Coach President: From Frustrated Civil Servants To Tens Of Millions Of Salaries

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The "obsolete" label is facing the crisis of being eliminated by the market. Now that it has grown into a lifestyle brand that sells more than 5 billion dollars a year, Coach's revival has once been regarded as a legend by Wall Street, and Lew Frankfort is the Coach (coach) who leads Coach to achieve this legend.

Over thirty years as president, Frankfort rescued the US brand from leather household workshops, leading a series of brand strategic pformation and brand positioning, and developed Coach into the largest handbag maker in the United States.

The "luxury goods" or "affordable luxuries" that we often hear today are the first concepts put forward by this coach.

Now the coach is retiring in November and no longer serves as Coach director.

The legend that Frankfort leads Coach is also the process of writing his legendary life. Until he becomes President of Coach, whose income is tens of millions of dollars, Frankfort is always humble and sincere, which stems from his poor childhood and late career career.

"My

Late at night, when I was 50 years old, sixteen years after joining the Coach, my family's total assets were only $two million.

At that time, I thought, if I could leave ten million dollars for my children, it would be great. "

Frankfort told reporters.

Frankfort is a man with a strong sense of crisis.

Faced with the difficulties of Coach and the pressure from shareholders, he never concealed his fears or even panic.

He likes to talk with people about his nightmares, dream of his failure and return to the government relief room when he was a child.

However, humility can not hide ambition, nor is sincerity mistaken for weakness. Coach shareholders have always trusted him.

Today's "Fashion interview notes" takes everyone to review how the coach has made Coach and himself.

President of government relief house

Frankfort was poor from his family. He grew up in the government relief room, but he was smart, diligent and ambitious.

However, workplace development is not smooth sailing.

After graduating from Columbia business school, Frankfort worked for a year without a sense of achievement, and then came to the New York municipal government as a civil servant.

For ten years, the civil servants finally got frustrated because of their promotion and frustration.

In 1979, Frankfort was introduced to the founder of Coach by his friends.

At that time, Coach's first designer, Bonnie Cashin, had left Coach for five years.

Bonnie Cashin is also important in the history of Coach.

In 1941, the predecessor of Coach, the Manhattan leather goods company, was just a small family workshop of leather goods made up of six craftsmen. It mainly produces men's wallets, which are strong and practical, and have nothing to do with fashion.

In the early 60s, the boss of the Manhattan leather goods company looked forward to the future of the lady's handbag, so she invited Bonnie Cashin to be a designer.

Almost at that time, the company changed its name to Coach.

Under the leadership of Bonnie Cashin, Coach has made bold innovations in handbags, designed a series of practical and popular leather bag styles, and created many classic brass locks and lock buckles.

However, when Bonnie Cashin left the Coach, it was at that time Frankfort was ordered to join the Coach in 1979.

Frankfort, who joined Coach, showed his hard working enthusiasm.

As vice president of new business development department, he actively develops multi-channel sales mode.

Before that, Coach was only sold in department stores. In 1980, Frankfort made its first album of paintings. In 1981, he opened the first store to open up the trend of other brands in the United States.

In 1985, Coach was bought by a company named Sara Lee, and its sales revenue rose from $19 million to $500 million. At this point, Coach went through the first period of rapid development and became one of the leading brands of leather and handbags in the United States.

In 1988, Frankfort also led Coach into the Japanese market, laying the foundation for brand internationalization.

Crisis caused by big names

But not for long.

In the early 90s, brands such as LV, GUCCI and PRADA began to rally. After reform, they launched a large number of fashionable handbags, occupying a large part of the market share.

At that time, Coach was still producing leather, heavy and strong lawyer briefcase, and gradually lost the favor of consumers.

In 1995, Frankfort, who formally took over the brand, realized the crisis. He had to respond quickly to changes in the market. The brand image of Coach was also in a bottleneck at that time. Once a fashionable brand was tagged with outdated labels, it would be eliminated by the market.

In 1996, Frankfort hired Reed Krakoff, the cutting-edge designer who worked in Tommy Hilfiger, as the creative director of the brand.

In an interview, Tommy Hilfiger recalled that he told Frankfort at the time, "Reed will be Tom Ford of Coach."

Tom Ford turned over Gucci salted fish in those days, and later proved that Frankfort was right.

Coach handbags began to adopt new materials and launch new designs to re create fashionable and feminine images.

Compared with the real cortex, handbags with woven fabric as raw materials greatly reduce the cost and increase the profit margin of the company.

It is also from this period that Frankfort began to locate Coach in "accessible luxury", also known as "affordable luxury". On the one hand, it created a high-end image, and on the other hand, it took the price of relative people at the expense of the people. In the United States, it adopted the mode of "zero sale shop" and "factory store" (also called discount store) to develop together, which quickly reversed the previous unfavorable situation and attracted a large number of customers.

After that, Coach's product line is also moving from single to multiple, from handbags to shoes, scarves and watches.

In November 2006, Coach launched its jewelry series for the first time. In March 2007, it launched a perfume series with Estee Lauder.

Like all other luxury brands, Coach uses a wealth of product choices to enhance customer stickiness.

In 2006, 2007, and 2008 Frankfort, for Coach's amazing performance, went on the top 30 list of the world's best CEO lists for BARRON 'S, with Murdoch, Buffett and Jobs, and of course, the cover of American financial and fashion magazines.

China

Balancing the relationship between brand image and business interests, while increasing revenue and increasing market share, and ensuring that the luxury brand names will not fade, is a major test for Coach.

Compared with the history of 100 years of luxury brands such as LV or Hermes, Coach, which was born in 1941, can only be regarded as a "small character generation". It was born in the United States. Compared with other European brands, it seems to lack the innate superiority of "noble blood".

Despite the disapproval of the name "Coach" which is "easy to get luxury", it is an indisputable fact that Coach, which was publicly listed in October 2000, rose from $8.3 to $30.58 in the first 5 years of December 31, 2007, rising 268.43% and ranking first among many luxury goods manufacturers.

After the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis, the retail industry in the United States showed a downward trend overall. But in the first quarter of fiscal year 2008 (-9 July 1, 2007, 30), the sales volume of Coach also increased by 28% over the same period last year.

In the 2007 fiscal year (July 1, 2006 -2007 June 30th), sales revenue increased by 28.37%, more than $2 billion 600 million, and in 2001, the figure was only $700 million.

With the rapid growth of Coach brand itself, the "light extravagance" represented by Coach is devouring the site of "old luxury" in the past, advocating "aristocratism", making the "fine culture" more widely permeated into the mass consumption class.

At that time, Frankfort was acutely grasping the huge market opportunities hidden in Asia, especially the middle class in China.

In May 30, 2007, the first leather bag on the New York Stock Exchange and the flagship store (Code: COH) officially opened in Hongkong. The location of the shop is the starting point of the Hongkong fashion landmark Lan Kwai Fong, and this will also be the starting point for his broader mainland market.

Frankfort is actively creating an Asian production base and formulating corresponding strategies. As of June 28th this year, Coach has 153 stores in Greater China (including Mainland China, Hongkong, China and Macao), of which 134 are located in 53 cities in mainland China.

Coach marketers have to do a lot of customer surveys every year to get consumers' true feelings about the products. The design style has changed the conservative image of the past, and new products have been launched every month to cater to people's new and old consumption habits.

As a result, Coach has been an advantage in the North American market, but now the company has reached a crossroads. In the face of the rise of us competitors and the current situation of the US economy, Coach's performance in North America has been declining continuously and gradually losing its absolute advantage, and the brand has recently started to re start its pformation to locate "modern luxury".

The performance of the Chinese market now stands out for the Coach world. Sales in the 2014 fiscal year increased by 25% to $545 million, while sales in the same store also increased by two digits.

Today, when Lew Frankfort is 35th anniversary in Coach, he is known as Coach's second founder and Coach CEO Victor Luis. He said: "Lew Frankfort's contribution to the company is immeasurable. Under his leadership, Coach created a handy luxury handbag and accessories in North America.