Signature products

What they are, why they matter, and how to develop them

Every brand worth its mettle has a signature product or a few. Birkin and Kelly bags are Hermès’, Double Flap and No5 are Chanel’s, Saddle Bag is Dior’s, Phantom is Celine’s, Polo is Ralph Lauren’s, Big Mac is McDonald’s.

These products are the purest distillation of their respective brands. They embody their spirit, and are what these brand are known for and widely recognized by.

In general, signature products are the building blocks for a brand’s seasonal collections, capsules, and archival re-releases. They are also the filter through which a brand interprets seasonal fashion trends and makes them its own.

It is in a brand’s interest - in the saturated visual culture - to put its marketing energy, visual merchandising and store experience, aesthetic rhythms on social media, merchandising strategy and channel planning and budget allocation behind its signature products. It is a visual equivalent of having a consistent a point of view.

Repetition ensures that a brand stands for something in consumers’ minds. There is an expectation, and with this expectation, there is an audience, regardless of the season or a trend. That is a brand.

With the audience, there is revenue. Consumers know what a brand offers( they come to brand for it. Year round, there is a predictable demand for signature products that doesn’t change with weather, trends and social, economic, and cultural currents. It allows a company to plan its revenue.

Signature products are a bedrock of retain brand and business, yet brands too often get lost in the avalanche of SKUs and easy wins of discounts and trend chasing.

Now, inagine if a brand wanted to be known for its suit.

Fashion direction for this signature product would, for example, revolve around Urban Sport. The suit would be put together and comfortable, and made for movement: from one meeting to another, from work to dinner, from city to the country road. Beloved by the country folk and the urban crowd, the suit would be equally metropolitan and practical, tailored and relaxed, unconstructed and confident.

Once a brand established the fashion direction for its suit as one of its signature products, the design team would move onto product description.

Product description: The suit is adjustable in soft knits, unisex styling, single-breasted jacket with classic straight-leg pull-on pant. It features unexpected functional and brand details.

Then, the team would define the design direction. This design direction would vary depending on whether the signature product exists as a Hero, Collection, or Foundation part of the product pyramid (these three parts of the product pyramid