I had a thing for expensive suits in my corporate years.
I like to blame it on necessity. Once I started traveling for business, cheap fabric wasn’t going to survive a three hour plane ride to a meeting in another city. So I started to indulge, justifying it as the cost of doing business. I had my favorite brands. Michael Kors was one of them.
His suits fit me perfectly, requiring little tailoring. I loved the fabrics and there was always just that little something extra in the design to make that understated statement I like to make – a little edge but not so much to make one gag. Typical has never been my thing.
For years I forked over the dollars. Until one season long before I left the 9 to 5 life and stopped wearing suits on a daily basis. I headed for the Michael Kors section of Saks and there was not one article of clothing with his name on it that I had to have.
Not a one.
Something had changed. I didn’t know exactly what but whatever it was – I didn’t like it.
By then he had gotten much more popular than he had been when I first became enamored. His brand had evolved. So had I. And it wasn’t in the same direction. I went in search of a new favorite. These things happen.
In the time since, Michael Kors became a household word. As a self proclaimed fashionista and a marketer, I paid attention. I noticed that, with the exception of me, it seemed as if everyone, and their grandmother and/or teenage daughter was wearing something with his logo on it. The Kors brand was raking in the dollars – but from where I sat it seemed that as the brand grew bigger and bigger, it also got less interesting. At least to me.
Apparently, that is now true for everyone else. According to Business Insider, the once “aspirational brand” is now officially not cool. While earnings are still strong, the stock has taken a hit.
Everyone has an opinion about what is wrong – including the most obvious – which is why spend $300 on a purse you can scarf up for $50 at your local TJMaxx.
I’ve no doubt there are all sorts of internal issues as to the reasons the company is in a rough spot.
Curious, I took a look at their website in search of clues.
The one that was immediately obvious to me as both a marketer and former loyal customer, is that somewhere along the line, the brand’s story got murky. There were lots of pretty pictures with attractive people wearing nice things, but nothing differentiating it from anybody else – save that big logo.
Michael Kors seemed to have lost sight of its story.
This can happen when you’re not careful. To brands. To people.
We are all more than our product. We are our story. And when that story gets fuzzy and we forget how to tell it, we forget our essence and what’s makes us unique. Instead of standing out and owning who we are, we start to look like every other tree in the forest.
And that is the precise moment we get into trouble.
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