Fossil: The Sifting of Trends
for Brand Initiatives
By Tim Hale, Senior Vice President, Design, Fossil, and
Stephen Zhang, Image Director, Fossil
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| Tim Hale |
Stephen Zhang |
That Was Then…
From the beginning in 1984, Fossil sought to be a brand and company
that was above all, relevant to the contemporary consumer not only
in developing products with creative appeal, but equally important,
in building a bridge, an emotional connection, that resonated with
the consumer. From 1984 to 1989, the company experimented with a
variety of imagery and product schemes that were successful, in
part, by gaining recognition for creativity but lacked the groundswell
effect of tapping into something deeper than superficial trends
of the day and the market at that time. Then, perpetuated by product
success in the vintage direction and the general observation that
40’s & 50’s Americana was appearing globally as
a fashion theme, the brand latched onto a direction that became
the resonating soul of a brand; a heart that resonated with the
philosophy and content of everything from business practice to design
mantra.
So for a run of some 12 years Fossil wrapped itself in a blanket
of all things retro and Americana. In some ways the brand began
to feel like it had been around since the 1950’s. And while
the brand imagery, though constantly evolving creatively, stayed
consistently tied to this core concept, the product, for need of
staying relevant to the market trends and consumer interest, progressed
outside of the bounds of brand imagery. And while the conflict of
the brand imagery vs. the product was a recognized point, it was
creatively managed up to 2001, when it was obvious that it must
be addressed for multiple reasons related to distribution, brand
discipline, and the need for a fresh direction to address the unification
of the brand across multiple categories of development.
In 2001 a brand strategy team was put together with the self-assigned
goal to collect research data internationally from key points of
distribution as well as domestically. The research goal was to determine
consumer impressions of the brand, confirming points related to
relevance, positioning, quality, appeal, and overall knowledge of
the brand. Additionally, we sought to find out what the important
underlying touch points were among our targeted consumer group in
each country. The deliverable was to develop a new direction that
did not belie the strength of the established branding but rather
redefined that heritage in a new, relevant way that took current
cultural and fashion trends into consideration as a way to unite
and communicate the diversity that the brand now represented.
In some ways what was discovered was not a surprise. Though considered
distinctly recognizable, likeable, and creative, the brand imagery
was becoming a barrier to communication with the target group. It
was repeatedly seen as dated, and even though there were other brands
in the market doing similar executions, it was obvious that a fresh
interpretation was needed. The brand was seen as non-fashion and
irrelevant due, in part, to the imagery and a decided lack of a
core customer representation in the communications. The good news
was that the brand was clean. So the opportunity was open to move
the brand in the direction we wanted without barriers of anything
overtly negative. Additionally, we were able to extract motivators
to use as kernels of influence in reassessing the brand’s
visual direction. These were incidentally connected to what we identified
as a larger cultural mindset shift among our target consumer on
a globalized basis.
…This Is Now
Branding and Marketing Decisions
Market research findings from 2001 showed that Fossil’s
image was not perceived positively among targeted customers. The
company held several intensive discussions among key decision-makers
from the marketing and design areas. One main point of the heated
discussions revolved around how to maintain the Fossil brand’s
point of difference, which is its retro connection, and at the same
time appeal to today’s consumers.
As with all brands, we realized the vital importance of a brands’
differentiating factor. Fossil’s brand positioning for over
15 years has been “retro.” We were also aware of the
danger of giving up this positioning. Many brands have abandoned
an established differentiating factor only to realize that the resulting
brand perceptions were not necessarily favorable. Like many companies,
we were at the crossroads and faced with a historical challenge.
After further discussion, research, and exploration, we concluded
that the brand can indeed integrate both retro and contemporary,
perhaps in a more evolved approach, and be accepted by today’s
young consumers. The key here was to understand our target customer
within the evolving global culture and see if there were surfacing
trends that could be aligned with the heritage of the brand. We
had to distill our findings and do additional research on the areas
that surfaced as influential.
Methodology
The tools we used are common among fashion companies. We used
a trend forecasting company that provided us with general fashion
trend information. Fossil regularly sends designers to travel to
the major trend-setting cities in the world for first hand impressions
at the street level. The best service we’ve used has been
the UK’s WGSN online trend reporting. Additionally, we have
found that it is vitally important to encourage our people to be
engaged in all aspects of culture: magazines, publications, entertainment,
music, news, and the Internet.
Our goal was to use the research to gain information that leads
to an innovative brand image. Therefore, not only did we gather
fashion trend information such as colors, materials, patterns, etc,
but we also observed social and cultural trends. The latter are
more important to us as a brand.
For example, if product designers use microscopes to spot subtle
changes of such things as stitching, then we are more like a telescope,
which scans along the horizon and zooms in to see something still
in the distance. We are looking for signs of something reaching
critical mass in terms of cultural shift.
Platform
With research findings in hand, we decided that certain kinds
of “vintage” could be directional for Fossil. Although
all kinds of “vintage” were being used in the fashion
and entertainment business, current revivals of the 60s and 70s
was a dominant trend; a trend that could be seen in high couture
as well as the average city block. This trend evoked a casual, eclectic,
urban feeling that would work with our brand naturally and could
be updated to mesh with a younger consumer and additionally crossed
global lines of interest. We concluded that the trend could work
as inspiration for image and products across categories from apparel
to watches. We felt this was the perfect opportunity to reunite
the brand under one umbrella.
However, we had to absorb “vintage” into our own brand
approach. Therefore, the campaign would have to be a hybrid of three
components:
- Vintage/retro heritage
- Fashion
- A reflection of today’s lifestyle; a sense of realness/authenticity
It is not a formula that will be duplicated; rather, it is a point
of view that would later guide many aspects of image and product
development.
Application
Once the platform was set, the brand team created a trend book
to communicate to the company the direction, the elements and the
look and feel. Each department was challenged to develop product
that interpreted the direction. This new direction provided a structure
for those developing product to work within. No longer would product
development be a random selection of current trends but rather a
mindset of catering new product ideas to fit into and reinforce
the refined brand direction.
The key to the success of the brand image at this stage is execution.
A large portion of the company is involved in creative in one way
or another. Everyone tries to inject his/her own creative ideas
in their respective projects. It was a process of continuing education
and repeated explanations that eventually got everyone in the company
on the same page.
In addition, there are other product and brand initiatives throughout
the year. While they need to be unique, we also needed to assure
that they fit in the overall brand direction of the year. Some aspect
of these supplementary products and brand initiatives should tie-in
with the current brand direction, colors, graphic style, forms,
etc.
For the Future—New Initiatives
Cross Departmental Team
Due to the special situation at Fossil, we decided from this year
forward that the brand team will involve a representative from all
the design departments: watches, leather goods, sunglass, apparel,
jewelry, and image. The creative heads will get together and distill
the gathered research and decide on 2005’s trend initiatives
and brand image direction. The team will then make a company-wide
presentation of the trend. It is then up to each department to further
research and come up with their own boards. These boards will reflect
how they will adopt the company direction into their own departments.
The company will hold monthly trend update meetings. Each department
will bring in what they are working on, share insights and resources
and hear sales results from the previous periods of development.
Lessons Learned
Keep your eyes open
Expose yourself to and engage in all aspects of culture.
Trends come from multiple places
There are cultural trends that effect behavioral trends that influence
fashion trends and there are trends that erupt from other origins.
Learning to recognize the difference can be used in strategic ways.
Discover the phenomena interconnection
Think about the interconnection of things. You will see many different
things. Some are new. Some are from last year or the year before.
Are there common patterns of influence or themes that can be identified
and/or are emerging? What level are the influences you are seeing?
Local, regional, national or global, social or categorical?
Trend research for us is more about making
choices
Trend data plus creativity plus a brand’s point of view will
determine your solution.
This article appeared in the March
2004 eBulletin.
Feedback on DMI Viewpoints and article proposals
are always welcome! Please email jtobin@dmi.org.
All articles reflect the opinion of the author and not the Design
Management Institute.
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