Branding Moments: Lost In Translation in Beverly Hills!

When it comes to branding strategy, creating a mystery can sometimes work and be a point of attraction for one's target market.  Here is an example of a new brand we saw, that created a mystery for us. No doubt, plenty of creative thinking went into this, however for us (who live and breathe branding), this was lost in translation!!

This past Tuesday, we drove down to Beverly Hills for our monthly visit. After enjoying a cappucino, we decided to scope out the other side of the Golden Triangle to see what was new and interesting.  

Pictured above is a new large corner store painted dark gray. Was the dark gray mimicking the granite walls of El Capitan at Yosemite National Park? Is that why the store is named Y/OSEMITE!

We parked on Brighton Way side to get a closer look. Here is the Brighton Way side continuation Y/OSEMITE side of the store.  The fire engine red building with the black awning reveals the answer with an actual store front and a door to come in (pictured below). Now that red could not possibly refer to our National Park.  

It was hard to read what to expect within.  Pictured below is the answer to what Y/OSEMITE is selling.

Y/OSEMITE

JAMES PERSE PERFORMANCE BRAND

Jame Perse's new performance brand is what is being sold in this store.  Or simply put this is another name for a luxury athletic clothing brand!  We solved one mystery!  And if we were not students of brands, we would have simply moved on and not given a hoot about this store.  

We knew we would be leaving Beverly Hills before the store would open, so we checked out the website.  The clothing was nice comparable to Lululemon, and AloYoga in pricing.

When it comes to clothing, we both prefer window shopping, rather than walking into the dark unknown.  Although we both are fond of the mystery genre when it comes to books and movies, this approach left us cold.  We still don't know why Yosemite was chosen as a name.  And why was the letter Y separated with a forward slash from the rest of the word?   For us, this was definitely lost in translation in Beverly Hills!