Cole Haan Rebrand
After searching for it’s identity for the past 5 years and being sold as a failing brand by Nike in 2012, Cole Haan desperately needed to figure out a meaningful brand approach. Focusing on heritage and craftsmanship didn’t work. Aligning the brand with NYC also failed. And, although product innovation proved financially successful, it confused the brand message resulting in alienated former customers without attracting a larger new consumer group. Cole Haan was out of ideas and it was clear a new approach was necessary.
Through a series of conversations between Cole Haan executives, myself, and a partner, we determined to redefine Cole Haan internally as well as externally while leveraging design thinking as an approach. My partner and I came into the Cole Haan offices to communicate directly with all people from all departments and all levels. From these communications, we defined the principles that would resonate for Cole Haan based on their current situation. Then, we co-created the brand with Cole Haan based on total transparency and conversation. As a result, nobody was locked into a “direction” that was irrelevant after the quarterly reports came out, employees felt ownership of the new brand, and the entire company was exposed firsthand to the methods of design thinking and able to implement those principles into their own processes.
Project completed with Chung & Trostle as Partner