Case Study — Issue #2
Knowing Your Consumer
Deighton (2026) writes a very interesting article about Joon Silverstein, the anthropologist-CMO of Coach who has driven sales on a trajectory toward $10 billion. That article inspired this case study.
In it, Deighton documents how all of us arrive at marketing through different paths. Joon Silverstein studied Anthropology at Columbia University and conducted fieldwork as a Fulbright Fellow. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and worked at Boston Consulting Group, Victoria's Secret, and Louis Vuitton. She joined Coach in 2014, founded the sub-brand Coachtopia in 2023, and was promoted to CMO in January 2025.
In the article, Silverstein shares her philosophy: brands make the mistake of confusing data with real insight. You cannot know people or their culture by reading reports or analyzing them from a distance. You have to know the consumer. She conducts anthropological studies by visiting her consumers in their homes, focusing on women aged 18 to 30 around the world. One example of the kind of insight this produces: Gen Z does not have a single identity but several, in constant motion.
The results speak for themselves: in 2025, Coach reported 25% sales growth with $2.14 billion in a single quarter, and marketing investment increased by 40% (Tapestry, 2026).
A concrete example of this approach is the Tabby bag, which allows personalization with charms for different situations and occasions. That discovery did not come from reading data, it came from knowing the consumer in person.
The same approach gave rise to the Explore Your Story campaign, co-created with Gen Z communities around the world. Silverstein identified that this generation is returning to books and long-form storytelling as a way of processing who they are. From that insight came the book charm collection. The result was a communication platform among consumers that enabled genuine co-creation of the brand (Marketing Dive, 2026).
How do you analyze your consumer? What research have you done to stay in tune with them?
Three Concrete Lessons
Lesson 1: Analysis cannot stop at the data. Data is the first layer, but you have to go deeper to understand not only what the consumer does, but why they do it. That "why" is what allows you to connect with them more effectively.
Lesson 2: Brand co-creation is a genuine effort to connect with the consumer and give them an active role in building the brand. It is not just knowing them and listening to them, it is giving them a real part in what the brand creates and communicates.
Lesson 3: We all arrive by different paths. Silverstein has combined her knowledge of anthropology with marketing in a way that gives her a deeper understanding of the consumer, and she has translated that understanding into concrete results, driving sustained sales growth for the brand.
What activities do you carry out to know your consumer? How do you connect with them? Do you make them participants in brand co-creation?
References
Deighton, K. (2026, February 28). The anthropologist mapping Coach’s course toward $10 billion in sales. The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com
Marketing Dive. (2026, February). How Coach co-created a campaign with Gen Z communities around the world. https://www.marketingdive.com/news/how-coach-co-created-a-campaign-with-gen-z-communities-around-the-world/813152/
Tapestry, Inc. (2026, February 5). Tapestry FQ2 2026 earnings report. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tapestry-tpr-fq2-2026-revenue-183030885.html
Technical Card
Author: Dr. Carlos Valdez. Date: March 2026. Editorial assistance: Claude Sonnet 4.6, proofreading, grammar correction, research, and academic reference verification. Image generated with: Gemini 3 Nano Banana. Publication: Revista Mercadotecnia y Ventas. All rights reserved, Revista Mercadotecnia y Ventas 2026. Reproduction without the author’s permission is prohibited. Editorial syndication: This content is available for syndication. For licensing or editorial collaborations, contact: carlos.valdez@mercadotecniayventas.com
