The Pony Logo...

When we first moved to NYC, the BIG PONY LOGO shirts by Ralph Lauren were the hot item. The current one at left, with a pink metallic oversize logo, is $90 and is for the fight against cancer. In 2005 the large oversize logo was introduced for the U.S. Open so the logo would be visible on TV.  Ralph Lauren worried it would be called "The Big Mistake."  I would call it xtreme branding. Not only did the Big Pony sell out, but it caused an uptick in the smaller pony logo items.  The Big Pony was again used as part of the official Wimbledon line.

I personally am against logos writ large. Buying the brand will not buy you cachet, I say. But as the branding, especially for luxury goods, is trying to reach a broader market, this x-treme logo identity makes perverted sense (for profits). People who can't afford luxury items are buying them, lulled by consumerism.  A pony won't make you popular.

Ralph Lauren, though, took the look of the West as well as the traditional look of the English, and made it into authentic American.  The former, our western heritage, is one of our true authentic looks...

Unlike in the past, a downturn in the market will affect luxury brands such as Coach, some say.  Luxury has been democratized and has gone mass-market: "For the most part, luxury is no longer reserved for the spoiled rich. Increasingly it is the domain of the global middle class on an ego trip - people from Indiana to India prepared to pay a premium for the thrill of owning something that makes them feel special."  (94.3% of Japanese women in their 20s own a Louis Vuitton item). 

Lauren went public in 1997 and the four-year stock price shows an pretty straight uptick with stock highs hitting $100 last July.  With the subprime debacle and the economy trending down, I'm wondering about the art markets and luxury markets.  Both are depending on global customers.... But still, when living in NYC, with all the flash, the frenzy for designer purses, the big logos... I wondered if this was a last huzza huzza hullabaloo while the market was still going up, up, up.

Therefore I find it very appealing that Ralph Lauren is offering customers the chance to brand themselves by putting their own initials on shirts  - the one at left has the monogram - rather than the pony.  I think this customized approach will be the trend of the future.  That same teenager who went after the big logo in NYC is now spending her allowance on monogrammed items in Texas.  I also think this is an indicator of the economy. 

As I write this, the Ralph Lauren stock is $66.06.  As part of the 40th year activities, you can share your stories about your experience with Ralph Lauren's clothing.  Lauren captured the original American look and made it as haute as English prep.   If he can do the denim, get the jeans right, he might sell the American essence to the world...  And thus the profits make.  Except the youth of the world, in many places 60% of the population, is clueless about that old America.  In selling class to the mass, it's about "the art of dream maintenance."

Lauren was on the cover of Time in 2002 with the article, "Can the Man who Defined American Style Sell His New Look to Europeans?"  That was in the day when the cowboy look took off in places like Italy with the Texan Bush as president and his neice, Lauren (now dating Lauren's son and who is an activist against plastic bags) modelling on the international stage.  That was also pre.war.America.  Lauren was the first American designer to own a free-standing store in Europe (in London, 1981, selling English cachet back to the English).

If opening a sub-brand in J.C. Penny's stores is on the '08 calendar, last year Lauren opened a store in Moscow and received the (first-ever) Fashion Legend Award bestowed by the Council of American Fashion Designers -- indications that he knows where the dreams and ideas and the marketing of them might be headed?

Comments

[tut-tut]

But do you think there will be an overall backlash against items made/produced in China? Almost everything is, now, it seems. Many of these so-called luxury items are indeed made there. I know that I am much more conscious about checking the label, much as I became used to looking at the ingredients label on food.

[maggie]

i avoid logos like the plague.

[Janet]

Back in the pre-Polo days, the Alligator shirts were big. Scott's mother got him one, and he proceded to cut the alligator off. A glimpse into the future indeed.

[margalit]

Just remember this. Ralph Lauren's real name is Ralph Lipschitz. Can you ever look at him again the same way after knowing that he's so NOT a goyish guy from the horse farms, but a Jewish kid from Brooklyn?

[Law for Food]

"I personally am against logos writ large. Buying the brand will not buy you cachet, I say."

From what I understand, graphic designers are always fighting with their clients over the size of logos. I thought you might appreciate this:

http://www.makemylogobiggercream.com/