How to Sustainably Upscale Your Brand

Image: Patagonia Islandic Winter Jacket

Corporate Challenge: Can a company’s brand move up-market without a costly M&A?

Ironbound Strategy:  Brands can move up-market if they create value forcustomers, employees, and society.  Without creating value in these three core areas, the brand will lose more customers than it might gain.

Ironbound Action: Ventura California based Patagonia made an ecological choice to stop making their products using cotton due to its necessity of pesticide use.  The substitute was organic cotton which is costly to grow.  Almost all Patagonia apparel doubled in price by switching to sustainable materials.  Patagonia chose to create value for society, and the brand acquired new upscale customers that helped the company grow faster.  Millennials are also choosing ecological brands, a segment that Patagonia is expected to dominate.