Urban Outfitters Communication Strategy

Strengths:  Been running for over 40 years Managed to stay relevant with young people for this time Has successfully expanded from North America, into Canada, Britain and Europe Weaknesses: Throughout the years, Urban Outfitters have had several controversies in which their brand was accused of being unethical - mostly just insensitive gaffes that have since been addressed by the company. For example, they have produced several clothing items and accessories that have been viewed as glorifying drug/alcohol use - and also accused of ignorantly misappropriating native american garments. Opportunities: For years now, Urban Outfitters have had an expansive online presence in Australia. Many order from their online store, and still do, despite increasing competitors such as ASOS and BooHoo. Hence, the brand already have a name and awareness in Australia. As demonstrated by the introduction of H&M into Melbourne several years ago, stores that are well kn...

Client Request: Our client requests us to create an innovative communication strategy, focusing on the online promotion of the brand, in order to share with the Australian market the same positive reputation that they had acquired among overseas consumers. Key Message:  The key message of the brand narrative is that being fashionable is fun, whether dressed in vintage clothing, festival wear, or going for a more modern, chic approach. They would like to appear as fun, stylish and trendy and to appeal particularly to teenage/young adult males and females who are interested in fashion - whether modern styles or vintage, as well as beauty and music. By selling music products, Urban Outfitters suggest that fashion and music, especially when combined (for example, at music festivals like Coachella), have the ability to connect and bring people together through having an enjoyable time, thus portraying the emotional attachment between the target audience and the brand.

Will the brand be communicated in a cross-cultural context?  The brand communication strategy we would employ would be the standardisation approach. As we are looking at an American brand coming into the Australian market there isn’t a great need for customization. If we were looking at integrating into an Asian country for example, there would need for customisation in the approach as there are greater differences in American and Asian pop culture. When looking prior integration of similar brands from the USA to the Australian market such as H&M, Topshop and Zara we see they have been successful in remaining the same (little customization), as there is a place for them in the Australian market as they are. For this reason the standardisation approach seems very appropriate. We are both very westernised countries and the USA fashion and retail appeals to Australians. This is shown by the huge demand in online shopping in Australia for these fashion brands.

CBBE (customer-based brand equity) Resonance (Loyalty, attachment, community) Social Media One to one Online world Social Networking Judgements (Quality, credibility, consideration) Good Quality Fashionable Generally respected Feelings (Warmth, fun, security) Well known Fun Excitement Reliable Warmth Performance (Durability, reliability, price) Generally affordable Good quality Widespread Imagery (personality and values, history) Trendy Cool Fashionable Salience (Category identification needs satisfied) Lifestyle specialty retail company operating in North America, Canada and Europe specialising in women’s, men’s and children’s clothing and accessories, some homewares and cosmetics. When looking at the brand narrative in regards to the consumer based brand equity model we see that the key value points of Urban Outfitters are - Fashionable - Good pricing strategies - Multichannel retailer - The feeling consumers g...

Brand Objective: ·   Establish ourselves as a key competitor within high-end fashion industry already established in the Australian Market. ·   This will be divided into blocks of time o    Creating awareness of the brand and the move to Australia o    Building a good brand image and relationship with consumers o    Developing and maintaining that brand image and relationship Raise Awareness: ·   Promotional gift vouchers and social media sharing incentives ·   Create a hashtag trend (#UrbanOufittersAus) on all social media posts Induce Brand associations: ·   Celebrity endorsement large-scale o    Post and share photos of celebrities wearing out clothing – plus traditional endorsement ·   Celebrity endorsement small-scale o    Smaller celebs on Instagram and Facebook to share photos of themselves wearing our clothes Brand resp...

Major strategies – Influencer marketing 1. Instagram campaign Using the Internet, companies face possibilities for more interactive communication with consumers and higher involvement of consumers in various activities related to company ( Gatautis,Vitkauskaite 2014). Urban Outfitters appeals to a young, social media orientated audience, Instagram is an engaging platform to communicate with its target audience. In the lead up to the opening of the urban Outfitters Australia store(s) key Instagram influencers will be chosen in each city to promote the opening. Influencers will be chosen according to their following, creative content, ability to work with brands and high rates of engagement. For example, two key influences that could be used are: (Sydney) 80K followers – similar style to Urban outfitters (Vintage, festival) (Melbourne) 1.2 Million Followers – works with many popular brands, has a large following in Melbourne and porduces high quality posts. 2. ...

How would we vary the brand communication strategy with the chosen market? The customisation approach is the tailoring of the brand’s campaign based on the needs of individuals or a group. These products are high margin, with low volumes and few buyers. Thus, when the brand is promoted to the foreign audience using the customisation approach, marketing the brand no longer becomes about achieving maximum productivity and consumption, but rather achieving more loyal, attached, exclusive customers who are passionate about the brand’s message. In this case, for example, Urban Outfitters could sell more upper-market vintage clothing aimed at Australian teenagers/young adults who adore haute couture fashion and vintage styles – not just your everyday young Australians.

Social Media monitoring:  will be used to measure the campaign effectiveness. This is chosen because the campaign takes place via social channels and can be measured accordingly. Total engagement will be evaluated via the following means: -    Analyse engagement consistently throughout campaign, checking every week what the top 5-10 most engaged with posts are and tailor content accordingly. -    Analyse what the bottom 5-10 posts are and tailor accordingly. -    Upon the completion of the campaign all social posts and channels (snapchat, Instagram) will be assessed to gather the total engagement. This can then be analysed to see how much of their target audience they were able to reach.