Brooks Brothers Bets on Service, Not Points, to Win Next-Generation Loyalty
The oldest apparel brand in America is rethinking what it means to earn a customer’s devotion. Instead of chasing discounts and promotional calendars, the 206-year-old retailer wants to bring big data into the fitting room.
Loyalty programs have long promised personalization at scale, but many brands remain stuck in the mechanics of points accrual while customers grow more elusive. Brooks Brothers believes the technology to bridge that gap has finally arrived.
“The promise of loyalty is finally here for us,” said Caroline Covington, VP, digital, Brooks Brothers, in this video interview with Beet.TV at the Epsilon Personalive conference. “How do we bring all of this big data, all of this insight about you, and bring it into a really personal and personalized experience at an in-person offline experience?”
Generational loyalty meets generational change
Brooks Brothers has always traded on heritage – fathers bringing sons through the doors, sons returning with the next generation. That multigenerational model is now under pressure as customer loyalty fragments across brands and channels.
Covington acknowledged the challenge. “Our customers are becoming ever more elusive and their loyalty to brands,” she said. “For us, it’s really about continuing to bring the next generation in our doors through great product and great service, most importantly.”
The retailer’s “Make It Yours” campaign, launched in March 2026, aims to reposition the brand for a broader audience while preserving its classic identity. The women’s business has posted five consecutive years of growth—a sign that the next-generation bet may be paying off.
From points to hospitality
When Brooks Brothers first launched its loyalty program, the playbook was familiar: points, dollars off, discounts. Covington said the company has moved beyond that framework to think about hospitality and service as the foundation.
“It’s gone back to a bit of the original premise of loyalty – earning the loyalty of the customer, meaning longevity of the relationship with your customer,” she said.
That philosophy clashes with how many marketers still operate. “A lot of businesses are still caught up in: How do I deliver points? How do I deliver dollars off? What discounts am I driving? What does our promo calendar look like?” Covington said. “Instead of: What are the service layers that I’m enabling through loyalty?”
AI as the unlock
The gap between ambition and execution is often operational. Covington admitted that Brooks Brothers’ promotional engine “is not really built to deliver personalized experiences” in the way the company envisions. But she sees AI closing that distance fast.
“With AI and some of the capabilities that unlocks—both operationally and in our ability to understand and deliver those experiences to the customer—I think that in the next 12 months, that will radically change,” she said.
Parent company Catalyst Brands recently consolidated its portfolio – which includes JCPenney, Aéropostale, Lucky Brand and Nautica alongside Brooks Brothers – onto Attentive’s omnichannel platform. The migration uses agentic AI to decide who to message, what to say, when to send it and which channel is likely to perform best.
Measuring what matters
For years, consultants warned that loyalty programs were money pits. Covington referenced research suggesting half of programs were unprofitable. That calculus is changing as brands gain better tools to measure return on investment at the campaign level.
“With today’s ability to think about personalized campaigns and really get at profitability and your ROI, that ability to measure and scale programs profitably has never been closer,” she said.
The global loyalty management market is projected to reach $23.11 billion by 2032, according to MarketsandMarkets, with the services segment growing faster than software solutions. Forrester’s 2026 buyer’s guide notes that AI and differentiated experiences are reshaping what brands demand from loyalty platforms.
Common problems, uncommon company
At the Epsilon summit, Covington found unexpected kinship with loyalty marketers from quick-service restaurants, hospitality and banking – sectors with very different regulatory and operational constraints.
“Even though banking obviously has huge regulatory challenges that I don’t face in retail, there’s so many of the same common issues that we can brainstorm and talk about together,” she said. “And that’s been really fun.”
Whether you’re fitting a bespoke suit or opening a checking account, perhaps the loyalty challenge is the same – earning trust, one interaction at a time.
The oldest apparel brand in America is rethinking what it means to earn a customer’s devotion. Instead of chasing discounts and promotional calendars, the 206-year-old retailer wants to bring big data into the fitting room.
Loyalty programs have long promised personalization at scale, but many brands remain stuck in the mechanics of points accrual while customers grow more elusive. Brooks Brothers believes the technology to bridge that gap has finally arrived.
“The promise of loyalty is finally here for us,” said Caroline Covington, VP, digital, Brooks Brothers, in this video interview with Beet.TV at the Epsilon Personalive conference. “How do we bring all of this big data, all of this insight about you, and bring it into a really personal and personalized experience at an in-person offline experience?”
Generational loyalty meets generational change
Brooks Brothers has always traded on heritage – fathers bringing sons through the doors, sons returning with the next generation. That multigenerational model is now under pressure as customer loyalty fragments across brands and channels.
Covington acknowledged the challenge. “Our customers are becoming ever more elusive and their loyalty to brands,” she said. “For us, it’s really about continuing to bring the next generation in our doors through great product and great service, most importantly.”
The retailer’s “Make It Yours” campaign, launched in March 2026, aims to reposition the brand for a broader audience while preserving its classic identity. The women’s business has posted five consecutive years of growth—a sign that the next-generation bet may be paying off.
From points to hospitality
When Brooks Brothers first launched its loyalty program, the playbook was familiar: points, dollars off, discounts. Covington said the company has moved beyond that framework to think about hospitality and service as the foundation.
“It’s gone back to a bit of the original premise of loyalty – earning the loyalty of the customer, meaning longevity of the relationship with your customer,” she said.
That philosophy clashes with how many marketers still operate. “A lot of businesses are still caught up in: How do I deliver points? How do I deliver dollars off? What discounts am I driving? What does our promo calendar look like?” Covington said. “Instead of: What are the service layers that I’m enabling through loyalty?”
AI as the unlock
The gap between ambition and execution is often operational. Covington admitted that Brooks Brothers’ promotional engine “is not really built to deliver personalized experiences” in the way the company envisions. But she sees AI closing that distance fast.
“With AI and some of the capabilities that unlocks—both operationally and in our ability to understand and deliver those experiences to the customer—I think that in the next 12 months, that will radically change,” she said.
Parent company Catalyst Brands recently consolidated its portfolio – which includes JCPenney, Aéropostale, Lucky Brand and Nautica alongside Brooks Brothers – onto Attentive’s omnichannel platform. The migration uses agentic AI to decide who to message, what to say, when to send it and which channel is likely to perform best.
Measuring what matters
For years, consultants warned that loyalty programs were money pits. Covington referenced research suggesting half of programs were unprofitable. That calculus is changing as brands gain better tools to measure return on investment at the campaign level.
“With today’s ability to think about personalized campaigns and really get at profitability and your ROI, that ability to measure and scale programs profitably has never been closer,” she said.
The global loyalty management market is projected to reach $23.11 billion by 2032, according to MarketsandMarkets, with the services segment growing faster than software solutions. Forrester’s 2026 buyer’s guide notes that AI and differentiated experiences are reshaping what brands demand from loyalty platforms.
Common problems, uncommon company
At the Epsilon summit, Covington found unexpected kinship with loyalty marketers from quick-service restaurants, hospitality and banking – sectors with very different regulatory and operational constraints.
“Even though banking obviously has huge regulatory challenges that I don’t face in retail, there’s so many of the same common issues that we can brainstorm and talk about together,” she said. “And that’s been really fun.”
Whether you’re fitting a bespoke suit or opening a checking account, perhaps the loyalty challenge is the same – earning trust, one interaction at a time.
