Bethenny Frankel & Doug Wood Talk Brand-Building, Hawaiian Shirts & More

ONE Jeanswear Group and Bethenny Frankel Celebrate the Launch of Skinnygirl Jeans

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On this episode of Just B, Bethenny Frankel hears all about challenges of managing a major brand during a pandemic, as well as steering it through a huge change in their target demographic, from Tommy Bahama CEO Doug Wood. Doug has been with the company for 20 of its 28 years, and he says they were fully focused on men originally: relaxed menswear for 40 and up. They’re so well-known for Hawaiian shirts that sometimes he’ll see a celebrity wearing a Hawaiian shirt, and the caption will say they’re wearing Tommy Bahama, “and I’m looking at the picture going, ‘That’s not Tommy Bahama,’” he laughs. Even so, they made the decision to start trying to target women 40 and up as well, and he talks to Bethenny about learning who your audience is and how to talk to them, the importance of trusting your gut over just data, and why some business decisions aren’t about money.

Doug agrees with Bethenny that you have to have a target demographic, you have to know how to speak to them and what they want, and he also agrees that data isn’t everything. It’s a big thing, but not everything. “Sometimes it 100% affects what we’re doing,” he says, but mostly, it’s about the “really smart product and marketing people that see, ‘Wow, we have a green field of opportunity, let’s not ignore what’s right in front of us,’” even if the data doesn’t necessarily agree. That’s why they chose to pivot to include women in their target audience. “Sometimes people don’t know what they want until they see it,” Bethenny says. “You have to go with the research and also listen to your gut.” 

A brand should have a personality, tell a story, and have a clear culture and language; Doug talks about Tommy Bahama’s “guests,” rather than customers, for example, saying once they got into the restaurant game, it completely changed their company culture. Most of their profit comes from apparel, so they don’t expect the restaurants to be a cash cow. Instead, it’s a chance to sell the lifestyle to their guests. “Online, someone spends six minutes with me. In a retail store, they might spend 14 minutes. When I have a restaurant with a retail store, I get them for an hour and a half,” he explains. “I’m able to really show them the entire brand.” Bethenny gets it: “Your restaurants are commercials, also, you’re selling a lifestyle and experience which reflects the whole brand.” That makes it super valuable even if it isn’t a really profitable arm of the business. “People need to understand it’s not always about the money,” she says. Hear more from the brilliant business minds of Doug and Bethenny on this episode of Just B.

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