Kaplow

Warner’s

Helping An Iconic Brand Disrupt the Intimates Marketplace

PVH turned to Kaplow to help make its iconic bra brand, Warner’s, relevant to a new generation with the launch of a new product line.

We identified a white space in the intimates category: no one was talking to women about bras the way they actually talk to each other — with a sense of humor. Armed with this insight, Kaplow developed Warner’s brand voice and a surround-sound campaign that got women laughing, talking and buying.

The result? Warner’s No Side Effects bra sold out at retail before the first ad appeared!

Services

Strategy

This campaign was grounded in listening: we used our social listening platform to source and analyze consumer conversations, sentiment and trends related to Warner’s and top competitors in the category. Humor was a consistent theme, with women joking about the size of their bras and sharing stories, tips and commiserating with one another.

Warner’s wanted a brand voice that would be consistent across all internal and external communications and inform the overarching brand creative and messaging. Driven by our consumer and competitive insights, we were able to pinpoint Warner’s differentiating opportunity — a humorous and relatable tone of voice.

Execution

We created that new voice including the brand narrative, consumer persona and language guardrails for all brand communications and incorporated it across all channels — including a refreshed website, updated social media platforms, media outreach, media and influencer events, and product packaging.

A key component was naming the common bra woe of underarm bulge. We coined the term “Sleevage” to name the problem no bra had solved yet — and repositioned Warner’s breakthrough technology as the solution. “Sleevage” went on to become part of Urban Dictionary and the brand’s ‘Solving Sleevage’ campaign won a Global Sabre Award for Best Fashion and Beauty Campaign of the Year!

Our media outreach generated stand-alone features in top-tier target publications including InStyle, Refinery29, WWD, Life & Style Weekly and O, the Oprah Magazine.

Results

Consumer response was so strong it stunned retailers, who quickly doubled their initial orders to keep up with the customers flocking to stores carrying hangtags from friends or relatives who’d told them about the bra that solved “Sleevage.” Retailers, including Kohl’s, Belk and JCPenney, agreed that this was, “The best spring launch of any intimates brand!”

The campaign more than doubled the brand’s Facebook community in one year, increased online and blog coverage 73% year-over-year, and truly changed the conversation about the brand.

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