Sports Marketing

Columbia Sportswear Is a Case Study in How to Expand Your Customer Base

CMO Pri Shumate sells a growing brand portfolio to a new group of consumers after the pandemic changed buyers’ relationships with its products

A hiker wears a pair of Columbia Sportswear Facet 75 hiking shoes while standing in front of a goat — Columbia is keeping it simple by putting customers, and goats, in its newest ads.Columbia Sportswear

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Very little about our world exists as it did in 2019. For a company like Columbia Sportswear, that year may as well exist in a different century.

In the lobby of Columbia’s headquarters at its campus just off Route 26 in Portland, Ore., longtime company president Gert Boyle’s face looks down on the lobby from a multi-story black-and-white image of her on a mountaintop. An oversized rendering of its “Tested Tough” label hangs from wires just in front of it.

Just

Jason Notte

Jason is an Adweek staff writer covering the business of marketing.

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