What Does Your Handbag Say About Your Need For Status?
Say you spot a person carrying a Gucci Horsebit bag, featuring the luxury label’s iconic monogram canvas and brown leather trim, and then come across another person holding a Coach “Ali signature” hobo bag. What is the most general assumption you would make when comparing the two?
A common answer might be that the person carrying the Gucci Horsebit bag has more money.
This assumption is based on the fact that Coach has long been known for offering “accessible luxury” to the masses and does not compare in most people’s minds with Italian fashion house Gucci.
According to research in the Journal of Marketing, brand prominence plays a different role depending on consumers’ wealth and need for status. Wealthy consumers, for one, were found to have a low need for status; they looked to associate with their own kind and opted to pay a premium for goods only they can recognize, such as logoless Bottega Veneta bags.
On the other hand, consumers who crave higher status than they truly have often look for loud logos to emulate those they recognize to be wealthy. Some even opt for counterfeits.
Some more insights come to light when looking at those who buy into the latest fashion trends. In Q4 2021, the Lyst Index, a quarterly ranking of fashion’s hottest brands and products, ranked the Balenciaga Neo Classic small bag as the number one most coveted item on the women’s list, while the Prada Re-Nylon bucket hat took the number two spot thanks to a TikTok challenge that garnered billions of views. As a result, these products became widely trendy and recognized.
People who typically fall for buying into the hype want a few of the same things: the need to look and feel fashionable, be socially accepted and the need for status.
Brands like Gucci, Balenciaga and Louis Vuitton have started to cater to this demographic, creating more “affordable” lines by designing products that use affordable and common materials such as canvas. This business approach allows these luxury labels to target their ideal, affluent customer with their premium collections while generating additional revenue through their lower-tier collections.
In April 2021, in celebration of Gucci’s 100th anniversary, creative director Alessandro Michele looked to team up with Balenciaga for its “Hacked” collection — a collection mainly capitalizing on the trendiness of logo-filled pieces and a customer demographic willing to pay almost anything to wear the latest talked about piece. The pieces in the collection ranged anywhere from just $250 to a whopping $13,000.
Then there’s Bottega Veneta, a luxury label known for its logoless and quiet luxury approach. The brand has become more mainstream in recent years, but many will argue that Bottega Veneta is still considered timeless.
So, what does your handbag… better yet, fashion, say about you? Is “if you know, you know” more your vibe? Or do you crave logos and a higher status?
Lyst Reveals The Hottest Products In Q4 2021 Gucci “Hacks” Balenciaga In Latest Collection
Originally published at https://retailbum.com on April 19, 2022.
