Throughout its formative years Hollister has kept its teenage target enthralled and captivated with a brand built on the dazzling if distant images of Huntingdon beach and the various surf scenery of California.
A staple diet of bold logos and textured contextual graphics on a classic range of timeless best seller silhouettes from hoodies to Ts, sweatshirts to shorts has created a magnetic appeal, re-enforced by the ambient atmosphere of the stores, the sweet smell of the all embracing Hollister fragrance and the in-brand, in-character sales assistant advocates, as marketing models and mobile mannequins.
However, in hot pursuit to retain its loyal customers and to move with them through the years of maturity, Hollister has injected a new air of authority in to its assortment and a higher flavour of fashion, defining as it develops a new, more discerning customer who is no longer appeased or appealed to by the simple shapes and bold fonts.
Focus of this evolution is the Jeans lounge, for both guys and girls, in store and online. Evolution is accurate as this best seller category has largely been consolidated into a central store space from a previously disparate and dispersed array of denim heroes. Now presented with neon glow departmental signage, consistent graphics and volume blocking The Jeans Lounge represents a welcome diversion and an essential all-year destination to consolidate and guarantee a degree of sales certainty in this volatile sector.
Online, the department is also given hierarchical priority, in a channel where the connection between shape and style and named personalities, from Alex and Blake to Taylor and Ryan, applies additional strength and appeal. Each style is explored in coordination with tops and accessories, dissected in terms of fitting, explained by adornment and enhanced by washes and colour to create a series of category cameos that begins to deliver departmental dominance.
Growing pains accompany every brand, but this move to maturity through the development of areas such as The Jeans Lounge ensures that Hollister can sit in commercial comfort for at least some of the time.
Are you awake to the evolution of your core customer’s shopping priorities?
Are you continually developing and presenting an assortment which one step-ahead of, and not one step behind the market?