Balancing legacy and growth over 112 years at L.L. Bean...and some ideas for building a durable brand for the next 112

Welcome to The Case for Brand: the place for breakdowns of authentic brands connecting creative to build their bottom line. You'll get the cheat codes to build a brand that lasts with: 1 case study/week and 3 actionable tips to build a strong brand. Like what you read? Click the button below to join for free.

👋 Hello! How are we all doing?

I hope you’re curled up with something toasty to drink. Today’s brand is inspired by L.L. Bean’s Yule Dog.

➡️ This will inspire you if you’re a B2C business: trading on craft, leveraging a 50+ year history, or reimagining retail.

I must confess: I dove into L.L. Bean with sky-high expectations.

So what I found surprised me: a company with quality products and a storied history, …. adrift from its Northeast roots.

Legacy comes with benefits AND challenges, so today we’ll cover some ideas for L.L. Bean to reinvigorate itself. If there is one takeaway from this post, it is: heritage - if you’ve got it, flaunt it.

Let’s get into it 🥾

L.L. Bean’s origins: Visionary founder, legendary service

🥾 The birth of the boot

Meet Leon Leonwood Bean, Mainer, entrepreneur, outdoorsman. Bean goes on a hunting trip and comes home with a soggy pair of boots and an idea. He hires a cobbler to build a superior shoe. He mails out-of-state sportsman with a flyer for ‘Maine Hunting Shoes’. The shoes sell out. However…the feedback is not good.

90 of 100 pair of boots Bean sold were returned due to poor stitching. 😱

He refunds his customers money (and births the 100% satisfaction guarantee). He buckles down on an improved boot.

📈 An overnight success, 111 years in the making

This speedbump cement’s Leon’s business philosophy: the golden rule. The business grows rapidly. Notable facts, moments and changes in the company’s history 👇

• 1937 - Despite the Depression, L.L.Bean sales top $1 million.

• 1951 - Freeport, Maine flagship store opens 24/7 - an idea to accommodate the visiting sportsmen who would drive all night to get an early start the next morning.

• 1967 - L.L. Bean passes away at 94. The store receives 50,000 condolence letters.

• 1979 - Outdoor Discovery Schools launch, beginning with a winter clinic in Maine.

• 2017 - ‘Be an Outsider’ positioning launches - “on the inside, we’re all outsiders”, a highly rational, research backed message (research shows when time is spent outside - we’re more productive!).

• 2018 - L.L. Bean shifted their customer satisfaction guarantee from lifetime to 365 days (! I have thoughts!)

• 2023 - 10% of L.L. Bean’s products are made in America (Source: AllAmerican.org)

Today, looking at the ads the company are running, it’s hard to grasp the shape of who L.L. Bean are. This pains me. There are a lot of brand managers who’d kill for the substances that a company like L.L. Bean serves up to build a brand with. Founder led businesses have a magic that is hard to replicate, so it’s disappointing to see it withering.

Can a brand get its mojo back once it’s strayed from its roots?

I think so. But it takes commitment.

Today: Cultural tensions L.L. Bean can harness to reignite relevance

How do you manage an aging customer base, attract a younger customer and transition a catalog-first company to digital (over 50% of revenue comes from e-commerce)?

L.L. Bean’s answer was to “find white space” by “engaging consumers with a passion for enjoying the great outdoors.”

Listen. Here’s the problem with this is: while it may make customers: it will not make fans. An inoffensive strategy will yield inoffensive results.

Important reminder: brands don’t exist in a vacuum. The most powerful brands find a way to harness culture to capture attention. Let’s look at the world L.L. Bean exist in today:

• The nature gap. Nature is supposed to be the great equalizer, but in reality, nature’s benefits are unequally distributed. Source: Center for American Progress.

• Reshoring is the new offshoring. A majority of Americans feel favorably towards companies that commit to a made in America supply chain. Mentions of “re-shoring” in S&P 500 earnings transcripts were up 128% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to Q1 2022, according to Bank of America.

• Where have all the quality sweaters gone? Think pieces in the Atlantic, viral TikToks, and culture studies have opined on the declining quality of garments.

2023 is a weird moment: but quality and great service are always in style. L.L. Bean’s founding values are still as relevant today as they were in 1917: the trick is to live those values in a culturally relevant way that will build fans - not just customers.

Four ways L.L. Bean can make their brand durable for the next 112 years

L.L. Bean’s original values are solid. The tough part about values is sticking to them. Here’s what I’d recommend to build L.L. Bean’s relevance for the next 112 years:

Anchor them values in a clear ‘why’: expand on their ‘be an outsider’ and give it some actual teeth that would guide brave choices within an organization. I dusted off my manifesto skills to give it a crack 👇

Outside.

It a word that’s not about being outside. Outsider is a result. Of being honed by nature. Outside hardens you. It fortifies you: to do the hard thing. To make by hand. To stand by your word. To go against the grain.

Inside is safe. Inside is expected. Inside is that’s how we’ve always done it.

But how we’ve always done it doesn’t get us outside. The outside makes us better. And so we make better products. And we think about how to better the way we make our products. Because we need outside: because it calls us to go where the insider won’t.

The enemy 😈: declining quality, offshoring, being the cheapest

The hero: getting outside, the product that can withstand the outdoors

Now, make these choice as a result of what you believe👇

1️⃣ Celebrate outdoor heritage with new voices

L.L. Bean has an opportunity to lead by democratizing access to the outdoors through education, sponsorship, and representation 👇

• Expand L.L. Bean’s Outdoor Discovery Education to build equitable access to the outdoors.

• Hire diverse artists, poets, illustrators and writers to reimagine L.L. Bean’s catalog for 2023.

2️⃣ Stand out in declining retail quality by standing by integrity of products

The declining quality of retail is a national conversation - just see: Why do clothes suck now?. If I were managing L.L. Bean’s brand, I’d lean into being the exception to that question and double down on local manufacturing and 100% satisfaction 👇

• Move 100% of L.L. Bean’s manufacturing to America.

• Bring back the 100% satisfaction guarantee.

• Launch an apprentice program to revive craftsmanship in America.

• Sift through L.L. Bean’s Hallmark channel flavoured work and dig out the straight-talking stories featuring L.L. Bean’s most loved products - and the people who make them. L.L. Bean has these ring back Andy the Deckhand, Terry the Bootmaker, a behind-the-scenes of Boat & Tote bag manufacturing. Or this gem 💎 - how Bean Boots are resoled.

3️⃣ Make a comeback with customer service

Americans are the most unhappy they’ve ever been with customer service. L.L. Bean’s opportunity? Double down on their founding commitment to service by building a team empowered to serve customers in surprising and creative ways.

• Give customer service teams a budget to make real connections with customers. Borrow from Chewy’s playbook of surprising customers with custom pet portraits.

• Build on L.L. Bean’s flagship policy of 24/7 operations by setting up a 24/7 customer service line. A real phone number where you can talk to a real human.

4️⃣ Perseverance, perseverance, perseverance

• ^^ See above. Return to founding values.

The truth is: authentic brands are hard to build because a brand is only great as much as it gets infused throughout an entire organization. Marketing should be the last stop, not the first. But this takes heart: and sometimes when a founder has left the building - so has a brand’s heart.

As Jason posted this week: courage defines great brands, while fear defines low margin “also rans.” 

Change is scary: but irrelevance is scarier.

YOUR TURN

Three lessons to love and learn from when balancing growth and tradition

1. 📚 Mine the company history for stories. Interview the founder, former employees, long-time customers. Talk to the people who’ve been around for years. What stories do they tell about the company? Hone in on them and amplify them.

2. 🎯 Find the intersections of culture x heritage. L.L. Bean is all about the outdoors. What are the conversations happening in culture about the space your brand exists in? Tip: hang out on Reddit, follow industry influencers and leaders (but ya know, the interesting ones - challenging the status quo).

3. 📣 Make popular what needs to be said. Ask: what needs to be said or done to make more fans of what your business is all about. What messages need to be spread? Whose voices need to be amplified? Now go do it!

**steps off of soapbox**

That’s all for this week!

A small ask: How are you finding this newsletter? I’m 10 weeks in & looking for feedback. Hit the smiley emojis down below and & let me know!

👋 Until next week,

Amanda

What did you think of this newsletter?

😠 🙁 😐 🙂 😃