Hudson’s Bay Company has slowly but surely transformed itself under the ownership of Americans Richard Baker and NRDC Equity Partners, who bought the company in 2008. This timeframe is also (roughly) the reign of Bonnie Brooks as President & CEO.
I walked through the flagship store last week. It’s very impressive, strategically and executionally and still very much a work-in-progress. That very same last week, coincidentally, the first new HBC branding since 1965 was announced. I think the new design is very good work given where the brand looks like it’s going, but having visited this topic before (MARKETING XENOPHOBIA?), I felt compelled to look up who did the work for Canada’s oldest company. At 343 years-of-age, Hudson’s Bay Company is two centuries older than Canada, making it literally and figuratively, the original Canadian fabric. I’d go so far as to suggest that a Hudson Bay blanket be included Pierre Berton’s colourful definition of a Canadian. [2].
While the formal press release made sure that Canadian Mark Summers was listed first as the creator of the new ‘full-dress coat-of-arms’, the re-branding was done by Lipman, of New York, NY, USA.
Again, I think this has more to do with who owns the company rather than who is running it. And likely, it also has to do with who the owners like working with in the fashion brand category. But the last major re-brand was in 1965, under Canadian ownership, and that work also went to the then-trendy & American-iconic Lippincott & Margulies. This is the design company that gave us The Bay.
No, I’m not a marketing (or any type of) xenophobe. The work should go to the people who can do it best. And the work is very good. But do you really think this could not have been as well—or better—in Canada?
- ã Rowell Photography
- Although it’s unclear where and when, Pierre Burton is generally credited as the originator of, “A Canadian is somebody who knows how to make love in a canoe.”
