Teens, inspired by Instagram and the like, are looking to personalize their looks, and prefer to grab items from different stores. That has been a big problem for Aeropostale, whose sales had been driven by logoed merchandise.
Aeropostale started to shed its logoed clothing and began focusing on trendy items about three years ago. It teamed up with names like stylish American video blogger Bethany Mota. But its efforts were too little, too late. The new looks never failed to gain traction with shoppers. But they're also willing to pay full-price for something they covet. By , Aeropostale had over stores and was spreading to the west coast and the midwest. Then, subtly, things started shifting to the Aeropostale that you and I probably both remember.
You know, the one with the flashier branding that looked more like this…. By the back-to-school season of , we were starting to see button-down shirts, woven tops, knit polos, and other preppier merchandise fill up the Aeropostale shelves.
At the same time, the company was pushing its branding more and more, and eschewing the subtler style that had defined its older clothing. And you know what? It worked! The mids were a strange time, but these folks really caught lightning in a bottle. It seldom works and almost always looks like a knock-off.
Objectively, their sales were through the roof during the glory days of this time period. But I have two working theories. First, Aeropostale knew what their target audience wanted and was able to provide it for cheap.
Second, Aeropostale was really good at mimicking luxury. Around the mids, Aeropostale stores were starting to have skylights and bamboo, backlighting and transparent doors.
You saw the title of this post, and the title of this headline. So reading how Aeropostale succeeded as a result of expertise and competence at every level, you must be left with a creeping dread.
To keep prices as low as Aeropostale, you have to be a straight A student in all the business basics. Your supply chain has to be efficient and effective. Nearly every item needs to sell well. You have to always have your finger on the pulse of your target audience.
And you need to maximize the lifetime value of every single customer. First, there was an issue with MGF Sourcing. It is a clothing manufacturing and supply chain company that Aeropostale depended on. They started imposing tighter payment terms, which Aeropostale blames for sinking the business. Experts question whether the company will survive.
Aeropostale was once a high flyer. Then the bottom dropped out. After 13 consecutive quarters of losses, Aeropostale filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early May, announcing store closing sales at of its U.
Kohan tells Retail Dive. Mark S. Handler, Macy's president at the time, told the L. Along the way, the retailer did indeed lose its French aviator theme and instead began to feature merchandise that closely resembled that of American Eagle and Abercrombie, becoming a fixture in malls and a favorite of the teens who shopped there.
Like many other merchants, Aero has struggled to figure out how to appeal to today's teenagers, who are more likely to spend their limited cash on going out to eat or other experiences. You have to be fastidious about quality and size. All of these fashion brands become increasingly unstable over time. The magic is easy to talk about, but not so easy to deliver. We fall out of love with things.
And that means ignoring Aeropostale's real consumer: The parents that actually purchase its clothing, Kohan says. Still another factor pressuring Aeropostale is that the quality of its clothing is high—something that should be a selling point—but its prices are low. Aeropostale, American Eagle and Abercrombie did well for decades emblazoning their logos onto hoodies and t-shirts, then charging young people top dollar for the privilege of advertising their wares.
But just as teens and young adults began to tire of those clothes, in came fast fashion and its inexpensive, on-trend, always-changing stuff. Spanish apparel maker and retailer Zara or more accurately, its parent company, Inditex is credited for starting the fast fashion phenomenon.
This line focuses upon clothing and accessories or surfers and skaters. The company made a move to open up a chain of stores under the parent company. The clothing and accessories which were sold under this brand were more expensive than Aeropostale and the stores were considered to be more upscale.
They were attempting to establish a new marketing niche within the Aeropostale domain. They developed a new collection in , that officially launched in October of that year.
They worked with the brand to create the new line of clothing and accessories that is geared specifically towards boys ad the type of clothing that they like to wear. The styles are a bit edgier that comparable items offered by other brands and so far, the new collection has been successful.
The secondary brands that Aeropostale has developed each has a specific target audience within their marketing strategy. Their goal has been to identify what their customers enjoy in design elements. This has resulted in the need for a variety of different brands so they will have items to offer people with a variety of different tastes and preferences in clothing.
We compared the number of specialty brands that Aeropostale offers for girls with the brands that they offer for boys and we were a bit surprised to discover that they offer a great deal more for girls than they do for boys. In the designer and clothing industry, certain brands develop intense competition with comparable brands. Another of their major competitors is American Eagle Outfitters and a few other lesser known brands who offer lower prices.
There are a lot of people who are not aware of the fact that Aeropostale has been involved in several promotional campaigns to help raise money for donation to the less fortunate. It was geared towards raising awareness about teen homelessness.
They partnered with a non-profit youth organization called Do Something. Each Aeropostale store took up collections of jeans that were lightly used and still in excellent condition. The figures for the number of donated jeans collected rose each year. In , they had raised more than , pair of jeans and by , Aeropostale had collected more than a million pair of jeans for distribution. They sweetened the pot by donating 10, pair of brand new jeans to the effort in and When the devastating earthquake hit Haiti in , Aeropostale developed a campaign to help the survivors.
This signified a major contribution from the brand and although it cut profits on jeans by half during the promotion, they maintained the commitment to help others who were in need. The need for clothing for homeless kids was great, and in , Aeropostale joined forces with The Vamps, a British pop band to help promote awareness of the problem.
Schools were encouraged to take up collections of jeans.
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