Vera Bradley’s CEO and CMO on the ‘fine art’ of transforming a 42-year-old brand

Modernizing while staying true to the brand

Hiatt: “It really was a fine art, a fine balance. When you talk about wanting to modernize and elevate and refresh, while also giving a nod to the heritage and not losing who you are and making sure that you’re still recognizable in the spirit of what the brand was created for — you might look a little differently, but people understand why you got there — that was a tremendous balancing act. We did a lot of research with existing customers and with new customers, and obviously, we looked out in the market at what’s available — and it has been an incredible amount of work, but incredibly rewarding. And I really appreciate Jackie calling [our turnaround plan] Project Restoration, because it’s one thing to build a new company, but it’s something else to restore. Over time, we see that a lot of companies might slightly drift an inch a year away from where they originally started. And then all of a sudden, they’re 10 inches away from where they started. But we have this unique opportunity to think about it and also do this holistically. It wasn’t just the product [changing]. I’ll tell people, ‘We’re doing a restoration.’ And they think, ‘Oh, a new logo.’ Well, that’s one — probably the smallest — thing we did. But the new product, the new store experience, the new web experience, … It was about ensuring that all the touchpoints exuded what we wanted to say about the Vera Bradley of today.”

Choosing Zooey Deschanel as a brand ambassador

Hiatt: “We explored a lot of options, but honestly, Zooey was always at the top of our list. Key reasons were that she really has her own sense of style. She has unapologetically been very consistent. She’s not necessarily trendy, but yet she’s always relevant. Her own style is evergreen and notable, and we think that also sounds like Vera: It’s evergreen, your own sense of style — we like to say that you can be your own muse. But she also has a tremendous amount of joy and happiness and light, and she doesn’t really overthink fashion and what she’s carrying — it’s purely for this joy that she’s bringing to herself and those around her. So there were definitely a lot of synergies there. And she’s been a great brand ambassador to work with. … [For the relaunch] you’ll definitely see her in the digital world — on our social media and in advertising. But we will also have her in print — we’re going to be in some magazines. We’re very excited because we’re doing a lot of out-of-home [ads] — within airports and more traditional billboards, and we’re going to be in Times Square. … Growing up, she’s always been a big fan of the brand — so much so that it was actually part of [the TV show she starred in] ‘New Girl’ in a couple of episodes.”

Tackling change under the watchful eye of investors

Ardrey: “Certainly doing this in the public eye has been more challenging than when I’ve led other teams to transform a brand privately. However, the team really focused last year on resetting the cost structure, while we were simultaneously doing this work. We knew we had to invest in marketing this year. And so, looking at how we match our cost structure to our current revenue was a pretty prescribed activity that the entire company was able to get behind right away. We were able to show some progress last year, and the market rewarded us for that. Then last quarter, our results were pretty much what we expected, but not necessarily what the street expected. I think that’s something [companies] just have to deal with.”