Brooks Brothers and Eddie Bauer are both names with decades of built-in recognition. But in an October 8 episode of Adweek’s Adspeak, Ken Ohashi, brand CEO of Brooks Brothers and Eddie Bauer, and Marisa Thalberg, EVP and chief customer and marketing officer at Catalyst Brands, made a sharper argument: recognition is not the same as relevance.
Turnaround starts with positioning, not nostalgia
Ohashi has lived the turnaround path. Brooks Brothers went through an acquisition before returning to profitability in under two years under his watch. Eddie Bauer, long known for technical outdoor gear, is being repositioned as a broader lifestyle brand. The working frame for that shift is “off the mountain”—widening the brand’s appeal without abandoning its outdoor roots.
The conversation suggests that heritage brands often don’t need a rebrand. They need a clearer position, better product choices and marketing leadership that is tied to commercial goals.
What actually worked
Thalberg and Ohashi pointed to a set of levers that recur across both brands. First, they looked at real customer behavior to find pockets of demand that assumptions had hidden. Second, creative calls were kept inside small, trusted teams rather than run through layers of committee approval. Third, CEO-CMO trust was built early, so product, brand and business decisions didn’t pull in different directions.
The episode also highlighted two attitudinal shifts. One is talking “up to” middle-America consumers—treating them as discerning buyers, not an audience to be talked down to. The other is using strategic star power as a cultural amplifier rather than as a substitute for a clear brand idea.
Lessons for marketing teams
- Mine actual behavior. Customer data can reveal momentum a brand didn’t know it already had.
- Protect creative focus. Small, trusted teams tend to make sharper decisions than broad committees.
- Reposition around one simple frame. Eddie Bauer’s “off the mountain” lens gives the brand room to widen its audience without losing its identity.
- Build leadership trust early. A strong CEO-CMO partnership makes bold repositioning less risky.
Why it matters now
Many legacy retailers, in India and globally, face the same tension: familiarity can quickly tip into datedness. The lesson from this episode is not to choose between heritage and modernity. It is to use heritage as a credential while investing in positioning, product and customer insight to stay relevant.
For marketing professionals, the more uncomfortable takeaway is organisational. Creative committees can feel safe, but the brands that move fastest often keep decisions small and accountable.
Source: Adweek
