Delia’s president Andrea Weiss shared the slings and arrows of multi-channel marketing in a keynote at net.Marketing in New York on Tuesday.
Calling herself a former “retailasaurus” who had been nearing extinction in a world of clicks OR bricks, she said teen marketer Delia’s has now successfully implemented a model of clicks plus bricks as its marketing strategy.
The company did it through a rebranding strategy built on the Delia’s name in the direct marketing channels.
The Spring 2002 catalog featuring pop singer Shakira signaled the full-fledged launch of the company’s multi-channel strategy. Shakira appeared in the three channels: catalog, Web site and in the retail stores. Weiss pointed to an MTV teen girl dressing up in Delia’s clothes to be Shakira for a day.
“We never could have afforded marketing on that scale,” she said.
Such success was hard won.
In 2001, the company had four catalogs and four Web sites. “Our brand penetration was not strong enough to support all these businesses,” Weiss said.
But according to a June 2001 Y Report, Delia’s was the third-ranked retailer among teen girls, behind Old Navy and Gap. It was the No. 1 catalog browsed by teen girls, and led Seventeen in circulation.
The company closed all business units that did not contain the name “Delia’s” and launched a major re-branding initiative.
The Delia’s customer was defined as 16 going on 18, middle to upper class, suburban and college bound. She is spontaneous, creative, cool and dresses ahead of the pack. She is experiencing a lot of firsts: first prom, first date and first driving experience.
To communicate the brand across the company, a 20-minute video was produced, showing Delia’s as cool 16-year-old girl whose “best friend” films her parents and other people in her life to describe Delia “the girl.”
Ideas about what Delia’s represents are routinely run by a crew of teen girl insiders–a ready-made focus group–who comment on what’s cool.
The company also tried to make the brand seemless across channels. The return policy is identical across channels; anything can be returned in any channel. But seemless doesn’t mean equal, Weiss said.
For instance, call center reps deal with customers different from Web staffers.
Another tactic is to focus on the brand, not the channel. And, leverage each channel to serve customers’ needs.
The catalog has a 13-million name database. The company revenues are $200 million. The company plans to roll out 200 stores, mainly because of its success at leveraging the direct channel to build the brand.
