Calvin klein

Brand Power- CK

History:
1968- Klien and his childhood friend Barry Schwartz founded Calvin Klein Ltd., in New York City with $10,000. Its just that a buyer from Bonwit Teller fortunately reached him placing a $50,000 order. The first collection was featured at the New York City store which had a line of men’s and women’s coats. He was also described as “the supreme master of minimalism”. In the early 70’s, he added sportswear, blazers and also lingerie to his women’s collection portfolio.

By 1977, annual revenues reached $30 million. Slowly and steadily scarves, shoes, belts, furs, sunglasses were included to the collection. After the company signed licenses for cosmetics, jeans, and menswear, Klein's annual retail volume was estimated at $100 million. 1981-Fortune magazine figured Klein’s annual income at $8.5 million per year. Calvin Klein than introduced a successful line of Boxer shorts for women, and a men’s underwear collection.
The company was having a good time in the early 80’s. Later financial problems increased and rumors spread that Calvin Klein Industries was up for sale. Calvin Klein had almost neared bankruptcy in 1992, but fortunately managed to regain and revive its empire.

Acquisition:
Phillips Van Heusen Corp. finally acquired Calvin Klein Inc. for nearly $400 million in cash and $30 million in stock as well as licensing and royalties linked to revenues over the following 15 yrs. The sale also included an ongoing personal financial incentive for Mr. Klein based on future sales of the Calvin Klein brand. Though CKI was not completely owned by PVH, since the jeans, underwear and swimwear business of Calvin Klein was controlled by Warnaco Group- producer of Speedo. They were apprehensive that PVH may take over CK completely.
Finally the day came when CK became the wholly owned subsidiary of PVH, thanks to Apax Partners Inc., a New York private equity firm, which is said to have made an equity investment in PVH worth $250 million in stock, and $125 million; all in exchange for seats on the board of PVH.

Licences:
June 2003- Kellwood Corp of Chesterfield, Missouri was selected by CKI as a strategic licensing partner to produce, source and distribute CK women's better sportswear line. Warnaco will assume the license for CK collection men's and women's apparel and accessories worldwide from Fingen beginning from 2008.However the deal wont have any impact on existing US licences with Kellwood Corp. for the CK women's better sportswear line and with GAV for the ck Calvin Klein bridge sportswear business.

Stores:
In 90's, the Company opened stores in Paris, Seoul, and Taipei and ultra-fancy ck Calvin Klein stores in Hong Kong, Milan and Kuwait City. Presently only one Calvin Klein Collection store is operated by CKI, located at 654, Madison Avenue in New York City. There are several stores in Europe and Asia which only carry the ck sportwear line. Warnaco Group also maintains Calvin Klein jeans and other outlet stores. 2006- CK jeans boutiques in Cairo and Alexandria,Egypt. And three in Istanbul/Turkey.
The company is headquartered at New York City.

Brands:
The most visible brand names in the Calvin Klein portfolio include:
- Calvin Klein Collection(black label)
- ck Calvin Klein (grey label)

- Calvin Klein (white label, sportswear line)
- Calvin Klein Jeans (denimwear line)
- Calvin Klein Home (bedding, towel, bath rug and accessory collections)
- Calvin Klein Golf ( Golfwear)

Calvin Klein is also known for its popular line of fragrances. This part was maintained by Calvin Klein Cosmetics Company, a Unilever Company. But later Coty Inc.,a cosmetics leader took over the licensing agreements.

Advertising:
The company had slightly different marketting strategy from that of others. Their ads seemed to be controversial but anyhow had a glittering career for the models.One of the most fascinating ads was for the cKone perfume, 1999. The campaign displayed e-mail addresses in print ads, targetting the teenagers. When mails were sent to these addresses, the mailers e-ids would be placed on a mailing list which used to send them response mails containing the details pertaining to models lives, which were fake. However it was stopped in 2002.

The Official website of the Company- http://www.calvinklein.com/