Chatper 6 & 7: Case Study

The first chapter of this two-part story began with stressing the importance of staying true to the branding of your business. Gladwell used Airwalk shoes as an example of the decline of a business due to their switch it branding. He talked about how at first the shoes were almost custom designed to target certain groups of people. There were the “hipster” shoes sold at smaller stores and then “mainstream” shoes sold at larger corporations. This created a double market where they could reach two fairly large groups of customers. Because of this, the successes of their sales were great. However, the decline began when they started to come out with, essentially, one time of shoes that they sold to both markets. People valued their uniqueness and as such didn’t care much for a one-line shoe brand that now didn’t stand out much in the shoe industry. I think the bigger picture of this is that not only companies, but also people, need to stay true to their values. This goes into what the second case study was about. Gladwell talked about how teenagers will mimic the behaviors of people around them. In both cases, it’s about knowing your own beliefs and having the strength to back them when it really counts. Peer pressure and pressure the keep up with the market often times results in the loss of the factor that set you apart from everyone else. Being unique is attractive to a lot of people. It is viewed as almost brave to go against the grain in society and that is why so many people fall into conformity. If everyone acted the same and wanted the same things, the world would be a very dry place. There would be no scintillating conversation or heated debates. Everyone would agree and no one would stand up for “right and wrong”. It’s important to have diversity amongst peers as well as society because when all is said and done you want to have a head on your shoulders that has values that are so deep that even the thought of loosing them is enough to make you fight to keep them.