The Conversation: J. Michael Prince, President & CEO, U.S. Polo Association

Legacy fashion players have their task cut out in an era where a plethora of digital fashion brands are ruling the roost by being trendier and in sync with Gen Z and millennials. J. Michael Prince, president and CEO of $2.3 billion fashion and lifestyle brand U.S. Polo Assn (official brand of United States Polo Association founded in 1890), explains how it stays in tune with the times. Interview by Ajita Shashidhar

LEGACY VS NEW-AGE FASHION

Physical retail was written off during Covid. Today, every retailer has an aggressive expansion strategy. Do you think brick-and-mortar retail will ever die?

I am a big fan of stores. Human nature is tribal. We eat together, cry together, do things together, and shopping is no different. We go to stores with family or friends, try things together, and take feedback from each other, which is so important. I believe stores⁽¹⁾ drive ecommerce and vice versa. We have 425 stores in India where employees ask for your information, put that in a database and send you emails of the full collection. They complement our website and vice versa.

We will continue to invest in retail and get better. When the pandemic occurred, we shut down 50 unproductive doors and opened 100 new ones. We are targeting 1,500 stores (globally) by 2025⁽²⁾. Consumers like the flexibility of shopping online as well as in stores.

Do you consider fast fashion a threat? They are not just direct-to-consumer (D2C), they also have shorter inventory cycles, as they come up with collections more frequently.

Fast fashion is not our play. Do we want to be faster? Yes. Do we want to be as fast as fast fashion? No. We know who we are, we know our key customers, our categories. We do them well. We continue to focus on that. I don’t look at them as direct competition.

We as a company have evolved through world-class campaigns and irresistible products. It’s a great value proposition for consumers all over the world. Whether you are in India, U.S. or Brazil, we give great products from a sports-inspired brand at great prices. We are really focused on engaging with Gen-Z consumers.

What does it take for a legacy brand to stand the test of time by staying contemporary?

You have to understand and respect tradition to embrace the future. The DNA of the brand is its connection to sports and through sports to lifestyle. In last four-five years, we have increased focus on core DNA, as that’s what we stand for. It’s our birth right to be the official brand for polo in U.S. That is important. How does one embrace the future? By thinking about new opportunities. It could be through a brand campaign or engaging with consumers differently. How do you create products, how do you offer products which not only respect tradition but also build trust with the next generation? Our team around the world is doing its best to keep customers engaged. It’s a challenge for everyone. We have given Polo shirts a different look with different styles and materials and logos (big and small). That keeps the customer interested. They don’t always want a basic white or blue Polo. Giving them variety, each season, is extremely important.

There has been an emergence of new-age brands which offer great styles and quality. How do legacy brands such as yours compete with them?

We have built brand consistency across the world. We see our stores across the world as a strategic advantage. We have launched 50 websites in 25 languages. We engage through retail, online, partner stores. What sets us apart is our association with sports. We have a partnership with ESPN. We broadcast events around polo all over the world with players wearing our jerseys. We have commercials. We believe in the sport, we are passionate about it. So, we bought the nicest polo facility in the world in 2022. It’s one of the ways to engage consumers with the brand. People from all over the world come to our facility and watch the best players play. They enjoy the lifestyle with friends and family and go to a retail store to buy our brand. All this gives us a strategic advantage over D2C brands.

Sustainable business practices are the need of the hour. What is your strategy?

About two years ago, we set a global strategy. We said let’s look at a global ecosystem. We launched USPA Live, which could be 100% sustainable products or even 10-20% sustainable. We think about the strategic relationship with cotton producers. We also work with an organisation which takes plastic out of the oceans. We have a long way to go but we have started the process. With a brand of our size, even if we can impact one button on a US Polo shirt or t-shirt, that will make a difference. That’s something we are focused on.

THE ECOM PLAY

You have 50 websites in 25 languages. Can you elaborate?

In 2017, we had two functional websites — in U.S. and Turkey. Thereafter, we built a digital team and started launching 5-10 websites every year. We also launched in local languages. This gave us 100-200% growth. That’s why we are excited about what we are doing in India (the brand recently launched its dedicated website in India ⁽³⁾ in association with its licensee, Arvind Fashions). Think about this. It’s our third-largest market in the world. We have the largest sportswear brand in the market place and now we are activating our ecommerce site (uspoloassn.in). It is exciting. The other thing I like about the online offering is our presence in 200 cities, 425 stores. Consumers can see our full collection in India⁽⁴⁾ through this site.

What took you so long to launch e-commerce play in India?

When there is such a tremendous opportunity, you want to get it right. Earlier, we were available only on marketplaces (Amazon, Myntra, etc). That was a smart strategy by our partner (Arvind Brands) as that was where Indian consumers were shopping for fashion. But we also realised that we have millions of followers and should engage with them at a more personal level. Worldwide we are selling from 50 websites and we share that knowledge with our partners. This additional affirmation is going to help us become more successful. The timing is perfect. We now have a better understanding of how the consumer shops, how to use data, how to think about merchandising. We have learnt from mistakes of other partners, so we can give feedback. For instance, in one of the markets, they were launching our summer collection and had only four styles of Polo shirts on the website. They had 50 in the warehouse. Polo shirts are our number one selling item worldwide. They should have had 50 options as that would bring people to the website. The moment they listed the entire collection, sales went up multiple times.

BIZ BASICS

How should one use data to make business more efficient?

The best part about having retail stores, ecommerce, digital and social media is that you get data in real time. It makes you smarter about what consumers want. It also gives data on shopping priorities of a person. You get to know which person likes discounted products and who prefers full-price premium products. It allows you to geo-target those consumers as well. You are also able to provide vendors and factories more specifics rather than taking a bet on something and hoping it will work. Earlier, in fashion, it was all about the gut. Now, with data, we make more educated estimates of what will work.

What’s going on with US Polo Association’s media business?

We have a contract with ESPN. Apart from that, we work with VN Sports in Middle East, Turkey and parts of Europe. We work with this sport that the world doesn’t know much about. We told ourselves if we were to pitch it alongside cricket (in India), we would lose. But if we were to show the Indian sport or lifestyle fan the beautiful story around a horse store, the beautiful cars that pull up to a polo match, the philanthropic aspects of polo, it would be rich content. We have 15 million people watching our shows globally. We have an OTT platform called Global Polo TV where we live-stream matches and even share our content with other OTT platforms.

How important is it for an apparel brand to look at adjacencies?

It’s all about testing what’s working and not working. If a handbag is working, go deeper into that segment. Globally, right now, we do about $300 million in footwear and see an opportunity of half-a-billion going forward. Handbags have over-performed in most markets.

What is the ideal way to avoid excess inventory?

The one thing I always tell my partners across the globe is this: keep your basics in stock. If you know the bestsellers are white, red and blue shirts, make sure you don’t run out of that inventory. If you run out of a purple Polo shirt, which is in fashion and seasonal, that’s a good thing. But always make sure your basics are in place.