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.