A Lesson in Brand Awareness

Photo Credit: Lacoste BETC
Photo Credit: Lacoste BETC

Brand Awareness in the most elegant way.

Did you miss #LacosteSaveOurSpecies Day? On Wednesday, the iconic crocodile (and you thought it was an alligator) on Lacoste polos shirts gave up its place on the front of shirts, to make room for a representative from an endangered species.

At 10 AM Eastern time yesterday, May 22, the limited-edition polo shirts went on sale. As you can imagine it didn’t take long for all the Hawaiian Monk Seals, Moheil Scops Owls, North Atlantic Right Whales, Iberian Lynx, Yemeni Mouse-Tailed Bats, Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombats, Mountain Chickens (actually a frog), Cebu Damselflies, Addax, and Opal Goodeids to disappear. That is, those that were occupying space on a polo shirt disappeared as the shirts where grabbed up around the globe. In reality, the real creatures from this list continue to survive in perilously small numbers, ranging from the 1400 Hawaiian Monk Seals to the 50 surviving Cebu Damselflies.

This is the second year in a row, that Lacoste, working in conjunction with IUCN SOS, Save Our Species, has produced the shirts, raising money and awareness for the endangered species represented. In the process, they’ve always done an amazing job of elevating brand awareness of their own already lofty brand.

Great lesson in ecological preservation for all and a textbook great lesson in powerful brand marketing for those of us in the profession.

BTW, although the event has passed and you’ve missed your chance to have one of the special shirts, you can still make a donation to this important cause.


Photo Credit: Lacoste BETC

#LacosteSaveOurSpecies #brandawareness

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *