Episode 8 - 3 Generations of Branding with Tracey Mathers

Grandfather Mathers’ love of shoes started as a shoe shine boy in Ipswich Qld. With borrowed money from friends, to open his shoe store in 1923. Mathers shoes was born….

Dad realised early how important branding was for Mathers. This was for logo, image, stock, staff and more. Because of this he also realised that all things cannot be in the one place. Keeping consistency for a brand meant that diversifying across different brands and stores, although owned by the one company  allowed for large market share.

The basics being that to keep the Mathers name, a kid's shoe can't be sold next to a gentleman’s shoe……

Tracey Mathers took the leap one day to take ownership of a gap that she could see, although still as ‘Tracey Mathers’ studio. To her it was so obvious to maintain the name especially after the family had spent so long nurturing the name.

Self branding Benefits for Tracey:

• Name already known
• Customer experience with stories & histories
• Name means more to people
• Set expectations

Tracey’s Challenges:

• Being thought of as expensive
• Marketing around this

Lessons learnt:

• You make mistakes for growth
• Had the wrong approach about FB & Instagram
• Using social media
• Having someone else do FB page – as when trying to engage with people it needs to be you