Polo by Ralph Lauren Ralph Lauren, one of the most successful designers in the United States, has a unique

approach. Other designers create product lines, but Lauren first designs lifestyles and then develops a wide range of products to reflect those themes. He creates romantic worlds where handsome, longlimbed families ride to hounds, play lawn tennis with wooden rackets, or dress for dinner on safari. They wear crested blazers and trousers of crisp linen while watching polo matches in Palm Beach. They sip cognac, nestled in a Navajo blanket by the fireplace of a chalet. "He takes an American fantasy of a lifestyle and he creates a Ralph Lauren world-and he does it better than anyone else," according to Phyllis Posnick, executive fashion editor of Vogue. The world where Ralph Lauren grew up was quite different. Born Ralph Lifshitz in a Bronx neighborhood, he was clothes-conscious at an early age. He wore canvas jackets and buttondown shirts to school in contrast to the typical student in jeans and a black leather jacket. At 22 Lauren went to work for a Boston necktie manufacturer, traveling to meet his customers dressed in tweeds and driving a Morgan sports car. His first designs were 4-inch-wide ties to replace the narrow 2 -inch ties then in fashion. Lauren selected the name Polo for his line of ties because the word connoted to him a lifestyle mood of athletic grace and discreet elegance with an image of men who wore well-tailored, classic clothes with style. Printed on vibrant Italian silk, his creations were priced at $15 (double the typical price). He sold $500,000 worth in 1967, his start-up year. In 1968, Lauren began producing an entire menswear line called Polo by Ralph Lauren, including wide-collar shirts and wide-lapel suits. He used only the finest fabrics to create the Lauren look -distinctive, innovative, but classic and refined at the same time. His suits combined the Ivy League natural-shoulder look with the fitted shape and expensive fabrics of the best European custom-tailored clothing. His shirts were all cotton and richly patterned. Over the years, Ralph Lauren, chairman and chief executive officer of Polo by Ralph Lauren, has created many product lines targeted at different markets and different consumer segments. You can check out his Web site at www.ralphlauren.com/about for a complete timeline of his new product introductions. In 1971 he introduced a line of women's clothes with an image of understated elegance and femininity. He introduced a sportswear line called Polo University Club targeted at college students and young professional men who were beginning to form their work wardrobes. In 1983 he created a collection of home furnishings, including bedding, towels, rugs, and wall coverings. The collection expanded in 1986 to include furniture designed to reflect a particular lifestyle look. The collection was marketed using ads that portrayed entire coordinated rooms. In 1994 Ralph Lauren introduced a new line of women's clothing called RALPH. In 1995 Lauren was busy introducing several products, including Purple Label, a line of expensive, partially handmade men's suits; Polo Jeans; a collection of interior paints called Ralph Lauren Paint Collection; and a line of clothing for infants and toddlers. In 1997 he introduced Ralph Lauren Intimate Apparel for men and women. Other companies under license make most of these products, a highly profitable arrangement for Lauren. In 1978 Ralph Lauren introduced two successful fragrances-Polo (for men) and Lauren (for women). He has added several new fragrances since then to his line, including Polo Crest in

1989, Safari for women in 1990, Safari for men in 1991, Polo Sport for men in 1994, and Polo Sport for women in 1996. Besides describing the fragrances and featuring some current promotions, the company Web site also includes several rather long and involved stories about people who use the Ralph Lauren fragrances. Each drama vividly portrays the lifestyle vision that Ralph Lauren has for his different fragrance brands, while it also shows how and when these types of people use various Ralph Lauren fragrances. By the late 1980s, Ralph Lauren was an international presence in the fashion world. His Polo clothing was distributed in Italy, Japan, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Korea, Panama, Mexico, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Uruguay, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Spain, England, and France. He had free-standing stores and boutiques in department stores all over the world, but his showcase store was in New York City. In 1986, Lauren converted the Rhinelander mansion on Madison Avenue into the ultimate showcase for the Lauren lifestyle image. He remodeled the five-story limestone structure at a cost of $14 million and fitted it with hand-carved mahogany woodwork, oriental rugs, and fine antique furniture. With the clothing displays sharing the space with saddles, trophies, top hats, and billiard cues, the place felt more like a London club than a retail store. (Interestingly, Ralph Lauren was not the first to use such a retailing strategy. In 1863, department store magnate A. T. Stewart chose an oriental motif for the interior of a store he built at Broadway and Tenth Street in New York City. The store had "luxurious hassocks soft Persian rugs.. . and fairylike frostings of lace draperies.") Lauren designs his products to reflect a lifestyle theme. He begins by imagining a lifestyle that he develops like a play, including describing the characters/actors, how and where they live, and the types of clothing they wear. Based on these rich images, his designers create the costumes (clothing products) and the stage sets (retail displays) for the latest dreamworld. "I want only to make the things I love," Lauren has said repeatedly. "A lot of people have good taste. I have dreams." To make his dreams a reality, he puts great effort into the advertisements and the retail displays. Nothing is left to chance. From the furniture to the props to the models who portray the characters, each has b ~n carefully chosen to create a very specific look. Each ad and retail display creates a mood and evokes a lifestyle. Every ad invites the reader to share the fantasy and enter the dreamworld of Ralph Lauren. Ralph Lauren is a master of mood. His home furnishing arrangements are opulent and luxurious. A bed might have eight pillows, all with ruffles and contrasting fabrics. The idea is that a customer will want to buy the entire package in order to acquire the Ralph Lauren look. In the stores, he surrounds his products with loads of charming and inventive treasures, many of them for sale. Rather than displaying only a blazer or a skirt, he also presents a whole pile of goodies, such as antique tobacco horns and framed pictures of families, that complete the picture and establish the lifestyle mood. By portraying these moods, dreams, and fantasies in his stores and advertising, Ralph Lauren offers consumers the opportunity to share his dreams and perhaps acquire new identities by purchasing his carefully orchestrated products. No other American designer has created a product range so wide, a retailing network so extensive, and a marketing image so well defined.

By the early 1990s, the Ralph Lauren fashion empire had retail sales approaching $1.5 billion, up over 400 percent since 1981.
Source: Peter, J. Paul and Jerry C. Olson (1999), Consumer Behavior and Marketing Strategy, Homewood, IL: Irwin. Notes: Adapted from "A Dream World Labeled Lauren," Marketing Insights, June, 1999, pp.91-95; and Valerie Free, "100 Years Ago: Through a Distant Mirror," Marketing Insights, Spring, 1990, pp.20-21; and Susan Caminiti, "Ralph Lauren: The Emperor Has Clothes," Fortune, November 11,1996, pp.80-92.

Discussion Questions 1. What types of affective responses to the Ralph Lauren advertisements and retail displays might be created by consumers affective systems? How might the cognitive system interpret these responses? 2. How could consumers' knowledge about Lauren and Polo be activated? How might the affective system react to these cognitive responses? 3. The Ralph Lauren Web site, at www.ralphlauren.com/fragrances, is devoted to Lauren's line of fragrances. Visit the Web site and review the fragrance products marketed by Ralph Lauren. What types of affective and cognitive reactions do you think Ralph Lauren intends men and women consumers to have to these products? 4. In the Ralph Lauren Web site, click on Ask Ralph, Assistance/Chat Live (Do try to interact live with a representative), and other sections you might be interested in. Discuss how these sections may influence the affect and cognition (and purchase behavior) of consumers who take the time to read them. How might these affective and cognitive reactions influence peoples' purchase behaviors? 5. How are consumers' scripts relevant for the marketing of Ralph Lauren products?