The Brand and not The Brand
There is a category, within the category are a bunch of brands, and one of them is The Brand.
You know some examples of The Brand. The Brand is overpriced to some and correctly priced to many. The Brand has a waitlist. The Brand has a concierge. Buy something from The Brand and it appreciates in value over time. The Brand has a lore that The Brand leans into. Everybody wants to be The Brand, but it took The Brand a very long time to become The Brand, and really there can be only one The Brand at any given time. The Brand has one big imitator that has built a whole sub-industry around being sort of like The Brand. You could, of course, get something that is not The Brand, and it would be fine. But there’s a kind of person, someone insane for whom money is truly no object, and they go for The Brand.
Scattered examples
Cameras. The Brand is Leica – a Q if you’re sensible, an M otherwise. And yet Fuji has built their whole thing off of being kind of like The Brand.
Stoves. The Brand is Wolf. BlueStar is the same price, sure, but “has a Wolf” sells homes at a higher value than any other sentence.
Computing. Apple. Many imitators.
Pens. Montblanc. Oh sure, you could buy a Japanese equivalent for half the price, and it’s probably quite a lot better at writing, but some people just want the white blotch, don’t they?
Bags. People practically sacrifice their firstborn for an Hermès Birkin. A not-so-secret handshake. Many other brands look like Birkin, but none of them have the details that make a Birkin into a Birkin.
Luggage. Try telling any serious traveler not to buy a Rimowa or Briggs. They are the two genders of luggage, soft & hard schools of thought dueling until the end of time.
Perfection over time
I cannot stress enough how long it takes to become The Brand. Most luxury brands take something on the order of a century to become The Brand. They are known for world-class customer service, for loss-leading moonshots, for not being profitable for a very long time.
Nobody seems to know or care about this, because not only do people want to own The Brand, brands want to be The Brand. Wouldn’t you? But gosh, imagine the pressure. Imagine screwing up. You can’t. You can’t for a century. That’s the bar for being The Brand.
Balenciaga was never The Brand, but it tried to be, and then this happened, and now the only time I think about Balenciaga is when I make fun of people for wearing Balenciaga.
Viking got very close to being The Brand. Arguably it was The Brand for a while. But then this happened, and ten years later this happened, and now Reddit just goes to town on them for fun & sport – while recommending Wolf.
And so
It is impossible, really, to try and be The Brand. So maybe just enjoy the journey and surrender to the process? Maybe you’ll have more fun than they do.