Ben Sherman – Reviving A Classic Brand Through Experience

Suffering a hangover from the 90s when Britpop was in its heyday & Ben Sherman was the epitome of British ‘Lad Style’, the brand has long been in need of a new way to tell its story having been consigned to rails of discount stores such as TK Maxx* for the best part of the noughties.

I’ve been really excited to see the first of their new store formats in London & New York in the last few months, which appear to be a key part of a significant brand repositioning strategy.  Personally I’ve always written the brand off as something that wasn’t aimed at me but on noticing these stores lately I’ve been really impressed.

The stores look great inside and out – my favourite feature is “The Shirt Bar” where you can choose your perfect shirt based on pattern, fit and collar style.   As the shirt has always been their staple item this feature sits comfortably as the cornerstone of the new store experience.

The rest of the designs in the store also look great – I found myself looking at other items that I never would have considered before.   There’s a real sense of a total rethink to the brand experience by revisiting the original design values from their past and baking these back into the ranges & how they’re presented in the new stores.

It’s certainly changing my perceptions of the brand and in a recent conversation with a marketer from another fashion retailer in need of a rethink he cited Ben Sherman as a brand who are successfully redefining who they are through taking a radical look at their brand experience.

* Or T.J.Maxx for our U.S readers!