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Ad Age Marketer's Brief
How to go from product-first to culture-led marketing, with Samsonite's VP of marketing
00:20:53
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- [00:08]
A
Samsonite has been around for over 115 years, long enough that younger consumers have come to see it as their parents luggage brand. That's both the challenge and increasingly an opportunity. The company is now betting that its heritage isn't a liability, but a foundation and is looking to connect with new consumers through lifestyle and culture marketing instead of product specs. On this week's Marketers Brief podcast, David Oxman, VP of marketing and direct to consumer at Samsonite, unpacks the strategy behind the brand's latest campaign starring Olivia Culpo, a social first push that blends travel, food, culture and aspirational lifestyle storytelling. He also explains how Samsonite is competing with D2C brands like Away and Base, and offers a pointed piece of advice for other heritage brand marketers. Before we begin, I want to call your attention to a new awards program, Ad Age's Mid Sized Brand Leaders Honors Senior in house marketing leaders making a difference at mid market brands, typically companies with $50 million to $1 billion in annual revenue. Does this sound like you or someone you know? Find out more, including how to enter@adage.com midsizeleaders and now here, here's my conversation with David. All right, well, David, thanks so much for joining me today. Excited to have you on the podcast.
- [01:37]
B
So happy to be here. Great to meet you, Erica.
- [01:39]
A
All right, so let's get into it. So Samsonite recently released a new campaign with Olivia Culpo that is social first. Walk me through both of those decisions. Why did you guys go with Culpo and then why lean into social media?
- [01:54]
B
Absolutely. So our new campaign is really the next chapter of the it's not just a bag, it's a Samsonite campaign. And really that campaign is about leaning into our brand as more than just luggage. It's about a whole lifestyle as it relates to travel. And Olivia Culpo is just the perfect reflection of the consumer we're trying to reach. She is part of culture, she loves to travel. And honestly, part of it is that she's a foodie, which is so important to so many of travelers that we're targeting with this campaign. So she's just the perfect fit for us. On top of that, in terms of being social first, you know, I almost call social is like discovery marketing now, right? It's, this is where consumers aren't just going for to see what their friends are doing. They're discovering brands, they're figuring out sort of what they might want in terms of product discovery. And really it's, it's transforming the way we're thinking about our funnel overall.
- [02:53]
A
So Samsonite has been around for over a century. So I know you guys have high awareness, I think you have high trust. But I know that there maybe is a little bit of like, how do we convince younger consumers, like, this is not your parents travel brand. I know that the company, you guys had a campaign of like, not your parents, you know, suitcase. So talk to me about the new campaign that you mentioned that you want this, like foodies and travelers. Why do this new campaign now? And talk to me a little bit more about who do you want it to resonate with?
- [03:26]
B
Sure. So, yeah, you know, we're a. We're a brand with great heritage. And I really view our heritage not as the ceiling for the brand, but the foundation for the brand, you know, for being around for over 100 years. That doesn't happen by playing safe. Right. It happens through the innovation that Samsonite has really stood for over the past hundred years. So really, in terms of reaching a younger consumer, it's just reflecting psychographically, you know, what they care about. Right. So lifestyle bags. Anytime you leave your front door, you know you're moving. And the Samsonite brand has an incredible collection of products, whether it is for air travel, but also to commute with, to go to the gym, you know, when you're out with your family. And this campaign is sort of a reflection of how you tell that story to multiple generations, truly through the idea of a psychographic versus a demographic.
- [04:22]
A
Gotcha. Okay, so I'm hearing that we're moving maybe a little away from product forward messaging and more into lifestyle driven messaging, which is an interesting shift because it's a suitcase. Right. Most people are like, how big is it? How light is it? Does it fit in the overhead? So what was the. What happened internally? What were you. What was the argument internally of like, we should move to a more of a lifestyle element of the brand. What are maybe things you're leaving behind? You know, in doing that, I mean,
- [04:55]
B
the idea truly is connecting culture and commerce. Right. We are the number one most trusted brand in the category. We have the largest market share. And a lot of that is about the decision making on the product piece, which starts with being known as durable and lightweight. So we're winning there and we're going to continue to focus and invest. But as you come upstream and you think about how travel has changed in people's lives, travel has become a lifestyle in and of itself. You know, people self reflect on what it means to their personal, whether it's well being, whether it's being their best self through discovery and meeting other people. So ultimately, as we bring new consumers into the brand, we need to meet them where they are in culture and where they are with travel, which is really that give and take of bringing them in through self, reflecting on their lifestyle and then showing them the innovation, the durability, the quality that we've always won with.
- [05:54]
A
Let's dig into that a little deeper. Yeah. How do you keep the product credibility piece but also build on that emotional side? Is it the emotional first and then the product durability piece? How do you message around that for sure.
- [06:12]
B
I mean, just like as, you know, consumers, the funnel has been upended. It's not really top down. So some consumers, they're going to start their experience on a great platform like TikTok or they might start their experience on Amazon. And in each of those we're going to give them a very distinct point of view. Our digital shelf content is going to hammer home the innovation in the product. And the innovation in the product is still like helping the lifestyle be its best self. So from the bottoms up side, we're hitting that every day. But from a top down, we're aligning with authentic influencers. We're looking out for cultural signals. We really want to move at the speed of culture and find people who are you in that moment where they need a brand like ours. And I think the, the thing that really hammers it home for me is this is an iconic brand. You know, it's, it's been around for a long time, which is why we don't chase trends. You know, we really. Because at the end of the day, if you do buy luggage from us, you're probably going to have it for quite a few years because it's so durable and long lasting. So our colorways are always going to be beautiful but iconic. They're going to last a long time because we want your relationship with the brand to last that long as well.
- [07:26]
A
Are there other celebrities or other talent? I know so Culpo is the face of this one, but can you give us a sneak peek? Are there some other celebs or influencers that we should look out for with the new campaign?
- [07:37]
B
I mean, we've got a lot of fun things coming. I'm not going to give away all the fun that's coming, but I will say over the past years, we've partnered across different moments in travel lifestyle with Peyton Pritchard, a sports star who is constantly in different cities as part of the Boston Celtics. We did a campaign with John Turturro, famous actor, and how he's moving about New York City and his passion for that city. We partnered with the US Gymnastics team on their journey to the Olympics. So culture collabs, partnerships really are at the center of what we're doing. Chloe Feynman, Saturday Night Live talent. Another, another friend of the brand who we've really put our emphasis and our focus there because we recognize that they self reflect something aspirational for consumer who
- [08:27]
A
we call the iconic explorer for the cold campaign. So you mentioned foodies are one of those things. What were some, what were the, the metrics or the internal data that, that surfaced that to you, how did you guys see, okay, we have travelers and we have food lovers. So we should hit on that.
- [08:45]
B
Absolutely. So it starts with our consumer, like everything does, right. And for us, we call this Samsonite aspirational consumer, the iconic explorer. Right. They're travelers, not tourists. When they go to a city, they want to immerse themselves in the local communities. They want to, you know, eat where the locals eat. They want to experience things in a really unique way. So, so that qual data, a lot of qual and quant that we did in terms of consumer insights and then layering in tons of insights that we capture from, you know, booking.com every year does this amazing trend report that we're constantly looking at. And in that example, we are seeing that travel is becoming mental wellness, it's becoming completely lifestyle based. And even trips for things like food destinations are something that this aspirational consumer is just begging for.
- [09:41]
A
So when you guys move from, you know, here is a durable suitcase to like, here is your feelings about travel, the metrics might get a little softer. Right. In our feeling of something. So how do you all measure what is working in your campaigns? What are you, what are the behaviors or you know, KPIs that you're measuring?
- [10:03]
B
Absolutely. From a culture to commerce perspective, if we, if we start with culture, we're obviously looking at engagement as it's reflected in our social channels. We also have a closeness metric as part of our brain health tracking that's telling us if we are emotionally connecting with the consumer and then we're taking that and reviewing it through the lens of by being closer to the consumer, what are we seeing from an awareness to consideration perspective. And then as you come downstream, are we turning that engagement, are we turning that emotional factor into conversion and sales which are critical across both lifestyle bags as well as the pure luggage side of the business.
- [10:45]
A
Is there a tension between that heritage, that history of the brand and wanting to feel more modern? Is that, does it hinder, does it help? How do you manage that?
- [10:58]
B
No, I think, honestly I think they are one plus one equals three. Because the foundation for the brand has always been innovation. You know, back when the brand started it was truly the best product in the market and we continue to bring that level of innovation and reflect on it. I think if anything, by being consumer centric, which we've been for 115 years as the leader, it really has been about following cues of how the consumer wanted to move. If anything, the biggest difference is people move completely different than they did 115 years ago. And our product has evolved and modernized with them. And now you've got this amazing component where it's also lifestyle. It emotionally connects in this unique way which just enables us to tell our story in a compelling and authentic way to our consumer.
- [11:49]
A
I love talking about like what's changed? So let's stick with that. When you look back, even just in the last couple of years, are there certain things that stand out about how consumer, you know, travelers, how has that changed and like how, how has Samsonite been like, okay, we should, we need to take that into account or this is, we should update the product to include xyz. How do you guys incorporate those consumer behavior changes?
- [12:18]
B
I think the biggest shift has we are extremely lucky because we're in a category. Many categories have become more commoditized and ours has become far more emotionally connected with the consumer. So we're lucky to be in a space where people are doubling down. Gen Z is committed to travel so just their relationship with the product has changed. I actually accepted this role three days before COVID hit. And the cycle of change that happened so quickly where first off people stop flying, right? So you have this brand that's focused on travel and but then slowly people moved a little bit more domestically. It was road trips, right? And then road trips opened up to a little bit of like close knit air traffic. Then you had revenge travel where everyone was going to Italy, everyone was going overseas. And now we're in this interesting moment as you know, like the world is shifting right now where it seems like shorter domestic flights are more sort of in vogue right now. And on top of that people just want the weekender for her, for the occasions that she's moving in to match the carry on and to it all to feel very integrated like everything else she's carrying is. And we're just continuing to Double down on listening. Seeing that shift and making sure that we're providing her with the best products for those experiences is part of it
- [13:42]
A
too, that like the, you know, the feeling that travel is stressful, does that fuel, you know, how you think about the product as well? Of like, okay, well at least like this is going to work and look good doing it kind of a thing,
- [13:55]
B
100%, you know, we make it frictionless. We want to give her the confidence, we want to give him the confidence to travel seamlessly. There's nothing worse than, you know, to your point, if TSA is backed up or there's challenges in your day to day travel, you know, we want everything that you can hold on to, everything that you need to bring with you to be as seamless as possible. There's nothing worse than, you know, if someone breaks a wheel that is, you know, that, that becomes a bigger headache. So we really focus on the most innovative, best quality products to make sure that you have the confidence to move so that you can experience and have the memories that come with travel.
- [14:37]
A
Let me come back to the new Culpo campaign. So, you know, you mentioned that this is a, it's kind of another leg in a larger overarching campaign that you guys are doing. And again, moving more towards this. The lifestyle messaging was there like an inflection moment, I guess. Like what made you guys say we've got the, the product quality is out there and we can now shift to this more emotional culture, forward lifestyle element. I'm curious if like what was like the tipping point or the metrics, something that kind of gave you permission to say we can move kind of more away from the product side and more to that feeling side.
- [15:21]
B
I think over the past five years we've gone through a whole journey of doing segmentation of understanding who this more aspirational consumer is, doing the Qualcomm redefining and elevating our brand look and feel, building an in house agency for content creation, transforming our digital shelf. So I would say this is just a modernization that's been underway for many years. I think the reflection is that we've got the most amazing products. We just need to tell that story through culture in a way that is going to bring her along with us. Because to your point, I think you said early in our discussion we had a campaign that was about travel like your parents, because so many of what we heard was, I know your product is great, my parents always carry it. But once we show this consumer, this Gen Z or this more lifestyle consumer, what we have to offer, it's game over. Like, they're in because they know it's great quality, and now they see how it matches and reflects who they are. So I'd say it has been a constant progression in growth for us to get to this moment with this campaign. And we're super excited to see how Olivia connects with our consumer and how we bring it to life through the campaign.
- [16:44]
A
I want to bring in the competitors here, so I'm thinking of brands like Away and Base who have these lifestyle identities, but they don't necessarily have the legacy or the heritage that Samsonite has. So does that make your job harder or easier? Do you feel like Samsonite is trying to beat them at their own game, or do you feel like we're. We're a different game entirely?
- [17:07]
B
That's a great question. You know, I have a lot of respect for those D2C brands, and I actually give them a lot of credit because I think on the journey of making the category more lifestyle and more. Less commoditized, they've. They've done a great job for. For their sliver, and they're very focused consumer. For us, I really think it comes back to being authentic. We were not trying to do what they're doing. I think as an iconic brand with all this history and heritage that is the most trusted, it really comes down to just authentically telling our story and leveraging this incredible scale that we have by being the market leader. So, again, I think they're doing a great job within their universe, but we're more focused on winning within the playbook and the focus we have for our brand and our consumer.
- [17:58]
A
All right, let's do. I have. This is the advice question. What would your advice to other heritage brand marketers who are maybe looking to breathe new life into their brand? What would you say to them? Where should they start?
- [18:14]
B
Don't be a heritage brand. Be a brand with heritage. I would say I would tell them to really fundamentally understand what makes their brand great through that heritage. And then I would say ensure that you're not too afraid to push the boundaries of how that could look in today's universe and take what's great about where you've been. But at the end of the day, the funnel has changed, the consumer mindset has changed. Break the rules a little bit and push boundaries as it relates to, you know, being the best version of the brand that you can be.
- [18:51]
A
Very nice. All right. And, David, we like to end with. So we know we talk to a lot of marketing leaders on this podcast. So if you could ask a CMO one question, who are you asking and what are you asking them?
- [19:04]
B
Yeah, it's a great question. So for me, I would probably call up Chris Davis at New Balance, CMO of New Balance, a brand that's been through an incredible modernization, moving at the speed of culture, and, you know, we have a lot of respect for what they're doing over there. As an old shoe dog myself, former Reebok executive, and I don't know if you've heard the story, but when they flipped their funnel and they decided they were going to invest more in the upper funnel than the lower funnel, I think that, I don't know if this is 100 true, but it was like there were 18 months where sales went down consecutively and then on month 19, it took off. So I would just love to know what signals he saw that gave them the strength and the focus to push through for over 18 months to get to the other side of that transformation. Because I think it's a really amazing example of modernizing a brand and really doing the hard work that it takes to get to the other side. So I think that'd be my. That'd be my pick. My question.
- [20:16]
A
That was David Oxman, VP of marketing and direct to consumer at Samsonite, and I'm Erica Wheelis, consumer trends reporter here at Ad Age. I'd like to thank our producer, Lauren Ciardio, and invite you to subscribe to the Marketer's Brief. Wherever you get your podcasts, we promise to keep it brief or at least short enough for your morning coffee. Thanks for listening.
- [20:37]
B
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