Stephanie Trimboli VCC336-H5 Professor. Narine February 15th, 2012 Ralph Lauren’s Dream World Society is bombarded by advertisements everyday, at home, in our entertainment, on the way to work, and everywhere in between. From a consumer perspective, this means that advertisements are a constant part of our everyday existence, for marketing firms this poses a threat: when all aspects of consumers’ lives are saturated with advertisements, how can marketers differentiate their advertisements to stand out among millions of others? One method used by iconic fashion retailer, Ralph Lauren is the creation of a dream world. It is no longer enough for a retailer to simply sell their product; they have to sell the experience of the product, which often includes selling the brand as a lifestyle. The following paper will examine this marketing technique, and in particular, identify how Ralph Lauren has used making a dream world to build their brand and differentiate their product line. The creation of a dream world ultimately comes down to storytelling. Storytelling seems like an obvious direction in which to take advertising because storytelling has been a part of human life for as long as humans have existed, and remains as one of the predominant ways in which information is shared and passed down. Essentially, telling a story about a brand is a powerful way to engrain the brand into the collective conscience because it is a medium that is easily understood. Simply stating the functionality of a product and reminding the customer about it might attract customers who need or want that functionality, but how can an advertiser improve on this? The answer lies in creating wants and desires rather than just taking advantage of existing wants (Danziger 182). In the case of high-class retailer Ralph Lauren, according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a polo shirt from Ralph Lauren, at first glance, might fulfill basic physiological needs such as keeping a person warm and protecting their body from the elements (Maslow 135). This is not, however, why Ralph Lauren charges a premium for its clothing. Instead of selling on physiological needs, Ralph Lauren sells its brand based on the fulfillment of social and esteem needs. How can a polo shirt fulfill esteem needs? The answer lies within the dream world that Ralph Lauren has created through its advertising, in which the story being told speaks to the type of people and the lifestyle that is associated with Ralph Lauren. In essence, purchasing a product by Ralph Lauren is supposed to grant membership into a certain social group crafted by Ralph Lauren that appears to be classy, prestigious, and timeless. Pamela Danziger, author of “Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses, as well as the Classes,” expresses that luxury companies need to reinvent their advertising strategies to become relevant to the consumers’ passions, desires and fantasies (Danziger 181). The reason this is important is because if the story told about a brand is relevant to the fantasies and desires of the masses, then the marketer has successfully tied their product to the esteem and social needs of the public. This not only increases demand for the product, but also creates a social cost of not buying the product, because not buying a product means not fitting into the social group that marketers for the product have created. This idea demonstrates the two ways in which advertisers use dream worlds to create relevance: a personal connection with the customer, and a connection of the dream world to the actual business. The first important aspect of a dream world is a personal relevance to each individual customer. This can be seen as a challenge because people can have drastically different views and beliefs, thus a dream world could potentially be relevant to some, perturb others and have no effect on the rest. Marketers however, often try to capture a large portion of the market. This highlights the importance to marketers of telling broad and universal stories that can appeal to a wide variety of tastes, generally depicted as the good life. As an American company, Ralph Lauren uses a classic paradigm of the American Dream. Ralph Lauren’s take on the American Dream involves making the impossible possible and expanding the limits of what the American public thinks is possible. This idea might have been from Lauren’s own up bringing, in which he grew up in a poor Belarusian household in the Bronx, New York (Ralph Lauren). Thus, Lauren tries to create a dream world of luxury and privilege as a way of making possible, a lifestyle he always wanted but could never obtain as a child. Andrew Gordon, author of “Selling luxury: Consumers are lining up to buy the high-class experience,” explains how consumers presently do not just seek any commodity, but a luxurious one that offers an experience. Thus, a story must be illustrated to the consumer and make them apart of it (Gordon). This idea is the essence of the Ralph Lauren marketing plan, people are happy when they feel that they are successful, and the Ralph Lauren brand has positioned itself as a brand purchased by successful, affluent, and stylish people. The selling of a packaged dream is illustrated in Image 1, where it appears a gathering is taking place on a boat. Although, upon further analysis of the clothes the people on the boat are wearing, one could assume this boat is a yacht. The boat-goers are dressed all in white to portray a nautical feel, one that exudes a sense of living the rich life, and high class. Here, the story denotes that wearing a white Ralph Lauren polo with a pair of white khakis and white shoes will allow you to share in the experience of being from a higher class. This sense of synergy with customer desires is important, however, it is also important that the created dream worlds are consistent with the business, something that Ralph Lauren does exceptionally well. Furthermore, Lauren goes into his own stores with the mindset of a customer to see if he is inspired, as he wants people who walk into his stores to feel inspired as well. Ralph Lauren expresses “visions of distant places” in the aspect that one may not able to afford such a lavish lifestyle, but one can aspire towards (Williams 206). In 2011 Ralph Lauren, the fashion designer himself sat down to do an interview with Oprah Winfrey about his personal life and how he not only designs clothes, but “designs a lifestyle many people dream of living,” (A Rare Interview: American Icon Ralph Lauren & His Fascinating Family). Lauren revolutionized the idea of building dream worlds amongst the fashion industry. He was the first fashion designer to expand out of designing clothing and venture into creating a home collection (Ralph Lauren). In the interview, Lauren mentions he simply did not become a fashion designer because he liked fashion, but because he liked the idea of creating and defining a lifestyle. As he says best, “… everything I've done is about life and how people live and how they want to live and how they dream they'll live,” (A Rare Interview: American Icon Ralph Lauren & His Fascinating Family). Lauren states he “has always stood for providing quality products, creating worlds and inviting people to take part in our dream. 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,” (Ralph Lauren). What this dream world creation comes down to is a sales pitch, which has been deeply integrated with the differentiation strategy of the product line, as well as, the socio-cultural factors of the external environment. Lauren clearly has a keen sense for customer demands and desires, as he has successfully created a product line that satisfies customer needs and demands, to build an advertising strategy that plays off desires to create wants. In conclusion, Ralph Lauren not only designs clothes, but also creates a world of its own that its customers can buy into (Ralph Lauren). This enticing experience is a mere fantasy packaged for the consumer, which illustrates how effective advertising and merchandising can fill the needs and wants of the customer (Williams 203). Ultimately, Ralph Lauren designs things with a story attached to them that are then sold to the customer as part of an experience. Images Image 1: www.ralphlauren.com Works Cited Danziger, N. Pamela. “Promoting Luxuries: Myths and mysteries of luxury branding.” Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses, as well as the Classes [US] 2005, Dearborn Trade Company. Print. 175-208. Gordon, Andrew. “Selling luxury: Consumers are lining up to buy the high-class experience.” PR Week [US] 20 June 2005: 13. General Reference Center GOLD. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. Maslow, Abraham. Toward a Psychology of Being. Second Edition. New York: Van Nos/Trand Reinhold Company, 1962. Print. "Ralph Lauren." Ralph Lauren. Ralph Lauren Media LLC, 2012. Web. 14 Feb 2012. <http://global.ralphlauren.com/en-us/About/Pages/default.asp&xgt;. Williams, Rosalind. “Dream Worlds of Mass Consumption.” Dream Worlds: Mass Consumption in late Nineteenth-Century France. Los Angeles: The Regents of the University of California, 1982. Print. 198-235. Winfrey, Oprah, prod. "A Rare Interview: American Icon Ralph Lauren & His Fascinating Family." The Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah: Chicago, 18/05/2011. Television.