Hugo Boss - Loyalty Beyond Reason

by Andrew Pinnell, 15 November 08 
Topic: General

I have been buying Hugo Boss products since my late-twenties and the brand/consumer relationship has been growing ever since. Now approaching my mid-forties and the depth of my love for the brand continues to intensify. It’s not just that the Boss Black brand fits me like a glove (44Long in a suit), or that the latest range of luggage is simply to die for, but moreover, it as if we have come to understand each other.  When I see the glossy full page ads. in Wonderland or even in Wallpaper, outside back cover of course, I feel a wave of emotion, of relevance, of belonging. You see, in my head, Boss represents my philosophy, my outlook and my very self persona.
 
This is what real brands are all about; inspiring an emotional connection with its audience, a bond not affected by price or affordability. To buy Boss, I invariably have to travel to London and their flagship store spread over two floors on Sloane Street is always one of my destinations during my trips to the capital. The brands’ Formula One and Golf sponsorship does not really touch me as I am a fan of neither sport, but it is comforting to see the understated logos in arenas that scream luxury, even decadence; more than anything else though, the brand stands for independence and success. Values I aspire too even though both are distinctly subjective.

All of these ties to the brand ensure that I am a regular visitor to www.hugoboss.com, a masterful website that combines elegance with a superb navigational structure that makes surfing the pages of sumptuous content simplicity itself. Hitting the English version home page recently I was intrigued by Boss’s continuing ability to communicate directly to my demographic profile. Rather than a page of unbelievably stylish models adorned with this seasons’ cuts and fabrics, Boss have put a selection of ‘Boss tracks’ for download in exchange for an email address. Personally, I had all too willingly given my contact details to Boss years ago ever eager to engage with the brand, but I was fascinated by how pop music was being used to represent the values of Boss.

As someone who still adores contemporary music and holds very dear the legacy of new wave lineage stretching back to the Velvet Underground and Iggy Pop, Roxy Music and T Rex, Magazine and Joy Division right through to contemporaries such as Cut Copy and Ladytron, Interpol and White Lies, even Crystal Castles and Fischerspooner, Boss’s choice of music provided an instant fascination. I logged in to ‘My Account’ laden with “exclusive content” and found the brands’ rational for adding music to the user experience: the text demands to be paraphrased in Boss’s own words:

Hugo Tracks – urban, contemporary, innovative, cosmopolitan. For people with style and vision. Spare yourself the labyrinth of musical subcultures; you get a pre-selected collection of music, perfectly attuned to the brands trends. Inventive and international, these pieces are the soundtrack of the urban creative’s’.

Rightly or wrongly, these words resonate so strongly with people like me that it feels as if Boss actually knows us personally. I downloaded the tracks and just knew that I would like them; with their roots in the electro clubs of New York and Berlin that spawned the likes of Suicide and Kraftwerk, the pioneers that inspired a media-savvy generation. The soundscapes on offer are fabulously cool, effortlessly likeable and yet distinctly some way off the mainstream drag. They conjure images of cities, travel and frontiers. The same imagery that the pre-stadia Simple Minds evoked on their groundbreaking Empires and Dance album from 1979 no less;  the music is, in many ways, not a million miles away from this either - shimmering synths and perpetual beats sugarcoated with delicate percussion and reverb vocals.

Perhaps it is merely an ‘age thing’, but I have my doubts. Boss also has sub-brands such as Hugo and Orange that target the twenty-something’s equally effectively. I sat opposite a group of style-conscious Manchester lads on a plane recently and one guy was passionately defending his choice of Boss trainers against a wave of derision from his Adidas and Nike-clad mates. Great brands indeed, but with a different focus, more populist even though no less iconic, think Tiger Woods, and David Beckham. What will live long in my memory was the Boss lads repost that Nike and Adidas were both ‘chavvy’. I really did laugh out loud and even my partner smiled, despite long since tired of my obsession and being dragged around virtually every Boss store in Europe!

Originally formed in the 1970’s, Boss now employees almost ten thousand people, generates 1.6 billion Euros and has over 1200 stores worldwide plus thousands of concessions. Despite its growth into a global super brand, Hugo Boss has maintained its original premise to produce a range of stylized fashion lines to a selective client base inspired by the possibilities of modern-day life. It remains vaguely exclusive, utterly seductive and to use a cinematic term,’ suspends ones disbelief’. Anyone who has dressed in a new Boss suit knows the moment I am describing, when the glamour of the glossy ads.  becomes a reality for just a glorious split second.

www.hugoboss.com

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