Turning customer insight into premium, unified brand messaging
Challenge
INDOCHINO’s growing showroom footprint and recent price increases had pushed the brand into a more premium space, but its story hadn’t caught up. Messaging was fragmented across channels, visuals varied by agency, and the in-house marketing team was struggling to explain what makes made-to-measure worth the investment. When Ryane Askew, VP of Marketing at INDOCHINO first approached me, her goal was to align the company around a single, coherent narrative that could stretch across regions, price tiers, and teams – without losing speed.
Process
We began by bringing the brand back to its center of gravity: the customer. INDOCHINO had grown rapidly, expanded pricing tiers, and evolved from value-driven disruptor to premium market player. But its story hadn’t caught up. My role was to bridge that gap – to ground the brand in data, align leadership around a single narrative, and equip the team to own it.
Phase 1: Synthesize customer truth
I started by immersing myself in the data: over 4,000 survey responses across prospects, past purchasers, and segment cohorts. From that research came a defining insight: customers saw INDOCHINO as stylish and aspirational, but many questioned its affordability. There was some friction around fit and turnaround time, but customization and design drove loyalty. These insights around aspiration, accessibility, and customization became the foundation for the new brand story.
Phase 2: Brand strategy sprint
With data and insights in hand, I led a six-week brand sprint to build a new framework from the ground up. Gathering input and feedback from the VP of Marketing, Director of Retail, Creative Director, and Brand Manager, I created brand guidelines that were simple, data-backed, and built for speed. After a single review, the executive team approved it unanimously – zero pushback, one round of edits, and full alignment. The result was a brand framework anchored around the brand’s purpose (“To inspire confidence that people admire.”) and supported by three messaging pillars:
- Perfect fit, every time – solving common “off-the-rack” suit challenges with fit and sizing
- Your look, your way – allowing the customer to step into the role of the designer
- Tailored for the moment – connecting to the emotional experience of wearing a suit
Phase 3: Enablement and rollout prep
Next, I audited every corner of the brand’s external presence – from website copy to social content to PR messaging – and mapped opportunities to simplify how confidence, craftsmanship, and value were communicated. And to ensure the brand didn’t stop at a PDF, I translated the brand guidelines into tools the team could actually use:
- Talk tracks for executive storytelling and advocating for the value of a unified brand
- Updated briefs for agency partners and influencer campaigns
- A brand measurement framework to track consistency, perception, and performance
- A diagnostic Brand Alignment Checklist to flag off-brand language and tone
Every tool was designed to help the marketing and retail teams execute with clarity and speed.
Phase 4: Coaching and sustainability
Finally, I shifted from builder to coach. I worked closely with INDOCHINO’s Brand Manager to operationalize the framework – how to run content audits, evaluate agency work, and align creative decisions to the new pillars. I helped the team set up simple, measurable, cost-effective indicators: brand sentiment via Sprout Social and Reddit monitoring, audience growth via Pinterest, and engagement benchmarks across channels.
“Jeni is a valuable senior brand leader. She understands what matters to executives and equipped me with the language and confidence to present the brand strategy to my CEO. She coached our brand manager and built the team’s confidence to own and enforce the brand guidelines going forward. Her blend of strategic direction and hands-on mentorship leveled up how our team thinks, communicates, and leads.” —Ryane Askew, VP of Marketing, INDOCHINO
Impact
In just six weeks, INDOCHINO launched a fully adopted brand framework built on insights from more than 4,000 customers. The work will unified messaging across 90+ showrooms, digital channels, and partner agencies – transforming a fragmented story into one confident narrative.
The framework became the company’s first shared “source of truth” for brand purpose, positioning, messaging, and proof points. It was immediately adopted by leadership, with only one round of executive feedback and no pushback from the board.
The new brand strategy clarified INDOCHINO’s role as the leader in made-to-measure apparel, offering custom design, elevated craftsmanship, and long-term value. It repositioned affordability as accessibility with intention – a smart investment in confidence and longevity, not price alone.
Beyond the strategy itself, the project established the infrastructure for long-term brand governance:
A unified brand voice across retail, digital, PR, organic assets, and performance channels like paid ads and influencer marketing.
A repeatable playbook to brief agencies, audit assets, measure alignment over time, reduce creative revision cycles, and improve cross-channel cohesion.
Team enablement and coaching that turned the VP of Marketing and Brand Manager into confident stewards of ongoing brand integrity.
Together, these outcomes set the foundation for INDOCHINO’s premium repositioning in 2025 – anchored around the company’s purpose: “To inspire confidence that people admire.”
“We were under pressure to align our entire organization around one clear brand story. Jeni took thousands of customer insights and turned them into a complete, data-backed brand messaging framework in just six weeks. The process was lightning-fast but deeply strategic – with one round of exec feedback, zero pushback, and full adoption. What impressed me most was the time-to-value, our marketing team was equipped with the framework, the language, and the confidence to roll it out immediately.” —Ryane Askew, VP of Marketing, INDOCHINO
Jeni Bishop 