On July 24, 2021, I became a Brooks Brothers customer.
I had just completed a leisurely 5k trail race with my daughter. After getting cleaned up and celebrating at IHOP, we headed over to the outlet malls north of Atlanta. I would be beginning my MBA program at Georgia Tech the following Monday and wanted to get a new suit for my professional photos. I’ve never worn a suit in my professional career, but it’s fun to get dressed up.
After trying on clothes at a few stores without any luck, I walked into Brooks Brothers for the first time. I had never imagined myself as a Brooks Brothers customers—for some reason their brand seemed more “premium” than what I usually go for with my wardrobe. But right away, I was impressed with how easy it was to shop for dress clothes.
The associate was incredibly helpful. The first thing he did was take my measurements and have me try on a few different styles to find the right fit. It was also just really nice to have someone offer their perspective on style and what colors did and didn’t go together. I really enjoyed the full service experience.
I was probably there for over an hour. They had a sale going on so I bought a few more items than I had originally planned. Most of it was in stock but some things had to be shipped to my home. The whole process was a breeze. I ended up giving my email address to the associate during checkout to be able to track my order.
Over the course of the next few days, I started getting emails from Brooks Brothers about additional items I might be interested in. I’d click around and browse on their site, but held off on purchasing. Almost immediately, re-targeting ads started showing up on other sites. “Oh interesting, I hadn’t seen that shirt before”, as I’d click through and go back to their site.
A few weeks later, I decided to buy a few more shirts. I had gotten an email about a 3-for-$109 sale, which seemed too good to pass up. I chose a few different styles—I really overdid it on the blue shirts the first time around—and they were at my door later that week.
Part of what made the online purchasing experience so easy was that I knew exactly what would fit. I could just look at the tag of a Brooks Brothers shirt in my closet and know exactly what to order. I was confident that what I ordered would fit.
Brick-and-mortar is back
There was a story in the Wall Street Journal recently telling of a resurgence of brick-and-mortar stores among retail brands. Not even a decade ago, the narrative was that e-commerce was going to swallow up physical stores, but that narrative has changed.
“What we’re seeing is that the more brick-and-mortar business that we’re creating, the more the digital is happening in those particular ZIP Codes,” Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette told analysts last week.
and
“We feel bullish on stores,” said Bill Brand, Rue21’s CEO. “The cost to acquire customers digitally has never been higher. The most efficient way to market to new customers is our stores.”
Who would have thought that meeting customers in the physical world would end up driving digital customer acquisition?
Creating customers
I chose my words in the first sentence of this newsletter intentionally. Brooks Brothers didn’t “facilitate a transaction”. They didn’t “collect my email address.” They created a customer.
Their in-store experience educated me on the value of their brand and made it easy to make a first purchase. Working with an in-store associate gave me confidence and engendered trust that I can come back whenever I need men’s clothing. Now when I go online, I know exactly what I’m getting from Brooks Brothers.
The purpose of a business, according to Peter Drucker, is to create and keep a customer. For retail brands looking to succeed over the next decade, it’s about creating relationships that span physical and digital boundaries, truly connecting with customers to meet them where they are.