Mickey Drexler, former CEO of Gap and J.Crew, explains his merchandising principle of calling products by standard consumer terms rather than convoluted internal jargon.
0:00 / 0:12exact quote · 12.6s
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“I like to name things that say what it is, and I go through this all the time, they confuse people. I said there's certain names that you know what it is.”
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AssertionNot checkable as stated
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AssertionNot checkable as stated
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AssertionPartly supported
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