Friday, November 6, 2009

American Apparel - a social media pioneer?

Searching for innovative and pioneering fashion companies who are using social media to their advantage, I always end up finding American Apparel among them. The L.A. based company seems to have a good sense for fashion blogs and fashion-related social websites that are about to become ‘big’.

One example for American Apparel’s creativity in finding new ways to use social media was its partnership with Chictopia. Chictopia is a fashion community-based website that allows users to join the community and upload photos of their favourite outfits. The active community shares reviews and information about stores. American Apparel recognized this great concept at a time when Chictopia had only one fifth of the visitors it has today. The fashion retailer approached some of the fashionistas wearing American Apparel clothes on Chictopia and rewarded them with being a model for the company for a day.


In my view, American Apparel has done it right by integrating online with offline marketing. Also, the fashion retailer has done a great job in finding the influencers in the community, which wouldn't be different in offline marketing using the adaptation curve. This campaign is also a good example for the shift of marketing from one-sided communication to a (private) conversation between companies and consumers. This smart move has worked for American Apparel, although I am not sure if everything that the apparel retailer is doing in e-marketing is paying off. Also, this aggressive e-marketing approach might be not appropriate for smaller fashion companies who want to avoid mass marketing approaches.

Found via Mashable

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