Who’s Really Behind Those FosterGrants?

REBUILDING A BRAND TAKES FOCUS, PERSEverance, and the right mix of old andnew. We’re contemporizing FosterGrant through “inside-out marketing,”merchandising, strong advertising, powerful promotions, and creative publicrelations.

To understand how we’re shaping FosterGrant’s future, it helps to know thebrand’s past. In 1929, Sam Foster invented the process to mass-producesunglasses. The first pair was sold that year at F.W. Woolworth’s AtlanticCity store. In 1965, FosterGrant launched its famous “Who’s that behindthose FosterGrants?” campaign worldwide. Ads featured Hollywood favoriteslike Racquel Welch, Anthony Quinn, and Jason Robards. Celebs clamored to bein ads to promote their latest movies. FosterGrant pioneered the celebritycameo appearance that has since been adopted by Blackgama furs, AppleComputer (“Think Different”), and the American Dairy Association for itsMilk Mustache campaign.

Astonishly, FosterGrant stopped advertising in 1980. I don’t know why. Itdoesn’t make sense. Brand image naturally dropped. Sales fell – a lot. ThenAccessories Associates of Rhode Island bought the company in 1997 and setout to rebuild FosterGrant as a power player in the $2.5 billion sunglassesbusiness.

We started with inside-out marketing, showing FosterGrant employees thepower of the brand. We had FosterGrant Day at the office, gave everyone apair of glasses, and sold branded apparel to staffers at cost. We racked uphuge sales that day.

Then we talked to consumers to understand our brand equity. Researchconfirmed our gut feeling: Consumers 35 and older not only recognized thebrand name, they felt good about it. They told us the old ads were fun.Younger consumers didn’t know the brand, but thought it soundedhigh-quality. So we shed a handful of licensed brands to focus on theFosterGrant name. We dropped Car and Driver, ABC Sports, Spalding and BanDe Soleil licenses, and co-branded the licenses we kept. Thus, SesameStreet sunglasses became Sesame Street from FosterGrant.

Then we improved our products. We hired a top-notch designer and targeteddifferent consumer groups with styles designed just for them. It was anarduous task to test hundreds of new styles. I spent many a long daysitting by the pool sampling prototypes.

Our next misson was to convince retailers of FosterGrant’s brand equity.Our mantra on all sales calls was the power of the brand. We laid out ourplans to drive awareness and build brand image. What better way to drivedistribution and awareness than promotion? What better promotion tool thanour own colorful history?

We owned Elvis Presley’s original FosterGrants, bought at an auction manyyears before. In May ’97, we shipped our first promotion: A sweepstakesgiving away Elvis’s FosterGrants on the 20th anniversary of his death. Ourdisplay featured a great standup Elvis with a small rack holdingcontemporary, not retro, glasses. Then we drove the heck out of thesweepstakes with p.r.. The Flying Elvi troupe that appeared in Honeymoon inVegas – made several sky dives for us, including a live jump on GoodMorning America. We got more exposure through appearances on QVC to sellreplicas. But it was the giveaway of the originals that brought us backinto the national spotlight. (The winner called me eight months later togive us first shot at buying the glasses back. He had an offer, and wantedto buy a boat. I wanted the specs for our archives, not to do the promotionagain, but there’s only so much money to go around. I hope he’s stillenjoying his boat.)

We teamed with Warner Bros.’ WB Network last year for the Who’s That BehindThose FosterGrants Million Dollar Giveaway. Three hot young WB starsappeared in our P-O-P and ads. The sweeps – guess the celeb in 30 secondsto win $1 million – aired live in Los Angeles.

The campaign doubled our Elvis distribution, and sales jumped. This year,we were ready for a globally recognized spokesperson. Cindy Crawford fitthe bill perfectly: She’s popular with consumers of different ages, and shelooks great in FosterGrants. A global sweepstakes gives away trips toHollywood for a party with Crawford, with winners from each country wherethe promo runs. Retailers like it – sell-through is our best ever. We aresupporting with global print advertising in U.S. magazines like People andCosmopolitan. Again, we’re pursuing p.r. to maximize brand exposure – Cindyeven got us on CNN.

We also partnered with the Ironman Triathlon to enhance our sports line,improve our image, and raise our average retail price points. Oursix-month-old mass brand FosterGrant Ironman is positioned as durable andrugged for competitive types with the tagline, “Who’s that Ironman behindthose FosterGrants?”

It has been a busy two years, but we’ve managed to shape our history into acontemporary image and make millions more consumers around the world proudto be behind those FosterGrants.

Every six months, Total Research Corp. asks 2,000 consumers to rate 300brands for quality. Here are the latest Top 10s:

Rank Brand

1 Craftsman tools

2 Crayola crayons and markers

3 Kodak film

4 Hallmark cards

5 Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil

6 Waterford crystal

7 Chiquita bananas

8 The Discovery Channel

9 Ziploc bags

10 Hershey’s milk chocolate candy bars

Teens’ Top 10*

1 Sony Televisions

2 Sony Electronics

3 Mercedes-Benz autos

4 Kodak film

5 Universal Studios, Florida

6 Disney World

7 BMW autos

8 Disney-MGM Studios

9 Hallmark cards

10 Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World

* 15-to-19 year olds

Source: Total Research Corp., Princeton, NJ