Eyesway reveals Police world
A few days after the official presentation of the new lines by the Police brand, we asked Stefano Bozzo, license marketing director, and Barbara De Rigo, head of the company’s proprietary brands, a few questions not only about the new eyewear, apparel, watches and jewelry proposals, but also about De Rigo’s new communication strategy for the brand.
On questioned about De Rigo’s expectations from the launch of the new apparel line, Stefano Bozzo replied that “For about 5 years now, there has been an ongoing project that we have called Lifestyle. We have divided the brand into different categories which are, in chronological order: perfume, watches, jewelry in steel, small leather goods and apparel. Brand extensions have always aimed at strengthening brand awareness and we have established genuine partnerships with our licensors for design coordination (while maintaining brand identity) and, especially, for investments in marketing. Our entry in the clothing world with Amoda (whose brands include Everlast) was precisely to give the lifestyle project more weight. Because we are aware of the problems involved in entering the clothing sector from the point view of the market and giving the brand the correct values and attributes, we have opted for a “tiptoe” approach and we are still at the fine-tuning stage. For the first year of the launch we focused on image at the 2 editions of Pitti, but this year we worked more on outlets, the web, the magazine and PR.
Bozzo continued by telling us about the reference target for the apparel: “At product level, we have opted for collections with a restricted number of target-specific garments: city men and women of around 25-35 who like clothes that are in line with the street style/metropolitan fashion trend. Fairly figure-hugging jackets that can be worn at any time of the day and always have a distinctive look.
“To date, two of the licenses you mentioned are the ones that are giving the most satisfaction. In 5 years, watches, in particular, have had billings that were, quite honestly, unimaginable at the start. The good work that we are doing can be summed up by the fact that a partner of the caliber of Morellato has taken on the distribution of watches and jewelry for the Italian market.” This was Bozzo’s answer to our question about whether the new jewelry products were, in effect, being as successful as expected. He continued by stating that the extension of the Police brand and other products are having results. “The proof lies in the fact that one of the various objectives of our new communication strategy was to create a single communication for all product categories. This new strategy allows us to coordinate media planning and to increase the visibility of our brand. For example, at the last Mido we launched the new communication campaign for the different product categories in the most strategic positions. The impact was even stronger in the print campaign, where visuals for the eyewear and watches frequently came one after the other and therefore the impact on the consumer was even stronger.”
In conclusion, the marketing director explained that the line of jewelry and watches is not in fact exclusively dedicated to a male audience, as it might seem at a first glance: “At design level, we can say that the proposals for men have more weight, but the market, and Italy in particular, seems to be ready to contradict us. So, I would say that, for the Italian market especially, the collection is a good compromise for both targets. In any case, the proposals for women are gaining increasing ground, particularly for jackets.
Our question about the characteristics of the new eyewear proposals for 2010 was answered by Barbara De Rigo. “The new eyewear collection for 2010 offers a wide range from the fairly classical to high-fashion models. In this collection, the fashion products are never over the top, but always have an excellent balance of shapes and materials that blend to create a product that is very original and, at the same time, highly recognizable: for example, Police 1587 combines an acetate brow in a double-bridge metal frame with a decisive cut. The collection is a kind of "self-quote" and proposes certain concepts of the Police models of the Eighties in a modern key, like the double profile that now comes in different shapes and in a wide color range. Some symbols like the eagle and the shield, which are also a Police legacy of the Eighties, are back in force on the more modern gothic P for a decisive and definitive look also for the more linear models.
De Rigo continued by showing us last season’s results for the kids collection, which was launched last year and is proposed again in 2010: “the KIDS line has been expanded with models with kid-sized adult shapes. The decorative elements in the collection for adults are repeated here. The main differences compared to the adult collection are the colors and a substantial use of polarizing lenses for a top-quality product that is also fashionable. The previous collection had very good results for both sunglasses and prescription glasses: without a doubt, it is a segment that should be developed.”
The last question was about the new “Be Younique” campaign for the Police brand, which has totally abandoned testimonials-celebrities in favor of unique faces from real life. Barbara De Rigo explained that “thanks to sizeable investments in communication and testimonials, the brand is now recognizable and so the new strategy focused more on expressing the values of our brand and making Police the only protagonist in our communication. The sales figures for this year and, above all, the feedback from our customers, the opticians, gave us immediate confirmation, even though we are convinced that the new message will take a little more than one season before it is completely assimilated by the final consumer. Let’s say that we are convinced about a strategy that will take the brand closer to the final consumer, on the one hand, and will support the previously-mentioned lifestyle strategy on the other.
