Exclusive: Abercrombie & Kent Unveils Rebrand and Luxury Travel Magazine

Luxury travel company Abercrombie & Kent is undergoing a brand overhaul, including a new look, website, tagline, and the launch of a new magazine. 

A&K will have a new visual identity and logo, featuring a warm color palette inspired by destinations like Egypt and Africa, and neutrals intended to evoke safari tents, explorer’s travel bags, and the company’s “adventurous spirit.” 

A&K's new tagline “Life, Well-Travelled” is about “unlocking a world” of possibilities, said Peter Chipchase, chief marketing officer. 

Speaking exclusively to Skift about the idea behind the new tagline, Chipchase said his team was trying to “tap into the idea of the journey of life and that being told through travel, and the ‘well-traveled’ part is the A&K difference. If you’re traveling with us, you want something highly personalized with incredible attention to detail." 

Overdue for a Rebrand

The company, founded in 1962, has had different owners in recent years. In 2019, founder Geoffrey Kent (along with his friend Manfredi Lefebvre d'Ovidio) bought the business back from its previous owner.

Previously, there were separate sites for the U.S., UK, and Australia sites. Now, the operator's digital presence will be consolidated, with all three consumer websites unified into one website and cohesive social media channels (such as @abercrombiekent on Instagram).

“The enormous change was building the global website. Purely from a marketing perspective, what it means is we’re funneling all of our consumers into one place,” Chipchase said. 

“We needed to bring it all together. When you’ve got something so decentralized, A&K as a brand kind of exists, but it's interpreted individually in very different ways. So, what we’ve tried to do now is bring everything together digitally through one global website instead of three,” he said.

The new website will provide easier access to information and inspiration for planning trips. It will allow users to create their own tailor-made journeys digitally and save them to a “book-it” list to discuss with their travel advisor later. 

Chipchase said it's also a big change for the luxury travel company to have its own “bespoke, personalized point of view” in its communications. 

“That’s been reflected by the film and photography we’re doing. A lot of generic photography has been used before. We didn’t really own our own assets. When you’re at the luxury end of the market, selling a personalized experience, your marketing and the way you communicate needs to feel personalized as well."

A&K has now re-edited its own assets and shot campaigns all over the world to bring this to life. 

The brand’s philanthropy arm, A&K Philanthropy (AKP), will also have a refreshed look and new website. 

Launch of Magazine

Finally, the company is launching a magazine called Souvenir, which will feature stories from “some of the world’s leading travel writers and photographers.” 

The magazine, inspired by the power of mementos to evoke travel memories, will be dispatched to all seven continents. 

Chipchase said the magazine “will transport our audience to the heart of the A&K experience” and immerse them in the destinations, cultures, and adventures that define its new tagline, ‘Life, Well-Travelled’.