CHIEF MARKETER: How do you feel about Bluefly’s current “Why Women Shop” campaign, and how they went about doing researching female shoppers?
Warner: I’m impressed with Bluefly’s research methods, but less so with the ad campaign. First let’s talk about the research. Bluefly president’s Melissa Payner didn’t assume that she was like every other woman out there when she was looking through her closet to find something to wear. She took the step that many executives—male and female—don’t take often enough. We tend to have assumptions about what women are like and acting on those assumptions instead of doing the kind of social science research that will either confirm those assumptions or prove us wrong. The great thing about the Internet is that companies can quickly issue a survey that will give them feedback about those gut reactions. That’s what Payner did, and the results helped confirm her sense that enough women did feel they didn’t have “a thing to wear in their closets” that it was worth focusing on in an ad campaign.
What I’m less impressed with is the outcome of the research—the “naked woman” ad. I have nothing against the nakedness. In fact, while she is taking clothes off the rack and then throwing them down in frustration I’m completely with the ad. But when she walks out naked, I was thinking, Huh? First, no woman would really do that–OK, I’m assuming this based on my own impressions, and maybe research will prove me wrong. I know it’s meant to be humorous, yet it left me cold.
Worse yet for the company and brand, it didn’t drive home the idea that Bluefly can come to the rescue in such a situation. Let’s rewrite the ad a bit. The woman is so frustrated she’s about ready to walk out naked, or in fact she almost gets to the front door or the living room and then spots the Bluefly shipment she just received in the mail. She rips it open and pulls out the perfect dress and shoes for the occasion. She slips the outfit on and heads out looking fabulous. Now that tells me that Bluefly can help solve the problem of “nothing to wear.” It also offers a great opportunity to show the beautiful clothes it sells. Most important, such a rewrite creates the necessary emotional link that many online shopping sites need that will help women who aren’t yet comfortable buying clothes online—you can’t try them on or feel the material—possibly drawing in even more customers.
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