How to Successfully Upscale a Brand

Image: Cuffy’s of Cape Cod

Corporate Challenge: A company wants to successfully move its products up-market.

Ironbound Strategy: Luxury retailers can sell goods at a discount, but discount retailers cannot successfully sell goods at luxury prices.  In order to move up-market, a retailer needs to create an overwhelming and unprecedented amount of value forcustomers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: In 1980, Cuffy’s of Cape Cod sold misprinted t-shirts out of a car, and today it is the largest clothing retailer on Cape Cod. The secret to Cuffy’s success to move up-market came from their commitment to create an overwhelming amount of value for their customers, employees, and society. Marketing professionals may cite their textbooks that it is nearly impossible to successfully move a brand up-market. However, customers will always positively react when a brand goes out of their way to create more value for customers. By constantly creating value for customers, employees, and society, a brand can use their rapid growth to move to new market spaces.