The Branding Genius of ALDI’s Streetwear Collection
Supermarket chain ALDI is currently giving a masterclass in how to leverage distinctive brand assets beyond your category to create a high impact campaign. How? The answer is pretty simple, but they’re calling it ALDImania…
The cost of living crisis has forced many of us to make sacrifices.
Sacrifices like switching from buying Pringles to ‘Stackers’, Weet Bix to ‘Wheat Biscuits’ and Nutella to ‘Nutino’.
Those who race the cashiers there every week will be familiar with those cheeky rip of brand names. For the Monopoly men reading who still shop at Woolworths or Coles (you might as well be on another planet), I’m talking about Aldi.
The German headquartered grocery chain drew an extra 4% of customers into their stores in 2023 in response to the cost of living crisis. Their stable prices, narrower product range and fun-packed middle aisles make it just worth having your cheese lobbed at your face while you scramble to pack your reusable bags.
Capitalising on the influx of customers and their cult like brand status, Aldi is releasing a streetwear collection.
The ALDImania collection (no points for the crap name) includes 23 pieces of Aldi branded swag- sweatshirts, slides, sneakers, socks, hats, t-shirts and more.
And it’s branding genius.
Why?
Because they’re utilising distinctive brand assets, leveraging novelty and pricing the range perfectly, to bring the brand into their consumers’ every day life.
What is a distinctive brand asset?
Defined by Ehrenberg-Bassm distinctive brand assets are non-name elements that make you think of a certain brand. These can be symbols, images, characters, colours, shapes, typefaces, words, rituals or sounds.
Aldi is using their colours and stripe motif on streetwear to carry their distinctive assets beyond their stores and their realm of predictable goods.
Leveraging novelty is key here. You expect to see the Aldi logo on a reusable cooler bag, not so much on a pair of slides.
The range is also functional, (unlike the bizarre Supreme brick) and turns customers into more than advocates, literal walking billboards.
The element that seals the deal on this range though is price, with everything in the collection priced below $20. Low enough to write off a silly splurge. Perfect for their target audience.
IKEA gave a masterclass in this a few years back with their KNORVA Bucket Hat using the same material as one of their key distinctive brand assets- the FRAKTA blue bag.
Priced at under $5, the hat was an instant best seller. The product dropped after the emergence of bucket hats on fashion runways so was on trend, novel, with a touch of humour to it thanks to IKEA’s very cute, totally IKEA description on heir website: Hat. Easy to take with you.
What can smaller brands learn from socks and bucket hats?
Consistency is key. Distinctive brand assets can take time to become distinctive. Mastercard dropped its brand name from its logo in 2019 following 50 years of reinforcing its brandmark.
Most distinctive brand assets fail. A study revealed that less than one in 5 brand assets are truly distinctive. The best assets aren’t used in isolation. Picture the McDonald’s logo. Can you see the animation of the M, hear the jingle, read the words ‘I’m lovin’ it’? Picture the colour Tiffany blue. You can’t see it without also the serifed logo font, the white ribbon and the neat little box! You need multiple assets working together, and to choose the best one for the job every time you create marketing material.
Novelty is a powerful selling point, just be careful to keep things aligned. Colgate branched out into… frozen food which, unsurprisingly, flopped. Why? Because the public’s association of the Colgate name with toothpaste and oral care was so strong that the foray into a new category simply confused consumers. Before developing a new product, or a merch line, it’s crucial to do your homework to understand your audience and their perceptions.
