After New York, London and Paris, fashion week visited Penn. Between classes and so many other extracurricular commitments, students still found the time to attend the fashion week events throughout the week. One of the most popular events, and to me also the most inspiring, was the presentation given by John Idol, the CEO of Michael Kors. Idol attracted more than 200 Penn students to his talk about Michael Kors and the world of fashion.
Read more about Penn Fashion Week
Idol defined the brand strategy of Kors as “jet set luxury,” which he explained as coming from the inclination people have to always live better lives. Their brand strategy is about everything people aspire to. He explained that this is the reason behind the company’s choice in magazine advertisements to use airplanes, jets, boats and safari scenes.
As far as their position the fashion world, John Idol stated that Michael Kors, which was launched in 1881 as the brand’s higher prices fashion line, could be places in the same platform with brands such as Gucci, Prada and Dolce & Gabbana. On the other hand, MICHAEL Michael Kors, which was launched in 2004 as the more affordable line of Michael Kors, could be compared to lines like Marc By Marc Jacobs.
“Our customer is 35 years old,” said John Idol, explaining further that every women who is older than 35 would want to be 35 and every woman who is younger wants the wardrobe of a 35 year old women. He later said that the primary customer of Michael Kors was 35 on average, followed by 18-25 year olds.
Idol described the Kors shopping environment as diverse and explained that the company try to hire people with different looks to work in their store, as Michael Kors appeals the same to a blonde woman, a brunette, a black lady or a gay or straight man.
About their business marketing strategies, John Idol mentioned how catalogs are still an important medium of advertising and that the biggest trend nowadays was the e-mail database. Interestingly, he also said that outdoor advertising was more important in Europe than in the states.
As he mentioned how people mix and match with their clothes today, one of his last suggestions to the fashionable Penn women was not to leave home without three things: bag, eyewear and watch. His statement is pretty reasonable when we consider that Michael Kors is primarily an accessory line. Yet it makes perfect sense and is definitely true. These three things are sometimes all you need to transform your look!