EMBOSS C O M M U N I C AT I O N S P R E S E N T S AW 1 7
Emboss Communications 25 Finsbury Circus London EC2M 7AB 020 5914 8239 info@embosscommunications.com
CONTENTS
C L I E N T A N A LY S I S S W O T A N A LY S I S PROMOTION CONCEP T SA M P L E I M AG E RY P R E S S L AU N C H E V E N T PRESS RELEASE
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C L I E N T A N A LY S I S
Founded in 2008 by French brothers Laurent, Alexandre and Raphael Elicha, The Kooples is a high end brand which made a €30 million turnover in 2014 and manages 850 employees worldwide. The Kooples is primarily aimed at couples, selling men’s and women’s wear at prices of up to £500 per item. The chic, androgynous designs are influenced by British tailoring and rock fashion, and many items are designed to be interchangeable between men and women. The brand has followed the same advertising campaign since its foundation; photographing couples of varying ages and ethnicities in black and white and noting how long the couple have been together for on the image. Raphael Elicha as the brands primary photographer has achieved the consistent style of photography. The consistency of the brands ethos and marketing strategy indicates that the brand has a loyal consumer base that have responded well to the brand’s identity so far. In 8 years, The Kooples has opened 396 stores across the globe including 48 in America and 321 in Europe. Although high end, The Kooples is not a luxury designer brand and therefore does not showcase it’s clothing in a traditional runway setting. Instead, emphasis is put on the architecture and visual merchandising of it’s stores, with a section of the brands website dedicated to showing the main stores architecture.
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S W O T A N A LY S I S
STRENGTHS: - Consistent visual brand identity. - Unique brand concept. - Commercially successful despite short time since foundation. - Loyal consumer base (as evidenced by their commercial success and consistent marketing strategy). - Global reach and consumer base.
WEAKNESSES: - A relatively niche brand that is yet to emerge at the forefront of the industry and marketplace. - The brand has received some negative reactions to their continued use of real animal furs. OPPORTUNITIES: - The Kooples Sport demonstrated potential for expansion into a wider range of product lines. - Celebrity models have been used in the past, which received positive response from the media and consumers. - The Couples has not yet had a same sex couple at the forefront of one of their campaigns; this is an opportunity for drawing in a new group of customers and diversifying the brand image.
T H R E AT S : - No notable brand developments in recent years. - Heavy promotion may be needed to reignite interest in the brand. - The brands lack of diversity in sexuality and body shape are the last hurdles for their diversity efforts.
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PROMOTION CONCEPT
For AW17, The Kooples will release a limited edition collection of men’s and womenswear in collaboration with celebrity couple Stella Maxwell and Kristen Stewart. Working with the brand’s regular team of designers and manufacturers, the couple will each design a twelve piece line, influenced by their own personal style and The Kooples’ archives. The items will be unisex in nature so as not exclude 50% of customers and to promote gender fluidity. PR provided by Emboss Communications. Maxwell and Stewart will model the collection under the creative direction of Raphael Elicha, following the brand’s iconic campaign theme with tagline ‘Stella and Kristen have been a couple for two years’. The lines price point would be elevated a little above the normal store lines, in order to reflect the limited edition nature of the collaboration and would be stocked in selected stores across the world, with emphasis on America and Europe. In terms of promotion, The Kooples will advertise on their website, commission online advertising space, and send information to customers on their mailing list. The nature of the collaboration will inspire editorial and media coverage across a range of publications, reaching a wide audience. Additionally the brands social media team, and the personal accounts of Maxwell and Stewart will promote the collaboration.
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LA MAISON BLANCHE
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PRESS LAUNCH EVENT
On the 20th of August 2016, The Kooples will host an evening at the Maison Blanche restaurant in Paris to showcase it’s first collaboration, STELLA MAXWELL AND KRISTEN STEWART FOR THE KOOPLES. The evening takes place two nights before the collection is released in stores, with the intention of creating excitement for the collection and reigniting the publics interest in the brand. The Maison Blanche is a chic and modern restaurant which compliments the aesthetic of the collection and reflects the habits of a typical The Kooples customer. The event will begin at 7pm, as guests are invited onto the restaurants warm and softly lit rooftop terrace for drinks, before going inside for dinner at 7.30pm from the restaurants evening menu. After dinner guests will be invited to return to the terrace for the collection’s unveiling at 9pm, with speeches from Maxwell, Stewart and the Elicha brothers. Thereon, guests are free to shop the collection and enjoy music and drinks for the rest of the evening and the event ending at midnight. Alongside hosts Maxwell, Stewart and the Elicha brothers, the guestlist will include industry professionals to encourage editorial and journalistic coverage, as well as an array of celebrity ‘kooples’ and encourage further media coverage. This will include journalists and photographers from international publications such as Elle, L’Officiel, Marie Claire, Numero and Vogue. Celebrity couples will include Clemence Poesy and Emeric Glayse, Alexa Chung and Alex Skarsgard, Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield and Tanya Burr and Jim Chapman. Guests who have not been invited as part of a couple will be given plus ones, in order to maintain the ‘The Kooples’ theme. Additionally, all guests will receive personalised gift bags, including items from the collection, gifts from sponsors of the collaboration and a limited edition lookbook of the collection, signed by Maxwell and Stewart.
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S T E L L A M A X W E L L & K R I S T E N S E WA R T F O R T H E K O O P L E S Monday 22nd August 2016 will see the release of Stella Maxwell and Kristen Stewart’s limited edition collaboration line with The Kooples. In selected stores across the globe, the 24 piece unisex collection will be available, offering a more raw and dramatic interpretation of The Kooples’ normal lines.
PRESS RELEASE
Since it’s foundation, The Kooples has refined it’s visual identity and today presents androgynous and chic clothing designed to transcend age, gender or ethnicity. Stella and Kristen have both represented iconic luxury fashion brands due to their bold personal styles, and are now using their own identities to create their own clothing in the well loved style of The Kooples. Stella said that “design felt like the next natural step forward in our relationship with fashion.” The couple have each designed 12 pieces for the collection, ranging from accessories to outerwear, using the same high quality materials expected from The Kooples, including cruelty free fur. Stella and Kristen used The Kooples’ archives to inspire their work, embracing every aspect of the design process. Kristen felt that “seeing the finished line was surreal; a hybrid of my own wardrobe and what we all know from The Kooples”. The chemistry between the couple and The Kooples was felt by the entire team, with Alexandra Elicha saying “We weren’t looking for a celebrity collaboration, we saw Stella and Kristen and the idea of the collaboration grew from there”. Raphael Elicha, on shooting the campaign said, “I’ve photographed both actors and real couples since our first campaign, but Stella and Kristen project an intimacy that results in a beautifully effortless image.” The collection will be launched in Paris on the 20th August to a host of fashion industry professionals and celebrity icons. Visit thekooples.co.uk then to see the full collection before it’s available in stores. ENDS Notes to Editors: - The range is priced between £70 - £600. - Refer to www.thekooples.co.uk/stellaandkristen/stores for full list of stockists. Download press images: http://pressimages.ksk.ac.uk In association with:
For further information contact: info@embosscommunications.com
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