on targeting and being Too Old For Topshop
19 September, 2010 at 12:32 pm Leave a comment
I’m working on a couple of fashion led projects (yay!) at the moment and I suppose in fashion more than anywhere else, targeting is a real issue.
Do you design and market aimed at the demographics of your current core target audience? Target the younger end of your audience because that might attract in the next generation of brand loyalists? Or target at the older end because that’s where the spending power is?
Problem is, you’re always going to upset somebody, somewhere. I read a great piece recently (god knows where…) pointing out that all the 18 year olds would like Topshop back please because its full of 30-somethings who spent their teens shopping there and aren’t ready to give it up quite yet.
I would definitely categorise myself as ‘too old for Topshop’ (google the phrase and you get 7,000+ results), I also don’t have the legs for Karen Millen or the bank account for Reiss. And as the Telegraph puts it, Dorothy Perkins has its moments – but the last, alas, was in 2002.
Where’s a girl to shop? Like (it seems) every other not-very-funky thirtysomething I end up hitting the yummy mummy brands – Boden and Monsoon. Add in some bling from Designers at Debenhams and basics from Next, Gap & M&S and you might not have the world’s most inspiring wardrobe, but at least it fits and flatters. On the other hand, I saw the most amazing dress on ASOS this morning…
So I suppose all this leads me to concluding that fashion brand allegiance is more about mindset, finances and body shape than age – but that’s very hard for brands to put into a database.
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