Rationale and marketing details

The UK market is based around the concept of fast fashion at affordable prices; LOFT delivers a stylish yet affordable range of clothing, suitable for a wide spectrum of ages. Here in the UK the highest style of clothing is casual wear ; something which LOFT is known for in the US. We’ve  choosen to focus on LOFT as we feel the clothing would be more appreciated over the more classic look of ANN TAYLOR. We have focused on LOFT’s main competitors in the UK and asked what their target consumers expected and wanted from a potentially new store. As the younger generation are the ones spending more money than any other age group, we thought introducing one of Ann Inc’s brands with a ‘younger’ feel would be most appropriate. In the UK, American stores such as Hollister and Gilly Hicks are very successful , we wish to emulate the hype and kudos of the brand and appeal LOFT in the same way to our target market.

Yet when we did our primary research, we discovered that a value out market most believe in is friendship. Much like the way Hollister create a hype around their attractive members of staff, we hope to create the LOFT brand around the concept of friendships. As a brand LOFT wants to gain the ‘trust and friendship’ of the consumer, therefore this concept would fit in well with the brand ethos. We hope to have interactive touch points in-store such as a; twitter wall where our consumer can write messages to their friends and also about their latest LOFT purchase, we can also have a photo booth in store where they can have pictures with their friends and instantly upload them to Facebook or twitter. These visual merchandising tools are all to help create brand awareness and also to create a sense of community with our consumers; them being able to share their thoughts and feelings is something we would encourage as part of building a ‘friendship’.

Seeing as our target consumers all have Twitter and Facebook, they were very adapt to social media and also the internet. So we thought we’d harness this concept and create an idea called; ‘Uni Girls’. Not too dissimilar a concept to the US idea of LOFT girls. Uni girls, are young attractive girls who are at the older age range of our target spectrum who are brand advocators. They all have individual blogs for which they promote LOFT, with details of new store opening s and the new collections. Yet they also blog about their lifestyle making it seem glamorous and exciting; whether it be having drinks with their girlfriends or a weekend abroad. To be one of LOFT’s Uni Girls is a big deal. They will be on the ‘Uni Girl’s Facebook page’ and customer can communicate with them; this makes the consumer feel like there is a personal touch to the business  and that the Uni Girls are their friends. There will be handful of girls per Uni promoting the brand, even hosting night club events for special/loyal customers.

Jodie xxxx