Play nice children.

Luxury is a relative word, and people have some different views on it, and they have every right to do so.

Hence, Nora has a right to feel the way she does. I agree with her, but I also still think that Ralph Lauren has a very good design house.

Perhaps they could've seperate their lower end products into a different line. But then again, they would still be devaluing their main line. The key to breaking into the more affordable market is doing it in a way that doesn't offend your original core of customers, like Nora, who appreciate the higher end of the spectrum, which after all is what Ralph Lauren originally became known for.

The thing is that Ralph Lauren is a publically owned company, and therefore it is obligated to achieve maximum profits, and it finds the quickest way to do this is by slapping it's name on products which are at times inferior. I will keep this discussion in mind, as I am in the near future starting my own line of clothing.

All of your opinions have been very enlightening, but I do want to end this by saying that if Ralph Lauren does not maintain at the very minimum an upscale image, it will suffer from that in the long term by losing customers like Nora, and I hope they do not suffer that way. I'm sure the people at Ralph Lauren have considered this, hence the release of their Black Label, Purple Label, etc: more high end sub-brands. And after all, it may have been that this way Ralph Lauren's strategy all along when he invented the multi-brand concept: to maintain an upscale image while allowing the company to sell less expensive things at a higher profit.

This is the draw of haute couture today: it's expensive, exclusive, and not watered down for the masses.

I will also keep this conversation in mind, as I select products to feature for my newly launched upscale blog. Bless Luxist for having this comments section. :-p
http://www.reportingluxury.blogspot.com

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