#strattalk

I go to Zara for some daily inspiration, I also see it as a source of trend watch when I worked in Fashion. The production of their photos and campaign rarely fails me. This time, I went there looking for some work attire inspirations, and came across a really power image of an older model rocking a suit.

For many young women browsing work attire online, they actually are also looking for aspirations and the possibilities of their career and their future. In this scenario, using older and more seasoned model apparently speaks a thousand words than using a young 18 year old cute girl as seen in the two pictures down below.

The older woman’s pose and look speak confidence; she’s been through a lot and she knows her sh*t. The young girl’s pose and look speak “cool but unsure”, I wouldn’t want to look like that or hire someone like that to work for me. Zara did great job incorporating more realistic but also much more aspirational looks into their lookbook; hopefully more fashion brands will be inspired to do the same. I can envision a brand doing a collaboration with seasoned models, celebs and leadership women wearing outfits that gives young women endless imaginations and aspirations about their future. After all, selling clothes is selling an image of the future possibilities.

I was in a Vans x Thrasher skate concert over the weekend in Ridgewood, Queens. Cool venue with a good mix of people—music lovers, skaters, Bushwick hipsters, teenage kids. There was a beautiful outdoor patio in the back of the venue where they have three food trucks, outdoor seatings, and a bunch of people smoking and hanging out. I noticed something interesting: two food trucks were filled with long lines of people, while one food truck doesn’t have any customer.

First thing came into my mind was the type of food: the food trucks with long line were BBQ and Philly fast food. Those types of food are more music/skate event friendly. The lonely food truck was Greek food with hummus and salad, which is more picnic friendly but less “skater-approved”.

But what’s more interesting was the menu sign on the trucks. Both of the popular food trucks had their eye-catching price listing on the menus, while the lonely truck didn’t have the price showing anywhere.

Not making the price accessible is a typical design mistake many small businesses make. People don’t feel comfortable making a purchase without knowing the price. More importantly, people don’t feel comfortable asking for the price. They fear the judgement they might get at the “I don’t wanna buy” moment. People also feel awkward to initiate the “how much is this” talk, since there’s a high chance that they can’t have commitment to this talk when they don’t feel like buying. Coming back to the lonely food truck problem. Their experience design didn’t empathize with the customers’ awkwardness, fear and embarrassment. The lack of price information takes away the customers’ autonomy in the experience. Bad experience design comes from low empathy, and low empathy made the owner of that Greek food truck owner a very unhappy man of the weekend.

Gin Lane has been in the ad agency world for over a decade. They are specialized in advertising direct to consumers (D2C) brands. Gin Lane has launched famous D2C brands such as Hims (the modern erection-dis function pill and lifestyle brand), Recess (the CBD infused beverage), SmileDirect (the easy solution for better looking teeth) and Harry’s (the shaving essentials for men). However, Gin Lane shut down their ad agency business completely in August, and turned the team into a D2C brand holding company, Pattern, aiming to bring D2C brands to consumer’s to enhance their everyday life.

The CEO of the former Gin Lane claimed to be shutting down the ad agency due to the stress in the ad industry, explaining that they wanted to slow down and focused on crafting the brands to ease consumer’s daily stress. That seems to make lots of sense for the burnt-out millennials in this stressful environment, except that....well, I don’t buy it.

What I’m seeing is an ambitious company who has honed its skills in understanding the D2C consumers now trying to build a lifestyle D2C brand ecosystem. The new holding company, Pattern, has already launched its first cookware brand, but that’s just the beginning. Pattern will launch more brands of its own to penetrating consumer’s every aspect of their daily life - from morning meditation routine to gears for better sleep. I see Pattern as a youthful and dynamic MUJI, or even Unilever, but with more distinctive style for each sub-brand and a millennial-focused audience.