The Brand Crush: Why Some Companies Are Just Dreamy

Some stores just strike you. It might be the experience in the store, the warm, fuzzy feeling of their corporate responsibility policies, the nostalgia of the brand, or just the products themselves. Millions of dollars have been put into studying how to make people fall in love with companies. We all know it. But something about certain companies just makes us want to blow all the rent money in an hour.

And with more than 10 million Facebook users becoming fans of brand pages each day, sharing one’s favorite brands is becoming more commonplace. It opens up a separate discussion of the alignment of oneself with the companies he or she endorses. Still, it’s fun to crush on brands. And which brands you fall in like/love with might surprise even yourself.

Take Anthropologie. I flirted with this store for about 45 minutes Saturday. And it’s not my type. I tend to shy away from overpriced stuff, but the atmosphere, the rustic-meets-victorian-meets-naturalist vibe is so appealing. The clothes, the displays, even the dressing rooms propel you out of the pedestrian mall you’re at and into some sort of dream state where you begin to fantasize about moving into a farmhouse and wearing wellies outside with big wool sweaters and skirts to feed chickens and coming inside to drink earl grey and read Walden and paint that old dresser and feed the wood stove and start a stew with the green beans you put up last year.

Ironic that the lifestyle it makes me dream about is so counter-intuitive to the $198 sweaters and $10 dresser pulls. Still, I love it, even though I’ve never spent a dime here. (I’m not the only ones who love it. Some are “Anthroholics”)

Barbour is another brand that extends beyond its jackets and hats. And thanks to its new ad, Jameson is quickly becoming one, too.

So every time I get a catalog or step into one of these stores every few months, it’s like getting a smile from a crush one day while standing at my locker. Sort of.

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