Around the Net

Lacoste's New Strategy: Dress The Wait Staff

While it still outfits professional athletes, the brand has begun putting its iconic label on non-celebrities, including the wait staff, bus boys and valets at Nobu in the Hamptons, where diners are surrounded by the open-jawed crocodile logo.

"As a consumer, you're sitting there and Lacoste is all around you," said Charlie Walk, a partner at RJW Collective, a marketing agency based in Manhattan that works with Lacoste. "But it's not in your face screaming to you that there's a branded moment here in the middle of your meal -- it's an elegantly disruptive activation."

Employees at the Soho House and two Hotel Gansevoort locations -- all in Manhattan -- also are wearing clothing provided free by Lacoste. Outfitting concierges and waiters is representative of a broader effort to reinvigorate Lacoste, which some may associate with a bygone preppy era.

advertisement

advertisement

Read the whole story at New York Times »

Next story loading loading..