Brand strategy is shaped by business strategy

How does business strategy shape brand strategy? Troy Pike, CEO of Parker Uniforms, talks to Savage Vice President Robin Tooms about how their two key customer groups shape their brand strategy.

Robin: Hello and welcome to this edition of Brandonomics, an inside look at top brands and their marketing strategies. I am Robin Tooms, vice president of strategy at Savage Brands and my guest again today is Troy Pike, CEO of Parker School Uniforms. So, Troy, welcome back to Brandonomics.

Troy: Hi, Robin. How are you?

Robin: I’m glad you’re here ’cause I want to talk some about the uniform business. So, it has an interesting business structure which reflects in your need around brand strategy. So, would you please tell us about that?

Troy: The uniform business has grown dramatically in the past 20 years really. Schools have sprouted up all over, but they really fall into two pretty unique segments – the private school segment – which is your prep schools, Christian schools, parochial schools – and the public school segment which is primarily charter schools, from my businesses’ perspective.

Robin: So, tell me a little bit. What is the same about that brand strategy between the two distinct markets and what’s different?

Troy: We have a pretty methodical approach to keeping them different, actually. We’re very much a premium market focus. We are the premium player in our marketplace for private schools. So, as the charter school market grows, it’s really important that we segment that group, have different product for them, sell through different outlets so that we can really keep those customers separate and treat them in a way that they – for their own requirements.

Robin: Right. And given the compressed nature of this, in addition to those separate channels, it’s lots of same delivery needs.

Troy: Absolutely. And you know, we have a very tight window so we have to be in a lot of places at the same time.

Robin: Well, thank you for explaining that kind of connection between brand strategy and business strategy. This has been another edition of Brandonomics, an inside look at top brands and their marketing strategies.

 

Since 1931, Parker School Uniforms has delivered the best quality private school uniforms and customer service, giving it an impressive 98.4 percent retention rate among the more than 800 schools and thousands of families it serves. The company’s strong values mean customers recognize something special – not only in the uniforms, but also in the way Parker does business.  https://www.parkersu.com/