We learned that in England, a sweater is called a jumper. And that in Japan, customers are crazy for embroidery – over 60% of the polo shirts we send out have a gymnast, dolphin, flag or other insignia on the chest.

But what happened in Germany tops everything. It had to do with our unequivocal guarantee – Guaranteed. Period.® – which is the very foundation of the way we do business.

You see, our founder Gary Comer didn’t believe in fine print. He believed in doing business in a fair and open-handed way, and doing whatever it took to provide 100% satisfaction. Like offering a guarantee with absolutely no limits.

So naturally, when we mailed out our first catalogs in Germany, they contained our Guaranteed. Period promise of satisfaction, inviting our new German customers to return anything at any time, for any reason, if they were not completely satisfied with what they’d ordered from us.

Well, much to our surprise, the bratwurst hit the fan. A group of 1600 German merchants called The Association Against Unfair Competition sued Lands’ End, claiming that our unconditional guarantee violating a German law that banned retailers from offering gifts to lure customers.

It wasn’t just neighborhood merchants fuming and sputtering. “There are a lot of huge companies who are hiding behind this association,” said Frank Kriegl, at the time our marketing director in Germany.

Lands’ End refused to back down. In fact, we launched an advertising campaign to win supporters to our just cause. Ganz Deutschland ist eine Servicewueste? asked one ad. Is all of Germany a service wasteland?
Alas, the merchant association won their suit when the German Supreme Court ruled that our promise was indeed a violation of German law. But still, we wouldn’t back down.

Phil Young, our European managing director, stressed that the ban would not affect how we treated our German customers. “This antiquated law will no longer allow us to communicate our guarantee to our German custom-ers,” said Phil, “but regardless of this, every single product we sell in Germany will be backed by our guarantee.”

We began running cheeky ads elsewhere in Europe, with headlines like:
“Introducing a guarantee so good the Germans banned it.” In Germany, we just blacked out the “guarantee” part of our ads, stirring up even more interest in the whole brouhaha. And in 1999, we launched the German version of our web site, which couldn’t mention the guarantee, but linked to a separate site that did. German customers began rallying to our cause.

The Association Against Unfair Competition was clearly on the wrong side of the fight, especially as the age of internet shopping picked up steam. Eventually, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s government revoked the antiquated 1932 law prohibiting discounts, rebates and lifetime guarantees.

Just like that, the great Guaranteed. Period. controversy in Germany was kaput. We began telling our complete and unexpurgated Lands’ End story again. And our business has been growing in Deutschland ever since.

The customer is always right, as Gary Comer might say.

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“I’d like you to think about a little place out back where we could all work out,” said our founder Gary Comer one day to Milt Martinson, the Green Bay architect who had designed most of the Lands’ End office buildings in Dodgeville.

Well, things had a way of sprouting up like corn at Lands’ End back in those days, and a couple years later – February 24, 1989 to be exact – we all found ourselves standing around an Olympic-sized swimming pool, celebrating the dedication of the brand new Lands’ End Activity Center.

It had turned out to be more than a “little place out back.”  A whopping 80,000 square feet, the new center had a gym, 1/8th  mile indoor track, racquetball courts and a plethora of exercise equipment in addition to the
75-meter pool.

“I’ve been to every major corporate health facility in the country, and this is the best of them all,” commented Ray Squires of the Mayo Clinic, on a visit to the new Lands’ End center the week before it opened.

But as we stood around the pool that day, most of us were feeling more impressed with the size of Gary Comer’s heart than we were with the size of the Activity Center. The founder of Lands’ End cared about his employees – we’d always known that from the time he spent with all of us – but this new facility was further evidence.

The usual speeches were given, all of them heartfelt, some of them more interesting than others. Most touching was one from Sam Fink, a legendary advertising art director who had known Gary for over thirty years.

“Gary is a dreamer,” said Sam. “He dreamt and he dreamt, and this is what he dreamt.” Sam spread his arms wide, seemingly to encompass the whole activity center.

Gary had asked Sam if there was anything he could do to decorate the new center, Sam being an artist of no small repute. Sam answered, “What you oughta’ do is honor all the people who work for you, because I know you love them.” Gary told Sam he could do anything he wanted, to accomplish that.

So when all the speechifying was over, Gary cut the ribbon for the new Activity Center, and a banner fell away to reveal Sam’s handiwork. There were 1,400 names hand-lettered by Sam on the pool wall tiles – the names of every permanent full-time and part-time employee at Lands’ End at that time, along with this inscription:

These are the names of the people whose daily work and good spirit at Lands’ End have made this building possible. It is dedicated to them and their continued good health.

“Years from now, you can come with your kids and your grandkids, show them your name, and tell them you were a part of all this,” said Gary.

What we remember most from the dedication ceremony was what happened after Gary cut the ribbon. A couple boisterous (and brave) employees tossed him into the new pool, necktie and all.

Gary flipped onto his back, swam gracefully halfway down the lane, then turned over and finished out the length freestyle. Not Mark Spitz, but not bad. He emerged in soaking Oxford and khakis, to wild applause. Walked along the end of the pool, shaking a few hands, then jumped up on the diving board, did a graceful swan dive, and swam another length!

We’ve all swam our share of laps since then, and sweated buckets on the stair-climbers and treadmills and weight machines. Some of our kids have learned how to swim in that pool, and started a lifelong love of exercise. A few past Presidents of the company have even joined in the fiercely-contested noontime basketball games, throwing up their share of wild treys.

Just as Gary intended, we’ve had a ton of fun in the Activity Center – now appropriately called the Comer Center. And every time we go there, we can still see him paddling in the pool, his knit tie floating on top of the water, a happy grin on his face.

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The Lands’ End lighthouse has been intricately stitched on all Lighthouse Collection styles to symbolize our promise to be a beacon for what’s real.

Logo Evolution

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Lucky for us, we were riding the “preppy wave” too. Lisa Birnbaum’s tongue-in-cheek classic “The Preppy Handbook” had come out in 1980, celebrating chinos, Oxfords and such – exactly the kind of clothing we offered.

But therein lay a problem: everybody started offering chinos and Oxfords. We were in grave danger of getting lost in the shuffle. So Gary Comer (thinking like the former ad agency copywriter that he was) had an idea…

An ad campaign unlike anything any catalog company had ever done. It would be an ad campaign whose main objective was not to solicit catalog requests – the way other catalog companies measured the success of their ads – but to tell a gripping story of Land’s End quality.

Gary called on two buddies from his Young and Rubicam days, art director Sam Fink and writer Karl Vollmer. The original odd couple.

Sam was a passionate workaholic, an eternal optimist, a man who could barely get one idea down on paper before a dozen more burst into his head. He would vociferously advocate for his ideas, occasionally with a wagging finger under your nose. He paced around our offices like a caged tiger.

Karl moved in a slow shuffle, with a bemused smile on his face. He could dash off a brilliant ad or even a short story in an afternoon, allowing time for a leisurely dinner or better, a visit to a gambling establishment. His acerbic sense of humor kept us in stitches, but at times clashed with Sam’s sunnier disposition.

Yet they were a dream team, when it came to the work. They created a campaign that was right up Gary’s alley – treating each Lands’ End product as a hero, stressing how much effort we put into our products, how we made them genuinely better than our competitors. Before either of them put pencil to paper, they subjected each particular Lands’ End merchant to an affable but rigorous “interrogation,” ferreting out unsung details of the products, like the split back yoke of an Oxford shirt or the deeper-than-ordinary pockets on a pair of flannel trousers, talking about those details in a way that reflected an unusual dedication to quality.

Even in the 1980’s, these magazine ads had an old-fashioned, even fuddy duddy look. No photos, just simple illustrations done by Chicago artist Mark McMahon. And copy, lots of it. “Who’s gonna read all this?” groused one skeptical member of the management team. But the ads stood apart, and got noticed.

Karl’s headlines were irresistible:

Why this New York ad man leaves his $300 attache case in the closet and carries our $39.50 Square Rigger.

Why this New York ad man leaves

After a slight detour to the University of Chicago, it’s here: the near-perfect Lands’ End Rugby Shirt.

The near-perfect Lands’ End Rugby

Quality in the apparel business, we learned early in our life, is an ephemeral thing.

Quality in the apparel business

With those messages and Sam’s simple visuals, the ads had an honest, forthright feel that made a powerful impression on readers, created what we might now call “a buzz,” and began to build a nationwide reputation for Lands’ End. It was a reputation we reinforced with every order we shipped out of Dodgeville.

In recent years, our Lands’ End advertising has become more colorful and contemporary. But we hope the message of quality is still as powerful as ever. We think about Sam and Karl, every time we dream up a new ad.

The post “Who’s Gonna Read All This?” The Original Lands’ End Ad Campaign appeared first on The Lands' End Blog.

A lot of people ask why the apostrophe in Lands’ End is in the wrong place.

There have been some silly explanations along the way, but the truth is, it was a mistake.

“It was a typo in our first printed piece,” explained Gary Comer, “and we couldn’t afford to reprint and correct it.”

In the years since, the misplaced apostrophe has continued to grace our name and our label. And while it has prompted some raised eyebrows among English teachers, it sets us apart as a company whose continuing concern for what’s best for the customer is unmistakably human.

We’ll share three little stories that exemplify how we care for our customers.

The first one is about a call Ruth Lang got, when she was working third shift in customer sales. A woman asked if Ruth would call her back at 5 AM the next day. She was staying in a mansion-turned-hotel that did not have a wake-up service, and the next day was her wedding day. She was afraid she’d oversleep and miss the ceremony! Since she was a long-time Lands’ End customer, she knew she could count on us to help out in any way. Sure enough, Ruth called her back at 5 AM as requested, and the wedding went off beautifully.

Then there was the time we got this heart-tugging letter:

“Dear Mr. Lands’ End,

I’m in the seventh grade and am writing to you because some kids in my class stole my math teacher’s briefcase and filled it with debris. The kids didn’t like my teacher because he gave too much homework.

When my teacher found his briefcase on his car roof after school, I saw him crying. I asked why he was crying, and he said it was because the briefcase was a gift from his father in 1975 when he graduated from college, and his father had passed away.

I have two dollars and the entire Boston Red Sox baseball card collection. I will give all of it if you could please send him a new one. His case was all blue. Thank you, Mr. Lands’ End.”

After daubing our eyes with a tissue, we sent the kid a brand new briefcase, and let him keep his baseball cards.

Finally one last story, about the time Mike McDermott got a call from a customer, checking to see if her granddaughter’s present would be delivered the next day, as promised, on her birthday. For whatever reason, it turned out the order would not arrive until the day AFTER her birthday. The grandma was understandably upset.

Mike had an idea. “What if I call your granddaughter tomorrow, and sing “Happy Birthday” to her?” The grandma said that would be fine. So the next day, Mike rounded up a whole chorus of his customer sales comrades, and they sang a beautiful rendition of “Happy Birthday” to the granddaughter. She was touched. Later her grandma called to say how impressed her granddaughter was, that a company would go to all that trouble, and how special it made her feel.

We could tell you plenty of other stories, but you get the idea. We’ll do whatever it takes to satisfy our customers, just as we have since 1963. We may be part of a great big corporation nowadays, but we’re still the same friendly folks in Dodgeville that you’ve known for years, and we’ll do just about anything for you.

Except fix that apostrophe.

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Lands’ End entered the new millennium with a continued strong Internet presence. In fact, in 2001 CIO magazine voted Lands’ End as one of its ‘Top 100 Innovators’ for this generation. Also that year, landsend.com was named as one of the top 100 sites by PC Magazine. While our phone and Internet businesses continued to thrive, a new relationship promised a third channel of business would soon be on the horizon.

Lands’ End joined the Sears family in June 2002. Lands’ End founder Gary Comer had stepped down as president in 1990, remaining chairman of the board and the majority stockholder until he sold the company to Sears, Roebuck & Co., another retailer with a rich and extensive history that began as a mail-order business. Mr. Comer passed away in October 2006, after a long battle with cancer. He was 78.

As a wholly owned subsidiary of Sears, within five months Lands’ End product was rolled out in more than 180 Sears full-line stores alongside other Sears clothing lines. By fall 2003, all 856 Sears full-line stores coast-to-coast featured Lands’ End best-selling merchandise for the entire family.

In 2005, Lands’ End took the brick-and-mortar approach one step further with the creation of Lands’ End Shops at Sears. We found that by pulling all Lands’ End products together on the sales floor in a ‘shop concept,’ we were able to enhance our presentation in the Sears stores. Today there are more than 250 Lands’ End Shops at Sears in the U.S. and Canada staffed by consultants specially trained to deliver the Lands’ End customer experience.

Looking ahead, Lands’ End will continue to focus on customers and our ways of connecting with them. With our presence on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, customers can now interact with us and with each other. And while we will never lose sight of our existing customers, we will continue to introduce new products and the technology to make interacting with us easier, faster and more enjoyable than ever.

KEY EVENTS

2000

Lands’ End breaks ground in Stevens Point, Wisconsin for the construction of another satellite facility. Fortune’s “Top 100 Best Companies to Work For” includes Lands’ End for a third year running.

2001

Lands’ End debuts an alumni collection, Womens’ 18W-26W catalog and Custom Chinos on landsend.com. Over 269 million catalogs are distributed throughout the year.

2002

Lands’ End joins the Sears family. Maternity wear is added to the Lands’ End collection. Product rolls out in more than 180 Sears full-line stores.

2003

Lands’ End is successfully rolled out to all 870 Sears stores. The company celebrates its 40-year anniversary.

2004

Lands’ End gift card is successfully launched. Employees beat Guinness World Record with 2,773 people pillow fighting for the charity Sweet Dreams. Lands’ End opens an on-site clinic for employees.

2005

Employees, along with a company match, raise $70,610 for Hurricane Katrina victims. Sears and Kmart merger is complete. Lands’ End Germany is voted one of the best places to work in Europe.

2006

Lands’ End expands into an additional 75 Lands’ End Shops at Sears.

2007

Lands’ End Shops at Sears celebrates 200 stores. A new intimates collection is launched.

2008

Lands’ End is recognized as a top performing e-commerce company by the E-Tailing Group and ranks #9 on Business Week’s list of “Customer Service Champs.” Employees take part in a company-wide volunteerism project, along with Habitat for Humanity, to build a home for a local family. ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover highlights the building of a home in Richland Center, Wisconsin and includes home product donated by Lands’ End.

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Gary Comer always wanted to create a company of his own, and for Comer, Lands’ End was a dream that came true. Inspired by his hobby of sailboat racing, in 1962 Comer went to work for Murphy & Nye Sailmakers in Chicago. The agreement was that Comer and the owner, Dick Stearns, would start a second business as partners. The only question was what kind of business that would be. And it was up to Comer to figure it out as he worked for Murphy & Nye.

Once Comer realized that the customers buying sails from Murphy & Nye were a market for sailboat fittings, it became clear what the new business should be. In the spring of 1963, Comer, Stearns, and three other partners launched Lands’ End Yacht Stores, Inc., complete with a basement mail-order operation in Chicago’s old tannery district.

In the years since, the misplaced apostrophe has continued to grace our name and our label. And while it has prompted some raised eyebrows among English teachers, it also sets us apart as a company whose continuing concern for what’s best for the customer is unmistakably human.

In a piece published in 1988 for our company’s 25th anniversary, Comer wrote, “Our basic premise for winning customers is little different today than when we started. Sell only things we believe in, ship every order the day it arrives, unconditionally guarantee everything. That was, and still is, the platform.”

KEY EVENTS

1963

A young advertising copywriter named Gary Comer, who had long pursued a love of sailing in his spare time, decided to pursue his long-standing dream of opening his own business. Comer quit his job of ten years, and started a company that sold marine hardware, as well as sails, and in due course, Comer took over the job of selling such equipment through a mail order catalog, serviced from the basement of a building along the Chicago River in the city’s old tannery district.

1964

Comer produced Lands’ End’s first catalog, called The Lands’ End Yachtsman’s Equipment Guide. This catalog became the most important single reference catalog available in its time to naval architects, boat builders and sailboat owners.

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