Brands are obsessed with appearing cool; therefore, they capture and mine youth

Brands use aggressive tactics to expand 
their market share and crush competition.
There are very few towns in America that don’t 
have a Wal-Mart or Starbucks. In the past few 
decades, these incredibly successful firms have 
grown spectacularly quickly. In 1986, Starbucks 
had only a few cafes in Seattle; by 1999, they 
had over 1,900 stores across the globe.
The fantastic success of such brands largely 
stems from aggressive business models that 
allow them to capture huge swathes of the 
market and ruthlessly eradicate rivals. The 
business models of major brands almost always 
depend heavily on economies of scale but differ 
in their approaches to expansion, depending on 
their particular market.
For example, The Wal-Mart Model relies on two 
principles: price and size. Huge stores are built 
on cheap land on the outskirts of urban centers 
and filled to the brim with stock. The sheer 
volume of goods purchased forces suppliers to 
drastically lower their prices, and the products 
can then be sold to consumers for much less, 
forcing competitors out of business.
Clustering, the method favored by Starbucks, is 
when a brand swamps an area with clusters of 
its stores. The aim is to saturate the market to 
the extent that even the brand’s own stores take 
customers from each other. Huge companies 
can afford to take losses in some stores, 
whereas independents and smaller companies 
cannot.
The Branded Superstore is popular with high-
end brands like Diesel and Tommy Hilfiger. 
Brands build huge flagship stores on prime 
locations in the centers of towns. These are part-

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store, 
part-theme-park 
and 
100% 
advertisements for the brand. They often 
operate at a loss but provide celebrity exposure 
to the brand, hence entrenching it in the 
consumer’s mind.
Brands use aggressive tactics to expand their 
market share and crush competition.