Why Do Fashion Ads All Look Alike?

As Christmas approaches and gift giving is on our mind, I've been paying a little more attention to the perfume, cosmetic and jewelry ads that dominate all the women's fashion magazines.  You know the ads I'm talking about.  The ones that feature the world's highest priced models (or major Hollywood stars) photographed by the world's most expensive photographers advertising the world's most overpriced women's products.

These ads follow a different school of thought about marketing and brand positioning than all of us non-fashion marketers have been trained to believe in.  The main thing that always strikes me is that in the world of fashion marketing, it is OK for your ads to look the same (practically identical) to your competition's ads.  It's not only OK, it seems to be a requirement.

Is this simply something that's just accepted dogma in the world of fashion marketing or is it something that they know for a fact actually works for them?

Before writing this entry, I opened up the December issue of Vogue to find some examples of what I mean.  Spread before me are perfume ads from Estee Lauder, Dior, Dolce Gabbana and Versace.  These ads have virtually identical layouts.  I really mean IDENTICAL.  Not only are the layouts all the same, but none of the ads have anything remotely approaching "an idea."  Each ad is "pretty face (come hither look) , big bottle, logo."  No headlines, no copy, no ideas.  

In any other marketing category (with the possible exception of automotive where almost all of the print ads look like the same art director put them together, too) having a print campaign that was identical to a competitor's campaign would be considered a problem.  Not in the world of fashion.  I wonder why.

Don't the same laws of marketing apply to these products?  Isn't it just as important to stand out in the world of fashion and have a unique identity that differentiates your brand from those you compete with?  Isn't it just as important to have a campaign concept with an idea behind it? A pretty super model simply isn't an idea.  

I think most fashion marketers are guilty of assuming that just because their super model and their perfume bottle is different from the competition's super model and bottle that consumers will see the difference between the brands.  

Maybe women who read the fashion magazines religiously understand and appreciate the subtle brand differentiation that is in these ads.  However, my hunch is that they don't and that most fashion marketers are kidding themselves.  I recommend that they wake up and smell the perfume. What they're doing now strikes me as marketing insanity.