Attracting Customers with Abundant Diversity

Image: The North Face 

​Corporate Challenge: Making a brand unquestionably cool.

Ironbound Strategy: Celebrating diversity is a phenomenal way of creating value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action:  California based The North Face has been sponsoring extreme expeditions since 1968.  The brand is committed to furthering technology and innovation for athletes who sport in extreme environments, but the brand also wants to be a successful lifestyle brand.  Over the last decade the company chose to sponsor diverse athletes to represent their brand and test futuristic equipment.  Each diversity segment reached has helped The North Face re-position itself from a niche outdoor apparel brand to a successful lifestyle brand.  The more diversity a company embraces, the more it succeeds at shattering goals.

​* This blog article was inspired by extreme alpinist and one-legged climber, Vasu Sojitra, a North Face brand ambassador who summits peaks with the help of crutches, then skis down on one ski.  
 
** The North Face sold itself to VF in 2000 for $25M.  Last FY The North Face had revenues in excess of $360M.
 
*** The outdoor apparel market is $12B, while the lifestyle apparel market is $185B.