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JOÃO CANZIANI
Even before Carley Roney and David Liu launched Web portal The Knot in 1996, the wife-and-husband team believed that the brand must be the message. “Without a brand, people can take your business model and beat you on every level,” says Roney, chief content officer at parent company XO Group Inc. (NYSE: XOXO). “But a brand that rings true is a huge advantage in keeping consumers loyal.”
Indeed, The Knot Wedding Network, which includes the Websites TheKnot.com and Wedding-Channel.com, has attracted nearly 2 million members. Along the way, XO Group has developed The Nest for newlyweds and The Bump for first-time parents. National and local publications, books, social and mobile applications, and television programs deliver the brands by whatever medium brides, new homeowners or expectant parents choose.
To better reflect the expanded role that its brands occupy in customers’ lives, The Knot changed its corporate name to XO Group in June when it transferred its stock listing to the NYSE. This new corporate umbrella, though not its own brand, says CEO Liu, makes it easier to expand with a name that is still unmistakably linked to the happy events of life.
Beyond Technology
Liu and Roney, who met as film students at New York University, credit their nontech backgrounds as the driving force throughout the company’s 15-year history. “At a lot of online businesses, the technology is the most important thing and the brand is often the afterthought,” explains Liu.
To stand out in an already crowded field, Roney and Liu vowed to keep their site cool by addressing real-life issues. “We wanted to provide wedding advice your best friend would give you as opposed to your mom or the prim etiquette lady,” says Roney.
In planning their own wedding in 1993, the pair had experienced dilemmas that come with a cross-cultural marriage, and they knew that other couples were grappling with similar issues and more. “Traditional wedding sites just weren’t addressing second marriages, divorced parents and kids from previous relationships, yet that stuff was happening in the real world,” Roney says.
JUST THE FACTS
Headquarters
New York CityRevenue
$112.9 million (2010)Market cap*
$259.1 millionEmployees
605Listed since
June 28, 2011*As of 10/17/2011
The partners drew up a list of about 250 names. “The first one we came up with was The Knot,” recalls Roney. “We kept returning to it because it was edgy and memorable — you know, tying the knot.”
Liu and Roney completely overhauled the concept of wedding publications with The Knot magazine. Rather than randomly placing ads of wedding gowns throughout the magazine, The Knot runs ads alphabetically, with each designer listing the gowns’ price range. “Brides typically buy wedding magazines for the gown ads, so why not make it as easy as possible for them?” Roney asks. “Listing prices meant that they weren’t going to fall in love with dresses they couldn’t afford.” Although she says advertisers were skeptical, “once brides began coming to their showrooms with pages ripped from our magazine, they knew it was working.”
“Consistency in message and execution is so important when building a brand,” adds Liu. For example, the partners vetoed a weight-loss product advertising deal. “Our Website and magazines have always been accepting of women’s different body types,” says Roney. “An ad like that is simply not consistent with what our customers expect.”
Still, a little flexibility in the business model doesn’t hurt. “Our original plan called for launching a new brand every six months,” says Liu, who credits the 10 years it took to build The Knot for the successful launch of The Nest in 2005 and The Bump two years later. He says online forum comments on The Knot showed how intensely users wanted information about the next logical life stages: setting up a home and becoming parents. The branding of these offshoots had to clear the same hurdles as The Knot: to be edgy and slightly off-center. “People have an ‘aha’ moment when they hear The Knot, The Nest and The Bump,” says Roney. “They take a second to get, but you never forget them.”
The company recently launched Ijie.com (which translates to “love knot”) to provide Western inspiration and local advice for weddings, relationships and pregnancy for the Chinese consumer. “A generation in China is seeking inspiration from Western brands and wants to reaffirm these very important events in their lives,” Liu says. The pair have also had discussions with investors in India, Europe and South America. After all, adds Roney, “falling in love, getting married and starting a family cuts through all cultures.”
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