Case Studies: Smart Turnout – Men’s fashion accessories – breaking into the US market –
catalogue and e-commerce web design

1992 - It started with a single jumper
Smart Turnout started with a jumper knitted in the colours of the Scots Guards for a race at Sandown in 1992 as Philip Turner was nearing the end of his ten year career in the British Army. 17 years later his idea has grown into a sizeable business selling finely crafted clothes and accessories made using the colours and crests of regiments, schools, clubs, universities and colleges.

2007 - 2008 Cogent’s new website and catalogue designs make an instant impact on UK sales
In 2007 Philip hired Cogent to redesign and reprogram the website which had become very outdated. The new site made an instant impact on Smart Turnout’s online sales, in the first three months customer orders doubled in comparison to the same period the previous year. Driven by this success Cogent’s next task was to revitalise the Retail and Wholesale catalogues for the 2009 season. Cogent organised and art directed high quality location photography, booked professional models and brought the design presentation up to the standards of the leading menswear brands. Again our work made a dramatic impact on sales proving that Smart Turnout’s niche market responded well to better product presentation.

2009 - 2010 The new challenge – break into the US market   
For the 2009 - 2010 season we were all looking for the next challenge and it was decided to attempt to break into the US market. If we were to achieve this it was clear that the company needed to broaden its appeal, developing Smart Turnout into a sophisticated lifestyle brand that would be synonymous with classic British style.

Smart Turnout were enjoying increasing success in securing favourable  PR from the leading men’s US fashion magazines GQ and Esquire – this increased our belief  that the brand and its products could succeed in the US . Consequently, the challenge has been to evolve the brand positioning to appeal to a broader US market, while still retaining the institutional associations that made the brand successful. 

How we planned and executed the brand repositioning .
Cogent worked closely with a leading branding expert to develop a clear vision for Smart Turnout’s brand future.  Mood boards helped us to accurately describe the new target customer and how Smart Turnout relates to their lifestyle. We established Smart Turnout’s key target market as fashion conscious male professionals, who desired authentic British style for both country and city lifestyles.

Taking our inspiration from the GQ and Esquire’s editorial fashion spreads we decided to augment the previous countryside location photography with a sharp city style studio shoot. Cogent continued the magazine theme by mirroring fashion editorial layouts: we showed how Smart Turnout products could be combined to form casual and smart styles whilst remaining “on brand”.

The Result:
The brochure launched in October 2009 with the new site lauching in mid November 2009. Trading figures in the first three months show that sales in the US have increased by over 200% over the same period last year, while retaining their UK customer base, indicating that the new Smart Turnout brand has achieved our aim of a cross Atlantic appeal.