New for 125 years
Fashion Retail To mark its anniversary, the PKZ fashion retail chain is once again focusing its advertising efforts on a traditional medium—the poster.
are just some of the names that, no, not the fashion, but the
Swiss poster art. And who with their work also
for the idiosyncratic communication culture of the company founded in 1881 by Paul Kehl
The company was founded as a clothing factory and is now the PKZ fashion chain. Since
its origins, the founder - and after his death his brother
Karl Burger - the brand's fashionable aspirations are not limited to the
clothing range, but also on communication. To attract customers
to achieve this, they looked for other ways and an independent language.
The aesthetic unity of the realizations was less the
unifying element of the PKZ brand rather than its commitment to the
medium and to the often still unknown artists.
None of the great Swiss poster designers who did not work with and
would have worked for PKZ.
Campaigns carefully stored
With the exception of a few detours into other traditional advertising media
The following two generations also rigorously adhered to this tradition.
The fact that those responsible have always been convinced of their strategy
The impressively documented archive of the
Advertising measures. Complete campaigns were carefully selected from the
different eras - from the early advertising films to the
From the history of the company logo to the shop windows and posters.
This rich fund of advertising communication has made the fashion group the
anniversary made accessible to the general public - virtually
(www.papakannzahlen.ch) and real in an impressive exhibition
in the Zurich Stadthaus.
The challenge for the clothing chain was and still is to
The umbrella campaign covers all international fashion brands as well as the
brand through a lifestyle and, on the other hand, to embody a
increasingly well-informed clientele from the broad age and
income segments in equal measure. That
the advertising and media strategy despite the expansion and
acquisition policy of the PKZ Group continued to reach its audience,
was due to their consistency and self-sameness. Even in
In the days of photography, the motifs had something illustrative that
quality of life and self-confidence. The self-image
and individualism as well as the change in purchasing behavior - the proportion
of men who put together their own wardrobe has a higher proportion in
increased very strongly in the last two decades - the
implementation of the campaigns on an ongoing basis.
The new material from which the modern,
men in the upcoming spring/summer campaign,
which is a further development of last year's performance.
Striking, only with a contrasting, colorful headline peel
the black-and-white close-up portraits of character types
personal touch and only leave textiles on the poster surface.
can still be guessed. This means that the viewer is not confronted with a fashion trend that is
today anyway, but rather the full
left to freedom of interpretation.
Only the sender - who has been issuing new PKZs for 125 years
is recommended as a store brand for high-quality fashion
of different styles. CD Hans Siegwart
the internationally established British photographic artist,
Magazine editor and director Rankin (www.rankin.co.uk).
With his prestige and high standards, Rankin makes a worthy
The first regular in the poster artist series. With his direct visual language
The company is likely to target younger segments in particular, which are
core target group of the PKZ casual wear chain Blue Dog. The
The long outdated "Dad can pay" patina is now finally to be replaced by a
modern image.
The fact that the campaign only follows what the sole owner and Chairman of the Board of Directors
Ph. Olivier Burger since joining the company with
market share gains and expansion is also reflected in the
business development. Despite a stagnating market, ever stronger
Competition and pressure on margins enabled the company to
(brand awareness 90%) with its store chains PKZ, Feldpausch, Blue
Dog and burger grow.
Disproportionately high growth
Even in comparison to the larger total retail space, sales
grew disproportionately to around CHF 206 million in 2005 - and
almost five times what PKZ had achieved 20 years previously.
Customer frequency has more than tripled in the same period.
Last year, around 1.1 million customers made purchases at
of the PKZ Group. And that the desire to expand has not yet been satisfied,
can be recognized by the cash flow, which is over ten percent of sales -
also a top result internationally.
A must in a fine guise
The company PKZ Burger-Kehl & Co. AG is celebrating its
125th anniversary. And to its extensive campaign collection, which was created for
is an impressive piece of Swiss advertising history. Not only the
changing fashion styles are vividly documented. The
various advertising materials and realizations also illustrate the
Changing values in men's fashion and in society from 1881 to
today.
The exhibition can be viewed at the Stadthaus Zurich until March 10.
Luca Aloisi
