Self-Made Women: Tory Burch Succeeded by Selling a Personal Story and High-End Style

The recently published list of the richest ‘self-made’ women includes the name of designer, philanthropist, and entrepreneur Tory Burch, who with a net worth of 900 million dollars secured the 25th position. Burch is, by the way, the designer, owner, and founder of the eponymous fashion brand that recorded poor results in the early days of the pandemic, forcing her to close several hundred stores.

Despite the bleak forecasts, she managed to get back on her feet: she ended last year with 1.5 billion dollars in revenue and a flurry of praise from fashion critics for her latest collections. Burch has once again proven that she is destined for success and that when it comes to business and branding, she certainly knows what she is doing. However, creating a successful brand in the highly competitive fashion industry was not the primary goal of this businesswoman. As she stated in an interview with Vogue, in 2004 she did not want to launch just a fashion brand, but a foundation for women.

– That was my business plan: to have a company that can change the market dynamics in favor of women. But that was not well received at the time. Men very concretely explained to me that I should never put social responsibility and business in the same sentence. I called one of them just before the pandemic and told him that I was just returning from an event and, interestingly, today there are no businesses that are not purpose-driven. He asked me what I wanted, and I said: ‘A donation for the foundation’ – Burch told Vogue, who today runs what is called a philanthropic fashion brand valued at nearly two billion dollars.

Her foundation, The Tory Burch Foundation, established in 2009, is now a platform that encourages women to start their own businesses. By ‘encourages’, it primarily refers to money, as Tory has funded 3,500 entrepreneurs with a total of 65 million dollars.

Personal Brand

However, although the money for the foundation comes from other sources as well, the fact is that it would not exist if Tory had not succeeded in branding her own name and her fashion business. As Fast Company recently reported, Burch is indeed a rare breed in the fashion industry; a woman who had no entrepreneurial experience or formal fashion education but had experience working in PR and marketing for brands like Narciso Rodriguez, Vera Wang, or Ralph Lauren.

Experts who spoke to Fast Company, such as Neiman Marcus CEO Karen Katz, agree that Tory has managed to create a story that resonates with women, and since she is also a working mother, she understands what life looks like in their shoes. In the very beginning, Tory did not intend to establish a brand with her own name, as she claimed she did not want to be in the spotlight.

However, since about ten names fell through, either due to insufficient sound or copyright issues, she chose her own, which quickly proved to be a good move, as no major brand, especially in the luxury category, reflects the personal history of its owner as much as Tory Burch does.

Family Influence

Namely, her greatest muses are her parents, Buddy and Reva Robinson, who were her biggest fashion and lifestyle inspirations. As her mother Reva told Fast Company, the couple spent six weeks every summer in the Mediterranean. Since they left the children with their grandparents, they alleviated their guilt by buying shiny souvenirs and gifts like, for example, a sheepskin coat from Morocco. These gifts introduced Tory to the beauties of global design and served as an informal form of education.

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Today, the designer offers products that are a tribute to her family, Reva flats in honor of her mother, Robinson bags, picture frames that feature her sons, or home products in memory of her grandmother. As marketing professor at Stanford Jennifer Aaker explained, consumers do not trust organizations but people.

– Tory Burch talks about people, not products, on her blog and social platform. Consumers do not feel that something is being imposed on them, forcing them to buy. She is very authentic – Aaker noted.

This authenticity of the founder in marketing communication is also emphasized by the team responsible for the brand’s profiles on social platforms. They strive to show that Tory (but also all women) cannot be reduced to just one function or description. As the team claims, it’s all about ‘and’ – Tory Burch is a tomboy and feminine, an entrepreneur and philanthropist, a mother and sister. She is a person who studied art history, loves tennis, and organizes great parties. Just as Tory Burch cannot be reduced to just one role, her fashion brand is not intended for just one specific group of consumers.

Perfect Pair

Marketing experts from the company try to convey the idea that everyone is welcome through the content published on the brand’s blog, where, for example, one can read an interview with a famous musician, conversations with artists, stories about style, decor, and, of course, philanthropy. The thread that connects all this diverse content is Tory Burch, a woman with numerous interests and a sense of style. Interestingly, as Fast Company writes, Burch knows how to tell a story with her brand, but also leaves enough space for consumers to complement it and turn it into their own. This, of course, is done by adopting the brand’s aesthetic, which is clearly presented on social platforms and includes not only clothing but also accessories, decorations, lifestyle…

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Although she laid the foundations of the brand herself, relying on her family history and her own wide interests, today her right hand in business is Pierre Yves Roussel, former CEO of LVMH and her husband. He took the executive position at Tory Burch in 2019, while Tory remained in the role of chief creative officer.

Roussel has helped with his knowledge and experience in leading the world’s largest fashion group and opened new doors for the brand, while Tory has managed to focus on the creative side of the business; to continue telling her story, but also to dedicate herself to her core passion – philanthropy. This duo functions as a perfect business-private pair, and their synergy has undoubtedly helped pull the company out of the mire during the pandemic. Fortunately, consumers, after ’emerging into freedom’, desired beautiful things, luxury, and optimism, and turned to the brand that earned billions by selling just that story.