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Why Mr West shouldn’t lower the prize of Yeezy

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While people from LA to Helsinki are spending nights outside carefully selected stores waiting to get their hands on the next Yeezy drop, the man behind the brand is dreaming of something that might destroy a well thought out brand.

With the third batch luring in the horizon, Yeezy fans have rising expectations for a falling price point. the artist indicated that he would drop the price of the collection when stating "eventually everybody who wants to get Yeezys will get Yeezys”. This awfully beautiful dream, might be the end of a well thought out brand with a strong position.

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As a brands at its core is the perception of a product, company or organisation, the one thing successful brands have to cherish is what their customers hearts and minds have to say about that brand. If this perception is spread too thin, ruined or lost in a sea of different messages the brand equity is at risk. It is not the curvedness of the logo, the bright colours of the colour palette or the strong photography that are the brand equity boosters. It is the perception that is the strongest asset of a brand.

Brand dilution is a gloomy symptom brands might face at some point of their journey. Some have stated Porche, being perceived as a sports car, is jeopardising its brand equity and diluting their brand when launching the Cayenne. On short-sight moves like these might save the company, but further down the road cause the brand to wander off from it’s core.

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Moves like this might also affect the brand tribe. The goal of every brand is (or at least it should be) to create, maintain and grow a tribe. A tribe is any group of people who not only share interests, but information. They identify with their tribes and they share common rules and values. A tribe is not just another type of segment you can just target. You don’t target a tribe. You support it. Grow it. Partner with it. Organise it.

So why shouldn’t you touch the price point of the Yeezy line? If the brand customers perceive the brand as a luxury item and it holds a clear position int the customer mind, a move like this would jeopardise this position the brand so carefully has worked towards. I would argue that a large part of the value of the brand is due to its luxury position. If “everybody” is able to indulge themselves with this brand, the true customers, the tribe that sat two days outside of the sneaker shop to get their hands on a new pair of sneakers and the ones that has made it thrive, will turn away.

While the mere definition of luxury is the feature of it being difficult to obtain, Mr West (and Adidas) might need to rethink this dream. Or not produce a luxury brand.

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