Canadian Tire-owned Mark’s is rebranding Imagewear, a division that specializes in branded industrial and corporate apparel. The new name is Mark’s Commercial.
The business-to-business division was created by Mark’s 23 years ago. The name was meant “to showcase the fact that we had the ability to embellish the products with corporate logos,” said Michael Boyles, VP at Mark’s Commercial.
The name change was prompted by the company’s expansion plans (which are still being finalized) and a brand awareness problem. “We had some intentions to expand geographically… but we weren’t able to use the Imagewear name outside of Canada,” said Boyles.
Last fall, the company did its own survey of clients in oil and gas, and hired research firm Sklar Wilton & Associates to conduct interviews with clients in sectors such as utilities, manufacturing, transportation and construction.
“The net results was that the Imagewear brand still wasn’t well known in the marketplace, so there wasn’t a high level of awareness either on its name or its value offer,” said Boyles.
With the new name, “we wanted to keep it simple and clean,” said Boyles. The research found that Mark’s is a well-known and trusted name, and “commercial is well known in the industrial world as a great moniker for distribution, and it just fits into that world really well,” he added.
The new brand is rolling out over the next few months, starting with communications to customers, and moving its digital sites to the new brand. “Over the next few months, we’ll start to roll out more of tangible things like the signage on our buildings and signage in the 380 Mark’s stores,” said Boyles.
Mark’s Commercial has three embellishment facilities in Edmonton, Mississauga, Ont. and Moncton, N.B., as well as two distribution centres in Calgary and Brampton, Ont. It operates as a direct business-to-business wholesale division, but also leverages Mark’s retail stores for fittings and as a distribution point. Customers can get fitted in a Mark’s store and have the option of picking up the item in store after it’s been logoed.
“We call it the best of both worlds,” said Boyles.
