Brooks Brothers CMO Marisa Thalberg shares how the “Make It Yours” campaign repositions the iconic brand for a new generation while honoring its 200-year heritage and timeless style.
Brooks Brothers, the oldest clothing company in the United States has initiated the "Make It Yours" campaign on Wednesday with the goal of repositioning the brand for a new generation of consumers. Brooks Brothers was founded in 1818 and has been a part of Catalyst Brands for more than a year. The campaign highlights a “lifestyle-meets-heritage” mindset, offering a modern take on traditional fashion that crosses genders and generations.
Brooks Brothers has been renowned for its distinctly traditional style for over 200 years. The brand's most recent campaign, Make It Yours, focuses on wardrobe essentials that have endured for decades, such as Oxford shirts, fitted suits, and classic outerwear, and invites a new audience to reimagine that timeless design through their own unique style.
“The history is unbelievable,” said Marisa Thalberg, chief customer and marketing officer at Catalyst Brands, of Brooks Brothers. Make It Yours showcases how uniqueness breathes new life into classic styles such as tailored suits and button-down collar Oxford shirts, the latter of which Brooks Brothers designed 125 years ago. The ad debuts at a time when the brand's long-standing elegance, calm luxury, and fresh preppy trends, have returned to the mainstream.
Thalberg acknowledged that this campaign has an incredible feeling of history and is genuinely woven into the fabric of American culture and fashion. They discovered that consumers might easily fall into the trap of believing that traditionalism appeals to an older client and they want to make it younger. According to Thalberg, many individuals may have a more limited understanding of the brand than it truly is. “The big epiphany is that’s actually not right: there is this heritage of the brand that we absolutely want to honor,” she said.
She believes the campaign broadens how people see Brooks Brothers, focusing less on age and more on attitude and sensibility. In her view, the shift is not about changing the brand itself but about telling its story in a new and more inclusive way.
