Title: Patagonia Politics Douglas Holt Marketing, Culture
1Patagonia PoliticsDouglas HoltMarketing,
Culture SocietyUniversity of Oxford(with
Jill Avery)
- Politics of Consumption
- University of Wisconsin
- October 2006
2Social Mission Brands
- Central solution for global problems?
- Social enterprise, social entrepreneurship,
sustainable business, CSR etc. - SMBs led, so much celebrated
- Ben Jerrys, Body Shop, Stonyfield, Toms of
Maine, Patagonia, Red - Mgmt books, biz mags
- Seldom studied
3Research Interests
- Social Mission branding
- How to build powerful SMBs?
- What are political effects?
- Extend cultural branding model
- Authenticity from citizenship-org myths (Holt
2002) - Push customer segments (Holt 2004)
- Commercial Activism
- Political analogy
4- Yvon Chouinard, iconic mountaineering innovator,
Ventura, CA 60s-70s - Patagonia tech clothing -- late 70s
- Took off in mid-80s amongst UMC
- 300 million/year
- Catalogue driven branding
- 7M vs 1M print ads
5Patagonia Social Mission
- In business to help resolve environmental crisis
- Introduced PCR Synchilla fleece
- All cotton to organic, Beneficial T line
- Greenest supply chain in the biz
- Eco advocacy in catalogue since early 90s
- 1 of revenue to grassroots activism
- Left/Green politics
6Academic literature literal consumer-citizen
model
- Ethical Consumption (Europe)
- Mindshare Branding (Aaker, Keller)
- Social Identity (Bhattacharya, Sen)
- Brand equity stems from identification with
pro-social business policies - SMBs conflated with CSR
7Patagonias SMB equity?
- Academic
- Brand equity from identification with
eco-business policies - Popular Understandings
- Hardcore
- eco-activism tied to fully committed lifestyle
- Wannabes
- BoBos buy Patagonia symbolism, adventure-lite and
eco-lite
8(No Transcript)
9Cultural Branding Model (static)
Comm Codes
Source materials
National Ideologies
Cultural References
Populist World
Expressive Culture
Contradictions (tensions)
Brand Myth Ideological POV, via expressive
culture, which repairs contradictions
Target Identity Projects
Cultural/Political Equities
10SMBs and Cultural Branding
- Successful SMBs are identity brands
- So become iconic via cultural branding mechanisms
- Similar customer segments to commercial iconic
brands - Insiders, Followers, Feeders
- Do hypotheses hold?
- What does this mean for political effects?
11Method
- Genealogy of Patagonia Brand (72-present)
- Catalogue Yvon media coverage retail
- Identity Interviews
- 23 informants in Boston/Cambridge
- Patagonia loyalist screener
- Social network (HBS heavy)
- 2 hour inductive lightly structured interview
- Patagonia discussion via catalogue photos essays
12ExtremeAdventure
13Literate Essays
14Wilderness Eco-Advocacy
15Intimate in-the-wild biographies
16(No Transcript)
17(No Transcript)
18(No Transcript)
19Identity myth 4 interwoven narratives
- Dirtbag Culture ?
- Extreme Adventure
- Eco-Wilderness
- Back-to-Nature Bohemian
- Frontier Cosmopolitan
- Classed articulation of revived Frontier.
- Perfect identity symbolism for post Reagan
Revolution upper-middle class - Stitch a tailored eco-activism to
multidimensional identity project
20(No Transcript)
21Patagonia Politics
Eco Movement Eco Wilderness
None
Extreme Adventure Dirtbag Culture None
Identity Symbolism
22Identity Myths
- 1 Dirtbag Myth
- Identify with all 4 facets of Patagonia brand
- 2 Extreme Adventure Myth
- Very competitive-achieving articulation of
extreme adventure dominates - Frontier cosmopolitan is similar
- Ignore both bohemian and eco-activism
23Patagonia Politics
- Eco Movement
- Patagonia as one player in broad movement pushing
for sustainability - Leopold eco systems language restorative,
balance, harmony - Eco Wilderness
- Conserving Wilderness (Roosevelt tradition)
- None
24Patagonia Politics
Eco Movement Eco Wilderness
None
Michael
Extreme Adventure Dirtbag Culture None
Mark
Identity Symbolism
25Patagonia Politics
FOLLOWERS MYTH 2
Eco Movement Eco Wilderness
None
Michael
Extreme Adventure Dirtbag Culture None
Mark
Identity Symbolism
26Advocacy?Marginal Ideological Effects
- Eco-Movement Insiders
- Fellow traveler, marginal solidarity
- Dirtbag Culture Followers
- Patagonia plays minor pedagogical role
- Extreme Adventure Followers
- Dont know Patagonia as eco-activist
27Key Gramsci x Business
- Patagonia has built broad-based cultural
formation around progressive business practices - Interpolate into radical green business customers
who reject - Products for the enlightened
- 7th Generation, Toms, Hain, etc
- Advocacy Organizations
- Greenpeace, Sierra Club, WWF, Friends of the
Earth