When Jennifer Yue joined Coach in 2014, she said the brand had “lost its way a bit.”
“It had been dominating for quite some time,” she told Newsweek. “I think we lost sight of potential competition that was coming in the forefront, and a lot of other areas that we weren’t really focusing in on as deeply and so coming in, it was really [about?] starting to understand the consumer that we wanted to go after better.”
But over the last decade, Yue and the team at Coach and Tapestry, Coach’s parent company that also owns Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman, have rolled out an intentional strategy to revitalize the brand and capture a new audience of young consumers.
Today, Yue will take part in the “Redefining the Market: How Women in Business Are Transforming Consumer Engagement” panel at Newsweek’s Women’s Global Impact event in New York City. This panel will discuss the ways women in business are reshaping the way brands connect with customers through innovative engagement tactics, compelling narratives and value-driven experiences.
Yue pivoted early in her career to transition from investment banking to retail. With positions at GAP in merchandising and corporate strategy, Yue told Newsweek she was able to marry her passion for analytical and business skills together.
“[The job] gave me the opportunity to see really the ground floor and the bird’s-eye view of how a retail company works,” she said. “And so I always say that it was like the best first job I could have ever had in retail. “
Two decades later, Yue moved through the luxury retail space at companies like Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Ralph Lauren before joining the team at Coach. She now serves as senior vice president of strategy and consumer insights at both Coach and Tapestry.
With each step of her career in retail, she’s honed in on her goal of “building a dream for the consumer” by investing in store experiences that drive consumer interaction. In this role, Yue said she works on the company’s long-term vision of building a greater understanding of their target audience.
The brand is focused on what it calls “the timeless Gen Z,” a young adult navigating a world of endless options who is seeking courage and confidence in the brand they choose.
“They’re in transition points of their lives and they’re looking for an ability to be able to be more confident and to express themselves in a much more courageous and confident way,” Yue said. “And for us, not only do we want it to be a bag that they love, but we want it to be a brand that they love to be able to self-express [and] for them to feel super confident in the type of challenges and events that they’re going to tackle in their own lives, and that we’re a brand that stands with them as they’re doing those things.”
For example, she said Gen Z consumers might have a budget of $250 because they are just starting out in their first job. Coach’s designers are, therefore, tasked with creating the best bag possible within that price point that will appeal to the customer.
Newsweek Illustration
The goal is to rebuild a long-term connection with the consumer by making Coach a part of their lives in a meaningful way. And that starts with transitioning away from measuring the customer based on transactions and in-store purchases to better understand who they are and what they want.
Members of the strategy team are engaging in “ethnographies” – going into consumers’ homes and getting to know them and their hopes and dreams to build a deeper connection between customers and the brand.
Seeing the impact of fashion trends like bag charms and quiet luxury exemplifies that young shoppers are turning away from brand logos and toward individualized expression.
“That’s something that both our merchandisers and designers were able to see firsthand in our consumers’ closets and allowed for us to feel even more confident about launching our New York collection, which is grounded in the Brooklyn bag,” she said.
This impacts the way Coach advertises, the types of products it offers that align with fashion trends, price points and creating a retail experience that is engaging and not intimidating, Yue said.
Coach Play stores are popping up around the world and offer vibrant colors and textures, a curated product line that is more accessible and more welcoming than traditional European luxury brands – merchandise is not behind a glass case, it can be touched and felt. There are also in-store experiences like screen-printing T-shirts and customizing bag charms that make customers feel like they are a part of the Coach experience and encourage them to stick around longer.
Coach has traditionally been considered “accessible luxury,” based on the quality and design of the products at a more affordable price point. Yue said the brand now deems itself “expressive luxury” based on purpose-led values that customers want, which is ever-evolving.
“What we’re trying to build within our organization right now are brand-building principles that we think will stand the test of time and allow for us to weather these macro environments,” Yue said. “Knowing our consumer base in a really meaningful way, knowing what creates magic for our brand and figuring out how to get supercharged activation [to] get more people in the door to know about us and drive growth.”
For Yue, success in her current role means building a brand that is thriving and relevant to the consumer over a long period of time. She said she wants to be “on the ground floor of something big” and will outlast her to grow for generations to come.
Yue is also looking for sustainability in her work-life balance.
As a working mom with three kids, Yue also shared that she’s happy to have reached a point in her career where she can enjoy a better balance between career and family. With the help of mentors and the post-COVID shift towards more work-life balance, Yue said she has more flexibility and opportunities, like joining the PTA at her kid’s school and attending events while still operating at a high level within the company.
Yue said she’s been fortunate to have a lot of strong female mentors throughout her journey who were there for her ups and downs, giving her advice on how to navigate her career. And now she’s trying to pay that forward to the next generation of female leaders in the retail business world.
When she first started in retail, Yue said she assumed that since the consumer base is female-dominated, that representation would be reflected in the companies. But she found many of the leadership positions were still held by men.
“I think it’s important to forge support in this industry,” she said. “It’s been exciting to see how in my 20 years here, particularly at Tapesty, there are many peers that sit on the leadership team with me who I really respect as strong women leaders. I want to make sure that trend continues to build on itself even in an industry that you would stereotypically think already had a lot of women there.”
Whether it’s in store or in the boardroom, Yue is determined to build something meaningful that will continue beyond her time at the company.
“I’ve always been driven by wanting to build things that last,” she said. “Whether it’s building teams or functional areas [or] new businesses within an organization – how you build it up and then have it last beyond your time there because it has a sustainable aspect to it.”
Newsweek‘s Women’s Global Impact Forum is taking place at Newsweek‘s headquarters at One World Trade Center in New York City on August 5, 2025.The forum aims to connect senior female executives across all industries and job functions with rising stars on the path to C-suite positions to discuss leadership, innovations and how they are inspiring all women to succeed in the business world. Learn more about the event and the schedule here.