The Business of Aspiration: How Social, Cultural, and Environmental Capital Changes Brands

and acting differently, and force businesses to address problems in new ways. In the process, a business may stumble upon a great new idea, discover an unexpected revenue stream, take a risk it was too cautious to consider before, or find a way to be closer to the community it serves.

Membership appeals to human irrationality. A lot of sneakerheads waiting in line all night to score a coveted item don’t do it for resale; they do it for the badge value and the bragging rights.

Membership activates learning. The first step here is to define the lifestyle area that members can refine, improve upon, and be more informed about.

Knowledge gives products value, and creates a divide between those in the know and those who neither have this Chanel jacket nor know that Vanessa Paradis wore it.

Today, aesthetic innovation gives competitive edge. Innovativeness is not in having superior product properties or novel tech, but in the emphasis on aesthetics and experience (consider how GOOP-endorsed products have been accused of deceptive health claims yet continue to be popular). Successful brands ingrain themselves in the cultural context, n

Originally created by companies to give selling a face and a human emotion, brands are getting killed by their own customers. People are increasingly more likely to build their own brand – and develop their own products, services, and experiences – than to endorse or be sponsored by someone else’s.

More recently, we are witnessing that curators are overtaking influencers as the core vehicle of capturing the cultural mood and starting trends.

Across categories, there has been a move toward smaller, more decentralized offerings revolving around personalization and hyper-focused inventory.

Any aspiration is a narrative: it’s the stories we buy into and the products and experiences we buy to be part of these stories.