It would seem that most of the really successful brands out there are successful precisely because they dared to venture into the unknown and to try something new. Any brand that merely relies on the success of its name isn’t likely to survive if it is not willing to evolve.
One of the most interesting brand evolutions that we have seen over the past few years – one which dominated the CES2015 – has been the development of wearable tech and technology brands trying to break into the fashion market. Back when wearable technology was first introduced, it seemed to be completely counterintuitive to fashion. Items were big and bulky and not always the prettiest to look at. Since fashion is about harnessing creativity and exists to both feed off of and feed into the social constructs of beauty, the thought of a bulky early-model smartwatch was just not haute couture. And yet, in our increasingly connected society, over recent years, the chasm between the fashion and technology industries has been gradually shifting, moving ever closer to each other.
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Fashion into the Tech sector
Much credit can be given to Apple’s hiring of former Yves St Laurent CEO, Paul Deneve, for “special projects” back in 2013. Although the company would neither confirm nor deny, at the time, the buzz surrounding Apple and Deneve’s partnership, only a year later the company announced its highly anticipated Apple Watch. The move on Apple’s part was clever because even though it has one of the most loyal consumer followings in the global marketplace and is heralded as the world’s most valuable brand, it was still about bridging between two target audiences, one of which – the fashion sector – hadn’t really attempted to sell to before. Apple has always been concerned with stylish design, but transferring this cutting-edge design pallet from the tech sector to the fashion sector would need a very good bridge patrolman – Deneve.
Tech into the Fashion sector
Although the Apple Watch was rather revolutionary in bridging the gap between technology and fashion, many still find the design to be a little too tech to perfectly complement a choice Gucci suit. Turning the tables the other way, at the end of last year, luxury watch brand Tag Heuer lead with an haute-couture fashion design, and collaborated with tech giants Google and Intel to produce the Connected Watch. Unlike any of the smartwatches on the market – all of which followed the Apple approach, leading with tech and adapting it to a fashionable market – the Connected Watch is different because it leads with fashion (based on the previously successful Carrera collection), and then implemented the tech. This makes it one of the most visually appealing smartwatches on the market, poised to be met with the approval of a larger consumer group.
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We hope to only see more harmonious designs emerging within the next few years. Only time will tell if these particular risky ventures were brand evolutions that paid off, or whether these ventures merely end up being a blip on the brand radar, a quaint memory of times past and a brand gone by.