Wet Seal Tries Reality Marketing
Reality television stars regularly appear on the covers of celebrity magazines, and The Wet Seal Inc. hopes its new reality marketing campaign will capture the attention of America’s teenagers.
The Foothill Ranch, Calif.–based juniors retail chain unveiled its reality marketing campaign last week during its firstquarter earnings conference call with retail analysts.
Wet Seal Chief Executive Officer Peter D. Whitford said the company is recruiting more than 500 “Wet Seal Stylizers,” girls between the ages of 17 and 23 who will advise the company on the lightning-quick changes in the world of teen fashion.
The stylizers will also try to influence their friends and peers to purchase Wet Seal’s fashions in the make-or-break Back-to-School season, when company Creative Director Victor Alfaro will debut his first collection.
Wet Seal also selected 11 of the stylizers to appear in print advertisements that will be published in teen magazines this summer.
This campaign is a unique step in the right direction, according to Michael Wood, vice president of Skokie, Ill.–based Teen Research Unlimited, the 22-year-old market research company whose 150 clients include MTV Networks, Nike Inc., Pepsi and the Sony Corp.
“Teens understand marketing. They’ve been marketed to their whole lives,” Wood said. “When a company says, ’We’d love to get your opinions,’ they’re going to think that it’s cool. Teens love voicing their opinions. They love when a company asks, ’Hey, what do you think about X?’” Wood said he also thinks teenagers will be intrigued with print ads featuring other teenagers instead of celebrities or professional models.
“Teens want that opportunity to become a star,” Wood said. “It’s grass roots. It’s giving a stage to real people. They found a way to put the spotlight on the consumer—that’s the future of marketing. The next thing is you might find real people in catalogs.”
Wet Seal hired Anne Zehren, former publisher of Teen People magazine, in early 2004 to develop the marketing plan. They also hired New York–based public-relations company LaForce & Stevens to introduce the brand to fashion magazine editors and celebrity stylists.
Retail analysts participating in the earnings conference call said they will reserve judgment on Wet Seal’s efforts until the Back-to-School collection is unveiled on June 8 in New York.
“It sounds like what they’re doing is creating a giant focus group,” said Jeffrey van Sinderen, a retail analyst with Los Angeles–based B. Riley & Co. “It’s hard to know what this campaign will consist of. One of the things they’ll be able to do is put Wet Seal product in front of these girls and see how they react to it. It’s always helpful.”
Wet Seal has suffered through seven straight quarterly losses. Sales fell 17 percent to $99.8 million for the first quarter of 2004. Whitford forecasts the company will not see improved financials until the third quarter, which will be powered by Back-to-School sales. Wet Seal’s last great fashion coup was in 2002, when the company became the first retailer to sell that season’s wildly popular peasant blouse and bohemian look. —Andrew Asch
