Marketing in the News: J.Crew
The fashion industry is an ever expanding, ever changing industry. It’s incredible what designers are able to cook up, from Louis Vuitton, to A New Day produced by Target, to independent designers selling from their homes through Etsy. This world is fascinating, but is also very overwhelming if you don’t know what you’re doing. Sometimes a person doesn’t want fancy one of a kind dresses, but rather a pair of jeans and a good quality sweater. That’s where J.Crew comes in. J.Crew has been a staple in affordable fashion for decades. They’re statement is “New Arrivals, New Outfits, J.Crew quality”. They run off having the values of identifiable designs, aspirational charm, good in-store experiences, and premium quality.
The article I read about this lovely brand is called “J.Crew Group CEO Libby Wadle on What 2024 Has In Store (And Why it Matters to All Retailers)”. This article talks about what the company has planned for this year, mostly focusing on in-store locations. Ms. Wadle is expanding the physical locations across the East Coast, and talks about in person shopping vs online retail. Her goal this year is to increase sales by creating a friendly, welcoming experience for all customers in stores. She is not only leading the company into a new (old) age of customer service taken to the max, but is also urging other retailers to follow suit. J.Crew is now offering in store tailoring, styling appointments with knowledgeable employees, and highly curated stores based on location and population desires. This includes a women's only store in SoHo, New York, and a men’s only store a few blocks down, reminiscent of the “Liquor Store” men’s shop that was a prime destination. The hope is to capture more loyal clientele with great customer service and specialized services. The challenging thing about this move is that it is much more costly to have retail store fronts. When shopping online you only have to worry about warehouse staff and website supervisors and things like that, and physical locations come with many more complications. J.Crew is proving to stand out as a company with their classic looks, good quality, and memorable impressions on the industry as a whole. I think this move is genius on their part because in store shopping, especially for clothes, is dying out. Many people (including myself) do not like online shopping because you can’t feel the fabrics or test the fit, and not being able to find good clothes in stores or having to drive long distances for a decent store is a hassle. So many people prefer to shop in stores. This is not a new fancy marketing technique. This isn’t a purple cow. This is J.Crew seeing that the world is full of purple cows now, so decided “hey, what if we went back to black and white cows? What if we could provide people with the simple, familiar cow they already know?” I would do the same thing if I were in Ms. Wadle’s position. It is important to not alienate a large base of your clientele. Before reading this article I never really considered the impact of the different ways to shop, but now that I have I am so riled up about it. It’s important that a brand of this size has come to terms with the fact that maybe regressing is okay.
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