How to Read Warm, Dry, and Comfortable: Developing the GORE-TEX® Brand RTF
The essence of this book is about the role of marketing strategy and brand development and their importance on the growth of a business, in this case the growth of GORE-TEX® fabric, which today is known as the ultimate in all-weather protection. In this book, John Unland, who was a key player in the development of the GORE-TEX® brand, takes the reader on his personal journey of how this iconic brand was built to occupy its position of global recognition today.Unland shows in detail how the GORE-TEX® brand was built idea by idea, meeting by meeting, phone call by phone call, trip by trip, and research study after research study. “Warm, Dry, and Comfortable” portrays the nuts and bolts of bringing a brand like GORE-TEX® into global prominence over a six-year period. There was no magical moment, no alignment of the stars, and certainly no “tipping point” that propelled this brand to success. This book shows the reality of what it took to create the brand that GORE-TEX® has become, and in this regard, this book, “Warm, Dry, and Comfortable,” is a true business case study.This ‘business story’ is one that is comprised of smaller stories and their importance in the brand’s success; stories which include Chuck Berry, a cartridge pen, a dog in the Rose Garden of the White House, a golf suit, a world-renowned jazz musician, and one of the greatest explorations ever undertaken, as noted by LIFE and National Geographic magazines.This is also a story about personal and business relationships, teamwork, out-of-the-box thinking, risk taking without knowing the risks, and how all of that played into the brand’s success and global stature. In the words of Bob Gore, the inventor of GORE-TEX® fabric:“The decade of the 1980s was a pivotal one for the growth of the GORE-TEX® brand around the world. John Unland was integrally involved in the development of our marketing strategy and the execution of that strategy during the 1980s. In this book, his memoir of those years, he recounts his days of working with us in pages that are not only informative, but also humorous, reflective, and a pleasure to read—great memories of exciting times. Sincerely, Bob Gore”
