Van Heusen, Dressing For Brand Success

Van Heusen roots go back well over a century. Innovation and insight having played a large role in it's continuing success starting g with its self-folding collar in 1929. Today the company owns and distributes many of the top selling world brands such as Calvin Klein, Geoffrey Beene, and IZOD to name a few.

Unlike many fashion brands Van Heusen has not built their success on a legacy of creative advertising. No break-out marketing efforts from this company. Their success can be tracked to retail marketing at the store level. Van Heusen has allowed the department stores to promote their brand through their own sales promotions. You know the brand because you know the department store brand as well.

Even in it's infancy, innovation was the key to moving the brand forward catching the eye of the consumer. Its brand image is middle of the road appeal with a touch of fashion to sweeten the offer. The Van Heusen website is just slick enough to portray a quality image without alienating men who really are a little uncomfortable with fashion. Van Heusen is a practical alternative to trendy or high fashion brands who sell with provocative sex appeal. This brand personality is reflected in their current product innovations positioned to differentiate them. One is the whitest shirt in the industry and a line of shirts with detachable cuffs and collars.

Building on their keen understanding at the shop floor level Van Heusen has taken to giving many of its exclusive locations a makeover and embracing relationship marketing as a way to draw its consumers into a stronger relationship. A customer who loves the brand is also an advocate of the brand. They have even taken to having coffee events at stores where good customers are drawn in for a meet and greet of sorts. These initiatives provides Van Heusen with valuable consumer feedback on its redesign and display changes. To encourage easier browsing, garments are no longer stacked but hung. Collections will now have a concerted display to help consumers coordinate their choices.

As you can see, legacy brands like Van Heusen don't get that way from following other fashion brands but by stepping out and leading the way. By identifying how their audience reacts to their products and how they want to be serviced, Van Heusen continues to retain its brand equity without losing it's focus. From every touch point, their consumer experience is the key in their positioning strategy. Van Heusen intimately understands its audience and continually refreshes it's brand to maintain that loyalty. Staying relevant within its department store distributor family is also important to the overall success of Van Heusen.

Everything in tandem makes a fantastic case history of the success of as true legacy brand.
Van Heusen roots go back well over a century. Innovation and insight having played a large role in it's continuing success starting with it's self-folding collar in 1929. Today the company owns and distributes many of the top selling world brands such as Calvin Klein, Geoffrey Beene and IZOD to name a few.

Unlike many fashion brands Van Heusen have not built their success on a history of creative advertising. No break-out marketing efforts from this company. Their success can be tracked to retail marketing at the store level. Van Heusen has allowed the department stores to promote their brand through their own sales promotions. You know the brand because you know the department store brand as well.

Even in it's infancy, innovation were key to moving the brand forward catching the eye of the consumer. It's brand image has middle of the road appeal with a touch of fashion to sweeten the offer. The Van Heusen website is just slick enough to portray a quality image without alienating men who really are a little uncomfortable with fashion. Van Heusen is a practical alternative to trendy or high fashion brands who sell with provocative sex appeal. This brand's personality is reflected in their current product innovations positioned to differentiate them. One is the whitest shirt in the industry and also a line of shirts with detachable cuffs and collars.

Building on their keen understanding on the store floor, Van Heusen has taken to giving many of it's exclusive locations a makeover and embracing relationship marketing as a way to draw it's consumers into a stronger relationship. A customer who loves the brand is also an advocate for the brand. They have even taken to having coffee events at stores where good customers are drawn in for a meet and greet of sorts. These initiatives gives Van Heusen valuable consumer feedback on its redesign and display changes, as well as it's latest collections. To encourage easier browsing, garments are no longer stacked but hung. Collections will now have a concerted display to help consumers coordinate their choices.

As you can see, legacy brands like Van Heusen don't get that way from following other fashion brands but by stepping out and leading the way. By identifying how their audience reacts to their products and how they want to be serviced, Van Heusen continues to retain it's brand equity without losing it's focus. From every touch point, their consumer experience is key in their positioning strategy. Van Heusen intimately understands its audience and continually refreshes it's brand to maintain that loyalty. Staying relevant within its department store distributor family is also important to the overall success of Van Heusen.

If you want to better understand how to encourage your customers to become an advocate for your brand, you might consider studying the efforts of a legacy brand like Van Heusen.