Everytime I have a conversation with someone about the Boutique Era, I run into the issue of finding an industry that hasn’t been touched by ‘craft’. Everywhere I could think of where commodity reigned previously (commoditization being the mad dash for cutting prices and increasing efficiency to beat the competition), some sort of product that “delivers an experience” has stepped in.
Even toothpaste, my formerly favourite example, has baffled me with the gorgeous Sephora product, “GoSMILE“, a smile beauty company…with it’s ‘wake up’ and ‘go to sleep’ as well as ‘Zen’ versions of toothpaste that whiten and protect…I mean, jezus, there is even a story, soul and science behind this fun product (which is, consequently, not much more expensive than the drugstore brand whiteners).
Then, of course, there is Moleskine. You’ve heard of the notebook that was used by geniuses of days gone by such as Van Gogh, Hemmingway and Matisse, right? The story is just so romantic, I want to believe it true. But, truth be told, it’s a bloomin’ pad of paper. It doesn’t have any special pockets. It doesn’t make you more creative. It certainly won’t get you laid…strike that last one. It may. But seriously. We go out of our way to buy Moleskine Notebooks. Why? There is no rational reason. Sure, they are a perfect size, good quality and all of that, but it really is the essence (mojo) that we buy them for.
I’ve already mentioned the cheese, but what about the chocolate? Holy Toledo, the chocolate! Now, Suw Charman, the chocolat aficionado herself could probably add so much more to this conversation, but I was recently pointed to Noka Chocolate, who has a Grand Cru collection. [thanks Frank & Prophetess for pointing out that Noka is a luxury brand - expensive, but questionnable in quality - not a boutique brand.] when in New York over the holidays, we happened upon Vosges Haute Chocolate, where we drooled over chocolates tinged with paprika, wasabi and dulce de leche, settling on two truffles that cost us more than a latte each. !! Were they worth it? Well, it’s hard to say. Cadbury sure doesn’t make them like that.
Coffee is definitely one of those things that has, long ago, been turned into a craft. The ‘craft’ has also been commoditized, but each time, a new level of craft emerges. We really really heart Blue Bottle Coffee (many others here do, too). They make coffee like they mean it. They aren’t about speed or formula. In fact, the coffee tastes different each time. But it’s awesome. “Like crack,” is something I’ve heard repeated (by people who have never done crack, I suspect). Their little Linden Street location doesn’t really even have a place to sit. But there is almost always a line. And it’s a culture. Lots of people in Zipcars pull up there, too, consequently…hmmmmm. It’s an experience.
I certainly don’t want to create the air that the Boutique Era is about spending more, either. That’s not what it’s about. Sometimes you do and sometimes you don’t. Of course, higher quality materials and more personalized service will almost always come with a higher price.
Nor is it about creating something ’snobbish’ and exclusive. But once the products meet the mass consumption level, they will probably be aped and the price war and mass competition will begin, thus, leading to commodification.
I’ve only mentioned three brief examples here, but I’d love to hear more observations from you. What are the threads that you think may tie these together?
I’m putting together a commodity vs. craft list that I’ll be publishing in the next few days, too…
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Initially I thought you were asking for areas that have not yet reached a new level of craft and are thus filled with commoditization. Reading it again, I think I was mistaken (if not, please let me know).
One that immediately came to mind are hotels.
You have your standard Best Western that have a minor amount of service (about as little as they can get by with) and then you have a hotel like the Library Hotel (www.libraryhotel.com) that has definitely been crafted.
Another service type commodity vs. craft is the haircut industry.
You’ve got companies like GreatClips (terrible and total commodity) vs. companies like John Roberts.
Awesome, Nathan! I love boutique hotels.
Yeah…you could answer both ways, I guess…either which IS craft and which has yet to become craft.
If you haven’t seen etsy.com, this is the most wonderful version of ebay, ‘craft style’.
Rather than buying dull, mass produced stuff, you can fin tonnes of cool products from different ‘crafters’ on etsy.
And a lot of it is very, very affordable. So you’re right, the boutique generation is always about higher prices.
(I don’t work for them, btw, just love their site)
I’m really enjoying your posts on the boutique generation. It is THE way of the future.
Heres a couple
- beer - Creemore or Bass, (not Molsons or Labatts)
- Fisher Pens
- Macs or Thinkpads (depends who you are)
Threads?
- makes me feel good
- makes me feel unique amongst a group of like minded folks (figure that one out Tara)
- works really well for me
Just catching up on these interesting posts.
I think the consumer behavior you’re delving into here can largely be attributed to a growing identity motive among generations x, y, and i (for lack of better terms, about ages 14-40). People go out of their way to purchase certain goods - like moleskine notebooks - or buy cheese from specific vendors because it broadcasts something about who they are. This statement can be personal/internal, shared with a small audience (i.e. your standing order with the baristas at BlueBottle*), or broadcast broadly and intentionally (tricking out a facebook or myspace profile).
Additionally, Richard Florida presents an interesting analysis of how this same set is all about consuming “experiences,” in his book, The Rise of the Creative Class (recommended by yours truly).
*Wrapped up in this is of course the (established) trends of mass-customization and accessible luxury perhaps first brought to the fore by Starbucks.
I’ve got some more thoughts already written out on these topics somewhere and will try to go dig them up. . .
bigsanford … I don’t think this is a generational specific thing. As a Baby Boomer Brit, we had Mini’s ( the real ones), and music. Those are no less …product that “delivers an experience” than anything else.
I’m a little puzzled by the pull away from commodity if it’s not about either expense or belonging to an exclusive club. If one of these products you admire became a mass-produced commodity but retained the innate qualities that make it good, would you cast it aside because it’s now mass-produced? If so, how can you say that it’s not about expense or exclusiveness? I’m not suggesting that there’s anything wrong with enjoying expensive things or wanting to belong to an exclusive club — I believe the latter is ingrained in us at very low levels — but I’m having trouble reconciling the appreciation you have for well-made things with what I take to be a disregard for mass production. If (and a big if, I’ll acknowledge) well-made things can be well-made on a larger scale, isn’t that better for everybody? If you like belonging to an exclusive club, it’s not.
I suppose that more than exclusivity per se, it’s about feeling catered to and in some way important (as evidenced by the fact that you’re being catered to). This is of course an appreciation of a sort of exclusivity, but it seems more benign than hollowly wanting to belong to the in-crowd.
It may be hokey, but I think the main reason people move from commodity products to craft products is because they want meaning in their lives. A mass-produced, cheap-as-hell notebook is meaningless and unimportant — the manufacturer and retailer let us know it’s unimportant. It makes the act of buying and using such a pad meaningless.
But crafted goods are instilled with meaning and value by the creator (or at least that’s the brand story). Somebody gave a shit enough about this coffee, beer, or notebook to do it the right way. And a coffee or beer or notebook done the right way _matters_.
It may not seem like it, but most of what people do all day is drink coffees or beers or write in notebooks. Knowing (or thinking) that their life’s activities are meaningful makes people happy.
Excuse me for raining on the parade of expensive designer goods, but the actual economic trend is toward massive consolidation. Energy, media/entertainment, telecom, you name it. The same people who put out NBC news also have a hand in nuclear weapons; how do you suppose that will color NBC’s coverage of a story about exporting nuclear technology to India?
Just because there are a few cool small businesses around in a few major cities (basically only San Francisco, New York, and maybe Chicago) doesn’t change the reality of that situation.
A big part of why people buy this stuff is so they can fit in with a certain crowd. That’s all.
I use Moleskine notebooks quite a bit, but I never went looking for one specifically. One day while on vacation, I stopped by a Borders to look for a small notebook where I could just jot down some thoughts.
All the other notebooks were too big, only the Moleskine ones fit in my back pocket easily and didn’t feel uncomfortable while sitting. Maybe Borders removed all other competing notebooks, but the Moleskine notebooks are worth the money IMO.
Curious what you and your readers think of Wallop and the like. Are “exclusive” social networks or boutique experiences born out of reseach labs and venture-funded companies, do they grow from the seed planted by a passionate craftperson, or is there something in between?
There is a fantastic book that is apparently out of print called Trading Up (amazon link is here: http://www.amazon.com/Trading-Up-Consumers-Goods-Companies/dp/B000EPFVAU/sr=1-4/qid=1169744461/ref=sr_1_4/102-7491128-3344943?ie=UTF8&s=books).
It talks about the trend towards luxury/boutique goods generally and has some great stories.
@ Colin: I don’t think Florida’s argument is that selling experiences rather than products is *limited* only to younger generations, just that it has emerged as a more defining characteristic. A classic Mini surely CAN provide an experience beyond the product itself and many people probably purchased them because it expressed something about their identity.
@Sanford - I not only read Florida’s book, but I was also one of the ‘Creative 100′ who were part of his Memphis Manifesto project back in, oh goodness, was it 2003? I quite liked his book, but it still goes towards a bit of snobbery…the new yuppie.
@Gina - I actually own Trading Up. That’s partially it, but I want to stay away from narrowly defining this as a trend towards just the luxury. It isn’t only luxury…although my examples would lean that way. I will dig deeper.
@Daryl - well, I suppose the difference between the mass produced and the smaller runs is exactly what BigSanford described:
“People go out of their way to purchase certain goods - like moleskine notebooks - or buy cheese from specific vendors because it broadcasts something about who they are. This statement can be personal/internal, shared with a small audience (i.e. your standing order with the baristas at BlueBottle*), or broadcast broadly and intentionally (tricking out a facebook or myspace profile).”
When goods are mass produced and show up everywhere, it becomes less of a form of self-expression and more of a ‘trend’. You lose that identification point with others. It’s kind of watered down.
@Warren Henning - ah…perhaps, but not on the consumer level. You are talking about the big business level of things. I don’t know if consumers even know that many of these things go on in the background, and, perhaps, subconsciously, this is why they are choosing local.
Oh…and it isn’t about luxury goods. Really. I’ll write another post with better “local” examples if people will give me some other than SF and Toronto (where things are expensive).
I so disagree about Moleskine - I buy them and have done so for years because they are better than the other “pads of paper” on the market and not for what people think about me. I am not alone in that and I would argue that is one of the reasons that the amateur Moleskinerie blog has just been bought by a design company.
@John - I think we can safely say that there are probably thousands of different reasons that people buy Moleskine. Yours is, obviously, very valid and VERY important to the experience of the product.
I’m not sure that we can Tara. Call me jaded, but we can overanalyse this stuff - even if people give a variety of explanations, I do wonder if they can’t be boiled down to a handful.
@miss rogue (#14): Building on what you point out here Tara, my other hypothesis is that if, for example, you’re in line at Starbucks and hear the person in front of you order the same “grande-extra-hot-3-pump-sugar-free-hazelnut-extra-dry-cappuccino” that you previously thought was YOUR drink, you may decide to modify your drink order (not necessarily on the spot, but perhaps in future visits) to reclaim some of the unique identity expression you just lost.
@John: It’s not necessarily that every purchase decision is explicitly made in an effort to guide what others think about us, but, as I described in my previous comment, may be about how you *personally* feel about that purchase and what it says about your identity to your own self. For you, using only the highest-quality goods may be important personally, and thus guide your decision to buy Moleskine. Do you identify with “best-quality” goods in other parts of your life? Or is does writing have a special place in how you view yourself?
@John - you should know better than to think I would ever boil anything about human motivations to a ‘handful’ of anything.
@bigsanford - ah, yes, but the mere act of being in Starbucks these days is a mark of shame for the more urban of the boutiquers.
Or…think of this scenario. The person in front of you orders their “grande-extra-hot-3-pump-sugar-free-hazelnut-extra-dry-cappuccino” and you stop, look deep into her eyes and realize you have found your soul-mate.
Tara, in a followup, you said: “You lose that identification point with others. It’s kind of watered down.” Doesn’t that equal “it’s not as exclusive and thus I want to move on to something that makes me feel exclusive and special again”? (That said, a limited circle of comrades is appealing; if you’re the only person who likes something, you’re a weirdo; if you’re one of a few, you’re the hip avant garde crowd.)
I’m not criticizing those who do this, incidentally. I certainly have similar leanings. I’d rather patronize a small brewery than buy a case of Bud, and there’s a largely undiscovered and cool pizza place here in Knoxville owned by a local guy who has dozens of pieces of Elvis memorabilia donated by patrons hanging on the walls. Yes, it all has something to do with broadcasting something about your identity; my argument is simply that at the root of it all, what one yearns to broadcast is “I’m different and special and know about these exclusive things that you didn’t know about.” Which when put that way sounds petty but which, as I said earlier, I think is pretty well ingrained in us.
@miss rogue: true and true. Substitute your boutique coffee purveyor of choice (which may even deepen the effect, given that you thought your choice of purveyor was itself unique).
This is, btw, precisely how i expect to find my soul-mate
@ miss rogue (#19) - I was not suggesting that you were suggesting that. I’m saying that I believe that functional excellence is the overwhelming motivator. Starbucks provided a superior coffee experience in terms of choice and environment than the majority of what went before. Now by dint of its success, it can’t (because it is the majority) and competitors can come along and provide something better.
@bigsanford (#18) No I don’t identify with high quality products per se nor do I hold writing to be a definer of my self. If there is a theme, it is that I despise mediocrity. I see Moleskine as things that do their job really well at a reasonable price - they dont fall apart and they fit in pockets smoothly. We all need to write from time to time and their products let me do that. I also use scraps of A4 if I expect to quickly dispose of the written information.
but check out the pretty ones:
http://katherding.com/2007/01/ooh-la-la.html
I was thinking about boutique’s and what it meant while I was in the shower this morning (I know, rather sad, but I suppose that’s what comes from being a business geek) and realized I had missed one that is right in front of me.
Rainbow Sandals.
Now, maybe I missed it in my entire lifetime in SC CA, but over here on the east coast, Rainbows are huge. Even given the wide popularity (if sandals can be warn, 90% chance they’ll be rainbows) I would say these are a craft. The level of quality, look, among many other things goes to show it.
I’d recommend reading the link you posted about Noka chocolates before saying anything positive about them. :>
Thanks Prophetess!
I was trying to recall who sent me that delicious link!
@Nathan - rainbow sandals? Have a link?
@Nathan,
I like your thinking, but I want to push back a little bit on Rainbows. We should be careful to distinguish between trends, fads, or even enduring style (Rainbows have been big in California for a long time now), and boutique. Many people still have an identification with their Rainbows, it’s true, but I’m not sure they capture the combination of customization and identification in both production and consumption that I suggest defines Boutique (of course this is just *my* definition)
@bigsanford: Thanks for the push back!
True enough about the caution that should be excercised with trends, fads (iPod at this point), and enduring style.
And I am sure they are still big in CA (that being their origination) although I find it ironic that I wasn’t made aware of them until I came to the east coast, and I am a beach frequenter (having lived 5 minutes from the beach when I lived in CA a few months ago).
At any rate, I would venture the questions based on what you said. With the longevity of Rainbows, is there a lifetime to boutique? What would make Rainbows become boutique? Different colors? Names imprinted? Adding a specialized or specially crafted shell into the strap? Likewise, what makes it not boutique? Popularity?
Keep in mind, I am raising these questions as a means to further/flesh out all of our understand of boutique.
To add to the comment by Prophetess about Noka chocolates: Noka is an interesting example to cite in the context of “boutique”. As the article you linked to notes, Noka essentially takes qood-quality mass-produced chocolate, adds fancy packaging and a “story”, and sells it for an outrageous markup, far beyond those typically associated with high-quality chocolates. In the terms discussed in your subsequent post “What Boutique Is: Part I”, it is not a boutique product but rather a luxury product: “quality varies”, “high/over-priced”, “bought for prestige”, “about status”.
To me Noka illustrates the dark side of products that have a “story”: that a story can be appealing and powerful (”former accountants find their passion in creating the world’s finest chocolates”) and at the same time essentially a lie. Noka Chocolates is to the true boutique experience as the Potemkin village was to true community.
While we’re speaking of chocolate and boutique products vs. commodities, it’s also worth noting that commodity products can in fact be quite appealing and worth seeking out. For example, the Lindt & Sprungli Excellence 85% bar (i.e., 85% cocoa) is sold in lots of ordinary grocery stores (including one near my house) and has no real “story” to speak of, but the chocolate enthusiast web site seventypercent.com rates it as the best of all the 85% bars. (I’ve tried it myself, and it’s quite good if you like extreme dark chocolate.)
Oh my…I guess I didn’t read their website correctly? I didn’t read through all of the subsequent pages…to realize that they are actually a LUXURY brand, not a boutique brand.
Thanks for pointing this out!
Wow u people have a lot of time on your hands. I’m going to get on my bike ($100, 7 years old) and go to the beach (free).
I picked up my first Moleskine notebook today. I’ve been impressed with others’ experiences of the quality and overall design of the product. After I got it home, I looked at the back label, and saw the following:
“Printed and bound in China - Designed and assembled in Italy.”
Sadly, despite the quality, I don’t think I’ll be buying another one.
Why not? I’m not the type of person who thinks it’s unpatriotic to buy foreign products. My issue with this is environmental more than economic (though economic factors are involved at one level or another) - how much fossil fuel is burned transporting these things around the world? I hesitate to ask the source of the wood pulp. Lots of people are worried about our dependence on foreign oil, and the issue of global warming and energy consumption, and I expect that group contains most Moleskine customers. At the risk of stereotyping, I’d venture a guess that Moleskine users as a group tend to recycle, and worry about fuel efficiency in their automobiles. But I have a feeling most of those people are oblivious to the embedded energy costs of a product that has traveled farther in its short life than many of us have.
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[...] Someday I will meet Tara Hunt and we will discuss this and this. But not before drinking these. I see this happening here. The only problem is what I will wear. [...]
[...] The original conversation started with this post laying out the rough idea of Boutique, which Tara followed up with a more solidified idea as well as a graphical cart comparing Luxury, Commodity, and Boutique. That conversation is still going on in the comments to a degree. I thought I would also say that when I initially heard Tara’s description of Boutique it reminded me of this post about ‘slow’ marketing. [...]
[...] It is said that Moleskine notebooks serve mainly to pose around in street cafés. Let’s just assume, they can also be used to scribble stuff into them. (Maybe even useful stuff, on rare occasions.) They are, after all, notepads. Or so Tara Hunt insists: truth be told, it’s a bloomin’ pad of paper. It doesn’t have any special pockets. It doesn’t make you more creative. It certainly won’t get you laid…strike that last one. It may. But seriously. We go out of our way to buy Moleskine Notebooks. Why? There is no rational reason. Sure, they are a perfect size, good quality and all of that, but it really is the essence (mojo) that we buy them for. [...]
[...] Side note: my friend Tara Hunt recently started a mini firestorm when she called a Moleskine a “bloomin’ pad of paper”. Tara, Moleskines are an acquired taste and… you obviously Just Don’t Get It. ; ) [...]
[...] Some people are getting my reference to boutique mixed up with luxury brands. Personally, I wouldn’t be caught dead with Louis Vuitton bag and I’m sure most Boutiquers wouldn’t be either. The difference, as the diagram suggests (and there are many more differences than I quickly plotted in this image) is the motivations for buying. I said, “Bought for connection” because, as Sanford commented in the previous posts comment section: [...]