Image: Elvert Barnes/Flickr
From Google Glass to connected watches, to clothing that monitors your activity levels, there’s been a lot of conversation about the merging worlds of fashion and technology. This week, Apple added to this dialog when they named Angela Ahrendts to senior vice president of retail and online stores. Coming from a remarkably successful tenure as the CEO of Burberry, Ahrendts brings valuable luxury fashion brand perspective and experience to the challenges faced by Apple.
Under Ahrendts’ seven year reign, sales at Burberry more than tripled and share price quadrupled. Her adept use of social media and digital marketing transformed Burberry into the most connected fashion brand in the world. Ahrendts also drove great success for Burberry in China, an achievement that so far as eluded Apple.
Outside of simply growing sales, however, the decision to bring Ahrendts aboard, combined with Apple’s earlier hire of Paul Deneve of Yves Saint Laurent and Enrique Atienza, formerly of Levi’s, could signal an intent to grow the Apple brand in a way more similar to the great houses of fashion than to the great houses of Silicon Valley model — shifting consumer choices from rational, technical specifications to what the fashion houses understand: the most intense relationships are built on passion and emotion — lust, even — not rational benefits.
In an increasingly competitive and imitative market, with its retail and product experience being emulated, and at lower price points, Apple is seeking to differentiate from cheaper, copycat competitors, and expand accessibility to a wider variety of markets — all while maintaining a premium perception. Ahrendts is familiar with re-energizing brands and enhancing their premium potential. While at Burberry, she turned around perceptions of the brand’s classic plaid from tired and tacky to a chic and luxurious fashion statement, through more selective use of the pattern and a carefully cultivated in-store experience.
But Ahrendts’ new role is hardly the first move Apple has made in blurring the lines between fashion and technology. Apple has already led the way with projects like the Nike Fuelband, which merged Apple’s smart technology with a wearable and functional workout tool. Other brands are following suit. From the funky brand identity of Beats headphones to new, nearly science-fiction innovations in fabric and design that cross fashion runways around the world, what we wear in our everyday lives will increasingly be combined with the technology we use. Certainly, if anyone is going be the vanguard of changing our daily interactions with technology, it’s Apple.
Barely a month ago, in fact, Apple partnered with Burberry to launch the iPhone 5s at a Burberry fashion show, and all photos were taken with the new iSight camera. Christopher Bailey, Burberry’s Chief Creative Officer and second in command to Ahrendts, commented, “This collaboration celebrates our relationship and shared foundation in design and craftsmanship. We have a mutual passion for creating beautiful products and unlocking emotive experience through technology, which has made it intensely exciting to explore the capabilities of the iPhone 5s…We’re inspired by what this could mean for the future as we continue to explore the merging of physical and digital experiences.”
Ahrendts noted the similarities between Apple and Burberry earlier, when, in a 2010 profile in The Wall Street Journal Magazine she remarked, “If I look to any company as a model, it’s Apple. They’re a brilliant design company working to create a lifestyle, and that’s the way I see [Burberry].” And while many Silicon Valley analysts are surprised by Ahrendts’ appointment, from a brand perspective, it is clear that in her new position the apple will not have fallen far from the tree.
Oscar Yuan is a Vice President at Millward Brown Optimor.
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