Crocodile Brand Chaos Makes Consumers Confused.

When the Lacoste performance of its main brand is booming, Maus Freres, the Swiss fashion group, announced that it would explore more potential acquisitions to expand its brand matrix. As part of a broader transformation strategy, the group was officially renamed MF Brands Group.

"Our brand has great potential for development, and the group hopes to launch an offensive again," said Thierry Guibert, chief executive and chief executive officer of Lacoste. MF Brands Group has no debt problem at present and will have enough firepower to strengthen its brand portfolio.

In addition to the three major brands of Lacoste, Gant and Aigle, the group was also incorporated into the French apparel brand The Kooples in 2019. For the next target of revenue, the group is targeting high-end positioning brands with sales ranging from 200 million to 300 million euros.

Behind such a positive international expansion ambition is the increasingly robust support of the core brand Lacoste, whose annual revenue has already accounted for 60% of the group's total revenue. The implementation of various reform measures not only supports the transformation and development of Lacoste itself, but also promotes MF Brands Group to move towards a more robust growth direction.

　 Young design of new creative director

Lacoste, founded by French tennis player Ren E. Lacoste in 1933, has always been regarded as a representative of "middle-aged bourgeois men". Its iconic Polo dress seems more suitable for golf courses, not everyday life.

Lingering "stereotype" has become one of the biggest obstacles to brand expanding the consumer market. Florence Allday, fashion and beauty industry analyst at Euro consulting, said that the fashion industry is getting tired of sports and leisure styles, especially those that are rooted in formal design, and will hardly adapt to the current trend of sportswear market.

How to make Lacoste break the traditional sports style limitations and take a younger fashion design route is the first challenge for British designer Louise Trotter to become the brand creative director in October 2018.

"I am thinking about how people are dressing up through Lacoste in the current era," Trotter said in an interview with BoF. "If there is any difference, I want to make it more attractive."

In March 2019, its first fashion series for the brand was officially unveiled. Inspired by Ren's style of dressing, the series is dominated by brand style, and is still somewhat constrained in reform and breakthroughs. But the spring and summer series released in October of the same year, and the latest autumn and winter series design this year, clearly shows that Trotter is indeed consciously promoting the design of the past years, and the large area geometric collision color blocks are characterized by bright stripe decorations, all of which are illustrations.

Let Trotter replace Felipe Oliveira Baptista, a former creative director who has been in office for eight years, and Lacoste's confidence in the designer is self-evident. "Louise is the pillar of brand development," Guibert commented. Before joining the Lacoste, Trotter has been the creative director of the British brand Joseph. During its tenure, it has successfully developed the brand into the core business of its parent company (sales account for 87% of the total).

In March alone, Lacoste has launched several cooperation series. The joint venture with Friends With You, artist Jeremyville and illustrator Jean-Michel Tixier has not only created an interesting design for the brand crocodile Logo, but also further extended the vitality of the autumn and winter show. Including a lot of refreshing cooperation with Supreme, 2019, and American artist Keith Haring in 2018, Lacoste also tried to attract more attention from young consumers when it appointed new creative directors.

　　 Emphasis on weak links

Polo shirt and green crocodile logo, as the representative symbol of Lacoste, is of great importance in shaping brand recognition. But on the other hand, these classical elements have hindered the further breakthroughs and innovations of the brand to a certain extent.

In order to reduce the dependence of brand revenue on Polo shirt products, Guibert has been stepping up its investment in footwear and accessories business since it took the helm in 2015. Through the repurchase of licenses for footwear and leather products and the reduction of wholesale channels, the direct sales performance of Lacoste footwear and leather products has increased significantly.

At the same time, the overexposure of the crocodile logo and the flood of trademark similarity also cause damage to the brand image. Taking the Chinese market as an example, because of its trademark similarity, Lacoste has long been involved in legal disputes with "Hongkong crocodile" Crocodile and "Singapore crocodile" Cartelo. The coexistence of "crocodile cards" on the market has also caused consumers a lot of confusion. In addition, frequent use of crocodile logo in brand design may also cause visual aesthetic fatigue and attractiveness to consumers.

"I have designed a lot of things, except for the very obvious element of crocodile, because I want to make the product better," Trotter said. "Crocodile is the last element that I will consider adding into costume design." Expanding Lacoste's accessories series is also one of Trotter's vision for brands. She plans to combine crocodile elements with more vertical accessories and use the popularity of the former to increase the attractiveness of the latter.

Women's clothing, which has not been formally established in Lacoste, and launched under the leadership of the first female creative director of the brand, launched the first Iconic Women series designed specifically for women in February this year. This will be "a great opportunity to seize different businesses", Guibert thinks so.

Thanks to the smooth implementation of various reform measures, including the appointment of new CEO for Kooples and Aigle, the sales volume of MF Brands Group in 2019 has reached 3 billion 210 million euros. Among them, sales of Lacoste have increased by 42% since 2016 and have exceeded 2 billion euros. After successfully innovates the brand of Lacoste and makes its business develop steadily, MF Brands Group has turned its attention to the next step.

"We are looking for brands that can go beyond national boundaries and are popular everywhere. They can be clothing brands or even home brands," Guibert said in an interview with the financial times. "Kooples is a perfect example: we believe that sales in the next few years can be achieved through expansion in Asia and elsewhere. Doubling it to around 400 million euros. "