Yet even here Tommy stood out. The company's booth -- a two-story stucco island home with pastel shutters, weathered floor tiles, and a veranda with painted railings -- evoked the Danish architecture of St. Thomas. It was decorated with vintage luggage and barrels of bananas and coconuts and pictures of sailboats. Fans whirred below the tin ceilings.
An air of triumph hung over the festive bungalow. The partners had recently sold a minority stake to Saunders Karp & Megrue, a private-equity firm based in Stamford, Conn., for more than five times earnings, with the company remaining under its founders' management. It's ironic that a brand born out of a beach-house fantasy of abandoning the rat race has served only to pleasantly complicate the lives of Margolis, Emfield, and Dalla Gasperina. Indeed, the three entrepreneurs have big plans on the drawing board. They picture a Tommy Bahama hotel and golf resort. Emfield gets giddy when he envisions the lobby, complete with a Tommy swimwear shop and a Tommy golf shop and another with more formal clothing and a couple of Tommy restaurants. (The partners announced at one point this year that they had found a location in Fort Lauderdale, but those plans fell through.)
The guys also dream in grandiose fashion about opening a Tommy Bahama marina and filling it with boats bearing the Tommy Bahama signature. And a parking lot filled with SUVs bearing the same name, like the Coach Lexus and Eddie Bauer Ford Expedition that were popular a few years ago. Among more practical plans: international sales. Also, last spring the company began spending significantly on national magazine advertising. Tommy ads feature a handsome, silver-haired male model from northern California, who was chosen after a national casting call. He is now the face of Tommy Bahama, the literal embodiment of the brand. The ads have run in upscale, vacation-friendly magazines like Vanity Fair, Yachting, Travel & Leisure Golf, Esquire, and Town & Country. What's more, the company is investing $2 million in sports sponsorships. In the past two years, Tommy Bahama has backed a Trans-Am race car, a two-man sailing team, and a high-speed catamaran. (The perks of sponsorship are evident: Tommy executives get to hang out at the races.)
Blue jeans are also coming to the Tommy party. Adjacent to the Tommy booth at Magic was another booth, distinctive yet Tommylike. Indigo Palms by Tommy Bahama, the signs read. Indigo Palms is the first new brand that the Viewpoint founders have created in seven years, though it isn't as much a risky new entity as it is a Tommy Bahama spin-off. "This is something I've been pushing for for years," Emfield says. "Most of the woven stuff in my closet is from Tommy: the solid tops, the T-shirts, and the woven bottoms, which are the best in the world. But all of my jeans are from other manufacturers. So the next thing to do is own the jeans space in my closet."
Starting Indigo Palms may help the partners recapture the energy of the art of branding, making the repetitious activities of the science of brand management easier to bear. Not that the management component isn't more crucial than ever. "The biggest temptation for people who have created a brand is to think that they've already gotten everything right," says Koehn. "These guys have to hire the right stewards for the brand and also build an organizational structure that is as disciplined as they are as leaders."
Koehn adds that this is the moment at which truly great branding companies ramp up their efforts to learn what their customers think and feel about the brand. With more stores, more advertising, and more awareness, Tommy the brand has become tangible. Many people think they know who Tommy is. At the same time, customers' needs change. The challenge for Margolis, Emfield, and Dalla Gasperina is to stay true to Tommy but also continue to offer customers something they want. It's a tricky balance. But the partners recognize that their brand will evolve. "The Tommy of 2002 is different from the Tommy of 1992," Emfield says. "He's aging just like us."
Mike Hofman is a senior staff writer at Inc.
Tommy's Rules of Branding
PRODUCT DESIGN: "A brand cannot exist without a good product or service," brand expert Nancy Koehn says. To that end, Tommy designers spend less time devising cool tropical patterns for their clothes and more time on the feel of the fabric, the silhouette, and details like buttons and zippers. Today solid-color garments make up 70% of the Tommy high-quality-apparel business, thwarting knockoff artists who tried to ape Tommy by designing cheap cotton Hawaiian shirts.
ICONOGRAPHY: A sailfish, the word relax, a jazzy palm tree. To underscore the many facets of the brand, Tommy designers employ many different logos rather than a ubiquitous image like Nike's swoosh.
DISTRIBUTION: The more exclusive, the better. And don't let multistore chains put your products in every venue, the Tommy philosophy goes. If only 2 of 50 stores are genuinely up to snuff, then stick with them.
MERCHANDISING: A wide variety of products displayed together provides shoppers with more information about your brand. But make sure the products are arranged neatly and are well maintained. For example, late in the evening at the Tommy shop in Las Vegas, a store clerk could be found busily steaming the wrinkles out of all of the silk shirts on the retail floor.
LICENSING: Tommy executives monitor the company's licensees carefully. New product designs are reviewed in the New York City office. And licensees regularly attend meetings with the company's licensing director.
ADVERTISING: Print ads are expensive, so don't buy them just for the hell of it. Tommy marketers use ads to build on the brand. This past fall's campaign ads feature "winter beach walk" apparel and are tailored to boost sales in Tommy's off-season. The advertising includes women's clothing to underscore that, yes, Tommy makes clothes for women, too. And the ad's use of understated earth tones plants the notion that Tommy is more than just loose-fitting shirts emblazoned with hibiscus and fruity cocktails.
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