Kmart Concierge? | Kmart’s Attempt At Masstige During NYFW SS12
During this weeks NYFW SS12, mass retailer, Kmart, launched their fashion week concierge service for a select group of fashion ‘influencers.’
Each influencer was given a fully stocked NYFW Kmart-branded “survival kit” which came equipped with various products that the brand believed would be of help to fashion influencers during the week long ‘fashion crawl.’ What’s more, if an influencer’s kit is running low, they need only tweet at a designated Kmart Concierge (#Kmartconcierge) and within an ‘undisclosed amount of time’ they would have fresh supplies hand-delivered to them on the spot.
This new initiative from Kmart lands them in line with a growing number of ‘masstige’ retailers: mass market retailers who have begun adopting marketing and branding tactics typically assigned to luxury and aspirational brands in order to increase sales and overall cachet of the mass market retailer’s products and services.
This, of course, has been very lucrative for the mass market retailers that have successfully executed the strategy. As a result of their masstige adoption, mass market retailers such as Target, H&M, and now, even Duane Reade, have all seen a steady growth in their sales and overall market share.
But while this masstige-like concierge service may seem like an isolated tactic, it appears to be part of a larger strategy to drive Kmart’s apparel sales. In conjunction with the concierge service, Kmart launched kmartfashion.com along with a series of fashion videos and blog-worthy content on branded channels like Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter.
It’s clear Kmart has put a significant amount of thought, and probably even more capital, into capturing a slice of the fashion market. By providing branded survival kit’s and a Twitter integration to replenish supplies, Kmart has ensured themselves a cost effective way to maximize their brand’s visibility during NYFW.
However, I personally believe Kmart’s success rests in their ability to cultivate authentic relationships with their chosen influencer group - assuming they did their ‘due diligence’ to select individuals that have specific and measurable resonance with Kmart’s target audience.
Kmart needs to build a long term relationship with their influencer group - one that converts the fashion influencer into an authentic evangelist for the brand. The question is how is that done?
The perception of the influential fashion community is that they are not easily moved or impressed, especially with a brand that has little to no cachet within the world of fashion. So how does a brand like Kmart build the kind of authentic fashion relationships that will change the perception of their brand in the creative communities?
Here are just a few of my suggestions:
1. Tap into the passion. Tap into the romantic ideology and symbolism that represents the uncomprimising passion that exists in fashion. Kmart’s videos and blog series may help to establish this authenticity, but it definitely hasn’t ‘stuck’ yet.
2. Collaborate. Collaborate. Collaborate. But not just any (Kmart x ‘Said Brand’) collaboration. If Kmart hasn’t already, they should take a step further and include their fashion influencers in the formation of their marketing and overall business strategy. The fashion influencer knows what is best, or rather, is better equipped, to suggest what is best for the greater fashion community.
3. Privy access to exclusive product’s, services, and experiences of the Kmart brand. Kmart has certainly “struck the nail on the head” with regard to this ideal. With the launch of their select concierge service, it appears the brand took note of the new trend of ur-luxury, which is a return to the original tenets of luxury; and ultimately, a response to the democratization of luxury in today’s economic climate (see content source for more on this topic)
4. Play on their turf. This is another theme that Kmart has adopted very well. Kmart has integrated themselves into NYFW and the various social media platforms in which the fashion influencers interact and engage with their audience, but they have not tried to control the conversation; rather, they designed a smart way to wedge themselves into the conversation when it is relevant to their brand (i.e. @kmartfashion and #kmartconcierge).
It’s important to note that while Kmart may be doing all, or some, of the above, I believe the real key to success in their strategy and the aforementioned suggestions are consistency and continuity. Kmart must continue to develop their relationships with fashion notables long after NYFW SS12 - they must develop long-term ties that can grow to meet specific and measurable ROI objectives. Either way, fashion week is not over yet, so I will be keeping an ear to the market to see how people are responding to the Kmart masstige push.
posted by Kwasi Gyasi of MyUberLife
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