H&M: What's Your Personality?

In the book, Personality Not Included, Rohit Bhargava points out, “When everyone sells the same ‘unique’ thing, it is nearly impossible to stand out.” This statement can apply to almost anything, but today, I am going to look at fashion retailer H&M and their brand personality. Bhargava uses what is called the UAT (uniqueness, authenticity, talkability) Filter to define a brand’s personality. It is specifically called a filter because each factor needs to be taken together in conjunction; by themselves, they would fall flat in the long term. When you stack the three together, though, it can create a powerful brand.

Uniqueness

Photo via vnony.com

First, I want to jump off of this idea of uniqueness. According to Wikipedia, H&M opened their first American store in March 2000 on Fifth Avenue in New York City. What is unique about H&M is that, first of all, it brought a chic European style for affordable prices to America—so, to a point, regardless of your socio-economic status, you could rock a European-style fashion forward number from H&M. This aligns with Bhargava’s idea to “think outside of your region”—or to bring something that might not be as unique in your region to another area where it is considered special and in demand. And unlike Häagen-Dazs, H&M is an actual European company (but more on that later). With other countries like the United States (with over 200 stores), Germany (377 stores) and the United Kingdom (192 stores) leading the number of stores to H&M’s original home of Sweden (168 stores), it is clear that the unique international appeal works in the company’s favor. Interestingly, the brand was quite behind the times when it came to online retailing: they didn’t open an online shop in the United States until August 2013. One might guess they were trying to keep the feeling of exclusivity and a special experience when visiting a store for as long as possible (that’s just a rumination, though).

Authenticity

Onto authenticity: I will start with my earlier note on Häagen-Dazs. Although many people now know that Häagen-Dazs is an American company, it is still successful. When I recently found this out, I felt dismayed that I had been misled to believe this was some sort of authentic Belgian, German or Austrian brand. What H&M has going for them as far as authenticity is that it is not only being marketed as a European brand; it is, in fact, a European brand.

“The most common misperception about authenticity is that it is all about transparency,” Bhargava says. The author continues, “If you're transparent about the fact that you don't listen to your customers and are not interested in their opinions, you're not being very authentic even though you are transparent.” This separation of the terms being mutually exclusive is very important. It made me consider the labor violation accusations against H&M that I brought up in my last post. How can H&M be authentic in this situation? While I had difficulty finding any sort of official response from the organization, I did find the section on their website, “A clear stand against child labor.” Not only does H&M choose to focus on their environmental sustainability and responsible partnerships, but they also have responded to negative accusations in their own way. “We take a clear stand against all use of child labour; fortunately it is now very rare that we discover any workers below the statutory minimum age in our supplier factories,” the site says. “A ban on child labour is a minimum requirement for all factories producing for H&M and we would not consider any supplier factory that does not commit to this.” Here, the messaging does not ignore the issue and say it has never happened, but it does detail the importance the company places and trying to make sure it does not happen. You can read on the page how H&M monitors work sites and also what the punishments are for non-compliance. Ignoring the issue altogether would be inauthentic, but handling it the way they did is perceived as responsible (without addressing specific incidents).

Now that I have discussed the “elephant in the room,” we can move onto other factors in H&M’s understood authenticity. Bhargava states the importance of defining a “credible heritage,” or a “real background that customers identify with.” It is a known fact that H&M is from Sweden, and from a quick web search, we find out that the company has been around since 1947. The next step is to “demonstrate passion and belief” about the “mission” and the company as a whole – H&M does a great job of this with their focus on recycled materials and having responsible partnerships with workers in other countries (this, of course, relates to the “conscious” and “sustainable” part of their mission). Some who have chastised H&M for their labor practices might disagree with this, but they have to agree that regardless of what might be true or not, H&M consistently portrays a strong passion and belief for their ideals. The last big point in authenticity I want to mention is Bhargava’s idea of having “motives beyond profit.” This also goes hand in hand with H&M’s socially and economically conscious marketing.

Talkability

Photo via NY Mag

Love it or hate it, H&M has great word of mouth appeal. Their styles have even been seen on the red carpet. Take Helen Hunt, who rocked an H&M gown to the 2013 Academy Awards. Some may have considered this “low class” since the company is not a high-fashion designer, but an A-list actress still decided to wear it and a lot of people were talking about it. I remember seeing this all over entertainment news. That’s talkability. Of talkability, Bhargava says, “…talkability is the all-important final component of personality. It allows your brand to travel from person to person and manifest the benefits of positive word of mouth.” The author also notes that, “word of mouth is the most influential source of trusted advice for most consumers.” Remember when I said I heard about H&M through word of mouth? I think it’s safe to assume I’m not the only one. I heard about the company from my friend, and I remember it feeling unique and exclusive. Other people weren’t wearing this stuff. Now that it is much more popular, the same idea can still apply: since the stores are so large, and such a variety is offered, consumers are still likely to feel the item they chose is unique.

It’s clear that the “hook” that H&M uses is in their tagline, “Fashion and Quality for the Best Price.” Most people who have been in a mall or a city in the last couple of years can remember seeing a huge billboard or poster depicting a model in H&M clothing. On the image, the text will read: “Blazer - $9.95” or “Dress - $14.95.” Many consumers can recall Beyonce modeling H&M bathing suits in advertisements reading: “Bikini: $9.95.” It seems almost ludicrous that the clothing is that cheap, but the models and celebrities are wearing it and it looks great! This hook creates talkability: “I just got this bikini for less than 10 bucks! Beyonce was wearing a bikini for less than 10 bucks!”

Onliness

An “Onliness Statement” is a statement that sets a brand apart from others. For example, for H&M, the statement could be: “H&M is the only fashion retailer makes our clothing out of recycled materials.” This may not be true, but if we add, “H&M is the only fashion retailer that provides a quality, high-fashion look and makes our clothing out of recycled materials,” it removes most, if not all of the competition. The brand’s onliness statement is not highlighted specifically, but can be easily extracted from their mission: “Conscious: Our vision is that all business operations shall be run in a way that is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable” and in their tagline, “Fashion and Quality for the Best Price.” H&M’s onliness statement (even if I had to put it together) is extremely consistent with the brand’s personality. In the public psyche, unique and quality fashion and environmental consciousness don’t usually go together—this is what makes H&M stand out.  

Branding

Screenshot from a Google search on H&M's logo

Speaking of the brand’s personality, what exactly is it? First, let’s talk about the name. H&M is a combination of the founders’ names and an acronym. H&M stands for Hennes & Mauritz, and I think it is pretty clear that the acronym is more memorable than the names. Still, the acronym gives the idea of a name, which makes it personal. The acronym makes it distinctive. Because it is so simple, it is also easy to create a visual from the words into a logo or even a brandmark (visual representation of a brand). Even though we are looking at letters of the alphabet (and a small ampersand symbol), the logo is drawn in such a visual way that it could almost be repeated on a dress or suit to make a pattern. Even a simple Google search of the logo looks like wallpaper. This helps in the sequence of cognition because people first recognize shapes, then color and last, content. The color is a bright red, which is warm and lively. The name is positive – people like to think of companies as being founded by and made up of individuals and not just some large corporate entity. Naming the company after the founders’ surnames is also meaningful because it hearkens back to a heritage and a history of the brand. Overall, this is a very effective name.

In the brand’s architecture, or structure, it has sub-brands COS, Monki, Weekday, Cheap Monday and & Other Stories. These sub-brands are not explicitly advertised as H&M brands and each have a unique theme or personality. I wouldn’t say the brand architecture is unified due to these differences; however, each website is organized in a similar way, with linear patterns (like the logo/name) and with neutral tones. The photos are also done, for the most part, in the same way. This is a good way to connect them all visually but separate each with its own personality. As far as the mother H&M brand, there is definitely a unified brand alignment. Everything I have seen, from bags to the website to billboards has consistently the same style and includes the logo. When you see an H&M ad or packaging, you know that it’s H&M.

As discussed above, the slogan, or tagline, is: “Fashion and Quality at the best price.” This descriptive tagline is not something that the general public specifically knows, although I believe the idea is inherent through and through in the brand. Every girl knows that if she needs a last minute cute New Year’s Eve party dress for a good price, that H&M is the place to go. The only question here is with the claim of “quality.” Most shoppers might agree that H&M is a step above Forever21 as far as quality goes, but it is not on the durability level of more expensive retailers like Banana Republic, J. Crew or Express. Still, for the price, it’s not bad.

Finally, Personality!

Phew! I know that was a lot. But, in order to understand the brand’s personality, I think we really needed to delve into all of those aspects. The brand is certainly unique, authentic and talkable. The branding details are distinctive, meaningful and recognizable, helping the consumer to attach him or herself to the brand easily. The name, logo, tagline and brand alignment add into a powerful fashion brand. Like I said, the name/logo could be printed onto a dress and it would probably look good (if it wasn’t such an obvious marketing ploy)! H&M’s brand personality is modern and fashion-forward; it is socially, economically and environmentally conscious; it is inexpensive. H&M is approachable fashion. The logo is easy to read; it is not a cryptic image with an exclusively known meaning. Overall, the company is quite consistent with its imagery and messaging with regards to its audience.