Hollister - Marketing Strategy Analysis

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Target customers

Hollister defines itself as “coming from the fantasy of Southern California“ (Hollister Facebook, no date). The clothing design focuses on movement: no matter what season it is, the clothes are designed to help its wearer participating physical activities. Looking at its marketing content, it is clear that customers are always having fun (through their smile), hanging out with their friends (partying, taking photographs), etc. Moreover, these activities occur on the beach most of the time. Therefore, it can be implied that customers of Hollister are young (from 12 to 25). They love travelling and exploring, living for the moment and having fun with their friends.

Competitors

From this defined customer group, competitors of Hollister can be located. In the UK, several brands emerge as opponents of Hollister, including:

Jack Wills

Jack Wills aimed at group of university student in age from 18 to 22 years old, which appears the name “University Outfitters” as their slogan. Although, the students do not seem able to afford the price. This brand is ideally for wealthy background and upper class students.

Urban Outfitters

Urban Outfitters also an American brand with offer funky and unique style unlike Hollister, which targeted at the same segment. The company is one of favorable brand in the US as show their name listed as among the most popular retailers on Pinterest with 7649 new followers in Forbes (Thau, 2014).

Zara, H&M and Forever21

Considered as game changers, fast fashion retailers have disrupted the traditional fashion industry. With a short designing and production cycle, which takes only several weeks for it to come out with a new collection, Zara has fulfilled customers’ needs for diverse clothing style at a low price. Starting at an older customer group, Zara, H&M and Forever21 have now eaten into the teen market thanks to its low price and constant design update. Zara, Forever 21, H&M are more trendy, up to date and cheaper than Hollister. These fast fashion retailers with their everyday low pricing scheme will win over the high-low strategy from Hollister. The current pricing scheme of Hollister will also attract deal hunters, who only visit the shop when the product are on sale. Also, the limited distribution system of Hollister has affected its market share.

3. Marketing mix

The Marketing mix is a combination of product, price, place and promotion for any business venture (Bitesize).

Product

Hollister product is known as high quality clothes and funky. It is recognized by a very unique logo which shows a spread wings seagull and colored in maroon with the meaning of happiness, bravery and strength. The words “Hollister California” is written in an elegant and attractive font. Other product lines include footwear, accessories, swimsuit, outerwear, perfume. Hollister offers a narrow range of products, but offer variations in each range. Therefore, it can be considered a specialty store. As a specialty store, it depends on knowledge of products to create a variety of products to attract customers. However, it seems to be losing to fast fashion retailer, since they have the capability of designing and producing various range of clothing fast. Satisfying consumers’ needs are a never ending process. Within the fashion industry, competition is fiercer as the essence of fashion is about identity. Source each piece of clothing is a statement about oneself and for each occasion there is a different set of clothing that follows. This is even for target customers aging between 12 and 25 (Maddock and Fulton, 1996, p. 43). At this stage called teen, tween, adolescence, customers are faced with various things that confuse their perception of the world, thus leads to a confusion of their own identity (Maddock and Fulton, 1996, p. 43). To tackle this, they will try different things to experiment with different identities to find out which ones are suitable for them. By limiting itself to fashion used at the beach, Hollister has constrained itself to just one dimension of personality, and lose a considerable amount of market share to other retailers that offer multiple identities (on multiple occasions) to their customers.

Price

Hollister is a brand of Abercrombie & Fitch, which positions itself as a high-end fashion retailer. Hollister is essentially a younger and cheaper version of its parent company. Therefore, the prices are set at a higher price compared to other retailers of its kind (mention above). The company uses a skimming pricing strategy, which the price is offered at high at the beginning and might get a discount on different occasions. However, Fast fashion retailers with their everyday low pricing scheme are winning over the high-low strategy from Hollister. The current pricing scheme of Hollister will also attract deal hunters, who only visit the shop when the product are on sale. Also, the limited distribution system of Hollister has affected its market share.

Place

Hollister products are available in their stores offline in some countries and can also be ordered online for delivery on its official website for countries where it has no physical presence. Using the store locator on Hollister’s website , we can see where the fashion chain . Hollister’s stores are located in 8 out of 10 most affluent cities in the UK, and are within easy reach of all 10 most affluent cities, according to Barclay Banks (Barclays, 2016).

Physical evidence

Hollister’s stores are unique. The stores are dim lit and filled with loud dance music, divided into multiple room, giving the feeling of a night club. At the entrance and in store, photos of a sexy half naked male model, a couple kissing, showing their skin are usually shown (tonitoca22, 2011). This is a sexual appeal as well as an aspiration appeal to younger customers. The product and retailing experience is consistent with its brand. Teenagers are passionate about love, about their beauty and identities. They also love the retail environment as it feels cool and different from other shopping environments, and especially because their parents hate it.

However, since 2016, Hollister has been updating its store design with a brighter look and transparent looking glass to make it more in line with the