Tracy McCourt, vice president of marketing and digital commerce for legendary lingerie and apparel merchant Frederick’s of Hollywood, said the 66-year-old company wanted to revamp its image. Enter the new Harriett brand, which launched Sept. 4.
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“We realized that we had an opportunity to expand our product assortment by developing a luxurious line of lingerie, clothing and accessories,” McCourt said in an email. “Our customer had demonstrated a desire for luxury products, and we also realized that this was another opportunity to prospect new customers with similar needs.”
The Harriett brand is to honor company founder Frederick Mellinger’s wife and longtime muse, Harriett. As it reads on the Harriett Collection site: “To honor the woman behind the man, we’ve created a luxurious, new namesake collection. Harriett is an ode to the love story behind the legend.”
McCourt said the branding component was a simple concept. “We wanted to pay tribute to a great woman who inspired the founder of our company every day of their lives together,” McCourt explained. “Our company is about enhancing women’s everyday lives, inspiring confidence and being empowered, and this is how she inspired Frederick Mellinger, and our brand.”
The Harriett collection of upscale silks, satins and laces will pay homage to Harriett and is inspired by the 1940s era of Hollywood glamour.
The Harriett website is a “completely different visceral experience than what we have ever done before,” McCourt said. “This is a significant step in creating a revitalized brand landscape and customer experience. This is who we are today.”
McCourt said the Harriett collection will be expanded to include ready-to-wear and high-end accessories, including handbags for the holiday season. The target audience for the Harriett collection is women who love luxurious lingerie, clothing and accessories, McCourt added.
The Harriett collection will be a part of 5.5 million 48-page catalogs mailed annually, McCourt said, who referred to the books as brandzines.
The “brandzine” concept is that it is a branded magazine as opposed to a catalog – the latter denoting a one-dimensional selling tool, McCourt explained. But the brandzine concept is more appealing because it engages, educates with more photos and history, brands, and sells, McCourt said
“The brandzine incorporates meaningful content about our brand, about our heritage in Hollywood, and about our products, to create an aspirational and extremely engaging experience in print,” McCourt said.
Jim Tierney ([email protected]) is a senior writer for Multichannel Merchant. You can connect with him on Twitter (TierneyMCM) and LinkedIn, or call him at 203-358-4265.