What:  An essay from a Forbes’ contributor on the value system leading brands to stop working with specific retailers and customers

Why it is important: This seemingly counter-intuitive move might reflect a shift in retail and the way brands (and retailers) might address their own audiences.

Patagonia is mentioned as an example of a company putting forward its value on top of its economic interest, as it announced it would not sell its products to certain companies (including B to B co-branded products with banks, for instance). The reason given at the time was that they would prioritize mission-driven companies instead of partnerships at any costs.

What was a bold move two years ago is now becoming more and more the norm for companies: the author mentions a competitor to Patagonia or a smaller backpack brand as companies that want to lead by example and be attractive by displaying the values they stand for.

Why is this important now? For years, brands defined themselves by their sales channels, with retailers answering to a clear segmentation. Things have changed: first, online sales disrupted the system and forced brands to reflect more on their self-definition, their “why”, second, segmentation between retailers became somehow blurry. Therefore, brands became aware that it was crucial for them to onboard their representative customers, wherever these were, instead of trying to sell a bit of everything to the maximum number of people. As a mirror effect, selling to the wrong partner, or to partners who do not explicitly share the same values as the brand, might prove counter-effective by damaging customers’ beliefs in the brand.

The author goes further by predicting that retailers might very well end up doing the same and only sell brands that meet their values and criteria. Is that farfetched? Tomorrow’s key for department stores is to create and nurture an audience, which might very well be achieved through clear and bold choices in terms of product offering.

Why Brands Like Patagonia (Sometimes) Kick Out Their Customers