124: A $220B Brand Without a Marketing Department - The Sequel

A wartime accident. A pregnant princess. And the most valuable "no" in luxury history.

Hey everyone, Chase here.

Last week I told you how Hermès spent nearly 100 years building bags that nobody outside Paris really knew about.

No marketing. No ads. No discounts. Just craft.

By 1935, they had invented some of the most beautifully made leather goods in history — and almost no one cared.

This week is the story of how that changed.

And the twist is: Hermès didn't change anything.

The world came to them.

In this issue, you'll learn:

• How a wartime cardboard shortage created the most recognizable packaging in luxury

• Why the most famous fashion photo of the 20th century was completely unplanned

• The six "no's" that turned Hermès into a $220B company while competitors diluted themselves into irrelevance

The color no one wanted.

Before World War II, Hermès packaged their products in cream-colored boxes designed to resemble pigskin. Elegant. Understated. On-brand.

Then the Nazis occupied Paris.

During the occupation, their usual cardboard supplier couldn't deliver the cream stock. They had only one color available:

Bright orange.

The color that no one wanted.

Émile-Maurice Hermès agreed to use it. Not as a branding decision — as a survival decision. He needed to keep delivering products to clients.

What began as wartime necessity became the most recognizable luxury packaging on earth.

Hermès has since registered trademarks for that specific shade of orange worldwide. There are now 188 different sizes of orange boxes for various products.

Think about that for a second.

The most iconic brand color in luxury fashion was an accident. A constraint forced by war. A compromise nobody planned.

And they kept it.

They didn't overthink it. They didn't rebrand when peace came. They didn't run a "brand refresh" campaign.

They recognized that the constraint had given them something they couldn't have designed: distinctiveness born from necessity.

That's discipline.

The moment a bag became an icon — without Hermès lifting a finger.

In 1956, Grace Kelly — newly married to Prince Rainier of Monaco — was photographed stepping out of a car.

She was pregnant.

Paparazzi were everywhere.

She instinctively raised her handbag to shield her belly from the cameras.

The bag was Hermès' 1935 design — the one Robert Dumas had created simply as a "ladies' bag with straps."

The photograph went everywhere.

Overnight, the bag became the most wanted accessory in the world. Hermès officially renamed it the Kelly in 1977 — over 20 years after the photo was taken.

Here's what matters:

Hermès didn't orchestrate this.

They didn't send Grace Kelly the bag. They didn't hire a PR firm. They didn't pitch a magazine. They didn't create a "moment."

They made a beautiful product. They put it in the world. And they waited 21 years for the world to notice.

Most brands can't wait 21 days.

"We don't have a policy of image."

Jean-Louis Dumas led Hermès from 1978 to 2006.

He inherited a company that had done almost everything right — but had done it quietly. Under his leadership, Hermès would grow from a prestigious Parisian house into a global luxury empire.

But Dumas didn't do it by adding marketing.

He did it by articulating what had already been true for 140 years:

"We don't have a policy of image. We have a policy of product."

This wasn't a tagline. It was an operating system.

While competitors built marketing departments, Hermès built communications teams and creative teams — but never a marketing department. The distinction matters.

Communications tells the story of what exists.

Marketing creates demand for what you want to sell.

Hermès only told stories about things they'd already made.

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The power of no.

In the 1970s, the luxury industry was changing fast.

Competitors started using synthetic materials. Hermès refused. Natural materials only.

Competitors started licensing their names to third parties. Hermès refused. Full vertical integration. Every product made in-house.

Competitors started running seasonal sales and outlet strategies. Hermès refused. Never a discount. Ever.

And here's the result of all those refusals:

A Birkin bag — introduced in 1984 after Jean-Louis Dumas sat next to Jane Birkin on a flight and noticed her straw bag was falling apart — has outperformed the S&P 500 as an investment.

You read that right.

A handbag. Outperforming the stock market.

Not because of clever marketing.

Because they refused to make it available.

The waiting list became the marketing. The craftsman became the campaign. The product became the brand.

Hermès' Creative Playbook

Let's pull this together.

186 years. $220 billion. No marketing department.

Here's what Hermès teaches us about creative discipline:

Start with craft, not campaigns. The saddle stitch came before the logo. The technique came before the brand. Build something worth talking about before you spend a dollar telling people about it.

When your industry dies, ask a better question. Not "what's trending" but "what can we make with our hands that will interest people today?" The answer comes from your capabilities, not the market.

Design for function. Let the world decide it's fashion. The Haut à Courroies carried saddles. The Bolide kept things from falling out. The Kelly was a "ladies' bag with straps." Every icon started as a solution.

Constraints create character. The orange box was wartime leftovers. It became the most recognizable packaging in luxury. Don't fight your constraints — they might be your brand.

Trust the long game. The Kelly bag existed for 21 years before Grace Kelly made it famous. Hermès didn't panic. They didn't pivot. They kept making beautiful things and waited.

No is a strategy. No discounts. No licensing. No synthetic materials. No marketing department. Every "no" made the brand stronger.

The lesson for the rest of us

You don't need Hermès' 186-year head start.

But you do need their discipline.

Every brand has a version of the saddle stitch — a core craft or capability that everything else should build on. Most brands abandon it the minute growth slows down. Hermès never did.

Every brand faces the temptation to discount, to license, to dilute. Hermès said no — and turned scarcity into the most powerful marketing force in luxury.

And every brand has the choice between building a marketing department and building a product worth talking about.

Hermès chose the product. Every single time.

The current CEO, Axel Dumas, summarized it in six words:

"Luxury is that which can be repaired."

Not that which can be marketed.

That which can be repaired.

That's creative discipline.

Until next time,

Chase