Tell The Story, Make the Sale

Transcription

1 Tell The Story, Make the Sale Coco Chanel Before she changed the face of fashion with her haute couture dresses, sophisticated suits and luxury fragrances, Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel was a poor girl who came from humble beginnings. Orphaned at a young age, Chanel made a living as a simple seamstress and cabaret performer. She earned the nickname "Coco" after one of the nightly songs she performed for drunken soldiers. Her rags-to-riches story was widely unknown as her fame grew, Chanel kept her modest childhood a secret. Her transformative journey is revealed in Coco Before Chanel, a French film starring Audrey Tautou in limited release beginning Friday, September 25, "She was really quite a radical person," says Valerie Steele, director of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City and author of Women of Fashion. "She grew up very poor a kept woman who didn't want to just be somebody's mistress. She identified with wealthy men. She wanted to have the independence that they had." The classic black-and-white palette, menswear-inspired design and simple elegance of the Chanel revered today are what made her a rebel in the 1920s and 30s. "She rejected a lot of the feminine styles of her day and created a kind of androgynous style," Steele says. "In a way, she was the first female dandy, which I think is still very powerfully modern." The press could not get enough of her rebellious style. The Chanel brand thrived until economic depression and the outbreak of World War II caused her business to close in Chanel returned with a legendary fashion show in 1954, and in her 70s, she revived her brand to the influential status it holds to this day. Steele credits the lasting Chanel legacy to the fashion house's current head designer, Karl Lagerfeld, who brought the label up-to-date in "He started using different materials like denim; he started exaggerating different features like the buttons and the double Cs," Steele says. "In many ways, Chanel would probably be rolling over in her grave in horror. On the other hand, that was necessary to make it relevant. He has certainly been brilliant in staying with the Chanel DNA, but then giving it shocks to make it modern." As Chanel is often quoted, "Fashion passes, style remains." Even a woman who has never owned a Chanel piece is likely to have something inspired by the iconic designer. Nike Before there was the Swoosh, before there was Nike, there were two visionary men who pioneered a revolution in athletic footwear that redefined the industry. Bill Bowerman was a nationally respected track and field coach at the University of Oregon, who was constantly seeking ways to give his athletes a competitive advantage. He experimented with different track surfaces, re-hydration drinks and most importantly innovations in running shoes. But the established footwear manufacturers of the 1950s ignored the ideas he tried to offer them, so Bowerman began cobbling shoes for his runners. Phil Knight was a talented middle-distance runner from Portland, who enrolled at Oregon in the fall of 1955 and competed for Bowerman s track program. Upon graduating from Oregon, Knight earned his MBA in finance from Stanford University, where he wrote a paper that proposed quality running shoes could be manufactured in Japan that would compete with more established German brands. But his letters to manufacturers in Japan and Asia went unanswered, so Knight took a chance. He made a cold-call on the Onitsuka Co. in Kobe, Japan, and persuaded the manufacturer of Tiger shoes to make Knight a distributor of Tiger running shoes in the United States. When the first set of sample shoes

2 arrived, Knight sent several pairs to Bowerman, hoping to make a sale. Instead, Bowerman stunned Knight by offering to become his partner, and to provide his footwear design ideas to Tiger : Founded on a handshake, $500 and mutual trust. They shook hands to form Blue Ribbon Sports, pledged $500 each and placed their first order of 300 pairs of shoes in January Knight sold the shoes out of the trunk of his green Plymouth Valiant, while Bowerman began ripping apart Tiger shoes to see how he could make them lighter and better, and enlisted his University of Oregon runners to wear-test his creations. In essence, the foundation for what would become Nike had been established. But Bowerman and Knight each had full-time jobs - Bowerman at Oregon and Knight at a Portland accounting firm - so they needed someone to manage the growing requirements of Blue Ribbon Sports. Enter Jeff Johnson, whom Knight had met at Stanford. A runner himself, Johnson became the first full-time employee of Blue Ribbon Sports in 1965, and quickly became an invaluable utility man for the start-up company : The birth of the Nike brand, and company Johnson created the first product brochures, print ads and marketing materials, and even shot the photographs for the company s catalogues. He established a mail-order system, opened the first BRS retail store (located in Santa Monica, Calif.) and managed shipping/receiving. He also designed several early Nike shoes, and even conjured up the name Nike in Around this same time, the relationship between BRS and Onitsuka was falling apart. Knight and Bowerman were ready to make the jump from being a footwear distributor to designing and manufacturing their own brand of athletic shoes. They selected a brand mark today known internationally as the Swoosh, which was created by a graphic design student at Portland State University named Carolyn Davidson. The new Nike line of footwear debuted in 1972, in time for the U.S. Track & Field Trials, which were held in Eugene, Ore. One particular pair of shoes made a very different impression literally on the dozen or so runners who tried them. They featured a new innovation that Bowerman drew from his wife s waffle iron an outsole that had waffle-type nubs for traction but were lighter than traditional training shoes. With a new logo, a new name and a new design innovation, what BRS now needed was an athlete to endorse and elevate the new Nike line. Fittingly for the company founded by Oregonians, they found such a young man from the small coastal town of Coos Bay, Ore. His name: Steve Prefontaine. Prefontaine electrified the packed stands of Oregon s Hayward Field during his college career from 1969 to He never lost any race at his home track over the one-mile distance, and quickly gained national exposure thanks to cover stories on magazines like Sports Illustrated and his fourth-place finish in 1972 in the 5,000m in Munich. Pre challenged Bowerman, Johnson and BRS in general to stretch their creative talents. In turn, he became a powerful ambassador for BRS and Nike after he graduated from Oregon, making numerous appearances on behalf of BRS and sending pairs of Nike shoes to prospective runners along with personal notes of encouragement. His tragic death at age 24 in 1975 cut short what many believed would have been an unparalleled career in track at the time of his death, he held American records in seven distances from 2,000m to 10,000m. But Prefontaine s fiery spirit lives on within Nike; Knight has often said that Prefontaine is the soul of Nike : A decade of transition and rededication Nike entered the 1980s on a roll, thanks to the successful launch of Nike Air technology in the Tailwind running shoe in By the end of 1980, Nike completed its IPO and became a publicly traded company. This began a period of transition, where several of Nike s early pioneers decided to move on to other pursuits. Even Phil Knight stepped down as president for more than a year in , although he remained the chairman of the board and CEO. By the mid-1980s, Nike had slipped from its position as the industry leader, in part because the company had badly miscalculated on the aerobics boom, giving upstart competitors an almost completely open field to

3 develop the business. Fortunately, the debut of a new signature shoe for an NBA rookie by the name of Michael Jordan in 1985 helped bolster Nike s bottom line. In 1987, Nike readied a major product and marketing campaign designed to regain the industry lead and differentiate Nike from its competitors. The focal point was the Air Max, the first Nike footwear to feature Nike Air bags that were visible. The campaign was supported by a memorable TV ad whose soundtrack was the original Beatles recording of Revolution. A year later, Nike built on its momentum from the Revolution campaign by launching a broad yet empowering series of ads with the tagline Just do it. The series included three ads with a young two-sport athlete named Bo Jackson, who espoused the benefits of a new cross-training shoe. In 1989, Nike s cross-training business exploded, thanks in part to the incredibly popular Bo Knows ad campaign. By the end of the decade, Nike had regained its position as the industry leader, the first and only time a company in the athletic footwear/apparel industry has accomplished such a feat. Nike has never relinquished that position again : Nike extends its reach Buoyed by a series of successful product launches and marketing campaigns, Nike entered the 1990s by christening its beautiful world headquarters in suburban Portland, Oregon. In November of 1990, Portland became the first home to a new retail-as-theatre experience called Niketown, which would earn numerous architectural design and retail awards and spawn more than a dozen other Niketown locations around the USA and internationally. While Nike had designed footwear and apparel for golf and soccer for a number of years, the mid-1990s signaled a deepening commitment to truly excel in these sports. In 1994, Nike signed several individual players from what would be the World Cupwinning Brazilian National Team. In 1995, Nike signed the entire team, and began designing the team s distinctive uniform. Nike also signed the US men s and women s national soccer teams, as well as dozens of national teams around the world. In 1996, Nike Golf landed a vastly talented but as-yet-unproven young golfer named Eldrick Tiger Woods for a reported $5 million per year. Competitors laughed and critics howled at Nike s "folly," until Tiger won the 1997 Masters by a record 12 strokes Present: Leading a new generation Nike rang in the new millennium with a new footwear cushioning system called Nike Shox, which debuted during Sydney in The development of Nike Shox culminated more than 15 years of perseverance and dedication, as Nike designers stuck with their idea until technology could catch up. The result was a cushioning and stability system worthy of joining Nike Air as the industry s gold standard. Just as Nike s products have evolved, so has Nike s approach to marketing. The 2002 Secret Tournament campaign was Nike s first truly integrated, global marketing effort. Departing from the traditional big athlete, big ad, big product formula, Nike created a multi-faceted consumer experience in support of the World Cup. Secret Tournament incorporated advertising, the Internet, public relations, retail and consumer events to create excitement for Nike s soccer products and athletes in a way no single ad could ever achieve. This new integrated approach has become thecornerstone for Nike marketing and communications. Today, Nike continues to seek new and innovative ways to develop superior athletic products, and creative methods to communicate directly with our consumers. The company has continued to expand in new ways, including strong growth in China and a deal to become the official sponsor of the National Football League (NFL) beginning in President and CEO Mark Parker said: At NIKE, Inc. we run a complete offense, and it s based on a core commitment to innovation. That s how we stay opportunistic, serve the athlete, reward our shareholders, and continue to lead our industry. Oakley Who made these rules, anyway?

4 A mad scientist named Jim Jannard began questioning the limits of industry standards. No one believed my ideas, said Jim. No one would listen. In 1975, he went into business for himself. Jim started Oakley with $300 and the simple idea of making products that work better and look better than anything else out there. In his garage lab, Jim developed a new kind of motorcycle handgrip with a unique tread and a shape that fit the rider s closed hand. Everything in the world can and will be made better, Jim told skeptics, The only questions are, when and by whom? Top pros took notice of the new design and its material that actually increased grip with sweat. If you re going to do something, be brave and jump in, but do something meaningful. For Jim, that meant challenging the limits of conventional thinking. His homespun company was struggling yet his next invention would become a mainstay in MX racing for 17 years. Jim created the O Frame goggle with a lens curved in the perfect arc of a cylinder. Pros like Mark Barnett, Marty Smith, Johnny O Mara and Jeff Ward championed its clarity and wide peripheral view. I always knew we would succeed. That comes from believing in what you re doing, and striving to do it better than anyone thought possible. Jim went back to his lab and started reinventing sunglasses for sports. Few believed it could be done successfully, and most thought the industry s big companies could not be challenged. Jim used innovations from his previous inventions to create Eyeshades, a design that began an evolution of eyewear from generic accessory to vital equipment. The first world-class competitor to approach the company was Greg LeMond, who became a three-time winner of the Tour de France. Other pros like Scott Tinley and Mark Allen demanded the performance and protection offered by Eyeshades. Inventions wrapped in art. Oakley was founded on that idea, and it still defines us. Decades of innovation brought new product technologies, blends of science and art that have been awarded more than 600 patents worldwide. Today, Jannard s brand has become the mark of excellence and the solution to challenges facing those who cannot compromise on performance. Prada The Prada brand dates back to the beginning of the last century. In 1913, Mario Prada opened a luxury store in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, selling leather handbags, travelling trunks, leather accessories and beauty cases, luxury accessories and articles of value. Thanks to its exclusively designed goods, handcrafted using fine materials and sophisticated techniques, Prada rapidly became a point of reference for European aristocracy and the most elegant members of the haute-bourgeoisie in Europe. In 1919, PRADA became an official supplier to the Italian Royal Family. Over the years, the Prada name gained increasing renown and prestige. The Group saw a turning point in the development of its activities at the end of the Seventies, when Miuccia Prada, Mario's granddaughter, launched a partnership with Patrizio Bertelli, a Tuscan businessman already involved in the leather goods sector with Granello and Sir Robert. This partnership combined creativity and business ideas to commence a new era. In 1977, Patrizio Bertelli set up I.P.I. spa to consolidate the production resources that he had built up over the previous ten years, including those of Sir Robert and Granello. In the same year, I.P.I. spa obtained an exclusive license from Miuccia Prada to produce and distribute leather goods bearing the Prada brand name. In the following years, the activities of the two families were gradually brought together within a single Group and, in 2003, IPI spa was merged into PRADA spa.

5 In 1983, the Prada family opened a second store in the prestigious Via della Spiga in Milan. The new store showcased the new brand image as it blended traditional elements with a modern architectural setting and would represent a revolution and a benchmark for luxury retail. In response to the growing demand for and appreciation of Prada products, the range was extended from leather goods (such as bags, luggage and accessories) to include footwear, as well as men s and women s ready-to-wear apparel. From 1986, new stores were opened in New York and Madrid, followed by London, Paris and Tokyo. The first Prada womens wear fashion show was held in Milan in In 1993, Ms. Miuccia Prada s creative inspiration led to the establishment of a new brand Miu Miu designed for women who are particularly fashion-forward and interested in trendy and sophisticated fashion and lifestyle. Miu Miu now offers women s ready-to-wear, leather goods and shoes, and is an increasingly important component of our Group s sales.