the wrong: knocking of the soul of another brand
we really don’t mean to pick on coach, but they provide such good materials.
even thought hermes was found in 1837 as a saddle shop by thiery hermès, the carriage and horse logo and well-known orange hermès boxes weren’t introduced until 1951, when the company was under the direction of robert dumas-hermès, after the death of emile-maurice hermès. now, we don’t think it’s necessary to point out who ‘inspired’ who regarding the logo, do we?
coach build their huge business in the past 10 years by changing their cooperate identity from a manufacturing standpoint (all products were produced in the states based on their 34th street factory in new york city) to a marketing-driven brand. they saw a niche in america they described as ‘affordable’ luxury. (an oxymoron if you ask us. it is the second worst ‘creative concept’ next to the credit default swap.) the outcome are those gucci/lv/hermès hybrid bags at 1/3 of the price. and they translated to comp sales of over 80% for an extended period of time and ended up being a few-billion-dollar-a-year business. it was a combination of creative business decision, good operation management, and great fortune.
the same can’t be said for their design department. at a time when people are buying 6 less coach bags to save up for 1 hermès, it is high time for them to stand on solid original ground by their own ideas product-wise. 2nd hand concepts won’t cut it no more. but knocking-off is just too deeply embedded in their dna. to speak for themselves with design may be too much to ask of a company who needed to borrow even for their logo.
Leave a Reply