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. With Brand Bigotry
New Murketing column in the December issue of Fast Company:
Recently, Isaac Mizrahi had some choice words for those who look down on him for creating an apparel line for the big-box retail chain Target. Such critics aren’t merely snobs, he declared, they are “brand racists.” Well, that seems a bit much. For one thing, Mizrahi’s once moribund couture business was basically resurrected by his association with Target and the attendant buzz. For another, the implication that status is still organized in a strict top-to-bottom hierarchy seems a little out of touch with the more chaotic marketplace of today, where the right limited-edition sneakers bestow more prestige in the eyes of some consumers than any self-styled “luxury” ever could. That said, it’s precisely this chaos that makes brand bigotry a concept worth pausing over. Marketers pay a lot of attention to brand loyalty and cult-dom and devotion. But what about its opposite number–the brands you simply refuse to consider consuming? ….
Continue reading at Fast Company’s site.
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Kim Fellner's book 
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Reader Comments
When I purchase athletic shoes, I buy Adidas, not Nike, because I prefer the three stripes as graphic design; the swoosh just doesn’t do it for me. (Also, in college I broke an ankle playing basketball shortly after purchasing a pair of Nike hightops for the first time ever. In high school I was a Converse fan, again because of the graphic … and the distinctive soles.) And because I purchase Adidas shoes, it doesn’t do to mix one’s athletic brands (a personal pet peeve), so I buy Adidas clothing (when I buy athletic clothing). That said, I do think that over the past decade Nike’s shoe designs (taken as a whole) have been better than those by Adidas. (Alas.) But it still won’t make me purchase Nike stuff.