BRAND BOOK
The beginning of a new journey Gentlemen, welcome to the world of 1973, the latest master-stroke of Pepe Jeans London. In this book you will learn not only learn about the great heritage of our mother brand but over all about us: who we are, what and how we do it and why. Imagine you are a tourist in a red double decker bus – not one of the annoying once with socks in sandals but one of the very cool once that makes others turn their head: all you have to do is to lean back and enjoy our tour from the London in the early 70s, over Amsterdam in the present to our global future. Bon voyage!
Table of contents Pepe Jeans London now and then 1973 - 6
Close-up of our mother brand 1973 - 8
[Reaching] Our target group 1973 - 10
The idea behind 1973 1973 - 12
Sustainable commitment 1973 - 14
Visual style guide 1973 - 16
Divining the future 1973 - 18
Pepe Jeans London now and then Pepe Jeans London is one of the world‘s leading denim brands in the middle market segment and looks back to a long history that the brand embraces, staying true to its core values London, young, cool. The beginnings of Pepe Jeans London take us back to London‘s district Notting Hill in the early 70s. After gaining experience as a commission agent selling jeans, Nitin Shah established together with his brothers Arun and Milan their own company Solemay Ltd. Starting off as a week-end stand under a bridge at the eccentric Portobello Road Market, the three Shah brothers soon gained recognition and expanded their business. Four stalls on different markets across London were followed by the two first stores in Kings Road and the hip Carnaby Street. By the 1980s Pepe had gained European prominence and started competing with the big US brands.
In the following decade Pepe celebrated its launch in India as well as numerous store openings in European countries such as Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands. After establishing itself on the global market, Pepe widened its repertoire in the early 2000s with the launch of a kids wear line and the Andy Warhol collection in 2007 which was initially meant as a capsule collection but has become due to its great success a permanent line. In 2010 the brand‘s first flagship store opened in Rome and two years later Pepe launched its global online store, reaching an even greater audience. On the occasion of the brand‘s 40th anniversary, Pepe presented in 2013 new concept stores in European metropolis such as Barcelona, Madrid and Paris. Paying tribute to the brand‘s roots, they showcase a modern interpretation of the Portobello Market and offer a custom studio where the clients can personalize their purchases.
1973 - 6
Close-up of our mother brand Our research revealed a clear divergence between the image Pepe Jeans London strives to convey and its effectiveness. From being a cutting-edge brand, Pepe has acquired despite being yet successful, in the past years a rather unexciting image which puts it in a row with any other jeans brand. This has over all an effect on the brand‘s target audience. While Pepe Jeans aims originally at young fashionable men and women, aged 15-25, the brand‘s real audience is with an age of 30-35 older and thus following a different lifestyle than internalized by Pepe. Following its corporate values, the brand‘s advertising campaigns propagate the young, casual-cool London street feel. Although the campaigns‘ style is rather monotonous, Pepe succeeds hereby by committing popular British celebrities such as Sienna Miller, Alexa Chung or lately Cara Delevigne.
Besides maintaining its presence on the common social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, Pepe Jeans London launched with cooltery.com a lifestyle website and app that informs about fashion and culture. What becomes in the end, despite the adequate Marketing effort, the undoing of Pepe Jeans and failure to convey the desired message, is the missing meaningfulness behind its actions; starting from the fairly ordinary, preppycool product assortment with selected on-trend pieces and leading on to the brand‘s retail environment. Our conclusion: Looking back to a great history and literally implying the varied, creative metropolis London, Pepe Jeans London misses using this great potential by staying on the safe side instead of daring to stand out of the crowd. And this is were we come into play...
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[ Reaching] our target audience Aiming for a higher market segment, 1973 by Pepe targets the creative successful family man, aged 35-50. Based on our field and desk research, we introduce Eelco as a representative of our target audience: Eelco is 45 years old, married and the father of two teenagers. The owner of a graphic design agency is a cosmopolitan, hard-working person that is passionate about his proficiency, yet easy-going, humorous and down-toearth. Following his creative ambition, he enjoys visiting art exhibitions and design fairs in his free time as well as good food and spending time with his family. Eelco does not shop very often but if he does he is willing to pay a higher price for good quality and unique pieces that fit his modern look with a funny twist. He is loyal to brands such as Hugo Boss, G-Star, Levi‘s and Paul Smith. Although he is digitalized and frequently on the web, he does not shop online but visits physical stores, motivated by the explicit need to buy a certain
product. Knowing what he is looking for and where to find it, he shops preferably alone but attaches high importance to guarded, competent service. How we reach our target group? Especially for our launch, we want to corporate with art and design magazines and websites such as Wallpaper and designboom.com to call the attention of our potential customers. Print campaigns will be published in magazines such as GQ or Esquire to draw a bigger scope in. As our target group is frequently online and uses social media to a certain extent, we will make in addition to our corporate website use of platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to inform our customers about the latest collections, give background information about our exhibitions as well as a peek behind the scenes of 1973. Staying true to our creative ambition and to make us stand out of the crowd, we will employ in addition Guerrila marketing tools such as giving bus stops a make-over according to our taste, so watch out! 1973 - 10
The idea behind 1973 Our sub-brand 1973, combines Pepe Jeans‘ London origin with the creative ambition of the British capital. 1973 offers a sophisticated shopping experience for the successful creative family man, aged 35-50, in a space where art and fashion meet. Aiming at the cultural interest and know-how of our target audience, we pay tribute to British art by hosting quarterly exhibitions in the store that showcase the work of renowned artists such as Damien as well as up and coming talents. Our objective is to provide a unique, pleasant setting for our customers that invites to shop as well as just to tarry and enjoy a cultural forum. Inspired by the beginnings of our mother brand and the typical underground London edge, an industrial framework sets the tone for our flagship. A subtle roughness meets a timelessly elegant colour palette to create an exclusive yet understated environment that meets the taste of our target audience.
While the over all look of our store is rather subdued, our dressing rooms take you back to the colourful 70s where our story started. Our research revealed that the men of creation are not the grumpy shoppers they are esteemed, they just follow a more pragmatic approach: their shopping behaviour is driven by an explicit need that wishes to be fulfilled in a straightforward process. While looking for a precise item, once they enter the shop they are open to buy into a complete look. Embracing these insights, easy navigation and accessibility became our priority. Instead of overwhelming our customers, our stores offers a well measured yet diverse selection of casual high-quality designs reminiscent of classy British tailoring with a unique twist and our passion for denim at heart. The centrally positioned display where we present three complete looks to inspire our customers, represent the core of our store. Our well-trained competent service is gladly at the disposal of our customers while allowing unhurried strolling. 1973 - 12
Sustainabile commitment It is only fair to say that our mother brand Pepe Jeans London is not one of the most transparent and committed ones when it comes to sustainability, which is even more reason for us to make a change. As a starting point for our sustainable designs, we have drawn on TRUBLU®, Pepe Jeans‘ most sustainable denim collection to date, launched in 2011. TRUBLU® took action in the fight against water scarcity by using zero chemicals in a water-saving washing process, cooperating with factories that recycle a significant proportion of their water usage and embracing new dry-finish technologies, By adapting and extending this exemplary approach, 1973 by Pepe continues the legacy of TRUBLU®. by adapting and extending this exemplary approach. This is not everything; our scope for sustainable design is much bigger. Always on the look-out for new input, we took notice of the crowdfounding project Dirtball which aims to produce 100% eco-friendly denim wear, made out of organic cotton that is combined with Polyester gained from recycled water bottles.
Of course we could not resist teaming up with these genius minds and to spin the thread even further. Inspired by our flea market origin, we recycle vintage jeans that meet our quality standards and transform them into fresh, sustainable styles by combining them with organic cotton sourced under fair conditions from India. We take social responsibility: our aim is to integrate, as soon as the local conditions allow it, Middle-Eastern countries such as Syria into our sourcing process. Our sustainable thread runs further to our retail environment. Our Amsterdam flagship generates its energy through solar cells installed on the roof. Hardly credible, considering the fact we are talking about Northern Europe but it is true. If we reuse vintage garments, why not do the same with building materials? Perfectly possible that you have already encountered our copper pipes, the chipboard of our shelves or our concrete cash desk somewhere else before in another form. Last but not least, our shopping bags, tags and lookbooks use 100% recycled paper. 1973 - 14
Our visual style guide Corporate logo Our basic logo is simple: a black stroke on a white or light coloured background. The logo will be used on items that require specific readibility like our shop windows or online contents.
Our logo is also used in a medium shade of grey to create a more subtle look. However, the grey version will be used on less occassions like certain tags and labels because of its limited readability.
By Pepe Jeans London
By Pepe Jeans London
19 19 19 73 73 73
By Pepe Jeans London
Vertical logo design Our second, vertical logo is used on product tags and packaging supplies. It represents our social media icon and thumbnail for our corporate website. The three presented colour schemes are our basis but depending on the respective usage, other colours may be applied to make the logo stand out.
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Colours
C0 M0 Y0 K53 Medium Grey
C0 M0 Y0 K100 Black
C14 M69 Y79 K21
C0 M0 Y0 K100 White
Copper
Inspired by the look and feel of our concept and retail environment, our basic colours are different shades of grey from light to anthracite, black, copper and white. They convey a warm yet industrial and masculine feel. The colours are not to be mixed but used seperately.
Typeface Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz 0124567890 @#$%&
Main font: Pump EF Light A seventies-inspired font, with bold details and an overall balanced feel.
Sub-font: Kavaler Kursive, the signature Pepe scribble.
1973’s body text is Gill Sans MT a straight-forward legible font is easy on the eye. It contrasts nice and balanced way with our logo type.
Light: that in a bold
Tagline
The story continues...
Just like our name, our tagline relates back to the beginning of Pepe Jeans London. Going back to the roots, we continue writing its story by opening with 1973 a new chapter. The tagline is Gill Sans Light (italic) to give it a slightly more romantic look while staying to our contemporary approach. 1973 - 17
Divining the future As a sub-brand of Pepe Jeans London, it would have only been natural to open our first flagship store in London but we love doing things differently, that is why we choose Amsterdam for our launch. The beautiful Dutch capital does not only share the amazing weather conditions with our beloved home-town but a similar vibe between eccentric nostalgia and progressiveness. What convinced us eventually the most, is Amsterdam‘s great creative and cultural scene which represents the perfect breeding ground for our concept. As a location, we choose the Utrechtsestraat; a charming shopping street with a great amount of unique cafes and boutiques that is located within the centre of Amsterdam and yet off the mainstream. Provided the success of our flagship, we will expand in the two coming year into the European market, starting with store openings in London, Paris, Berlin and Milan. These stores will follow with the necessary adoptions, the same industrial setting and product presentation schemes predetermined by the flagship.
The roll-out stores will not serve as exhibition spaces per se but reproduce the feel through corresponding Visual Merchandising means. Already in 2016, we want to establish links to on- and offline retailers worldwide. Our shop-in-shop sections in department stores such as KaDeWe Berlin, Macy‘s New York and Printemps Paris will display the industrial up-scale look and feel of our original concept in its very essence. On time for the Christmas sales, we will launch our international E-store. We will start the year 2017 by opening our second flagship store in London. Our focus for the two coming years is to open physical mono-brand and store-in-stores in the USA and across the Asian continent, including cities such as Bangalore in India, Tokyo in Japan and Dubai in the U.A.E. By 2020 we expect to have established a close-meshed international network for 1973 by Pepe. And now if you would please excuse us, we have some work to do...
1973 - 18