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Mel Ziegler: Surplus apparel required storytelling to sell

Mel Ziegler · Banana Republic: Mel and Patricia Ziegler · Aug 19, 2024 · at 28:03

Mel Ziegler, co-founder of Banana Republic, explains the foundational retail philosophy behind creating fictional narratives to market surplus garments.

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“We were only going to be able to sell these kinds of things if they had stories attached to them.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

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