From the moment you lay eyes on Joe Boxer's zany
undershorts, you know you're dealing with a company that doesn't take itself
too seriously. Discover how founder and funnyman Nicholas Graham has used humor
to build brand name awareness.
Leave it to Joe
Boxer to always leave you laughing. The company mascot after all, is Mr.
Licky, the smiley-face with the giant tongue.
These days,
Joe Boxer founder, Nicholas Graham’s side-splitting
jokes and marketing stunts have him chuckling all the way to bank, as the
company he started in 1985 has become wildly successful. The San
Francisco-based apparel company and laugh factory now employs 125 and boasted
1997 revenues of $100 million.
It’s not surprising that the 40-plus Graham, whose
former title was Chief Underpants Officer, would reign over such an
unconventional kingdom. After all, he’s always been a bit like a salmon
swimming against the tide. The Calgary, Canada, native was kicked out of high
school. (“I was too damned smart,’’ he says in jest.) He ventured around Greece
and Sweden for several years “simply having a good time" until he decided
he wanted to be a rock-and-roll icon and ventured to San Francisco, where he
sang in a local band called Scream of Dreams. Though it was a cool lifestyle,
by 1985, Graham realized he had to make a real living. Ever the entrepreneur,
he started a small business, Summ, making men’s novelty ties. Later that year
when someone suggested wacky underwear might be a good follow-up act to his whimsical
ties, he went for it. He drew upon his self-taught graphic design background
and created a line of boxer shorts with unexpected designs, typified by the
“Imperial Hoser," the now-infamous red tartan-plaid boxer that came with a
detachable raccoon tail.
Graham's first wife helped to put together the
original samples, sewing them herself. They were unique enough to get the
attention of a buyer from Macy’s California, who was so hyped that he purchased
the entire line. The order was more than the duo could handle alone, so they
called in a manufacturing firm. Thus was the humble beginning of Joe Boxer,
which began with a mere $1,000 investment.
While you can find Joe Boxer underwear, casual and
lounging apparel in 4,000 department stores, specialty shops and catalogs
nationwide, you can also get “underwear to go’’ from the Joe Boxer underwear
vending machine, also known as the Undo-Vendo. You get underwear that range
from $14-18 and a little surprise, a comedian’s voice telling you a joke from
the machine and a reminder to laugh daily. By year’s end some 100 machines will
be installed at universities, fitness centers, airports, comedy clubs and
bookstores.
How Graham built Joe Boxer into a brand is a story of
marketing genius. First off, he threw out the rulebook, along with its praises
of target marketing. "We’re broadly niched. We target anyone with a dollar
in their pocket. We never said, 'Let’s focus on one segment,'" says Graham
of the company's mass-marketing approach.
Graham’s also not big on demographics, though he pays
some attention to them for specific products. But as far as the brand is
concerned, he’s not into stereotyping. Turning away from tradition once again,
Graham hasn’t spent a penny to hire an outside agency to do marketing.
"I’m cheap," he laughs. "There are brilliant agencies, but I
think of us as a marketing and advertising agency." And although Graham
has never taken so much as a single marketing class, he obviously knows how to
grab the attention of his customers.
“So much of the 'wow' comes from Nick. I don’t know
how to explain how his brain works; he’s just creative," says Lou Ann
Calvert, the firm’s marketing director for the last 18 months. "We have
these informal meetings and ideas happen."
And the informal approach to building the Joe Boxer
brand name is working: According to Graham's estimation, his company has 77
percent brand-name recognition, nipping on the heels of competitor Tommy
Hilfiger, who has 80 percent brand recognition. Advertising maven Coca-Cola has
99 percent, but Graham points out, “Tommy and Coke spend a lot of money to
achieve that recognition. We do well with the teeny-weeny amount we spend on
marketing and advertising, typically about half a percent of annual revenues.’’
Therein lies another feat: Joe Boxer pulls off super
stunts without spending a fortune. In 1997 the company invaded Reykjavik,
Iceland, of all places. “We took over the country for 48 hours," says
Graham of the exotic promotion that featured a weekend of salmon fishing,
glacier snowmobiling and, of course, a fashion show featuring the company’s new
collection and an all-Icelandic cast, including a few sheep. The eccentric
underwear designer managed to get more than 100 fashion editors, weary from a
week eyeballing the New York collections at the annual "7th on Sixth"
show, to gallivant across the globe.
“It was cheaper to fly to Iceland than to do a show
in New York City, and we got 10 to 20 times the publicity kick,’’ says Graham.
Outlandish? Yes, but that's Graham's style. And he has also staged or
collaborated on other goofy gimmicks, such as the highest unmanned underwear
rocket launch in Black Rock, Nevada. Then there’s the world’s largest e-mail
via the first interactive electronic billboard, some 6,000-square feet in New
York’s Times Square, which makes it possible for folks to talk to New York on
their laptops or personal computers via e-mail at timesquare@joeboxer.com or
via the firm’s Web site. He also pulled off an in-flight underwear fashion show
on Virgin Atlantic Airways.
Though the stunts seem far-fetched, they couldn’t be
more appropriate for the products. After all, boxer shorts that quack, inflate,
are 3-D, have glowing messages (“no, no, no’’ in the daytime, “yes, yes, yes,’’
at night), and have happy faces, cry out for zany, attention-grabbing antics.
Another cornerstone of Joe Boxer’s successful
marketing strategy is doing good while doing well because Graham realizes that
being a responsible corporate citizen helps build brand equity. He has, for
example, helped to raise millions for AIDS charities, and Joe Boxer is the
official underwear of Comic Relief, donating over $100,000 worth of boxer
shorts to charity. The company also teamed up with General Mills to entice
cereal eaters to enter Joe Boxer contests on the back of Frosted Cheerios
boxes. Free boxers were offered, and for each of the 250,000 entries, Joe Boxer
made a contribution to Literacy Partners, Inc. Graham also signed on to General
Motors' Concept: Cure, a project developed in 1997 in conjunction with the
Council of Fashion Designers of America. GM chose four top fashion designers to
work with the company to create one-of-a-kind vehicles that will be sold to
benefit breast cancer research.
Co-branding has also worked like magic. Joe Boxer
tapped Warner Bros. to create a new line of cartoon-emblazoned sleepwear and
underwear. The 26-piece collection includes boxers, T-shirts and nightshirts
featuring the classic characters — with a twist, of course. On the laughable
loungewear, Bugs Bunny cavorts with the Joe Boxer logo and Scooby Doo takes a
bite out of Licky. A “Cartoon Couture” fashion show at Warner Bros.’ flagship
Studio Store on Fifth Avenue in New York City this summer kicked off the
collection.
The company also partnered with Motorola on the Joe
Boxer Cyberscooter, a rebuilt Vespa scooter that came fully equipped for fast
cruising that was featured in the Neiman-Marcus’ Christmas catalog. Twelve of
the 15 scooters made sold at a handsome $10,000 each.
And, as part of the Virgin Atlantic fashion show,
folks who bought five pairs of Joe Boxers received a companion ticket to London
on Virgin Atlantic Airways. The response was huge, enough to fill at least five
jumbo jets with those ready to see Big Ben.
Graham has also called on comedians time and time
again to help boost brand awareness, sponsoring comedy nights at the Punchline
in San Francisco and Caroline’s Comedy Club in New York, where the first 50
guests walked away with free underwear.
“We’ve had a lot of success with our partnerships.
While we’re open to many kinds of arrangements, we have to ask how we can add
value to their brand and what they can do for ours, as well as how the consumer
wins in the deal too," says Graham.
Don’t think, however, that Graham is so
publicity-hungry that anything goes. "While we’ll pretty much try
anything, we won’t do anything that insults people or align ourselves with
alcohol or tobacco companies," he says, in a rare moment of seriousness.
While there are limits, Graham is mostly fearless, and he believes that even
promos that have a low level of success are good for his bottom line.
“I have low expectations. Sure some events could have
been more effective, but they still are little pieces that make up the big
picture, so I don’t see failure," he explains.
One event that didn’t go well was last summer’s
promotion to send a Joe Boxer fan to Iceland to catch comedian Jerry Seinfeld
during his world tour. To enter their names into the drawing, entrants had to
soak a deejay at a dunking booth. Originally, Graham had hoped that he would be
able to tap consumers nationwide, but because he purchased the airline tickets
at the last minute near the Fourth of July holiday, the company was only able
to do a promotion with a local New York radio station.
“We couldn’t get to the retailers that fast. The
promotion was rushed. It took place on the [morning of] July 7th. As
it turned out, the winner had to have a passport and be ready to leave New York
that night. We would have liked to have had similar promotions in various
cities," remarks Collette Landi Sipperly, public relations and marketing
manager for Joe Boxer.
You might ask, why use humor to build brand
awareness? “'Cause I like it, and I’m the boss," is Graham's explanation.
“Really though, humor is fresh, it’s not used every day, particularly in our
industry." Humor is also a potent weapon in the battle with competitors.
Humor makes Joe Boxer shine among those vying for the industry spotlight. And it’s
also paid off on the bottom line: The firm grew steadily during the first six
years, slowed a bit in the early ’90s, and for the last three years, revenues
have surged a healthy 40 percent per year. Graham’s keeping mum though about
where he expects revenues to hit this year.
While Joe Boxer was hot out of the starting gate with
zany undies, folks like Hilfiger and others are staking their claim in the $2-3
billion men’s underwear market. Although new players are entering the game,
Graham claims not to be fazed by them. “I see mortality as my biggest
competitor. Everyone else, I don’t worry too much about," he says. "I
keep my eye on what they’re doing, but we do our own thing. We have to stay
true to ourselves. If we get boring, the consumers will move away quickly."
But even Graham knows that he can't completely
discount competing companies, and his response has been diversification. Not
surprisingly, however, the company uses the same comical approach to all of its
product lines, which now include watches, women and children's underwear and
lounge and sleepwear for everyone. “I figured that we could use our fun
philosophy for a variety of products," says Graham.
No matter what products the company adds to its list
of offerings, Graham strives to ensure that the name Joe Boxer remains foremost
in the consumers' minds. “Some people still see us as just an underwear
company. That’s why it’s important to be seen as a brand, not a product. The
value is in the brand. Anybody can make a product, but they can’t duplicate a
brand," he says, offering his favorite mantra: “The brand is the amusement
park, and the products are the souvenirs."
For the man whose mind never ceases, Graham is not
content to suck up his success and exhale with relief. Rather, he's designing his
plan to further build the brand — and the idea du jour is a television sitcom
based on a "typical" day at Joe Boxer. “This company is a
comedy," he jokes. Calvert agrees, “It gets kind of wild around here,’’
especially since some 30 percent to 40 percent of the staff is in the
high-energy under-30 club.
Also in the works: a line
of Joe Boxer home furnishings, including towels, sheets and other goodies. In
addition to increasing market share, the company is intent on international
expansion. Right now, the company’s products are available in Canada, Australia
and parts of England, and its biggest challenge is to keep hitting marketing
homeruns overseas.
“Staying innovative and
having that continue to translate into revenues and brand recognition,"
Graham says, is a tall order, for him and his marketing pros.
Five years from now, Graham jokes, Joe Boxer will be
running the government — at least we think
he's kidding. With Nicholas Graham, you just never can tell.
Company: Joe
Boxer
URL: www.joeboxer.com
Founder:
Nicholas Graham
Industry:
Underwear and casual apparel
Location: San
Francisco
Founded: 1985
Revenues:
$100 million (1997)
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additional reading on this topic, don't miss Creating Buzz About Your
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