. I have never been influenced by it. I’m interested in longevity, timelessness, style- not fashion", said Ralph Lauren. Ralph Lauren wants his product to stand out as something of class, style and power, which is why he choose the infamous logo of the man riding the pony playing polo. Over the past 40 years since the Polo brand was created, its products have kept similar styles: the preppy American look. The way the Polo Brand is distributed (place)

Calvin Klein effectively formulates ads that grab the attention of their audience, to purchase their poignant cologne. American men want to look and smell perfect for their better halves, and the Calvin Klein brand feeds into this shared desire in society. The brand establishes a buying audience through the use of multiple appeals to pathos, and by providing a window effect in this ad for Escape.

Jean Kilbourne shows that the major messages is that exhilaration come from products, and ads are guided customers away from what make them really happy. Every sentiments is used to sell something and leave shoppers romantic about the products.Advertisers exploit buyer's human desires for link, calmness,esteem, and

In Chapter Seven of Practices of Looking, we start to explore in the ideas of advertising, consumer cultures and desire. Everyday, we are faced with advertisements through newspapers, magazines, TV, movies, billboards, public transportation such as buses and taxis, clothing, the internet, etc. Logos, such as signs, or anything that resemble a brand, are everywhere, they are on clothing, household items, electronics, cars, etc. Consumers are always showing off their brands and advertisements and we are used to seeing those brands and advertisements in an everyday setting. In modern media, advertisers are pressured to always change the ways they show off and get the attention to consumers, old and new. Advertisers also used present figures who were glamorous. Advertisements set up a certain relationship between the product and its meaning to sell the products and the hidden meaning we link to each of the products. Advertisements use the language of conversion. Advertisers try to create a customer relationship to the brand to try to form them as familiar, necessary, and also likeable.

In addition, advertising feeds from mob mentality, convincing people a product will change their lives by deeming it fashionable or sophisticated. It bypasses logical thinking to take control of how people view themselves and their “need for esteem. People want and need to be respected and we need to feel good about ourselves. And this is where much advertising lives, often because we are selling products that people really do not need. L’Oreal’s ‘Because you’re worth it’ is the perfect example” (Madigan 83). For this reason, expectations of a person are manipulated to fit the wants of the industry to sell products. These people are affected since they feel as if they have no choice in what to wear, how their body should appear to others, and which brands they buy. It all comes down to the need to be apart of something bigger, instead of sticking out from the crowd.

Ralph Lauren employs a business level strategy of Focused Differentiation. Differentiation is value as perceived by customers through unique features and characteristics of an organization 's products rather than by the lowest price (“Generic Competitive”, 2017). This is done through providing high quality, unique features, exceptional customer service, innovation, or advanced technology, etc. (Baba, 2015). RL’s focus on differentiation is described best on their own website when they state “Ralph Lauren is one of the world’s premier luxury lifestyle brands, universally recognized and associated with distinct design and quality” (“Ralph Lauren Investor”, 2017).

Casual wear was also a big seller for the RL brand, epitomizing the preppy chic look that was popular in the 80s. The brand went on to launch women’s wear and Ralph Lauren home – bed sheets, towels and furniture all with the classic American style that the Polo/Ralph Lauren brand was known for. “The fall 1987 product list of the Ralph Lauren Home Collection alone numbered 2,200 pieces.” (Ralph Lauren The Man Behind the Mystique p. 4)

It gets the audience’s attention right away with a view of a beautiful young woman fixing her shoe on the side of the street. The music picks up it pace when she notices the male’s gaze and rapid camera angles as well as movements for both individuals gets the audience’s attentions due to the curiosity of her next moves on him. The audience’s desire rises as the beautiful women get more closer and sexually towards the man, playing to the fantasies of the audience of many young men. When the focus of the young man is finally revealed, that this whole time he had been daydreaming about a car, the message of the commercial becomes evident: purchase the Fiat 500 Abarth and young, modern day beautiful women will find you attractive and want you. The commercial plays towards the typical stereotypes of the “ideal” woman: flowing hair, large breasts, sculpted, thin body, and perfect skin. However, the young man is simply average looking. All of this works to play into the desires of the audience even more. Young men everywhere can identify with the average-looking man, they can see themselves in him. Therefore, the message of the commercial becomes, if the average young men in the audience purchases the Fiat 500 Abarth, the young women that they fantasize about will want

Maintenance of the brand image is always the fore most important factor for the luxury brands in order to sustain in the market. is very critical. Therefore, of all the criteria mentioned above, we have determined the brand image is the most important criterion on which we will base our recommendation.

When one looks at an image from Calvin Klein, Victoria's Secret, or Versace, the first appeal comes from beautiful models. These individuals are normally jumping, laughing and representing every idealistic way of life by manifesting the idea of a blind promise. Unfortunately, these images are not only created with the intent of being manipulative, but also to resemble the present history involving societal roles. At the moment, Ads are able to capture the political ideologies or the social influences in order to represent the position of modern times. On the other hand, the Versace brand recently released a new campaign on Fall clothes bringing to light a different topic. At a quick glance, the Versace Advertisement depicts the everyday family of four. However, through John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, the picture represents the hegemonic portrayal of male dominance, the suppressive forces of society on women, and the influence publicity has on the surveyed. Through this lens, one can understand the social relations and expectations publicity creates for individuals.

Moreover, Stella McCartney provides massive information about its brand thus maintaining the brand identity and image to build brand communication between brand and customer. Not only express it self but also exactly consider about what customer will perceived from the brand (See Figure 2).

The fact that the woman is well-dressed and seemingly high society also adds to the desire of the “everyman” to attain “their very identity” (Kellner, 189) from the influences of this ad. What woman wouldn’t want power, status, perfect features, and men falling at her every move? And, of course, this can all be attained simply by smoking Camel cigarettes. Similarly the men are also being shown “socially desirable and meaningful traits” (Kellner 189). Men are being shown an existence where they could attain everything they so desire, a beautiful and sexy woman, a great job, as evidenced by their classy attire, and a happy lifestyle devoid of care and worry. These are definitely all characteristics that men strive to attain, and the ad is also promoting its product at the same time. There are two interpretations given of men in this ad. The first is that if men find a woman who smokes Camel cigarettes they will have everything they desire. The second is that if men purchase Camel for themselves, they can obtain everything. In either interpretation the existence of Camel is involved but the follow-up action is up to the individual consumer as to whether he chooses to use the cigarettes or not. This particular Camel ad “depicts how something as seemingly innocuous as advertising can depict significant shifts in modes and models of identity” (Kellner 193) and how it can speak to a larger public about the values and goals of life as a larger

Brand positioning- Gucci can be positioned as a moderate priced, highly desired, very classy, trendy and a high quality brand.