Brand Update #2

Alex Kotz

MKT 339.13

1

Secondary Associations

Duluth Trading Company is a highly specialized niche company and when it comes to

partnerships, it is careful to select organizations and individuals that will reflect well with its

target market. One of the larger and more regular organizations that DTC sponsors is

Timbersports. It co-sponsors this event with Stihl and several other organizations specializing in

work apparel and equipment. Timbersports is a competition for athletes specializing in

lumberjack disciplines, it has been running for 30 years and has a devoted following with over

60 million viewers. This event is a good sponsorship choice for Duluth because it has an

involved brand community that share similar interests, has a wide reach, and has its own brand

equity. As it represents a certain rugged and outdoorsy aesthetic, it matches nicely with Duluth’s

image. Also sponsored by DTC was the 2015 John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon which

occurred in late January. Similarly to Timbersports, it is a competition with a similar image to

Duluth and with people who would look to use the company’s products. Additionally, it too has a

small but highly devoted brand community.

Beyond sponsorships, Duluth Trading Company co-sponsors sweepstakes with other similar

brands. Stihl is again a brand that DTC works with. In this regard it was for the Bigger Dam

Sweepstakes where the winners received Stihl merchandise as well as a pair of Duluth’s Firehose

work pants. Focussing on their Women’s line, Duluth also sponsored the DIY Courage

Sweepstakes at the beginning of April. DIY Courage is put on by Sarah Bendrick, the host of

DIY Network’s I Hate my Yard. Though the Twitter profile DIY Courage had very few

followers, I believe that in the end it was a beneficial sponsorship for DTC as Sarah also

advertised the sweepstakes and mentioned the company on her Twitter which had significantly

more followers. I believe that this was a good sponsorship for Duluth, it was a small give away

of $100 but got the company appearing in the Twitter feeds of many people in a positive light.

Furthermore, these were viewers that could be inclined to purchase Duluth gear as it is meant for

the Do it Yourself community. Having Sarah endorse it was also a good decision as it could help

promote DTC as a woman’s brand as well as a man’s. This message was reinforced by appearing

on a backyard remodeling show which pairs nicely with Duluth’s focus on a large release of

gardening apparel for women this season.

Duluth also endorses certain individuals. From my research, they are generally Duluth’s own

female models and the purpose is to show the women and clothing as rugged and hardworking.

Two examples that I came across were for Amanda Vogel and Rachael. Amanda was on Tema

Nomad in the UP 200 Dogsled race and Rachel owns a creamery. Both women exemplify DTC’s

values and it features them on its website, Facebook page, and includes links to their blogs. I

believe that his endorsement is a good move for Duluth as it helps promote women as DTC

customers across a variety of platforms. Posting to their individual blogs and sites also helps

Duluth to reach broader audiences. They do this for many of their models, though not all are

mentioned on social media. However, I believe that having informative model bios for women

across a variety of hard working backgrounds is important in promoting Duluth’s new brand

image of also being a clothing option for women.

2

New Product Development

Duluth Trading Company has recently introduced several new products especially in regards to

their women’s line. As a clothing company, Duluth must be conscious of the changing season

despite the rugged and multi-purpose nature of its products. It recently released its catalog for

early summer for women’s clothing. The catalog features a total of 49 new products for their

women’s line with a special emphasis on gardening. The new releases both create new products

and sub brands as modify existing brands.

There were several new products offered in the Spring/Summer catalog with some of note being

a collapsible visor, various sandals and work shoes, and various shirts, skirts, pants, and dresses.

The one truly new product though was the NoGA pants. This is meant to convey that they are not

exclusively for yoga. Though made like yoga pants they feature higher density and stronger

fabric to better hold shape and resist damage, pockets along the side for versatility, and higher

coverage in the back, much like many of the rest of Duluth’s products.

The remainder of Duluth’s new offerings for Spring/Summer apparel were modifications on

existing brands. The fabrics used where the same as those for menswear only the pieces

themselves were cut for women. These products include longtail shirts, Armachilo fabric,

Duluthflex pants, and Ripstop Fabric. All of these are prevalent across Duluth’s selections and

the materials upon which they built their name. In this way, the same product benefits from

men’s clothing are now being offered to women in an effort to grow and reposition the brand.

Due to the similarities, between the products, these are marketed in a very similar fashion to the

previous offerings.

3

Brand Equity

Duluth Trading Company’s transition to a multi-gender clothing retailer has been beneficial to

its brand equity as a whole. Brand awareness is increased because DTC is marketing itself to

more people and reaching out over different venues and platforms than previously. Its brand

image has also improved, or at least remained stationary. This is due to good techniques for the

rebranding campaigns as well as staying true to Duluth’s original product offering and strengths.

Brand awareness has increased for Duluth trading company as a result of its repositioning as a

female apparel provider. This is largely due to them putting themselves out on other channels.

They can now access a market twice the size of their original by marketing to men and women.

This builds off of many of the wives of the male customers have become familiar with DTC

products and already have brand loyalty in the household. One new marketing opportunity for

Duluth was mentioned in a previous section. Their models section of the Duluth blog and

website which features the stories of hardworking and outdoorsy female models was something

they could not do before. Many of the models that they choose have their own followings already

for what they do such as landscaping, ranching, and as mentioned dog sledding, and creamery

operators. Featuring these individuals allows DTC to expand its reach to their loyal followers.

Other ways that the company has been increasing its brand awareness is through social media

outlets that would not have been as beneficial to them in the past. One example is the Pinterest

account which Duluth created. Though it had a few boards previously, it has expanded its

selection and its following to upwards of 2,000 individuals. Pinterest is primarily used by

females and Duluth uses this to market both its women’s line and existing products to a larger

market. Its two most popular boards are respectively for their new spring release for women and

the other is For do it Her-Selfers. Additionally they are able to run more events to increase

awareness further. Some recent social media examples include auditions for being selected as the

next Duluth Trading Company model. Another focuses on Mother’s Day and asks for the best

Duluth mother words of wisdom that their followers have heard. There is also a sweepstakes

where they raffle off several of their new spring work dresses to followers who interact with the

post.

Duluth Trading company has been able to successfully rebrand itself without a loss of brand

image. This is mostly due to the similarities of their women’s items to the men’s. They still are

focusing on marketing to hard working, salt of the earth people who need versatile and durable

clothing. Because of this the operate within the same relative psychographic. This means that

they can keep the same message across their brand families. This can be seen in their

commercials and advertisements where the format stays the same except for the problems and

gender of the wearer. Another reason for DTC’s success is that they were able to retain the same

sub-brand for their fabrics. Each of their durable materials has its own name such as Armichilo,

Duluthflex, Ripstop, and Long-tail. Being able to keep the sub-brands the same on either side of

their products helped to preserve the brand equity of the product and transfer it to their new line.

4

Brand Positioning

Duluth Trading Company has always been a company that supplied hard working and rugged

individuals. It was seen as a trustworthy and honest manufacturer and primarily only sold to male

clients. Its chief competitor in the marketplace was Carhartt which supplied very similar

products. Both companies had points of parity between the sturdiness of their materials, the

durability and quality attached to the name, and the same general target market. Points of

difference came about as Carhartt specialized in cold-weather clothing made of very heavy

materials, as well as casual wear meant for easy visibility. Duluth achieved points of difference

by offering more specializes and technical fabrics for their clothing and presenting a more

business-casual look.

In regards to the offering of a women’s line this brought Duluth Trading Company into greater

points of parity with Carhartt. There are a few points of difference between the two. Carhartt

offers more casual clothing such as normal t-shirts. True to form it also offers heavier and

bulkier winter clothing than DTC. Duluth achieves points of differences by having more product

offerings including more specialized materials, roughly three times more offerings per category,

and different products including yoga pants, skirts, and dresses. On the whole though, it has not

done much to alter the points of parity or difference between the two competitors.

5

Associative Network Memory Model

Based off of Duluth Trading Company’s Twitter and Facebook posts there was a lot of enjoyment over

the expanded clothing line. Many individuals were excited about their new wardrobes and were

admiring the clothes. However, there were also many dissenters who were worried that the clothing

would not be the proper size for them. Many others were dissatisfied with the women that they were

using for models for their products. They felt that the women did not accurately represent those who

used the products. Specific complaints were that the models were too young and too skinny. Other

issues with the models were common to any sort of individual endorsement. There was a dog sledder

who was featured on the Facebook page who came under fire for wearing a fur hood. Many people used

the Facebook comments as a sounding board for their views against her. What is important to note

though is that on both Twitter and Facebook there was heavy engagement from the followers. They

commented on posts, photos, new releases, and especially sweepstakes. Even if they were not always

positive many balanced out their negative comments by also including something nice to say about

either Duluth or the product. The post with the most positive comments was one from Duluth

promoting Mother’s Day and asking for everyone to share their most remembered motherly bits of

wisdom.

Apart from the new clothing line, Duluth also had many people commenting on their ads and

commercials. Overall, these were positive comments with many saying that they found them incredibly

entertaining and creative and that they had the “it” factor. Others however were not as amused and

instead saw them as creepy, weird, and annoying. This was especially the case with the buck naked

underwear ads that feature a cartoon man pole dancing. Another advertising snafu that came to the

fore on social media was in regards to Duluth being sued by Don Henley from the Eagles. He took issue

with them using his name and a name of an Eagles’ song in one of their ads. Though it was settled out of

court, the incident was the most prevalent type of post on Twitter over the past several days.

Amusing Ads

Disgruntled at

Model Use

Weird Creative

Don Henley Heavily Engaged

Excited about

Offerings

Fear Ill Fitting

6

Customer based Brand Equity

Duluth Trading Company has been working on building its brand both with its target market and its

existing customers. In regard to brand salience, Duluth has been repeatedly getting its name and

message out to a larger audience. It primarily does this with a series of short, witty, and succinct

commercials. These are generally no longer than one minute and feature an animated individual with an

article of Duluth clothing being compared to general clothing in an extraordinary situation and coming

out on top. These allow show Duluth as rugged clothing that is efficient and clean looking but still simple

and not flashy. In addition to these television spots, Duluth features digital versions of the commercials

shown on sites such as youtube and on its social media platforms. They also advertise heavily on the

radio using the same format as the rest of their commercials. Additionally, they just ran a

#GoBuckNaked campaign encouraging individuals to send in photos with a cutout of their mascot and

tag it to promote their Buck Naked line of underwear. This resulted in over 1,000 posts during its run

time. Duluth mainly advertises on ESPN, DIY, and HGTV as well as sports radio and classic rock stations.

This is to best reach its target audience and portray itself properly.

For performance, Duluth has run into several issues online where customers post negative reviews to

the facebook page when products do not meet their expectations. When this happens, DTC responds

promptly offering to make amends and apologizing. The cornerstone of these apologies as well as a

large area of the company’s performance equity is its ‘No Bull Guarantee’ which allows for a

replacement of product if it doesn’t meet standards. This helps their performance equity by showing

their faith in their products and ensuring that high quality products make it out to consumers. Duluth

continually innovates to meet customers performance expectations both functionally and aesthetically.

Even though the clothes have to be durable and effective, Duluth puts a large focus on comfort and

looking business casual. This helps them meet performance expectations across the board.

In Brand Imagery, Duluth has strong purchase image, brand personality, and brand history. Being a niche

company for hardworking individuals, product usage is important to DTC. They’re clothes are meant to

be versatile and hold up well and be used in any number of tough work that would be damaging to

normal clothes. To illustrate their purchase and usage, they feature stories for all of their main product

lines that were submitted by customers. These include pants protecting individuals from saw blades and

a boar goring to their fleeces satisfying the needs of a fishermen on Lake Superior. Their personality is

that of a simple, witty, hardworking individual; a very salt-of-the-earth feel. They gruff voice and the

language they use in their ads and materials help sustain this image, as well as the repeated use of

hyperbole and old saying/witticisms. They character that they picked to exemplify this is a cartoon

drawing of a strong, heavy set, middle aged man. In the case of their women’s line, it is a middle aged fit

woman who is the image. This is seen both with the commercials as well as the women that they feature

as models. This disparity between the genders though is noticed by the customers and has led to some

negative sentiments being expressed on social media. Brand history is heavily related to both and

Duluth has a timeline it features on its website that shares the company’s history as well as emphasizing

their original and benchmark products. As mentioned above, the customer stories are an important part

7

of their brand history as well. Their artwork is another nod to brand history as they have kept the same

hand drawn style of their products and advertisements that they began the company with.

Brand judgements are a strong area for DTC. They generally get very good reviews for their products as

well as their ads. Ads were being praised on twitter during a social media analysis. However, there was a

lawsuit over one of their ads involving Don Henley from the Eagles and an inappropriate use of his name

which may affect the judgement of the Duluth Trading Company brand negatively. On Facebook,

individuals were expressing excitement over the new offering that were coming out and generally

approving of the new apparel items as well as giving positive reviews both on the website and on the

Facebook page for various products.

Brand feelings for Duluth Trading Company were overall very good going off of the social media analysis.

The average consumer was quite pleased with their products and enjoyed Duluth’s service and

communications. General emotions expressed included excitement and satisfaction. There was a smaller

portion of the online community that had negative views on Duluth and attacked them in their posts.

These were most prevalent on the model posts with fans of the models and their activities who don’t

like Duluth. Others were women expressing their distaste that the models were not accurate

representations of the female users of Duluth products. The third type of post that inspired emotion

were people posting concerns on DTC’s page. These concerns ranged from improper or faulty

merchandise to wondering if certain sizes were carried. In most of these that were surveyed, the

company responded to the consumer in a reply post, either answering their individual question or

offering a replacement for the faulty goods. Proper handling of these inquiries increase Duluth’s social

currency by turning a negative into an example for quality customer service.

Duluth Trading Company has built up a fairly involved brand community of loyal followers. The main

areas that people follow on Duluth are their ads and their products and both are widely well received.

The results of the social media survey showed an overwhelming approval for the brand. Online, fans of

Duluth are quite involved, routinely entering in sweepstakes such as the Big Damn sweepstakes,

commenting on new releases of items, and sharing stories to the website and the page. Other instances

of interaction include the aforementioned #GoBuckNaked promotion and a Mother’s Day quote

discussion where DTC encouraged fans to share old sayings that their mothers raised them on.

8

Brand Value Chain

For the Duluth Trading Company’s new line of women’s apparel, products and communication were two

primary forms of marketing program investments. The development of the new clothing items as well as

the research involved were a new investment for the company. The other large investment involved

communicating their new products to a new target audience. DTC had to invest in establishing an

entirely new marketing campaign for their women’s line as well as figure out how to appeal and

effectively convert a different target market.

The marketing program investments are augmented mainly by the relevance of the products to the

target audience. Despite targeting women, their audience isn’t really all that different. The still make it

very clear that they are targeting hard-working folks who put themselves and their clothes through the

gauntlet on a regular basis. Because they still focus on the same sort of person with the same underlying

needs regardless of gender, Duluth allows their core competencies of their clothes manufacturing to

keep them relevant. That same sticking to competency is also important in the integration of their

message with past campaigns and the main brand. Focusing on the same psychographic allows them to

keep their campaigns consistent and saves them resources by not having to reinvent their IMC

campaigns. Duluth advertisements are known for being simple and unique while still being entertaining

and are appealing to many of their customers. The distinctiveness and excellence of their campaigns and

clothing help to increase the effectiveness of the investments and bring in more revenue.

Duluth has a strong customer mind-set value that is helping them with their new offerings. The women

that they are targeting for their new product are generally already aware of Duluth Trading Company

and its reputation as a manufacturer of highly durable work wear. This is because many are in

professions where they know men who have been buying Duluth gear or they are part of family’s that

are familiar with the brand. This awareness and existing associations help Duluth to more easily and

effectively introduce their women’s line. The existing customers are also highly involved with the Brand.

This was illustrated in the sections covering social media interaction as well as the sponsored events that

the company hosts.

The customer value is multiplied by several factors. The first is competitive reaction where products are

compared to what already exist in the marketplace. The female market for durable work clothes is not

very populated, Duluth’s biggest competitor in it is Carhartt which has an established name. However,

Duluth is offering more professional clothing options as well as a wider variety of them. With this

differentiation in the marketplace it should increase the value of the customer mindset and help drive

conversions. The channel support consists mostly of word of mouth, online distribution, catalog selling,

and some retailers. Compared to the competition, Duluth clothing is offered in less stores and as such,

their channel support may bring down the value of their customer mindset, though hopefully it will be

balanced out by the loyalty and involvement of the customers.