That Fenty umbrella...ella | Fenty Beauty
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Ana Andjelic: “Entrepreneurial Rihanna is having a moment. And strange as it might sound, it’s got zero to do with her music.”

It’s true that social media makes it easier than ever to attract an audience and build wide reach. But remember: The barriers to entry are also incredibly low, and the floor is littered with the bones of far too many short-lived celeb endeavors to count. A myopic focus on social media as the only growth explanation ignores the complex web of factors that help to explain the rise and prominence of the Fenty brand collective.

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Ushering in the new brand of entrepreneurship – with steely eyed resolve | Act + Acre
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Ana Andjelic: “How new botanical haircare brand Act + Acre represents a model for the future of entrepreneurship.”

Struggle porn and getting rich quick are no longer part of the responsible narrative. Instead of just being businesses, emerging companies must find a way to weave themselves into the fabric of society and culture. A new kind of entrepreneurship is looming, built around a “when you do well, we do well” sensibility.

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Outlier is one of the most values-driven brands on the market today | Maekan
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Ana Andjelic: How Everlane, Outlier, and Patagonia are tapping into the ‘social activewear’ phenomenon.

Brands are proposing new ideas to society through fabric, and answering the new consumer desire to signal a shared belief system through luxury goods and clothing. Rather than being about logos and individual status signaling, social activewear is about identifying with the collective.

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Off-White's infamous red ripcord tag | Off-White
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Ana Andjelic: Off-White, Vetements, and the rise of the fashion trolls.

We live in a socio-political climate of anxiety. But what fends it off is having a clear identity of your own. IKEA does IKEA just fine. So does DHL. And so does the inner label on my jacket – without clever quotes.

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Ana Andjelic holds court on stage | Netlife
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Ana Andjelic: Why visceral storytelling is the next brand-building territory.

Symbolic and visceral, smell is a powerful brand language that convincingly conveys identity and differentiation. It creates a direct, tangible connection between a brand and its consumers.

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Ana Andjelic, Jen Rubio, Jessica Graves, and Colin Nagy; Northside Festival panel | Colin Nagy
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Ana Andjelic: The dark side of the direct-to-consumer brand experience.

For every new brand that takes the long view on customer service (fixing a broken product even if it’s the customer’s fault), there are countless more where the customer relationship ends at the moment of sale.

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Goop, for one, has flourished by thinking customer-first | Goop 
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Ana Andjelic: Legacy retailers define strategy in competitive terms. Retail upstarts define it in terms of their customer.

To successfully compete in today’s customer-first context, retailers have to start thinking beyond incremental innovation. They must become comfortable with new models that cannibalize their business as it is right now.

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The Matches Fashion team serves as a perfect case study here | Matchesfashion.com
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Ana Andjelic – Rethinking luxury’s technology gameplan.

Longstanding luxury brands tend to treat technology as a marketing play or a value-add that sits on top of their business models – rather than harnessing technology to actually transform their businesses. Ana Andjelic’s argument: It’s a terrible approach. (652 words)

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Everyone's chasing hygge now | Pete Gamlen
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Ana Andjelic: Ironically, the ‘slowness’ movement shows no signs of slowing down.

Being unplugged has become a status symbol. We’re increasingly accumulating simple (pre-Internet) pleasures in place of actual goods. (566 words)

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Warby Parker flagship in SoHo NYC | Photo credit: Warby Parker
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Why the store of the future actually doesn’t want to sell you anything.

Warby Parker, Bonobos, and Kit and Ace have turned their stores into gathering places and social hubs. For them, stores are no longer strictly transactional.

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