Bailey McGuire

Willard

CMNS 324

Urban Outfitters is a unique lifestyle retailer that contains a funky mix of

merchandise for both home and wardrobe. They target young adults, men, and

women, that are considered to be metropolitan hipsters, that are creative and

tech-savvy, and have a funky and unique sense of style. They want it to seem like not

only a shop but also a place to live. For Urban Outfitters, the emphasis is on

creativity, and their goal is to offer a product assortment and an environment so

compelling and distinctive that the customer feels an empathetic connection to the

brand and is persuaded to buy. All of these descriptions point to a certain type of

person or lifestyle that someone might want to emulate. We see all of these ideas

being played out through their stores, advertisements, products, and website. In this

analysis, I will focus on Urban Outfitters as a whole and the products they sell, how

they are branded, and what this communicates in our culture.

Urban Outfitters was founded in 1970 by Richard Hayne and Scott Belair,

who opened their first store across the street from University of Pennsylvania. Its

first mission was to provide second-hand clothing, furniture, jewelry, and home

dcor for college-aged customers in a casual fun environment. They still target

young adults, but most of their products are no longer second hand. Urban

Outfitters now fills their stores with products designed by different companies, but

they have to fit Urban Outfitters brand to be selected. Charlie Woodlief in the Urban

Outfitters Cultural Contradiction essay puts it perfectly by stating, So the Urban

Outfitters brand must then be understood in a looser sense as both what they

produce themselves and what other products they choose to absorb into their

marketing image (Woodlief). This shows us that they are very particular in what

they select and what they want their business to say. This offers their customer a

chance to come into their store and see the lifestyle Urban Outfitters is trying to

emulate for their customer. This fits the idea of consumption constellation from J.B.

Twitchells, Branded Nation, where a customer might purchase one thing, and then

come back to the store to purchase more and more until they have achieved the

desired lifestyle. This is what makes a store like Urban Outfitters successful. Because

they carry all types of products, they can help fulfill their customers desired lifestyle

in almost every aspect of their lives.

By looking at the website, I see that they like to include clothing items, home

dcor products, jewelry, furniture, tech and music, and books that would be sold to a

hipster clientele. I also see a lot of niche products like mini cactus piatas,

inflatable drink holders for the pool, and adult onesies. Woodlief likes to describe

this as alternative and in a sense alternative to what drives America, which is

capitalism. Woodlief states, The Urban Outfitters contradiction is this: They had

this anti-commercial ideal and built a multi-national, publicly traded corporation

around it. Whats more, they employ the same negative marketing techniques as the

other multi-national corporations they pretend to define themselves against.

(Woodlief). They have a lot of paradigmatic images of great diversity on their

website, and they blog about things like underground musicians, going outside and

enjoying the fresh air, DIY projects, and Kombucha cocktails. They want to emulate
everything it means to be a hipster, but at the end of the day, they go against

everything a typical hipster would believe in, like being politically correct or

promoting obtainable beauty standards. They still advertise with girls, who are

extremely skinny, they just distract their customers with bohemian accessories. Like

Twitchell states in a Branded Nation, Branding in the nineteenth century became

the meaning-making motor of consumerism (Twitchell 3). He continues to say that

in the 20th-century branding evolved and started to enter the marketplace of

cultural values and beliefs, and this is exactly what Urban Outfitters is engaging in.

They also have interesting ways of promoting their brand. On their website, they use

their blog as an excellent way to brand themselves and push products along with

this. Another important point that Twitchell makes in his article is that In the

modern world almost all consumer goods are marketed via stories (Twitchell 4).

This is why their blog helps produce a significant number of sales. They include

stories of underground musicians and then sell their music through their website.

The also use Thorstein Veblens idea of pecuniary emulation, the desire to emulate

the material markings of wealth, by including blog interviews with celebrities, like

the rapper Lil Yatchty that is currently on their website. They tell details about his

latest shoot for Urban Outfitters for the exclusive Nautica + UO Collection. The

rapper gives details about things he likes, like music and style, and they go into

detail on why he loves vintage Nautica. This is the perfect way to use a story and

celebrity to sell a product. The pecuniary emulation makes the customer want to

strive to be like this famous rapper and communicate the same markings as him,

and this is possible through Urban Outfitters.

 Next, I will look at the images from the Urban Outfitters Fall 2011 catalog and

do a semiotic analysis. I looked at a range of images from this catalog, and they all

contained a strong range of paradigmatic elements and symbols of the hipster

lifestyle. We see young adults in outside urban areas, or inside what looks to be a

city apartment. There is a clear tone and color scheme that we see throughout the

images. They contain a lot of muted neutrals and earth tones. This appeals to young

adults because it creates a carefree or loose aesthetic. We see images out a carefree

attitude throughout this catalog with images of girls laying in the grass or sitting on

a curb with their legs straight out, head thrown back, and eyes closed. We also see

images of people with stickers all over their face. In one image they are laying in bed

with straight faces, and in the other, they look to be playing the piano with their

fingers while their eyes are closed. This also shows the carefree lifestyle they are

trying to promote and it is saying to its audience that it doesnt matter how weird or

spontaneous you want to be, you are accepted because this is seen as something

cool or trendy to take part in. These pictures are taken in low-end landscapes

with scrapes of wood laying around and overgrown grass. This is how Urban

Outfitters attempts to sell high-end expensive products, surrounded by a low-end

landscape. This exposes the exchange value, an idea from Jean Baudrillards The

Ideological Genesis of Needs, of their products because they want to sell this lowlife,

carefree lifestyle but selling it at a high price. So they are selling the fact that you

need high-end products do that you can live this carefree, cool lifestyle. The last

picture is one that emulates the whole Urban Outfitters lifestyle together as one. We

see a girl sitting on an army green couch, playing the bongo drums, with her feet up
on the table. In this apartment, there are big green plants, textured carpets, pillows,

tapestries, and blankets. There is also a bicycle, a keyboard, guitars, and all different

types of decorations; all of this you can find in Urban Outfitters. This photo would

connect with their target demographic exactly and shows you that you can

accomplish this by shopping at one store only, Urban Outfitters. This photo also

shows the sign value of all these products. Baudrillard explains, The signed object

is neither given nor exchanged: it is appropriated, withheld and manipulated by

individual subjects as a sign, that is, as coded difference. (Baudrillard 59). So we see

that sign value describes the value according to the object because of the social

status that it gives its possessor. We see this taking place in the last image because

we see this girl embodying the Urban Outfitters lifestyle as a whole, and it gives her

the social status as someone who is cool and trendy.

The hipster lifestyle is a lifestyle that promotes trendy clothing and

accessories, and this is what makes individuals constantly feel the need to consume.

Everyday something in the hipster community is going to change or become more

popular, and to have the correct hipster markings, Urban Outfitters, and other

hipster retailers are going to make you feel like you need these items. This is what

creates things like the Thorstein Veblens idea of a positional treadmill. You want

to keep marking yourself with goods that create a particular status for you. This

creates chronic dissatisfaction if peoples live because you will constantly need to

keep marking yourself with different products, it will never end.

In conclusion, Urban Outfitters does a great job of creating the hipster

lifestyle in one store, causing people to want to upgrade their lives in every aspect
and using this store as a one-stop shop to accomplish this. Urban Outfitters brand

attempts to bring together this hipster community but ultimately only brainwashes

people to feel like they continuously need to strive for this lifestyle. This business

has a clear message of carefree hipsters, and this is what makes people want to

embody this lifestyle. All in all, as a shopper of Urban Outfitters, you feel like you are

expressing your differences, but in actuality, this is seen as the new normal.

Bibliography

Baurdrillard, Jean. "The Ideological Genesis of Needs." The Consumer Society Reader. By Juliet Schor
and Douglas B. Holt. New York, NY: New, 2000. N. pag. Print.

Twitchell, James B. "Branding 101." Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch, College, Inc., and
Museumworld. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. N. pag. Print.

Veblen, Thornstein. "Conspicuous Consumption." The Consumer Society Reader. By Juliet Schor and
Douglas B. Holt. New York, NY: New, 2000. N. pag. Print.

Woodlief, Charlie. "WOODLIEF: The Urban Outfitters Cultural Contradiction."University

Wire Oct 23 2013 ProQuest. 18 Nov. 2016 .