Supreme - Branding, how it's done.

Branding 

Supreme - How its done.

I have deliberately left this for my final blog as I know I’d have the most pleasure writing about this brand. Supreme is a brand that I have huge respects and desire for. In my eyes, and it terms of brands I have witnessed, Supreme play the role of a brand the best and most effective by far. They have a huge loyal following that don't only like their products, but worship the brand and support and stand by any move they make. 

Supreme 

Supreme was established in April 1994, originally as a skateboarding brand in New York. The brand was created by a guy called James Jebbia, who was born American but lived in England between the ages of 1 and 19. It was the gang of rebellious young, New York skaters and artists that became the store crew, staff and customers. The first Supreme store opened on Lafayette Street in downtown Manhattan. It was designed with skaters in mind, with a unique design on the store layout, the clothes arranged around the outside of the store with a large space in the middle. This meant that skaters with backpacks on could skate right into the store, and still feel comfortable. There are now other stores in Paris, London, Tokyo (Harajuku, Daikanyama & Shibuya), Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukuoka. These modern stores still try to imitate the original Lafayette street store design. Unlike other clothing brands, who release their new collections all at once, Supreme releases a small number of items at a time, typically five to fifteen. This "drop" occurs online and in store once every week on Thursdays at eleven in the morning (eastern US time). This strategy maintains the aura of "hype" that the brand creates. Their shoes, clothing, and accessories create a big secondary market for supreme clothing, because items are produced to a very limited quantity and also because there are only ten stores worldwide.Supreme has a line of collaborations with brands such as Nike, Air Jordan's, Vans, Clarks, The North Face,  Hanes, Playboy, Levi, Timberland,Commes des Garçons, Stone Island, UNDERCOVER, White Castle as well as many more. Fashion photographer Terry Richardson has produced some of the most notable pieces which include photographs of Michael Jordan, Kermit the Frog, Three Six Mafia, Lou Reed, Lady Gaga, Brandon Taylor, and Morrissey.

Target Market 

Supreme originally started off by targeting skaters. Every shop had areas for their customers to skate in, and the style of the clothes appealed to people who skated. Now they have broadened their market and Supreme is now bought by punk/hip hop heads, who are possibly seen as ‘hipsters’. Because their prices are so high, this makes it harder to poorer people to buy and makes the brand image more high end and wealthy. The standard Target market these days for Supreme would be ABC1, males slightly more than females, aged between 16 and 30. 

Effective Methods of Marketing 

As the brand grew, Supreme established itself as a brand known for quality, style and authenticity. Over the years, Supreme has worked with some of the worlds best designers, artists, photographers and musicians - who have all helped continue to design its unique identity and attitude. 

Supreme products have always been out there and controversial, using swear words, nudity, brutality, crude humour etc. This I feel appeals to their target audience effectively, but puts them at the top of the map as it gets the brand noticed.

Supreme have publicly used celebrities to help market their brand, by putting pictures of them on their clothing (mostly T-shirts), Supreme have used people like : Raekwon & Elmo (2005), Mike Tyson (2007), Kermit the Frog (2008), Lady Gaga (2011), Kate Moss (2012) and Neil Young (2015). As well as using celebrities for clothing, they also have publicly expressed certain celebrities who like the brand, wear the brand and buy the brand. People like Tyler the Creator, Kanye West and Skepta are people who make it clear they wear Supreme. By Supreme having this celebrity boost, it helps influences everyone to but the products as well. 

By using these effective methods to prove quality and following this has gathered Supreme a huge following and allows them to now charge significantly high prices for their products to allow only well off people to purchase and push the brand to a higher end street wear brand. 

Where Now? - Future Plans

Supreme seems to be a spontaneous brand that doesn't give much a way and likes to surprise it customers, so making predictions on what they could do next is very tricky. What I can put my trust in, is that Supreme will continue to collaborate with big well know, related brand and keep working with quirky/controversial celebrities. I believe that the following will expand more and more and Supreme will become as big over in the UK as it currently is in America.