Patagonia

Euro Strategy

How brand purpose ships across the Atlantic...

Priming The Brand For Europe

Patagonia’s brand story is as powerful as they come, authentic to the core and a rallying cry for many. But there’s a lot of different factors to the narrative, with a high degree of time investment required to engage in the specifics of the worldview shaped by brand founder, environmentalist and outdoor industry pioneer Yvon Chouinard.

Looking to launch across European markets, Patagonia turned to Crowd DNA with a brief to advise on how best to translate the prodigious reputation built in the US to the priority European markets of Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the UK.

Key Points Of Focus

1: Providing rich detail on the lives of the key audience of outdoor/extreme sports enthusiasts

2: Examining the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the competitive set in each EU market

3: Cultural strategy and value proposition-informed analysis of how best to project Patagonia’s brand values and over-arching ethos outside of the US

Seeking Active Players

We started by defining the most relevant typologies to speak to in each market: active players – from the casual to the pro – in a spectrum of outdoor and ocean sports. Underpinned by market mapping and trends analysis (specifically visual and social media), our interactions with the participants included setting them Pinterest tasks and dropping into their lives via ethnographic sessions.

Product & Comms

To mop up the details, we also conducted a series of workshop sessions, in which to explore attitudes to comms material, competitor offerings and the product itself.

Presented to the senior marketing team, the work now informs advertising, content, in-store and partnership activity across Europe.