Michael Kors Global Marketing Team

Lisa Pomerantz, SVP, Global Communications & Marketing

Kristen Campbell, VP Marketing

Laura Parsons, Director Global Advertising

The Internationalists of the Year initiative, begun in 2004, is the result of an annual nomination process during a 3-month Call for Entries period.  Never before had we received so many nominations for several people within the same department at the same company.  Although a majority of Internationalists cite teamwork as critical to their success, we were surprised that these individuals were cited so often by so many.  In the end, the decision was clear; we’d break the rules this time and name 3 people in the same department that have collaborated to make a difference.  And what a global difference!

Michael Kors has grown to be an almost USD $13 billion fashion empire, thanks to accelerating global brand awareness. Certainly the company expanded to many of the world’s key luxury markets in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, but the brand’s fashion-forward allure resonates with customers everywhere who seek the look of a jet-set lifestyle that is more aspirational than other accessible luxury brands in its fashion peer group.

The Kors momentum has also been driven by a brand loyalty that often starts by anchoring its product line with specific accessories, particularly it popular bags and chronograph watches.  However, many believe that the company has succeeded because the Michael Kors marketing team understands its true market demographic, a group that Luxury marketing expert Pam Danziger characterizes as “High Earners Not Rich Yet" or HENRYs, a growing segment that earns between $100,000 and $250,000.

Without question, the company takes marketing risks.  Just this November, Michael Kors sponsored a first Instagram post.  And although some brands may have been daunted by an initial backlash to the sponsored image of their stunning gold watch, the post received a record of nearly 100,000 likes in just the initial four hours. 

Other initiatives include a focus on the popular Selma handbag, launched in Spring 2013. Fans are asked to snap a photograph of their purse “on location,” upload it to Instagram and accompany the image with the hashtag #JetSetSelma.  Michael Kors also brought this program to life at a Tokyo museum.

Both Kristen Campbell, VP Marketing, and Laura Parsons, Director Global Advertising, are Calvin Klein veterans who have been working at Michael Kors for four years and two years respectively.  Lisa Pomerantz, SVP of Global Communications & Marketing, joined in 2011 after a long tenure at the Gucci Group with 9 years at Bottega Veneta.  She and Michael Kors worked closely together at Celine in the late 1990s when Kors served as designer at the LVMH house while Pomerantz was its director of communications for North America.

The team, though, of Pomerantz, Campbell and Parsons is making a global difference to a growing brand.