Introduction
Eileen Fisher brand has been on the market for over 35 years now. The company has been flourishing lately and has dozens of retail stores and a strong reputation among regular customers. The brand’s creator focused on clothes for working women, like herself, who were concerned about their wardrobe. This strategy, which supported the brand’s success, played in the wrong way. The average age of Eileen Fisher’s clients has grown along with the creator’s age, and in 2009 was almost 60 years old. The company aims to create a new strategy to rejuvenate its customer base.
Focus on Reinvigorating the Brand with the Core Segment
The strategy of expanding the client base by attracting young people seems simple. However, it comes with risks as it significantly reorientates the brand idea. Eileen Fisher was initially aimed at middle-aged women looking for comfortable yet stylish clothing. Releasing clothing that suits a younger generation can scare off established loyal customers. A more successful strategy would be combining fashionable modern trends into an established line for middle-aged women. In this way, the brand will retain its target audience simultaneously with the statement that a woman can be stylish regardless of age.
The brand philosophy is one of the main rationales for sticking to the usual strategy. Eileen Fisher’s success was based on her personal intuition; the brand was unfamiliar with the trends of the young market. One of the possible ways to adapt the strategy to the emerging market can be a multi-brand method. The main task at this stage will be to avoid the alienation of the established target audience. Eileen Fisher must ensure that her new spin-off brand adds value to establish itself in a relatively new market. It is necessary to focus on maintaining the brand philosophy: ensuring the comfort of busy women. The strategy may include options for online delivery, home fitting, and expansion of bonus and promotional policies.
Emerging Women
One of the main reasons Eileen Fisher should focus on Emerging women is to keep the pricing policy going. Targeting Nascent women will inevitably lead to the need to lower prices. In this case, the company will either face the need to reduce the cost of production or incur losses. With cheaper production, it will inevitably lead to a loss of quality, which is risky in terms of loss of reputation among regular customers. Emerging women are more familiar with the brand and suited to the target audience. Gradually, this age group will be transformed into established clients. Emerging women have much more purchasing power, which is more beneficial for the brand. Due to the established association with Eileen Fisher as an age-appropriate brand, reaching the Nascent women’s market will be much more difficult. Emerging women are more likely to seek comfort combined with fashion trends that Eileen Fisher can provide.
Conclusion
The need to rethink the target segment for Eileen Fisher becomes clear. However, the rejuvenation policy must be carried out carefully; the main risks are associated with losing the primary customer segment. The primary task should be to preserve the brand’s philosophy and provide comfort to busy women. The brand should focus on Emerging women as they are more likely to move closer to their familiar target audience later. The ideal option would be a multi-brand strategy; in the new sub-brand, the company will be able to combine familiar clothing models with new trends. Thus, attracting a new audience and retaining the old one will be possible.