Amazing Success Stories: Carhartt

Let’s say your company has been around since 1889, and has developed a nice niche by targeting industrial and other blue-collar workers. This is the story of Carhartt, a family company that originally catered to union workers with purpose-built rugged apparel.

Case Study: Why are young people suddenly crazy about Carhartt?

Carhartt approached Cult with an interesting question: how do we expand our target audience without jeopardizing our relationship with our core audience of construction workers, farmers, and other physical labor workers?

Cult hit the streets to learn about the core audience and their love of the Carhartt brand. We visited farmers, construction workers, and others from all over the US. Their connections to the brand were profound, bordering on spiritual.

Next, we explored two other audiences to assess their views of the Carhartt brand. One was people engaged in physical activities for leisure like hunters and outdoor activity junkies. Audience two was younger hipsters with a love for heritage brands. We visited places like Bend, OR, Austin, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Wow, did we learn a lot.

The first thing we did was define our three segments and build a profile of their lifestyles, interests, beliefs, motivations and buying behaviors. We developed go-to-market creative executions, retail strategies, product roadmaps and tactical implementation plans for each segment. We built out these strategies over a five-year period, adding a new target audience to the mix every 18 months.

Look around to see the fruits of this plan. Celebrities, young kids, and many others have embraced the Carhartt brand. They love its durability, quality, and reputation, making it an incredibly successful brand that has retained its core audience yet expanded into a wide new audience.

For more information, and to discuss your brand strategy opportunities, send us a message and we’ll get in touch as soon as we can to discuss how we can help.