Men making the same old New Year’s resolutions regarding sobriety, diet and/or relationships may wish to consider something different: a style upgrade.
Published: January, 2010
Men making the same old New Year’s resolutions regarding sobriety, diet and/or relationships may wish to consider something different: a style upgrade. Branding the Man: Why Men Are the Next Frontier in Fashion Retail (Random House/Allworth 2009) should be just the ticket to get you started. It’s also a great book for your next ferry commute.
Author Bertrand Pellegrin is the director of BP Consulting, a San Francisco-based boutique consulting firm specializing in retail development, strategic positioning and creative direction for global projects in brand design, architecture and business development. His book explores the evolution of masculine taste.
“Men are purchasing more clothes, shoes, health and beauty products and personal care services than ever before, yet the world of men’s retail has remained a kind of bug in amber, frozen in time, with the same century-old style of merchandising and selling,” writes Pellegrin. “To better attract this new wave of interested consumers, merchandisers and retailers must approach selling to this new man in a completely different manner.”
The design and branding of a man’s store ought to make men want to go shopping—and more importantly—dress like an adult once again. This is not a book just for consumers, however, and certainly not a how-to on developing a sartorial identity.
Pellegrin offers retailers, buyers and marketers strategic solutions to revolutionize men’s retail with some relatively simple conceptual strategies. If the male customer understands the need for style—that what is offered will provide a quantifiable change to his life—he will buy. The key, then, is to create the right combination of ambiance, service and merchandise to make that happen. Once the stage is set and the atmosphere established, the result is almost predictable: He will buy. Branding the Man comes down to a holistic approach to menswear retailing, focusing firmly on a richly textured experience that offers both the tangible and intangible.
“The customer discovers style in a place that simultaneously entertains and enlightens and that gives him a sense of community and self-confidence,” writes Pellegrin. “When he leaves, it is with a feeling of having been understood and valued. Will he want to return? In all probability, yes.”
All That Jazz
Jazz aficionados wishing to herald in the new year by supporting local musicians may wish to check out Coda, a new South-of-Market hotspot. Opened late last year, the supper club and lounge, located at 1710 Mission Street at Duboce Avenue, features some of the most innovative ensembles in the region. It also offers a la carte dining with American-Mediterranean cuisine.
And unlike some tamer jazz venues in the City, this place is for adults; it has become a late night destination for mature audiences. Members of the Jazz Mafia family perform every Tuesday night, and, unlike many of the families meeting during the last holiday season, they are a bunch of guys who really get along. Indeed, this tight ensemble represents some of the West Coast’s most talented bands and musicians, who describe themselves as “unique, sultry, and (ahem) DANGEROUS.”
Every Wednesday night, Coda is home to masters of the Hammond B3 organ. The series is built around the club’s vintage 1959 B3 organ—bought from a little old grandmother who’d kept it in pristine condition—and showcases the instrument by inviting the Bay Area’s brightest B3 players to work their magic.
