A $95 pair of socks, $750 pair of boots, and $1,500 jacket. Are we talking Louis Vuitton or Balenciaga? Neither.
We’re talking about what started as a small Canadian outerwear brand worn by Arctic Circle expeditioners, dogsledders, heli-skiers, and has since turned into one of the most coveted brands across the globe.
Marketing Student meet Canada Goose, a brand with humble beginnings that all started in the year 1957…
Polish immigrant Sam Tick founded Metro Sportswear in a tiny warehouse in Toronto, initially making his mark selling wool vests and snowmobile suits able to withstand the brute of Canadian Winters.
By the 1970s Sam Tick’s son-in-law, David Reiss, got into the business, becoming the president and establishing a new arm of Metro Sportswear called Snow Goose.
Snow Goose became an in-house brand for Metro Sportswear that crafted coats for tactical units across Ontario and began building buzz across the high Arctic because of the coat’s stellar performance in the extreme weather conditions.
The business model at the time was simple: provide high-quality outerwear for other companies who would slap their logo on the front. Snow Goose was primarily private-label.
Then in 1997 David Reiss’ son, Dani, joined the company with a keen focus on understanding how Snow Goose and Metro Sportswear were perceived across the globe.
Dani began attending trade shows in Japan and Europe and stumbled upon a gold mine.
Snow Goose had already been trademarked in Japan and Europe, so the team was forced to use the name Canada Goose in that part of the world, but Dani realized this subtle name change played a massive role in their success in those regions.
Known as one of the coldest regions in the world, the homage that the name Canada Goose paid to the region where the jackets were made had consumers feeling like by owning a Canada Goose, they were also owning a tiny piece of Canada.
Recognizing the opportunity this posed, Dani convinced his father to ditch the private-label Snow Goose and lean into Canada Goose.
At a time when many North American apparel brands were ditching manufacturing in North America, Canada Goose doubled down on their Canadian roots. Their competitors were focused on reaching mass distribution through competing on price (aka building commodity brands).
Meanwhile, Dani honed in on building Canada Goose off the back of timeless core values and prioritized quality over quantity.
But that process isn’t as easy as it sounds. If you make an incredible product that is extremely durable AND expensive, you can run into the problem of consumers buying your product once and not needing to buy from you again for a decade.
To avoid that, Canada Goose’s Marketing genius came into play. Crafting an aura around the brand that shifted the perception of durable outerwear to a luxury good that consumers sought to collect. Similar to how the Swiss have Rolex and the British have Range Rover, Dani wanted Canada to have Canada Goose.
But the way in which they achieved this mark is fascinating. You’d think they would have gone a similar route to Rolex and Range Rover, high-budget Marketing campaigns exuding elegance and prestige.
Instead Canada Goose focused on exceptional function (similar to how BMW advertises their “German Engineering”).
People admire the unimaginable, people buy because of who they want to be, not because of who they are.
Canada Goose enables consumers to feel as though they are as bold as those trekking the Arctic and as tough as dogsledders moving through whipping wintry winds, as they walk from their warm car to the cozy confines of Starbucks to grab their Venti Macchiato. That’s what Marketing is all about.
Their entire Marketing ethos is around two things: being proudly Canadian and exceptional function in the cold.
So how do they SHOW consumers that their product holds up in the most extreme weather conditions?
In their retail stores across the globe, instead of fitting rooms there are “Cold Rooms” set to emulate the elements, where temperatures can be set to as low as -27 degrees Fahrenheit. Before buying a $1,500 coat it’s safe to say you’d want to make sure it works.
But that’s not all, Canada Goose has a long-standing tradition of supporting the film industry, providing film crews in cold climates with Canada Goose jackets. A relationship built out of necessity has now turned into a full-on campaign for the team at Canada Goose.
Piggybacking off of their notoriety in the film industry, Canada Goose partnered with Harvey Nichols and their flagship store in London to host 5 film screenings in the dead of winter on the 5th floor terrace. What were guests attending the event given to stay warm while watching their favorite films? Canada Goose jackets and blankets.
Going ABOVE and beyond to enhance the customer experience is what makes opening up your pocket books for a Canada Goose, a *no* brainer. But the lesson in all of this is that your product CAN become your biggest piece of Marketing leverage.
Think about Apple and Amazon, their products work ALL the time, with rarely any hiccups that it absolutely makes 0 sense to move on to a competitor (regardless of price) and stimulates word of mouth.
This word of mouth Marketing is one of the HARDEST forms of Marketing to perfect, with only 6% of Marketers saying they have mastered it (according to Forbes). Yet it is the most effective form of Marketing, with a study done by Nielsen showing 92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over every other form of Marketing.
To take it one step further, Canada Goose's slogan, "Ask anyone who knows" shows their recognition of the power of word of mouth.
And as one of my fav entrepreneur's Naval Ravikant says, “escape competition through authenticity”. Canada Goose has done this so well that by the time a consumer is on their site looking to buy a jacket, price comparison to their competitors is the last thing on their mind, which is a great place to be in when your product is premium.
MARKETING CHEAT SHEET (WHAT TO LEARN FROM THIS CAMPAIGN)
Why you buy. People admire the unimaginable, people buy because of who they want to be, not because of who they are. Canada Goose enables consumers to feel as though they are as bold as those trekking the Arctic and as tough as dogsledders moving through whipping wintry winds, as they walk from their warm car to the cozy confines of Starbucks to grab their Venti Macchiato. That’s what Marketing is all about.
WoMM. Only 6% of Marketers say they have mastered word of mouth Marketing, yet 92% of consumers say they trust the recommendations of friends and family over every other form of Marketing. See the gap? Capitalize on this in 2024.
The results. In 66 years of business Canada Goose is reaching new heights (other than the mountains their customers are climbing) by crossing $860M in revenue in 2022.
IN A MEME
Ahh, the bell has rung. Please be sure to do the reading (follow The Marketing Millennials on LinkedIn and me, Professor Millennial, on Twitter).
Off you go, passing period is only 11 minutes and there’s already a line at the vending machine outside in the 20 degree weather, so you might need to go grab a jacket.
Until next time,
Daniel Murray aka Professor Millennial.
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