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Roxana Elliott
Professor Gillian Brooks
The Business of Branding
8 August 2012
Bourdieu, Baudrillard, and Branding: How Ralph Lauren and Burberry Demonstrate the
Relevancy of Social Class and Accessibility in Modern Brands
In today’s world of viral marketing, social media, and unprecedented user interaction and
involvement with products, defining what makes up a modern “brand” can be challenging.
Brands today cannot simply introduce new products each year, but must do so in innovative and
technologically advanced ways, and are also faced with the task of managing their brands’
identity and message through a variety of mediums, including social media and online as well as
traditional print media and advertising. Marketing campaigns that do not have some element of
online messaging run the risk of being ignored by the younger generation of consumers, leading
to brands dying out for failing to keep up with the times. Brand managers cannot simply decide
what message to put out, but also how to control the messages being put out by their consumers,
who are now able to share feelings and experiences with the touch of a button from nearly
anywhere. If a brand finds itself at the center of a scandal, it must be proactive in dealing with it,
as the so-called “24-hour news cycle” can turn into a much longer ordeal when fueled by
publicly angry customers who are able to vent their feelings through Twitter, Facebook, blogs,
and online forums.
Despite the rapidly changing nature of branding and marketing, at its heart, branding is
still a combination of studies in psychology, sociology, and anthropology, and brands are more
traditional than their modern exteriors may suggest. Almost every brand appeals to a certain
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type of consumer and class, due to not only the price-point of their products but also the way
they present themselves. Combinations of a brand’s pricing and presentation can lead to
interesting niche consumer markets. For example, the store Target often partners with high-end
designers to produce more affordable lines. The French scholar Pierre Bourdieu argues in his
work Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste that taste is both inherited by the
class one is born into, and actively sought out through education and the culture one exposes
themselves to, saying social class is defined “by the structure of relations between all the
pertinent properties which gives its specific value to each of them and to the effects they exert on
practice” (106). Thus, one’s taste is not based solely on their age or economic standing, but a
combination of all these factors, which is why for example, one who likes designer products may
still be attracted to buying a product a designer produces for a lower-end store.
Despite Bourdieu’s theories being based on surveys taken in the 1960s, many of his
findings are still relevant to brands today and how they position themselves to consumers. In
particular, Bourdieu’s thoughts on taste, including economic, cultural, and social capital, and
how they relate to a brand’s accessibility and appeal to consumers, continue to resonate with
modern brands. David Norton related Bourdieu’s economic and cultural capitals to modern
consumers by stating “When you shop, you make yourself distinct with your economic capital.
But even Yuppies don’t draw distinctions based solely on money. More precious than economic
capital is cultural capital: religion, art, family, and education” (20). Here, Norton is emphasizing
one of Bourdieu’s key points: that no matter the amount of economic capital and income one has,
they cannot simply buy themselves into a more cultured class; it must be obtained through
education and inherited tastes. Social capital, meaning the quality and quantity of relationships
one has with others and how a person influences their social group, is also an important factor for
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brand managers to consider when marketing to consumer groups. Bourdieu states that “the
social rank and specific power which agents are assigned in a particular field depend firstly on
the specific capital they can mobilize, whatever their wealth in other types of capital” (113). It is
because of this phenomenon that brands have to target consumers who are also leaders of their
social groups, so that they not only reach one consumer, but also the social network who that
person influences.
Social, economic, and cultural capital combine uniquely in every individual to form what
we think of as “taste”, which ultimately dictates the clothes we wear, food we eat, and art we
buy. In order to capitalize on this, brands have to first identify the type of consumer they want,
and then create both products and an image to appeal to that consumer and instill loyalty in them.
Along with brand loyalty, other components of branding that we will examine in this paper are
brand equity, and brand resonance. If any brand has sufficient amounts of these three branding
elements, they should have a loyal customer base and therefore a successful brand. David Aaker
defines brand equity as “the brand assets (or liabilities) linked to a brand’s name and symbol that
add to (or subtract from) a product or service” (17). Brand equity can be thought of as anything
one associates with a brand, whether it is a specific product, feelings toward the brand, or the
likelihood that one will buy a branded product over a generic one due to brand associations.
Aaker further divides brand equity into four dimensions: brand awareness, perceived quality,
brand associations, and brand loyalty (17). All of these dimensions can be either helpful or
harmful to a brand, for example, if one associates a brand with a wide product recall, the brand
equity would become detrimental to them.
Some scholars have examined brand equity in online environments, and have found that
additional measures need to be included when assessing a brand’s equity online. Christodoulides
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and Chernatony mentioned interactivity with consumers online is especially important, among
other factors, and that “the degree and nature of interactivity have a statistically significant effect
on the perceived quality of corporate websites” (172). This is especially relevant nowadays, as
customers increasingly expect to be able to easily interact with brands via Facebook or Twitter,
and to be more involved in a brand’s image than they were in the past. Keller also came up with
a model for Customer-Based Brand Equity, and concluded “strong brands have a duality and
appeal both to the head and the heart” (22). It is not enough for a brand to provide a product or
service at a desirable price; the customer must also be attracted to a brand’s image, and thus a
brand must know how to evoke positive feelings in their customers. This brings us to the next
two elements of branding we will discuss here: brand resonance, literally how strongly the brand
resonates with its audience, and brand loyalty.
Keller categorizes brand resonance as an important part of brand relationships, and states
that it is “characterized in terms of intensity or the depth of the psychological bond that
customers have with the brand as well as the level of activity engendered by this loyalty” (15).
In order to have strong resonance with consumers, brands must identify with their audiences and
keep them engaged. Brand resonance may be compared to Bourdieu’s thoughts on symbolic
capital, “a reputation for competence and an image of respectability and honourability that are
easily converted into political positions as a local or national notable” (291). Although Bourdieu
was referring to individuals, symbolic capital can also be applied to brands in the form of brand
resonance; a brand that is trustworthy and has a reputation for producing quality goods will elicit
positive feelings in its consumers. Elliott and Wattanasuwan also studied the symbolic meaning
of brands and concluded, “if the consumer has choices to consumer, s/he will consume things
that hold particular symbolic meanings” (133). Brands have to now convey these meanings both
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online and through marketing campaigns to continually connect with their audience, and it is
only once a brand has connected with its audience that it can start to build trust and loyalty,
leading to a consumer repeatedly buying one brand’s products over another’s.
Achieving strong brand loyalty is what all companies strive for, as loyal consumers will
generally stick with brands as they introduce new products, even if they are at a higher price
point than competitors’. If a brand knows that they have loyal consumers, they are more able to
take risks or raise prices without facing backlash from consumers. One example of this is Apple,
which despite having higher costs than most other computer companies, has maintained a
devoted following who will often buy the newest Apple product as soon as it is released. Keller
puts loyalty, along with attachment and engagement, at the top of his Consumer-Based Brand
Equity pyramid for many products and services, indicating that to have strong brand loyalty is
the pinnacle to a brand’s achievement (23). Aaker also stresses the importance of brand loyalty,
saying that even “a brand with a small but intensely loyal customer base can have significant
equity” (17). Some brands may even strive to be well known only to a very specific customer,
for example brands that produce products targeted to a niche professional industry, such as
graphic design or photography. In addition, once a brand has achieved sufficient brand loyalty, it
can introduce and promote sub-brands to consumers, or endorse other brands (Aaker 103).
To illustrate directly how Bourdieu’s theories have influenced modern brands and
branding elements, we will be looking at two contrasting case studies in the fashion industry.
First, we will look at Burberry, the iconic British high-end designer who has gone through
several brand reincarnations in its lifetime. We will establish what the Burberry brand represents
now, as well as how it has built up its brand equity and loyalty in both physical and virtual
environments. Burberry will then be contrasted with one of it’s American counterparts, Ralph
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Lauren, the designer who has built an empire of products around his all-American image, from
candles and towels to gowns selling for thousands of dollars. Both of these designers have
created clear images around their respective national identities: Burberry that of the countrysidechic British upper class, and Ralph Lauren of the laid back but glamorous Hamptons lifestyle.
Both companies have also expanded and thus had to maintain their carefully crafted brand
images even when adding new subbrands and products. While Burberry and Polo Ralph Lauren
(the full company name, which will subsequently be referred to as Ralph Lauren) are prominent
brands today, who have well-integrated online presences, their branding strategies and appeal
remain traditional, so demonstrate the way Bourdieu and other scholars such as Baudrillard
continue to be relevant in branding studies.
Case Study 1: Burberry
History
Burberry was founded in 1856, and calls itself an “Iconic British Luxury Brand”
(Burberry.com). Burberry established itself by selling men’s outerwear, and in the 1900s
designed weatherproof jackets and raincoats for the British Army with a newly patented fabric
called “gaberdine”, which was water repellant and breathable. The iconic Burberry “Trench
Coat”, a coat for men that went below the knees and buttoned up the front, became the brand’s
signature piece, and was soon seen on notable explorers of the day. Burberry’s check pattern,
still a mark of their branded products today, was first seen as a lining on these trench coats
(Moore and Birtwistle 413; Tynan, 144). Burberry has always positioned itself as an authentic
British brand, emphasizing leisurewear that could be used for activities such as hunting,
shooting, or fishing. The images Burberry advertised mirrored this, and Tynan observed that
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“Burberry’s visual style evoked the pleasures of outdoor leisure but its promotions to middleclass consumers also emphasized the affordability of the firm’s ready-to-wear garments” (145).
That Burberry was promoting a lifestyle of the upper-class in its advertisements, but
aiming to appeal to the middle class, aligns itself with Bourdieu’s thoughts on how classes
position themselves through their clothing and appearance:
The interest the different classes have in self-presentation, the attention they
devote to it, their awareness of the profits it gives and the investment of time,
effort, sacrifice and care which they actually put into it are proportionate to the
chances of material or symbolic profit they can reasonable expect from it. (202)
A British middle-class man therefore might be attracted to buying a Burberry trench coat not
only to promote a lifestyle of leisure that he might not be able to partake in, but also to associate
himself with those in a higher class than his own, in hopes it might lead to being accepted into
that class.
National Identity
Burberry’s associations with the British military and wartime England during this time
also instilled a sense of national pride, and their advertisements referenced the brand’s role in
previous British wars (Tynan 146). Burberry uniforms became symbolic as more than just
clothes, and Tynan states that “reference to the practicality of the clothes for the front, their
‘lasting’ and ‘healthful’ qualities were evocative of the popular desire for men’s very bodies to
last and remain healthy” (146). The brand built up its symbolic capital in Britain, and came to
stand for endurance in hardship and the strength of the British army. As Burberry became a
symbol of Britain’s national identity, the brand’s resonance with its consumer increased.
Through their advertisements Burberry continued to promote an image of wartime heroes: “the
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waterproof coat enhanced a tale that mixed the physicality of sport with the heroics of military
adventure” (Tynan 147). Here Burberry was linking their brand to strong emotions consumers
had about wartime in Britain, so that consumers felt that when purchasing a Burberry product
they were also supporting the country and army. One can easily see how Burberry was able to
build up brand loyalty by deliberately marketing themselves in this way: if a consumer
associated the Burberry brand so strongly with wartime, they would feel it necessary to show
support for their country through the symbolic purchase of Burberry goods.
Despite it’s strong brand resonance and symbolic capital, in the late 90s Burberry was
struggling to stand apart from a crowd of new designers, and brought on a new management
team to reinvigorate the brand (Moore and Birtwistle 414). Burberry recognized that it needed to
re-position the brand as one that appealed to a contemporary audience, “which would be
appealing to new, younger, fashion-forward customers, while still retaining the traditional
customer base” (Moore and Birtwistle 414). Burberry’s advertising continued to promote a
classical British consumer, but updated its images with those of young British faces such as
model Kate Moss. Burberry also brought in designer Christopher Bailey to update the brand’s
iconic trench and introduce new high-end designs, illustrating that the brand was seeking to
appeal to consumers who weren’t attracted to the brand solely because of it’s British symbolism.
Burberry’s “Chav” Image
With Burberry’s rise in appeal to a younger generation, however, came some backlash, as
the brand’s iconic checkered pattern, which was now being used by Bailey as not only an accent
but as the trademark pattern for handbags and clothing, became associated with the British lower
class “chavs” (The Economist; Gross). Slate Magazine explains “chavs, who are defined by
class, not by race, listen to hip-hop music, wear lots of jewelry, hang out in fast-food joints, and
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drink in public” (Gross). The Burberry check inexplicability became associated with this class
of young Britons partly due to a widely-viewed picture of soap-opera actress Danniella
Westbrook and her baby dressed head-to-toe in the iconic pattern, and soon “the Essex girl look
was adopted all over the country, fed by a flood of counterfeit Burberry check at market stalls
across Britain” (Bothwell). Partly because the check was so recognizable, it had become it’s
own downfall, as it was easy to spot on others. Once it became associated with one soap-opera
star, the pattern was suddenly dragged down-market and worn with pride by a class who did not
represent the wholesome British image Burberry was aiming to portray.
This class of “chavs”, who have little economic or cultural capital, was bringing down the
Burberry brand by perhaps trying to emulate a higher class, who could afford genuine Burberry
products. Bourdieu explains how goods or practices can become diluted by saying:
Because the distinctive power of cultural possessions or practices- an artifact, a
qualification, a film culture- tends to decline with the growth in the absolute
number of people able to appropriate them, the profits of distinction would wither
away if the field of production of cultural goods…did not endlessly supply new
goods or new ways of using the same goods. (230)
Even though many of the Burberry goods being associated with the lower class were fake
products, the people wearing these products may have thought they could feign more economic
capital than they had through their actions. The check pattern also became symbolic in a
completely different way, as it came to resonate with and represent a class of drunken hooligans
without high taste in their appearance.
The counterfeit culture that surrounded Burberry at this stage can be linked not only to
Bourdieu and class tastes, but also to Baudrillard’s theories on simulacra and hyper-reality,
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where an imitation product can come to mean more than the product itself: “it is not longer a
question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs
of the real for the real” (2). Baudriallard describes four phases of the simulated image, from the
first being a reflection of a profound reality, which could be an almost exact copy of an actual
Burberry product, to the most extreme, the image having no relation to reality, but only existing
as simulacrum. While the mass-produced copies of actual Burberry products would fall into the
first or second stage of simulacrum, it could be argued that in this case, parts of what the
Burberry check came to represent in certain classes existed completely outside of the Burberry
brand and in total simulacrum. As he stated: “it is no longer a question of false representation of
reality (ideology) but of concealing the fact that the real is no longer real, and thus of saving the
reality principle” (Baudrillard 13). Looking at the situation with this lens, after the Burberry
products became so engrained into the chav image, the consumers buying these fake products
were not trying to emulate the upper-class consumer that Burberry was marketed at, but instead
were deliberately buying fake Burberry products in an attempt to solidify their standing in the
lower class.
Following this incident, Burberry was faced with a situation where they had to regain
their cultural capital and again establish themselves as upper-class tastemakers. Although they
were appealing to the younger generation they had sought to, it was not in the way they had
imagined, and instead of becoming more accessible to young consumers, they had become too
accessible (albeit through fake products) to a lower class. To fight this, Burberry significantly
reduced its use of the iconic pattern all over goods, and featured it once again as a trim and on a
select number of products. By 2004 the check was only visible on 5% of Burberry’s products,
down from being a primary element of nearly 20% of goods a few years earlier. Burberry also
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began to crack down on fake goods being produced, even demanding that a car produced for a
rap band covered in the check nicknamed the “Chavalier” was destroyed (Bothwell).
Burberry’s Present Brand Equity and Online Presence
Burberry has been able to turn around its image since the early 2000’s, and is now
recognized as one of the premier high-end designer brands, both in Britain and worldwide. The
brand’s revenues have almost tripled since 2001, and Burberry currently produces up to 50
collections a year (Bailey). Burberry now has several sub-brands, including Burberry Prorsum,
the couture branch, Burberry London, Burberry Brit, and a range of fragrances and home
products (Burberry.com; Moore and Birtwistle 417). Burberry has been able to translate its hip
and high-end image into its virtual space, and is a leader among designer websites; they not only
sell products through the website, including design-you-own trench coats, but also stream videos
of their recent shows. Christodoulides and Chernatony’s guidelines for online brand equity, as
discussed earlier, are all very present in the current Burberry website.
The online brand experience makes the consumer feel like part of the brand, and features
such as the “Art of the Trench” section, where users can upload pictures of themselves in
Burberry trench coats, display the interactivity which boosts a brand’s online equity
(Christodoulides and Chernatony 172). In addition, the website creates a feeling of inclusiveness
with the brand, which both makes it more accessible to any class, and produces strong brand
resonance within the consumer. A consumer can feel like they are part of the Burberry brand
story without ever purchasing a Burberry product solely through the accessibility of the website.
Sultan and Rohm found that customer empowerment was one of the most important parts of
online marketing, something that is even more relevant today (12). In its present state,
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Burberry’s physical and online presences seamlessly combine to promote their image to
consumers. Burberry sells a British lifestyle of high-end leisure that few actually have, but are
successful in building resonance and loyalty in their consumer base. Whether a consumer is
buying into the brand to buy into a higher-class lifestyle or because they want to be part of the
overall brand experience, Burberry has managed to maintain its high-class image while still
being accessible to all classes, a feat that is not easy to accomplish.
Case Study 2: Ralph Lauren
History
Just as Burberry promotes an iconically British image, so does Ralph Lauren, the US
designer whose range of goods now spans into practically every market. Although the Ralph
Lauren brand started by producing ties and is traditionally a clothing brand, its name is now
synonymous with everything from paints and home goods to restaurants and cookbooks. Ralph
Lauren himself is a rugged, all-American type who blends perfectly into the image he promotes
through his brand, which he describes by saying: “we were the innovators of lifestyle
advertisements that tell a story and the first to create stores that encourage customers to
participate in that lifestyle” (Ralphlauren.com). What Ralph Lauren now represents is not just a
brand, but an entire experience which draws the customer in, making them feel as if they are part
of the American dream that Ralph himself and his family embody.
The Ralph Lauren brand is a true empire and the branded house that is Polo Ralph Lauren
has under it several clothing and home lines, including the original Polo Ralph Lauren for men,
the high end Ralph Lauren Collection for women, Ralph Lauren Blue Label, two home brands,
Ralph Lauren Home and Lauren Home, and golf and tennis apparel, to name a few. The Rugby
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brand is also under the Ralph Lauren umbrella, and is targeted at a younger consumer (Aaker
133; Ralphlauren.com). Although the Ralph Lauren umbrella brand has so many associated subbrands and endorsed brands, their names and links to the known overarching brand have ensured
they are integrated successfully into the company: “The new brands and subbrands not only draw
from the existing equities but also add life and energy to them” (Aaker 132). Thus although one
might assume this wide array of products might dilute the main brand image, in fact Ralph
Lauren has managed to maintain a strong message even when they are taking risks by expanding
into new markets. Dacin and Smith also found this to be the case when they studied the effect of
multiple products and how they were related: “the number of products affiliated with a brand
was positively related to consumers’ confidence and favorability of their evaluations of the
quality of an extension of the brand” (239).
Family Values and Habitus
In the case of Ralph Lauren, the fact that the company is literally selling the lifestyle of
the person Ralph Lauren has allowed it to expand, as the woman’s line can be associated with his
wife, Ricky Lauren, and the more casual and inexpensive brands are embodied by Lauren’s
children. One of Bourdieu’s central concepts is that of habitus, which is a set of learned
dispositions that are acquired through one’s life, and therefore through the lifestyle of one’s
family:
The habitus is not only a structuring structure…but also a structured structure: the
principle of division into logical classes which organizes the perception of the
social world is itself the product of internalization of the division into social
classes. Each class condition is defined, simultaneously, by its intrinsic properties
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and by the relational properties which it derives from its position in the system of
class conditions. (170)
The Lauren family is a brand within itself, and as they share a habitus and social space, they
share similar tastes and can represent and sell their particular brand of laid-back style and family
devotion to their consumers. In this way the habitus and tastes of the Lauren family have become
the tastes of the Ralph Lauren Brand, which is being sold to both those who have similar habitus’
and those who strive to be in a social class with the Laurens.
Bourdieu also emphasizes how important domestic life is in one’s taste, saying: “the
weight of the man’s own taste in choosing his clothes (and therefore the degree to which his
clothes express his taste) depends not only on his own inherited cultural capital and education
capital…but also on his wife’s” (109). This is relevant when examining the Ralph Lauren brand,
as so much of it revolves around the family, and Ricky Lauren represents the brand as much as
her husband does. In a Vogue profile of Ricky, the author notes that: “When I ask her if she ever
finds herself maybe sneaking off to Prada for a little black dress, she finds the question rather
bemusing: “Why would I? We make little black dresses” (Vogue). In addition to being a
cheerleader for her husband’s brand, Ricky has authored two books, which include stories and
recipes for family meals, one based on their Colorado ranch, and one focusing on their East
Hampton lifestyle (Vogue; Lauren). An interview with Ricky in RL Magazine is conducted by
her son David Lauren, and throughout the piece the two effortlessly joke about the privileged
lifestyle the older Laurens have fashioned for their children, while maintaining that at the heart
of it, family is the most important thing to all of them (Lauren). The idea that the Laurens are a
perfect family who are never at odds is an ideal that many strive to reach, and their values
resonate enough with consumers that they want to buy into the brand.
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Ralph Lauren Abroad
One of the challenges Ralph Lauren has faced as a brand is how to translate their
American image abroad and expand into a globally recognized brand while maintaining their
tightly controlled image. Kim and Mauborgne speculate that what has made Ralph Lauren
successful is not their designs, but rather their lack of unique fashion:
At Polo Ralph Lauren’s inception more than 30 years ago, fashion industry
experts of almost every stripe criticized the company. Where, they asked, was the
fashion? Lacking creativity in design, how could Ralph Lauren charge such high
prices? Yet the same people who criticized the company bought its clothes, as did
affluent people everywhere. (87).
Although the classic style of Ralph Lauren’s clothes may have been available in America at the
time, Lauren strived to become widely accessible outside of the US as well, where the rustic but
clean American style was more of a novelty. One study examined the internationalization of
major brands, including Ralph Lauren, and stated that two important factors to global expansion
are the opening of flagship stores to create the brand’s identity in that city, and the distribution of
diffusion lines, products that have a brand name on them but are not produced directly by that
brand. On flagship stores they state: “While the main design houses have sought to maximize
the profile of their flagship stores in order to promote their up-market ready-to-wear collections,
the marketing focus of the sector in the past decade has been the development of diffusion lines”
(Moore, Fernie and Burt 930). The flagship stores are integral in maintaining Ralph Lauren’s
image and maintaining brand resonance, while the diffusion products, such as fragrances bearing
the Ralph Lauren name, promote the accessibility of the brand, sending the message that even if
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one is halfway across the world from the Hamptons they can still partake in the Ralph Lauren
experience.
The Hyper-reality of the Ralph Lauren Brand
Perhaps the most extreme way that the Ralph Lauren conglomerate has invited consumers
into their life is through the Ralph Lauren restaurants, of which there are three: RL in Chicago,
boasting a “club-like atmosphere”, Ralph’s in Paris, with “sophisticated rustic charm”, and
Rugby Café in Washington, DC, that emulates “the essence of a classic collegiate pub”
(RalphLauren.com). These dining experiences may be one of the most all-encompassing
examples of Baudrillard’s simulacra, as they are imitating very specific elements of a lifestyle
that is not available to most. They are designed to allow anyone willing to pay the price of a
meal an atmosphere that is usually reserved for expensive members-only clubs, and the Chicago
restaurant even boasts on its website that “Our culture combines with a unique club atmospherewhere even the first time diner is treated as a member” (About RL). While a diner may feel they
have been let into an exclusive club upon entering the restaurant, what they are actually entering
is an entirely constructed false reality.
Bourdieu also examines clubs as part of his studies on the social space, and on
membership requirements states that:
It would be pointless to seek to discover whether the former rules, which aim
above all to protect the group against outsiders (not so much other classes, which
are excluded from the start, as other fractions of the same class, or even parvenu
members of the same fraction) and which generally prove superfluous, are
intended to disguise the arbitrariness of election, or whether the conspicuous
arbitrariness…is intended to disguise the official rules. (162)
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When this thought is applied to the Ralph Lauren restaurants, and more generally to anything
branded by Ralph Lauren, one can see the brilliance behind their branding strategies: whenever a
consumer steps into a store, and by extension when they buy a Ralph Lauren product, they are
entering into a hyper-reality and are “proving the real through the imaginary” (Baudrillard 19),
therefore gaining access to what they believe to be an old-school upper-class American way of
living.
Ralph Lauren and National Identity
While Ralph Lauren promotes the American ideal to global consumers, national identity
is also a key part of their branding strategy within the U.S. Ralph Lauren is one of the most
prominent brands in sponsorships and partnerships in America, and has been a U.S. Open
sponsor since 2005, a deal that includes providing uniforms for match officials, including ball
boys and ball girls (Fraser). While tennis has traditionally been an upper-class sport, which
meshes with Ralph Lauren’s image, the U.S. Open is an event that all classes can enjoy, as many
tickets are available and its grounds are much bigger than those of the prestigious British tennis
championship, Wimbledon. Ralph Lauren has also partnered with Venus Williams in the past,
one of America’s most beloved tennis stars, which emphasizes the brand’s commitment to U.S.
athletes (Fraser).
One of the most well known Ralph Lauren partnerships is that with the U.S. Olympic
team, for which Ralph Lauren has provided clothing since the 2008 Beijing Games. The chief
marketing officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee explained the decision to bring on Ralph
Lauren as the team’s designer specifically because of the brand’s symbolism and resonance in
America: “Polo Ralph Lauren is an iconic American company and we greatly appreciate the
elevated style and classic look that will be donned by U.S. athletes” (Fraser). Associating Ralph
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Lauren’s brand equity with that of the Olympic team is a strategy that can increase brand loyalty
in its consumers, because, just as with Brits buying Burberry trenches to support their soldiers,
Americans may feel obligated to buy Olympic-branded clothing to support their athletes.
Because of this patriotism, it is perhaps not surprising that the 2012 Olympic outfits have been
surrounded by scandal for not being “American enough”, with some saying that the berets
athletes donned were too European (Arseniuk), and others criticizing that the outfits were made
in China instead of the U.S. (Maynard). The fact that a company sponsorship could provoke
such outrage demonstrates just how much the iconic American designer does resonate with its
consumers, and how closely linked the brand is to American symbolism in general. Through
Ralph Lauren’s strong symbolic capital the brand has come to represent America as a whole,
leading to its remarkable success both at home and abroad.
Conclusion
By dissecting the cases of Burberry and Ralph Lauren, both well-established brands who
have successfully integrated their virtual presence with their physical image, it becomes clear
that Bourdieu’s theories are still in use today. Even if brands are not aware they are being
influenced by Bourdieu’s contributions to the field of branding, many companies still target
consumers in the same way Bourdieu described, which leads to a never-ending cycle of class
division, as brands continue to produce goods for the class of customer they want to have, who
then pass down their own tastes to the next generation of consumers. Bourdieu’s findings are
especially pertinent when looking at three important elements of branding: brand equity, brand
loyalty, and brand resonance. Although brand loyalty and brand resonance are both parts of the
overarching brand equity of a firm, they are notable enough in their own right to merit separate
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discussion. Aaker states that “identifying brand identity elements that differentiate and drive
consumer-brand relationships is a first step toward creating a set of brand equity measures” (9),
which suggests that without a brand creating a meaningful relationship with its consumers and a
strong brand identity it will not succeed.
Through the case studies examined here we can see that having a strong brand equity,
which includes a brand identity that resonates with consumers, is integral to becoming
successful, even when maintaining one’s brand identity becomes difficult (as has been the case
with Burberry’s changing image throughout the years). Brand loyalty can only be built once a
brand has achieved resonance with a consumer, which Ralph Lauren and Burberry have managed
to do in several ways. Both brands have engrained themselves into the national identity of their
respective countries, and more specifically, have aligned themselves with specific classes in
those countries, while striving to remain accessible to all classes. They represent those
individuals with high economic and cultural capital, while selling products to a wider fraction of
consumers. In respect to this, Bourdieu states that:
The members of the professions, who have high incomes and high qualifications,
who very often (52.9 percent) originate from the dominant class (professions or
senior executives), who receive and consume a large quantity of both material and
cultural goods, are opposed in almost all respects to the office workers, who have
low qualifications…who receive little and consume little. (114)
While this may be true of individuals, brands such as Burberry and Ralph Lauren have
recognized that to sell to only one class would not be a sustainable business model. They have
thus taken Bourdieu’s findings and created an image of high-end luxury for a certain class of
consumer, while also positioning themselves as brands that a lower class might save up to
Elliott 20
purchase. We can see increased accessibility through less expensive subbrands or diffusion
products such as fragrances, and by the fact that the cheapest products brands sell are often the
most branded. For example, the least expensive handbag Burberry sells through it’s website is
one covered in Burberry check, and therefore unmistakably a Burberry product, something a
lower class citizen would want to convey.
Modern brands also aim to have a loyal consumer base, who will not only purchase their
products, but share their brand experiences and purchases to their social networks, both on- and
offline. A negative user experience today can be extremely detrimental to a brand, which is why
it is important that they monitor their brand perceptions constantly. Burberry and Ralph Lauren
have interactive websites that both sell products, and let users to enter their heavily branded
worlds, which include videos, user-generated content, articles, and design-your-own features.
By encouraging consumers to become part of the overall brand experience, companies can
ensure that users will feel an attachment and loyalty to the brand from the first time they interact
with it. Modern brands can take cues from Bourdieu in this respect, as an important part of
continued brand-loyalty is making sure new generations of consumers identify with their brand
as much as their parents did. Bourdieu relates class habitus to “the internalized form of class
condition and of the conditionings it entails” (101), and since the habitus is a set of learned
behaviors, which for the most part are inherited from one’s family, it is likely that if a
consumer’s family is loyal to one brand, they themselves will also become loyal to that brand.
Brands such as Ralph Lauren and Burberry have embodied this, as not only do they offer several
lines, including children’s clothing, but they also let consumers become “part of” their brand
through their websites. While brands need to have a strong brand equity overall, one could argue
Elliott 21
that having loyal customers who will pass their loyalty on to their children and social networks is
the most crucial part of a brand’s equity.
Although Bourdieu’s thoughts on class and taste may seem outdated at first, when one
examines them thoroughly it becomes clear that many of his theories are applicable to marketing
and branding studies today. Ultimately brands all want to emphasize their cultural capital within
the market they have chosen to target, while maintaining enough economic capital to remain
successful as a business. Bourdieu states that “taste is what brings together things and people
that go together” (241), which is applicable to a huge spectrum of brands, from dollar-stores to
luxury designer goods. Even now, the most important thing for a brand to understand is who
their audience is and how they are connected to their audience. Once a brand has established
this, it is relatively simple to market to that audience, creating both brand resonance and brand
loyalty. Although brand managers today may not have heard of Bourdieu, the habitus, or
cultural capital, the influence of his findings in modern brands is unmistakable, and his theories
are likely to stand the test of time for many years to come.
Elliott 22
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