Archive for 22 February, 2008
Teeing up Howies
We quickly got round to talking about Howies at last night’s Northern Planners in Manchester. First off Andrew confessed to buying the majority of his wardrobe from them. Then there were lots of positive comments about how the strength of the brand hadn’t really been diluted by Timberland buying them. The overall consensus was that Howies was a very cool and credible brand.
But I had to butt in with the observation that I know several 30something blokes in Howies’ target audience that consider the brand to be worn by “poncy left wing tree huggers” and wouldn’t be seen dead in it.
Now you could argue that the whole point of a cool brand is that it only appeals to a certain niche audience, but my overnight view is that its all very well appealing to the Coolerati, but if the affluent mainstream doesn’t understand your brand, you’re precluding growth.
