We have started learning about branding and one of the tasks is to make a presentation about various brands in a group of people. I was never a big fan of fashion myself (although I absolutely admire people who do) so at first, I thought it was a bit unfortunate that my group is supposed to do Fashion. But it, as per usual, turned out to be more interesting than I have expected.
We have chosen one brand each based on its targeted buyers. I have happened to get to choose the most luxurious one and because I have always been fascinated by the fact that the brand Lacoste has a crocodile in its logo (and I do like crocodiles a lot) the choice was made quite easily.
This French company has been founded in 1933 by René Lacoste (a famous French tennis player, winner of Wimbledon, Davis Cup and member of the tennis group called the Musketeers) and Andre Gillier who have started to make tennis shirts and until those days, their are still the most famous for their polo ones. They had their crocodile logo since the very beginning and as it is stated in De Zeen magazine (http://www.dezeen.com/2013/11/22/peter-saville-abstracts-lacostes-crocodile-logo-for-holiday-collector-polo-shirts/), the reason for this is that René Lacoste 'was nicknamed The Crocodile after his David Cup team captain promised to buy him an alligator suitcase if he won an important match'. Which I think is quite amusing as it beautifully shows that your logo does not have to have anything in common with the business. The main thing that did helped the Lacoste brand to be famous was the fact that it's owner was widely known in the world of sports:
But despite that, there was a time when Lacoste company was known as Izod Lacoste where Izod was standing for Lacoste's second branch in United Kingdom. At those times, business was slowing down as people started to hesitate to pay such a high price for a simple shirt with a crocodile on it. Luckily, company started it's marketing by providing famous people with their product (including JFK) and also, it turned it focus to preppy teenagers. This move achieved it's purpose and Lacoste became a wanted brand for the upper class.
The crocodile stencil was designed by Rene's friend Robert George in 1933 and became a logo that Rene used to wear on his blazer and shirts. It looked like this:
We will stay with the logo for a bit more. For a long time, another sportswear company in China also had a crocodile logo that was very similar to Lacoste's, just facing the other way around. In the end, both companies managed to make an agreement and Crocodile company agreed to change it's logo by extending the animal's tail and making it more scaly.
Recently, Lacoste made some cooperation with designers, one of them being Peter Saville who has been asked to work on a special edition for the brand's 80th anniversary. His response is just stunning as always. It is definitely more than worth it to look at his redesign of Lacoste's logo as it is playfull, fresh and perfect example of a successful mark-making.
Another cooperation was with Brazilian designers Fernando and Humberto Campana, whole article about that can be found on De Zeen again (http://www.dezeen.com/2009/07/02/campanas-lacoste/):
Main purpose and style of the brand is to create sport clothes that does not loose much from the style of a gentleman. Their presentation is clean, neat and even though the company have been around for over 70 years with a similar design, they are still chic and desired.
