The old navy jeans the girl wore in the movie “The Blind Side”.
Or, simply, the way people think about a certain brand of jeans.
The term “old navy” is so overused that it’s even been adopted as a generic term for jeans. I think the term old navy comes from two different places. One is the idea that the brand has been around longer than the jeans and that the particular brand has a long history of quality and longevity. The other is the notion that the brand has been around for a while and therefore is more current than the jeans themselves.
It’s a little ironic that the brand that is so heavily associated with quality, longevity and style has the same generic term for jeans. It’s also a little ironic that the brand with a long history of quality and durability would also get the term old navy. But that’s the thing about branding: branding is all about your perception of the brand.
I think its important for a brand to be recognized and understood and for that to happen brands need to be seen as current and relevant and for that to happen they need to be known. For example, when I was younger I had a pair of jeans that were a decade or more older and so I can remember when the brand was still making a product that was still good. But now I know the name of the brand and its the same brand but it is a bit dated.
Branding is, in a way, a rebranding. If you want to change the brand recognition you need to change the perception of what the brand now means. Old jeans are no longer in the same category as jeans that are a decade old, but a brand that does not recognize the category of jeans worn in the past. Brands need to understand that they are part of a particular category and that it is important to them to bring their brand to the attention of the consumer.
In the case of jeans, we are now dealing with a brand that no longer recognizes the category of jeans, only the product. Branding is something most marketing departments do a good job of, but it is even more difficult to convince the consumer to actually change their perception of what something is.
It is in the best interest of a brand to understand their consumer base, because if brands don’t understand the consumer base they are not doing their job. But brands are going to have to learn to understand their consumer base if they are going to succeed in the future. It’s quite possible that the same thing could happen to a brand that has become obsessed with a certain type of product, one that would never wear the jeans that the brand’s logo resembles.
So the brand that is obsessed with an item or fashion style will have to learn to understand that the consumers will be able to recognize it and not like it. However, the brand that is obsessed with items or ideas that arent fashionable is going to be ok with that.
For example, the original brand that created the Gap jeans was probably as obsessed with its slogan as anyone else. It was a hipster brand that was always pushing the envelope and creating a lot of new fashion. It was a brand that was focused on making the jeans look as cool as possible, but also gave the consumers a lot of choices with the brand’s logo.
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