Why Kendra Scott jewelry is the hot gift and college-age customers are 'critical'
A turkey and some mistletoe might help to make the season bright, but trust that yellow Kendra Scott boxes beneath the Christmas tree will have eyes of all ages aglow. This time of year, the ubiquitous brand fills the wish lists of tweens, college girls and their moms.
The Elisa necklace (the brand's most popular) with a delicate stone can be spotted on high school and college girls in a way not seen in popular culture since the return to Tiffany & Co. necklace was in the early 2000s.
The jewelry company now has 149 stores across the country and plans to open at least 20 next year. For Kendra Scott (there really is a real woman behind the brand), this wasn't always the plan.
Scott began her retail career as a 19-year-old college dropout who hoped to provide fashionable hats to women receiving chemotherapy treatments. However, people weren’t buying enough hats to keep Scott afloat. But even after shuttering her doors, Scott still had customers wanting the hand-made jewelry also sold in her store. Today the Kendra Scott brand is popular with teens, but her finer diamond pieces seen on celebrities like Kristen Bell have captured the mom market, too.
Scott excitedly shows off a sample that might be introduced to her billion-dollar brand during a virtual chat.
“Are you dying? Are you dead?” Scott asks while modeling a longhorn necklace with diamond-encrusted face and golden horns. The item could grab the attention of University of Texas fans (as the longhorn is their mascot), or those in love with the Western lifestyle that has lassoed so many hearts. Scott, who lives in Austin, intended to wear the necklace to the Nov. 23 game when UT triumphed over the University of Kentucky to gauge reaction.
It might seem like a small gesture, but soliciting feedback is the foundation on which Scott, 50, has built her thriving business.
“I say it all the time: I'm not the boss; she's my boss,” Scott says referring to her customer. “So I got to make her happy. And that takes me being in the stores, shopping, meeting our customers there, talking to them.”
While the Kendra Scott brand is thriving with the middle school set, Scott has expanded the brand with collaborations such as one with Dolly Parton to experiences, like popup shops at colleges.
The Dolly Parton line launched in November. Forty-four percent of customers drawn in by the collection celebrating the 50th anniversary of Parton’s “Love Is Like a Butterfly” album, were new to the brand, Scott says. “There's so much we still have to accomplish here,” she says. “I wake up every day, and I'm like, ‘What am I going to do today to surprise and delight my customer?’ And everyone on our team feels that way.”
And she plans to open two additional locations of Yellow Rose in 2025, a western store with apparel and accessories (yes, jewelry!) that put “the cowgirl front and center,” Scott says.
On a warm November day, Andrea Morgan, 39, shops with her 13-year-old daughter, Lorelei at the Kendra Scott store in Friendswood, Texas. Both are fans of the brand and are looking for something for Andrea’s mom’s 70th birthday.
“I think this might be her first Kendra Scott piece,” Andrea says.
Lorelei likes the color the label offers. Andrea likes the brand’s simpler pieces.
“I definitely always love getting Kendra Scott for my birthday, Christmas, Mother’s Day,” she says. “It's cute, it’s classic, and then it's an affordable luxury.”
The same day Cole Reed shops for his girlfriend’s upcoming birthday and their first Christmas together. The 22-year-old is looking for a dainty piece, perhaps a gold cross or some thin bracelets. He’s deemed something sparkly from Kendra Scott to be “a safe bet for me,” as the brand is “very popular with the girls around my age.”
One reason for that is the fashion line’s inviting price point, including the recognizably Kendra Elle earring, starting at $60. It’s also a cute way to rock your team’s colors on game day. In addition, Kendra Scott uses campus ambassadors (called Gems) to increase brand awareness.
"They're in the community doing philanthropic events with their university," Scott says. "They're out there talking about Kendra Scott.”
Scott also takes the opportunity to visits campuses to ingrain her brand with the students. “We invest in getting to know them and meeting them where they, on campus events, we're doing activations," she says. During last fall's 8-stop "Hey Elisa!" tour, Scott remembers 300 students "lined up in the morning and we're bringing them coffee and giving them jewelry."
She has popped up at “sorority houses in Alabama, Michigan, UT, you name it,” she says, “and they get so excited that I'm asking” for feedback, which has proved valuable. She was puzzled about why pieces people could customize by picking shape, stone and metal at the brand’s Color Bar weren’t selling with the college-age group. So she sought help from the Gems and students at UT’s Kendra Scott Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute.
“The styles that we were having in Color Bar were too mature in some cases or too young,” Scott says. “We weren't hitting that kind of trend-forward, simple stone, layer-able pieces. So we revamped Color Bar and we saw complete reengagement from that college-age girl to come back to Color Bar.”
Scott understands the college-age group is a get because they can influence both older and younger age groups.
“The little girls look up to the college girls,” she says. “The moms look at their daughters and go, ‘Ooh, that's a cool trend. Ohh, I need to not wear those jeans anymore, honey?’ She's directing what is cool, what is happening in fashion so much. That target demographic is critical.”