Brand Experience for Allen Edmonds
Allen Edmonds has been making men’s luxury footwear and accessories for 85 years, its loyal fan base consisting largely of older, functionally minded businessmen. To reach a younger market, Allen Edmonds’ parent company Goldner-Hawn approached IDEO to redefine brand vision and enrich the customer experience. The outcome was a deeper understanding of the target audience, the definition of brand equities, and new trajectories for product lines, communications, and retail spaces.
With this framework established, IDEO and Allen Edmonds began to prototype ways to re-launch the brand while deepening the existing customer relationship. This included recommendations for the discontinuing of “off brand” product extensions, the creation of product lines to appeal to a new audience, creative messaging, and a new retail experience.
IDEO planned spaces that would elevate the significance of the product through storytelling and service gestures. Prototypes for several sites took into account differing locations, retail adjacencies, and footprints. The essence of the experience remained consistent across the range of sites, but responded to significant local contexts and opportunities. Allen Edmonds plans to launch twenty new IDEO-inspired stores over the next two years, expanding its company-owned retail presence by nearly 80%.
Reinvigorating a menswear brand through space and experience
Allen Edmonds has been making men’s luxury footwear and accessories for 85 years, its loyal fan base consisting largely of older, functionally minded businessmen. To reach a younger market, Allen Edmonds’ parent company Goldner-Hawn approached IDEO to redefine brand vision and enrich the customer experience. The outcome was a deeper understanding of the target audience, the definition of brand equities, and new trajectories for product lines, communications, and retail spaces.
With this framework established, IDEO and Allen Edmonds began to prototype ways to re-launch the brand while deepening the existing customer relationship. This included recommendations for the discontinuing of “off brand” product extensions, the creation of product lines to appeal to a new audience, creative messaging, and a new retail experience.
Project date: 2007
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