Ask An Expert: How Do I Push My Brand Into Other Categories?

Chic pregnant women love British maternity label Isabella Oliver’s cozy knits, colorful wrap dresses and 1950s-style swing coats. Why? Because they’re pieces a modern woman would want to wear anytime, regardless of whether she’s six months-in or not. That’s why founders Vanessa Knox-Brien and Baukjen de Swaan Arons decided to expand the Isabella Oliver brand and create a contemporary collection, which launched in February 2009. In its first year, Isabella Oliver 365 garnered $3 million in sales. Not bad for a recession-era launch.

I recently chatted with de Swaan Arons about the challenges that come with moving into a vastly different category, and why she and Knox-Brien were confident enough to do it in a bad economy.

TFB: Isabella Oliver Maternity was founded in 2003. What did you do before then?
Baukjen de Swaan Arons: For a long time I worked in branding and marketing at Procter & Gamble, and Vanessa was a designer at Victoria Secret and Natori.

TFB: So you lead the marketing and Vanessa leads the design?
BdSA: Well, in the beginning we were doing everything. When you start a company with just three people, you suddenly become an expert in IT, human resources, everything. Now that we have 45 people working at Isabella Oliver, our roles have changed. We have a production team, a team of marketeers–now our job is to oversee everything, sign off on everything, rather than actually do everything.

TFB: This year marked the launch of your non-maternity collection. The two markets are so similar and yet so different. How did you approach contemporary?
BdSA: We’ve always designed clothes we like to wear ourselves, so we’re doing the same thing with 365. I think it’s nice to design for our loyal customers forever, rather than just during their pregnancies. The demand was definitely there.

TFB: It was a hard year to launch a new brand. How have you been able to combat the recession?
BdSA: You have to remember that the fashion timeline is so absurdly long that the clothes were already being made by the time the recession hit. [Specifically, the stock market crash in October 2008.] I’m actually glad in a way. If we had known this was coming three years ago when we started forming the concept, it might have held us back. Luckily it’s been a success–we had about $3 million in sales in just the first year. [Sales for Isabella Oliver Maternity reached about $17 million in 2009.]

TFB: You’ve been able to build a successful retail business without brick and mortar. Do you ever think about venturing down that path?
BdSA: Yes, of course. We get approached a couple times a day. But our hands are so full already. We want to increase our sales in the markets we’re already in, and also to expand 365. That’s what we’re focusing on right now.

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