For US luxury fashion brand Coach, 2023 has been a busy year. Known for its leather handbags and accessories, the last 12 months have seen the brand undergo a radical reinvention.
Shedding old baggage, Coach has embraced innovation and re-emerged with a refreshed image that’s more closely aligned with the next generation of shoppers. Over the last few months we’ve been tracking a constant stream of exciting new activations, store openings and launches from the brand, which are helping to bring it new relevance and marking it out as one to watch.
We spoke to Giovanni Zaccariello, SVP of global visual experience at Coach, to find out more about the strategy behind the reinvention and what’s driving it.
Zaccariello has been closely involved with Coach’s shift to its new ‘expressive luxury’ positioning, a strategy that sees the brand prioritising self-expression, inclusivity and emotions over traditional luxury hallmarks around exclusivity and status.
With consumers increasingly seeking out brands whose values align with their own, Coach decided to work with Gen Z to figure out how to effectively engage with them. The new strategy was kickstarted after it conducted interviews groups of Gen Zers and most of them replied that they saw Coach as their mother’s brand. ‘This is not to say the mums aren’t cool, but we also want to be the daughter’s brand,’ says Zaccariello.
This revelation led Coach to pursue a three-pronged strategy to recapture the attention of Gen Z and young Millennials, taking some creative risks along the way. Zaccariello and his team realised that to stay relevant with their future customers they would need to test and experiment to find the best ways to engage with them.
"This is not to say the mums aren’t cool, but we also want to be the daughter’s brand."
Experiential store design
The starting point on this journey was store design, with the brand’s experiential retail Coach Play concept at the heart of the shift. While the majority of the brand’s stores are focused on commerce, having one or two Coach Play stores in each country gives the brand the opportunity to play and express the brand in a new way.
Zaccariello explains that these experiential-led stores not only offer the best experience for customers, they are also performing very well in terms of sales. Dwell time is also up, with customers spending four to five times longer in these stores than the average Coach store. While experiential Coach Play stores offer spaces for the brand to experiment with multi-sensorial approaches, they are also paying off. ‘We are spending money but we are getting the return on investment. These are not just ‘shiny objects’,’ says Zaccariello.
Opened in April 2023, Coach Play Singapore was the brand’s first Asian location in its new series of experiential stores. Set in a traditional Singaporean shophouse on Keong Saik Road, the 4,000 square foot store comprises six different areas, each with its own distinct theme, encouraging exploration and interaction. The Coach Lounge showcases the brand’s leather goods, Room 1941 highlights collaborations with local artists and the brand’s archive, while Coach Create offers a range of customisation options. Upstairs, a mirrored room with full height LED displays immerses viewers in the brand’s heritage in Coach World. On the ground floor, Coach Café provides refreshments including artisan coffee and New York City-inspired snacks from Brawn & Brains.
Changing the context
"You don’t need to buy the bag, but you’re consuming Coach, finding out who we are. We’re not putting pressure on you, but we want you to be part of our world."
Finding alternative locations that allow customers to experience the brand in a different context have also played a key role. For its Tabby Tour pop-up in 2023, Coach decided that instead of waiting for them to come to it, it would actively go out in search of Gen Z, travelling from university campuses to beaches and malls, among many other locations around the US. This pop-up campaign to reintroduce its signature Tabby bag and familiarise the next generation with the brand was supposed to last two months, but is still going strong.
Aware that Gen Z’s disposable income is much lower than their mother’s, Coach’s strategy here is to play the long game, building rapport with intriguing activations in unique locations. ‘You don’t need to buy the bag, but you’re consuming Coach, finding out who we are. We’re not putting pressure on you, but we want you to be part of our world,’ Zaccariello says.
The brand’s recent Coach Airways store offers a perfect example of this approach in action. Instead of occupying a regular storefront in Malaysia’s Freeport A’Famosa Outlet shopping mall, the brand hosted a pop-up on board a decommissioned Boeing 747 outside. The space is reached via an air bridge, with customers given a realistic-looking boarding pass to gain access. Vintage design features in the interior aim to transport visitors back to the golden age of aviation in the 1950s. A café serving in-flight snacks heightens the nostalgia even further.
Multi-sensory worlds
Building multi-sensory worlds is the last key area. ‘We’ve been exploring different ways to bring the five senses to life,’ says Zaccariello. The brand has opened cafés and experimented with music and sonic identity, while a new Coach Play in Utah coming later in the year will focus on materials and texture, allowing customers to touch everything. ‘It’s not just bags on shelves anymore, those days are gone. Physical is not enough anymore, it has to be hyperphysical.’
The strategy is working. Whether it’s in North America, Japan or Southeast Asia, Coach’s new locations are resonating with consumers, allowing them to see a new side to the brand while boosting sales.
Instead of applying a uniform global strategy, Coach is taking a more localised approach. ‘The formula doesn’t need to be the same around the world. For example, what works in Asia might be more digitally-led than what we would do in North America, which might be a little more physical. But that doesn’t stop innovation. We spent a lot of time thinking about how to create one global consistent thread (like Tabby) but then localising it in a way that makes sense.’
"Physical is not enough anymore, it has to be hyperphysical."
When it comes to using in-store technology, Zaccariello insists that it must feel organic, using it in service to the brand, rather than the other way around. Coach’s recent partnership with Zero10 saw the brand position AR windows outside its New York flagship store to allow customers to interact with its Tabby bag. The idea was to test the technology while also putting the bag into the hands of consumers.
‘For some Gen Z, $350 is all of their savings, so let them play with it,’ Zaccariello says. As well as the storefront activation, a mobile app allowed customers to interact with the bag wherever they are. ‘Tons of kids around the world have been playing with it. They are starting to understand that Coach is cool.’ Whether or not they buy the bag, the key here is that they are consuming the brand, and the technology is helping Coach to achieve that. ‘We want to include, we don’t want to exclude.’
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