户外用品公司菲尔森的大抱负

    “如果有人要去北方，他应该来我们这儿选外套，因为我们已经从千百个北方人那里了解清楚了，去北方最适合穿什么。”——C.C. 菲尔森产品目录，1914年

    每家公司的创业故事都至关重要。如果这个故事又始终和销售宣传水乳交融，那就更弥足珍贵了。菲尔森公司（Filson）很早以前就开始生产厚羊毛夹克、大包和其他配套户外用品了（这些产品从来不用防水面料Gore-Tex或Velcro这种尼龙搭扣）。1897年，公司创始人克林顿•菲尔森在西雅图开始了他的创业生涯，向前往克朗代克地区（加拿大育空河流域的黄金产地——译注）淘金的勘探者们提供户外用品。这段历史是菲尔森公司及其非凡魅力的关键所在。一百多年来，人们——主要是男性——只要是从事打猎、钓鱼、勘探、伐木和其他户外活动，都会无一例外地信赖C.C.菲尔森的产品。这就是吸引力，这就是真正的品牌。

    要坚持使用真材实料，同时又要让业务大幅增长，这绝非易事。而这也正是菲尔森公司新任首席执行官艾伦•柯克所面临的难题。菲尔森是一家私人公司，从不公布自己的销售数字，但自从2010年来，它的营收每年递增25%；它的夹克和包在《时尚先生》（Esquire）、《GQ》和《名利场》（Vanity Fair）这些顶级杂志上高调登场。今年，这家公司将在伦敦开店，明年感恩节将在阿斯彭开店，三月再赴纽约开店。柯克的艰巨任务是，带领这家突然成为“城市樵夫”们首选品牌的公司保持小规模、独特且经久不衰的感觉——同时还要实现增长和现代化。柯克已经亲眼目睹了一家公司因为无法驾驭这种挑战而败下阵来，它就是西雅图另一家历史悠久的户外用品公司，也是柯克的前东家——艾迪•鲍尔公司（Eddie Bauer）。它因为过度扩张而最终走向了崩溃。

    20世纪70年代中期被通用磨坊公司（General Mills）收购后，艾迪•鲍尔公司就开始大举进入各大商场，把自己的品牌标志和品牌情感借给了福特公司（Ford）用于“探险者”（Explorer）这类越野车，同时还在欧洲和日本成立了合资企业，还开始进军家居用品市场，并开发了各季便服和商务正装。到了上世纪90年代末，这家公司的销售一举冲上了历史最高点，但随后就跌入了谷底。最终到了21世纪初，这家公司一共已经经历了两次破产。今天，它又重新开始卖起了户外探险装备，并大肆宣传自己作为登山者装备供应商的辉煌历史（它曾赞助了美国首支珠峰登顶探险队）。重新捡起老本行真是对它过去三十年业绩猛增的绝大讽刺。把品牌标志及用户情感滥用于太多产品后，这个品牌就会变得毫无意义，核心用户也会因此疏远品牌，它的业务也会随之遭受重大损失。七个月前，柯克刚刚到菲尔森公司走马上任时，他的第一要务就是要确保这家公司不会重蹈鲍尔公司那样的多元化覆辙。

    他说：“我刚到公司的头几周里，主要任务就是和大家开展品牌整合工作。”他查看了他们所用的照片，回顾了菲尔森产品目录过去这些年来所采用的不同风格，甚至修改了品牌标志。柯克认为这个标志看上去“太潦草了”，于是他简化了字体，去掉了潦草的笔画，并“通过镜头”使其外形更紧凑集中。他说：“关键就在于要保持彻头彻尾的一致性。”  

    "If a man is going North, he should come to us for his outfit, because we have obtained our ideas of what is best to wear in that country from the experience of the man from the North -- not merely one -- but hundreds of them." --C.C. Filson catalog, 1914

    Each company's founding myth is important, but the story matters more if it is bundled up in the sales pitch. Filson makes heavy wool jackets and hearty bags and other assorted outdoor gear from a bygone era (no Gore-Tex or Velcro here). Company founder Clinton C. Filson began in 1897, in Seattle, as an outfitter to prospectors headed to the Klondike for the gold rush. The story is central to what Filson is and the company's appeal. People -- men, almost exclusively -- have trusted C.C. Filson's product for more than 100 years for hunting, fishing, prospecting, logging, and other outdoor pursuits. That's the appeal, and that's the brand.

    The trick is to grow while remaining authentic. It's a problem Filson's newest CEO, Alan Kirk, is keenly aware of. Filson is a private company so it doesn't disclose sales figures, but its revenues have increased 25% year over year since 2010; its jackets and bags appear in the pages of Esquire and GQ and Vanity Fair; it opened a store in London this year and will open one in Aspen by Thanksgiving and New York City by March of next year. Kirk's job is to take this company that is suddenly the brand of choice for hip urban woodsmen and keep Filson feeling small, unique, and timeless -- all while growing and modernizing. Kirk has already seen one company stumble over this challenge, another historic Seattle outfitter that overexpanded to the point of implosion: his previous employer, Eddie Bauer.

    After General Mills (GIS) bought Eddie Bauer in the mid-1970s, the company aggressively expanded into malls and lent its logo and sensibility to the likes of Ford, for the Explorer, as well as to joint ventures in Europe and Japan, a home collection, and seasonal lines of casual and office wear. Sales made it to an all-time high in the late 1990s before they plummeted, and the company went bankrupt, twice, in the 2000s. Today it has returned to selling expedition gear and plays up its rich history as an outfitter of mountaineers (Bauer sponsored the first American summit of Everest). The return to form is a direct rebuke to the previous 30 years of growth. Lend a logo, and a sensibility, to too many things, and the brand becomes meaningless, the core customer alienated, and the business suffers. Kirk's first moves, when he arrived at Filson seven months ago, were aimed at preventing the sort of dilution that happened at Bauer.

    "The first few weeks I was here," he says, "We worked on absolute brand alignment." He looked at the photography they used, went back through the various styles the Filson catalog had taken on over the years, and even put the logo through a revision. Kirk says it felt "too squiggly." He cleaned up the font, got rid of the squiggles, and centralized the look "through one lens ... The key, throughout, is consistency," he says.