Lacoste

Lacoste
Originally uploaded by Gregory Barbier.

A new marketing strategy for Lacoste

At the end of the 90s the company founded in 1933 by the tennis man Rene Lacoste decided to change its marketing strategy. The brand was on the verge to become old fashioned. It had to evolve in order to stay a leading brand name. The changes are successful: the turnover 2004 has exceeded one billion euros, which is the first time in its history. Here are the different explanations of this success.

The image of Lacoste had to be modernized without forgetting its past of sportive brand. That is why the company tried to merge fashion, sport and street wear. The different advertising campaigns are made to illustrate this combination. For instance one of the TV ads shows a love story between the French tennis man Arnaud Clement and the Danish singer Natasha Thomas.

Not only the advertising but all the elements of the marketing mix are concerned with this change. For example all the retail outlets will be renewed before the end of 2006. The stores will illustrate the new modernity of Lacoste. It concerns 800 sales points all over the world.

The product ranges are also to be renewed by Christophe Lemaire, a dressmaker who has already worked for Christian Lacroix. He has designed t-shirts closer to the body, sexier clothes for the women and purposed a larger colour choice for all the ranges. Even the famous logo in shape of crocodile has been revisited: it has been designed thinner in order to give it a more dynamic look.

The range has been extended throughout the accessories such as glasses or tanning in order to reach a new audience through this brand stretching.

The headquarters have also decided to play a new role in the organization of events. They have organized in 2003 and for the first time a fashion show in New York, a sportswear city, instead of doing that as usually in Paris, a more fashionable city. It corresponds more to the new image of Lacoste.

One other event is the sale of t-shirts in limited series during the period of the Roland Garros tennis tournament, the sport associated to the image of Lacoste.

The new marketing strategy could be summed up by this sentence: We target those who are making the trend but by avoiding youngness.