Reimagining a Legacy: Inside Vera Bradley's new brand transformation

Any type of change can seem daunting for many, but not for iconic American lifestyle brand Vera Bradley. Keeping up with the shifting needs of today's consumer, Vera Bradley has unveiled a complete brand transformation today, which includes a new logo, in-store overhaul, and renewed digital experience next to a new, elevated range of products that celebrate Vera Bradley's heritage as well as her customer's unique sense of style. Not an easy feat, but a crucial decision to restore the brand back to full health, according to Jacquline Ardrey, president and CEO of Vera Bradley. Taking up her role with the brand a mere 19 months ago, she was in charge of spearheading the brand's complete transformation.

Together with the new executive team, which includes Alison Hiatt, chief marketing officer, she fine-tuned the brand's next chapter, which seeks to meet the needs of its core target audience. To learn more about the ins and outs of Vera Bradley's new brand overhaul, FashionUnited spoke with both Ardrey and Hiatt.

Modernizing tradition: Vera Bradley's new brand transformation

"Fundamentally, brand transformation is about evolving our product and making our brand more relevant to today's consumer," explains Ardrey. "We want to serve her, and it was a necessary step to look at the brand's health long-term and acquire new customers." Although Vera Bradley has successfully managed to retain its multigenerational appeal over the past four decades, with many mothers and aunts passing down their love of the brand to their daughters and granddaughters, the team sought to modernize and elevate the brand for the future.

"We have a very beloved brand, and people of all ages love us, but we wanted to make sure that this continues for the future," adds Hiatt. "While we have a wide appeal, we're targeting the 35 to 54-year-old woman because this age range was crucial when our brand was most successful and influences both younger and older demographics. These women, but particularly today's dynamic woman, all have so much going on for them, and we feel that it's the perfect range for our customization, which aligns with our investment strategy."

After spending much time studying their core customer, what they love about the brand, industry trends, business, and competitors, Ardrey and the team at Vera Bradley boiled down all these insights into four pillars of the brand's transformation. Ranging from a new store design to a new digital presence with a renewed website, a new brand ambassador, and a refreshed logo, the main focal point of the transformation was their products. "We've brought in new fabrics and really elevated the quality," explains Ardrey. "We have a long history using cotton for our products, but we've adapted to include cotton gabardine, oxford canvas, full grain leather, nylons, and both quilted and non-quilted fabrics, allowing for mix-and-match with complete customization."

Vera Bradley unveils elevated products, new silhouettes and fabrics under new strategy

The brand also introduced new styles and silhouettes, many of which were an evolution of previously best-selling items such as backpacks and duffel bags, reinventing and modernizing them in terms of fabric, shape, and color. "We've evolved our products and style to meet the preferences of women today, ensuring the brand's appeal for future generations," says Hiatt. The design team also added more solid color options, as well as the famous prints Vera Bradley is known for, and more options for personalization in the form of accessories like bag charms, key chains, and scarves.

"We believe our existing customers want to stay relevant in fashion and function, and we can uniquely fulfill that role," continues Ardrey. "We're excited about our new thoughtful product details, like naming our products after streets in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where the brand originated." The brand's revamped logo is another clear example of how the team injected a sense of newness into the brand while remaining true to its roots. "Our new logo blends classic and modern elements, with nuances influenced by paisley patterns, evident in the letter E. And our new brand color, stem green, symbolizes the consistent base of our seasonal collections because we see our products much like a bouquet, where the flowers, aka our products, change from season to season, but the stem remains the same," explains Ardrey.

In addition to the new products, logo, and logo color, Vera Bradley has reinvented every aspect of its retail experience, both online and in-store, as part of its comprehensive brand transformation. The new website includes new landing pages for the products, which allow customers to explore various fabric options in more depth, understand how many items fit in said bags based on their size, visualize how the item looks on, and learn more about the new fabrics and materials.

Other new features to the new website include videos showcasing favorite aspects and changes to existing products made by designers, offering valuable insights to assist customers in their shopping experience. "For our loyal customers, we've also mapped our top 20 most popular styles we've updated, clearly communicating these changes on our website. For example, if you loved the Triple Zip Hipster, we'll guide you to its new style," says Hiatt. "We wanted to be inclusive and invite her in so she can understand everything that's new and why she's going to love this product too."

Vera Bradley's brand transformation applied across digital and physical retail location

The new digital environment and aesthetic from Vera Bradley are also being applied to the brand's stores and include renewed interiors, fixtures, and layouts. "We've really tried to update the interior of our brand stores to make sure that it is cohesive to the new brand story." One of the biggest changes is how the stores will display the products. Rather than grouping products by style and print, products will be showcased in a way that makes it easier for customers to find the style they want, as well as the contents of the bag itself. "We've also mixed more solids with prints to help customers curate and customize their pieces."

The new store fixtures and interiors are designed to enhance the Vera Bradley shopping experience while creating a calm and peaceful atmosphere, allowing customers to shop curated collections of complementary looks. "Every time someone visited our headquarters, we saw that they really enjoyed exploring and discovering products - myself included," injects Ardrey. "Even though I had seen the products so many times, the way they are now presented makes me feel like there's always something to rediscover." Vera Bradley is also expanding its Full Line store footprint, starting with the addition of three new stores this year. With the new locations yet to be revealed, the team has made sure that the new store updates to the Full Line stores will further differentiate these from the brand's Outlet stores.

Vera Bradley taps Zooey Deschanel as its brand ambassador

To help spread the word about its brand transformation, Vera Bradley has partnered with actress, musician, and entrepreneur Zooey Deschanel as its brand ambassador and face of its new creative campaign for Fall 2024. "She really embodies a lot of the Vera Bradley spirit. She has a multigenerational appeal and a unique sense of style that is very much her own," says Hiatt. A fan of the brand for several years, "so it was an authentic collaboration," adds Ardrey, the entrepreneur hand-selected her favored products for the campaign, highlighting the brand's shift towards more personalization.

A seemingly smooth and hopefully wildly successful brand transformation, the shift was not without a few hurdles, notes Ardrey. "The first one, and probably the most pressing one, was how do you afford to redo all your fabrics and materials and keep your costs the same?" As CEO and a former merchant, the expense was a major concern for Ardey, especially when it came to upgrading the cotton garbadine the team landed on, which was approximately 40 percent more than the fabric used prior. "But the team believed in this fabric so much and worked tirelessly, negotiating with suppliers to bring costs down, which was a huge success. I'm incredibly proud of their dedication," explains Ardrey. Maintaining their price points was crucial to Vera Bradley's brand transformation following various supply chain challenges after the pandemic. "I wasn't willing to explore that option, so we're really proud that we've managed to maintain all of our retail prices and even managed to lower prices for some of our most beloved products.

New brand transformation to introduce Vera Bradley to new generations while maintaining connection to target customer

Additionally, working with an almost entirely new executive team while overseeing a brand transformation was another hurdle the CEO had to overcome. "I was lucky enough to bring in amazing talent like Alison," she recalls with a smile. "Alison and I worked together a long time ago and even before I got the job at Vera Bradley, I felt that she would be the perfect person to bring on board. Her experience is just golden. She was exactly what we needed: a change agent, and along with our new CFO, we managed to get on track right away. Despite having new team members joining at different stages, everyone quickly adapted, making it challenging but ultimately successful thanks to strong team support."

With the full brand rehaul live, what are the next steps for Vera Bradley, we ask? "I think that at this initial stage, I see it as our catch-up to becoming more modern and relevant," concludes Ardrey. "After that, it is more about remaining current and being great retailers, continuing to inspire our customers. Our main goal is to restore long-term health, which starts with customer acquisition. We want to increase our brand awareness and brand perception in our target audience and beyond. That will likely open up a lot more opportunities for us. So there could be other things down the road in terms of partnerships, licensing, but for now, we want to get the brand healthy again and get some consistent growth, and then we will decide what avenue to take next."