Design collaborations are quickly becoming a regular extension of a label’s seasonal line offering. Collaborations have played a pivotal role in the industry’s evolution – we’ve begun to shift from an exclusive mindset to an inclusive culture. These partnerships can be beneficial to both participating brands with desired outcomes including allowing a broader demographic reach, extending brand awareness, opening up a new channel of distribution, facilitating a complete rebranding or often making high-end designer labels more accessible to the masses. Following are a few of the more interesting, or at least buzz-worthy, collaborations for Fall:
It was hard to miss the Missoni for Target collaboration. In addition to lines out the door at every store, the demand for the product, which included apparel, home decor and furnishings, bicycles, and accessories, crashed Target’s entire website for almost 24-hours. As they have executed so well in the past, Target successfully reached its more middle-class consumer with high-end designer apparel at a price. Different than with past Target/designer collaborations, the Missoni collection truly reflected the real DNA of the label. Missoni really dove into what the Target woman buys and gave her the true Italian treatment – the collection actually looked and felt like quintessential Missoni. This is a key element to a successful collaboration – the price/value relationship is more important than ever before to compel shoppers to make a purchase.
One of the more compelling partnerships, which was fairly under the radar in terms of extensive press and marketing, is the Kate Spade/Current Elliott handbag collaboration. The bags are playful, yet sophisticated, and relevant to both brands’ consumers. Spade tapped the stylist/denim label beauties to bring a laidback West Coast vibe to the more buttoned-up Kate Spade girl. This was smart on Spade’s part because it gave the brand a needed extension into the West Coast fashion scene – updating her bags and making them relevant and coveted by a new younger, contemporary clientele.
The Karl Lagerfeld for Macy’s collaboration is certainly a big win for the chain that has been an industry leader in thinking creatively and strategically to attract new shoppers. The Impulse contemporary department has been a key focus for Macy’s and following the Matthew Williamson Spring 11 collaboration, the Lagerfeld collection was a hit right out of the gate. The partnership took a different creative approach than most as Lagerfeld designed, but left it up to Macy’s to sift through hundreds of his concepts and determine which designs were most relevant to the Impulse girl. While there was no true collaboration, Macy’s was able to not only drive incremental Fall sales, but almost more importantly, capitalize on the elevated branding for the retailer via the Lagerfeld name. Next up in October: Giambattista Valli for Macy’s.
Lastly, a fairly recent marketing (vs product) collaboration is the Rachel Zoe for WhoWhatWear. WhoWhatWear is a celebrity fashion site with deep roots in the West Coast fashion culture – with Zoe as arguably the godmother of the entire scene. The newsletter-based site gained a cult-like following at lightening speed with a constant demand for more content. A natural evolution to this request produced the ‘Ask a Stylist’ section. It was an easy partnership as Zoe and the WWW girls were friends prior to the relationship. While Zoe seems to be collaborating with a few too many retailers/brands as of late (on top of her own launch!) she really was an early leader in creating innovative ways to market product and connect with her audience. Zoe has seemingly has been able to juggle her partnerships while remaining relevant. Teaming up digital content sites with influential voices in the fashion community has proven successful and will continue to be a key approach to broaden follower-base
Is a collaboration right for your brand? A few things to think about as you outline your potential partnership:
- Who is your customer and have his/her shopping habits changed in the last 3 – 5 years? Do you have repeat customers?
- Is there an emotional connection to your brand? Why do your customers buy? What compels your customer to buy? Is there a way a collaborative partnership could give him/her new reasons to buy?
- What other labels/products do your customers buy? What is his/her lifestyle, hobbies, social activities? Could you look outside of apparel for your collaboration and extend your brand exposure to a new market? Music, art, food, automotive, etc….
- List brands that you admire, from a product, imaging and lifestyle perspective
- How will your brand add value to another?
- What is the target end result of the collaboration and how do you tell the story, both in product and in marketing/message?
- Can the collaboration be marketing/PR driven vs having to develop into new product?
Links to recent collaborations:
Good stuff, Sarah. This is an interesting topic. One of the largest Macy’s collaborations seems to be worth mentioning here, as well…the IZOD partnership. While IZOD is not necessarily an upscale designer name, the duo are really thinking outside of the box in terms of branding and marketing campaigns, specifically by capitalizing on the series title sponsorship that IZOD has with INDYCAR (http://goo.gl/ERUsv). Even going so far as to bring in the entire field of drivers to Macy’s locations in each race market for a series-sponsored autograph sessions (http://goo.gl/NLuOA), as well as the opportunity to align themselves with the largest sporting event in the world, The Indy 500. Talk about driving consumer traffic by offering an EXPERIENCE. This, along with the stellar collaborations you mention above and a huge push in the online sector, is one of the many contributing factors as to why Macy’s saw an first quarter 2011 sales hit 131M, in comparison to 31M a year prior. This seems to me to be not only a push for collaborations, but to your point, the RIGHT collaborations coupled with additional attention to innovation in bringing your demographic something they didn’t even know they were looking for before you plated it up and served it to them with a sexy little 230mph cherry on top! Just ask William Rast…doesn’t hurt to be plastered all over the Centennial winning Indy 500 car! Sexy! (http://goo.gl/AKhac)
Thanks Misty – could not agree more! Macy’s is certainly ahead of the curve in trying to enhance the store/brand image. And the Spring 12 IZOD collection looked pretty good!