The Relevancy Read

Hot takes, early calls and astute observations, carefully curated.

A Sampling

The dupe culture wars.

May 15, 2023

Olives are the new athleisure.

Growing interest in homemaking and hosting gives food and home a promotion on the selling floor. With recent Manhattan outposts, retail destinations like Pop-Up Grocer, Big Night, and Snaxshot Bodega have garnered big buzz for aesthetically pleasing assortments of new-age pantry and home items. Tapping in, burgeoning influencer Emma Rose recently launched her first branded product, Emma’s Olives. With imagery and advertising perfectly catered to the glamorous occasion elevator, the olives are a far cry from the past few years of influencers turning into beauty and apparel brands. Put on your hostess hat (or apron) and mix up merchandising accordingly.

Brands buckle up to defeat dupe culture.

“Dupes,” now firmly in the cultural lexicon, are creating an existential crisis for brands as mass-produced counterfeit goods increase in quality, access, and acceptance. Brands have to get creative to distinguish themselves from knockoffs and convince customers to spend on the real thing. Lululemon hosted a “dupe swap” pop-up, offering a free pair of Align leggings to anyone who traded in fakes. In the luxury space, LVMH, Prada and Cartier have teamed up to create Aura Blockchain Consortium, a technology that will allow consumers to directly authenticate luxury products and ensure traceability in the circular market. It’s hard to tell what exactly will come in the battle of the dupes, but we think our fake friends will be winning for a while.

Have consumers officially been overserved?

While alcohol consumption has steadily risen since the pandemic, there’s a call to curb binge-drinking culture. Post-covid party energy inspired an espresso martini craze and now it’s all about the Aperol spritz, a measured cocktail that says, "I'm staying in control." Sober curious singles are “getting the ick” from potential mates who only want to get drinks for dates. Sober culture is so big, someone named a THC seltzer after it—Cali Sober. Along with rising support for alcohol taxes to reduce related deaths, these shifts indicate a collective effort to reel it in. Hospitality and retail will be wise to offer a lighter pour.

LimeWire is back, baby!

The file-sharing platform that rocked the music industry in the early 2000's is relaunching as a Web3 subscription service for community-building between artists and fans. The platform is funded by the community token LMWR, which raised more than $2 million within the first two hours of its release. Like Ty Haney’s Try Your Best model, LMWR token holders will gain early access to sales and unreleased media. Artists will be able to create music, artwork, and other content that can be owned by fans (aka NFTs), earning royalties whenever the content is resold or traded. Fans can subscribe to their favorite artists and become a part of their ‘community,’ giving artists recurring revenue. Artists can directly message and interact with their communities. Allowing artists and fans to own and distribute content will shift power structures within the entertainment industry—think: entities like Universal Music Group losing dominance and middlemen like Apple Music being cut out entirely.

Our furry friends are getting fancier.

The pet industry is booming with high-tech offerings and lavish services. Companion’s AI-powered robot can play, train, communicate, and health-monitor animals through an app. Fosterverse, a virtual world created by Pedigree, addresses the increasing demand for fostering pets by connecting potential foster parents with animals in need. K9 Jets taps into the pet travel market with luxurious and safe transportation options for pets and owners. Even established players like Petco are adapting offerings to address the distinct health and wellness requirements of pets and farm animals. With the rising loneliness epidemic, pets are as important as ever, as they provide companionship. Call The Co. to brainstorm how your brand or business can tap the market and become pet friendly. So many pawsibilities…