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If the sight of a Coach bag gives you early-2000s nostalgia, then you’re way behind the pace; the brand has found a growing and dedicated new audience in Gen Z.
For Tapestry, parent company of both Coach and Kate Spade, meeting the customer where they are is foundational to growth. Sandeep Seth, chief growth officer and president, is native to that universe, having served as CMO for Coach. “To me, strategy pans across the four Ps: product, price, place, and promotion,” he said. Seth leads an overall growth plan for the conglomerate and tailors specific ones for Coach and Kate Spade. “If I were to singularly define how growth happens, to me it’s really about understanding a consumer and understanding how our brands fit into their lives,” Seth said. “The work that I did as the CMO for Coach was really unearthing those insights and emotionally connecting with the brand and defining our growth strategy based on how many consumers we want to acquire to deliver that growth.”
Assessing the difference between being a CMO and a chief growth officer, Seth said there isn’t one, as both require a granular focus on the consumer. “Who is the consumer? How many consumers do we need? How do we drive that growth? So to me, all of this fits in together,” he said.
Growing with Gen Z
A core part of Tapestry’s growth strategy is making sure both brands resonate with Gen Z customers. That means specificity, as both have key differentiators: Coach leans into its 84-year-old history of classic Americana, while Kate Spade is known for its whimsical and kitschy collaborations.
Speaking of meeting Gen Z customers where they are, Tapestry’s various marketing initiatives are informed by ethnographic research, which entails going into customers’ homes and looking through their closets. “Very often as brands, it’s easy to fall in love with your own products and start with the product,” he said. In conducting this research, Seth says his team spent up to three hours with each consumer, with the objective of truly understanding their lifestyles and values.
For a brand with a horse and carriage logo, he stresses the importance of relatability to a generation that is perhaps engaging with it for the first time.
“Everyone knows Coach is a great brand,” Seth said. “They’ve seen their mother or their grandmother carry Coach, but they couldn’t relate to it for themselves. We tried understanding what does this mean—like, what needs to change? Something that came out in every in-home [visit] that we’ve done across the US or across the world is the need this generation has for self-expression.”
A cohort of ever-expanding brand ambassadors gives the brand’s north star of self-expression a distinct vehicle; the “Courage to be Real” campaign first launched in 2022 with rapper Lil Nas X and continues to evolve with the likes of Elle Fanning and Jayson Tatum in the latest campaign, “Unlock Your Courage.”
“The entire campaign…was to really bring that emotional attribute of confidence to life through a purpose of ‘Courage to be Real,’” Seth said. “Since then, everything that we’ve done through all the campaigns—but beyond campaigns, even through experiences that we create in our stores, the engagement with the store associates—is really about building on that role of the brand.”
Spade’s strategy
While Coach’s growth is boosting the top line for its parent company—Tapestry’s Q4 earnings report showed the brand’s revenue increased 14% YoY to $1.42 billion—Kate Spade, acquired by Tapestry in 2017, has struggled to hold onto market share, experiencing a revenue loss of 13% to $252.6 million.
Despite contrasting financial performances, Seth says the principles of growth are the same for both entities.
“The logic starts in understanding the consumer, the deeper understanding of what they’re looking for, and the magic is, then what we uniquely do on the brand,” he said.
He said both Kate Spade’s and Coach’s growth strategies utilize the four Ps.
“We’re following the proven Tapestry growth playbook to reset the brand for durable, long-term success,” Seth said. “That means focusing on a single consumer target through a sharpened brand point of view, developing and growing handbag blockbusters that customers love, and maximizing our omnichannel approach so we’re cohesive across every consumer touchpoint.”
Seth’s mantra here is to trust the relationship between logic and magic. Through surveys, Tapestry understands customers are looking for curated and cohesive handbag collections and an easier shopping experience. Then it’s just about finding the right way to win.
For Kate Spade, this consists of tapping into the creativity and expressive nature of Gen Z through playful styles and giving customers the tools to enhance their self-expression.
“We unlock creativity that keeps value-driven consumers coming back while deepening loyalty with our traditional luxury buyers,” Seth said. “When you truly understand your consumer’s authentic self-expression, you don’t just make a sale; you build a relationship that lasts for decades.”