Calvin Klein Still Thrives on Sexy: CMO
Sex is one of the words most often associated with the Calvin Klein brand every since a 15-year-old Brooke Shields said there was “nothing” between her and her Calvins.
All these years—and many controversies later—sexy still works for the brand.
“It’s sexy but also approachable,” Melisa Goldie, CMO, Calvin Klein, said yesterday at the ANA Masters of Marketing Conference. “It appeals to the masses. It’s luxury. It’s high fashion. It’s highly practical. But you better have something that matters to say. Something provocative. Something disruptive.”
She outlined four “brand truths” that make Calvin’s marketing work.
- Dance with controversy. “This means being provocative and willing to accept the controversy that comes along for the ride. It means you’re connecting with people. If you’re relevant, modern and interesting you’ll have high ROI. Being provocative is how you get innovators to start engaging with the brand,” she said.
Leverage tension. Leveraging tension is how Calvin Klein has been powered.
“Tension and debate must be part of creative process, otherwise it’s not as good as it could be,” Goldie said. “If there are opposing points of view you will always get the attention of early adopters.”
She said Nike leverages tension between who you want to be and the couch. Dove leverages self-doubt and a truer sense of beauty. When Calvin Klein introduced Kate Moss in an ad with Marky Mark the contrast of innocent and bad boy raised the sexual tension meter.
“It’s Calvin Klein’s unique ability to leverage tension for almost five decades,” the CMO said. “We leverage tension to engage early adopters. Now, we need to reach the masses.”
- Seek simplicity. Another of the words most often used to describe Calvin Klein is modern, she said.
“In seeking simplicity you need to know where you’re going and why?” she said. “For a brand to work it must have a simple test: ask a simple question. Why would anyone care?
- Embrace the Culture. At the beginning of 2014, Calvin Klein launched the #mycalvin campaign based on all four brands truths. It created tens of thousands of brand evangelists. Calvin Kllein shipped 2 million packages of modern cotton underwear. For 2016, the brand projections are seven times that.
“Today culture happens digital first,” Goldie said. “You have to be looking at culture through a digital lens for the earliest signs of change. Then decide which ones matter to you. As a global brand it’s essential to speak with one voice in many languages, including body language.”
She offered the example of Justin Bieber and Calvin Klein.
“Justin is a true reflection of the digital first culture we have adopted. He was first discovered on YouTube. He’s disruptive and controversial,” she said. “Hiring Justin was the hardest decision in my 15 years on the brand. I felt that if we were honoring our brand truth Justin should be the next step in our brand’s history.” Watch the video of Justin Bieber and Lara Stone.
Saturday Night Live picked up on the Justin Bieber/Calvin Klein partnership and did a parody of it on the show.
“If you judge by social media impact alone, we passed our own test. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” she said. “When that happened we were thrilled. We were part of pop culture. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
“We cannot keep the product on shelf,” she said.
“These truths are a road map to help build consumer evangelism for the brand on a massive scale. They follow a model for consumer engagement that is older than Calvin Klein, the technology adoption cycle. It helps introduce disruptive thinking to create mass appeal. Today we have to do more than disrupt. We can’t count on trends or fashion to carry our business. We have to build relationships that are here to stay.”
Related Articles:
