I remember being a little girl and being in complete awe of the Coach store window. The Coach brand oozed class and status with its leather handcrafted bags and classic timeless designs. Back in the early 2000s, coach was dominating the accessory industry. However, by 2013 you could walk into just about any thrift shop and find an array of Coach purses for pennies compared to their selling price. The downfall of a business usually stems from poor management, which has been noticed by the company and kick started a company reset.
One of the main issues that the company noticed was that they tried to expand too hard too fast. In the mid 2000s they changed from their classic designs and tried to branch out into multiple colours and fabrics. This decreased the quality of the bags and gave an almost tacky look. Andre Cohen, one of the presidents of the company states that the bran became “a bit overexposed” and “a bit too heavily distributed” in the last few years. Coach’s value proposition has always been to market to woman of status, reflected by their high prices and attention to detail. By this decline in sophistication, it depletes their points of difference and makes it harder for them to stand out in the consumers mind in a sea of accessory brands.
The brand reset began in mid 2014 when they hired new creative director Stuart Vevers, who has also worked for Givenchy, Mulberry and Louis Vuitton. This gave the company a blank slate for creativity and new leadership to change the old habits of operation. As a part of this brand reset they are renaming themselves “Tapestry”, and they have recently purchased both Kate Spade, and Stuart Weitzman. This creates a versatile brand that markets to a far larger range of consumer segments. Coach has always branded itself towards mature middle-aged woman, while Kate Spade sells handbags and wallets to a younger target audience. Combined with the Stuart Weitzman brand selling shoes they are becoming the triple threat.
In our readings for week 8 we learned about the positioning and the power of a name. I think by renaming the brand ‘Tapestry’ they are giving themselves a true fresh start and leaning away from any negative connotations or preconceived notions that the consumer may already have about Coach. The acquisition of Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman is also a step in the right direction as they are now able to sell their product to majority of age groups of woman in the higher-class sector. I also believe that coach can continue to grow as a company under this new leadership, sometimes all a weak team needs is a new “coach”.
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