California Apparel News

SnL Communications uses a range of strategies to promote denim in a saturated market

One of the most curious aspects of the premium-denim craze is how so many brands have been able to grow at spectacular rates without relying on glossy consumer print advertising. It’s not that they don’t have Oz-like geniuses behind the scenes crafting elaborate PR campaigns; it’s that these marketing machinations have become more subtle and varied.

Karen Schneider is one such PR guru. The co-founder, along with partner Staci Levine, of Los Angeles–based SnL Communications, Schneider represents such denim brands as Lucky Brand Jeans, Hot Kiss, Fire, and Plush Premium Denim; past clients include YMI Jeans, See Thru Soul, Bongo, Dickies Girl, JNCO, and Steel Jeans.

The California Apparel News sat down with Schneider and talked about what it takes for a denim brand (or any fashion brand, for that matter) to thrive in today’s highly competitive marketplace.

CAN: During the premium-denim craze of the last several years, many brands became hot by deliberately eschewing conventional print advertising. What’s your take on that?

KS: The Internet and iPods have pulled the target audience away from sitting down and reading a magazine. But premium brands like Seven For All Mankind had their branding come about by very specific celebrity seeding, and they were able to promote that. So you get your jeans on Cameron Diaz, and then you pitch that to Us Weekly, The Star, and all those entertainment publications that have completely taken over the print world. You can’t just assume that the right people are going to see Cameron wearing your jeans: They’re going to read about it.

Our strength is in our media relationships, so we don’t work directly with wardrobers who place product on celebrities and in TV shows and movies, because that’s a whole other entertainment marketing program. What we do is approach magazines on how to get a look. If we know skinny jeans are a trend and our clients are making them, we’ll pitch the Us Weekly editor who may have a picture of Nicole Richie wearing them and we’ll say, “Here are our brands doing that look.” We’ve had huge success getting our clients in those entertainment magazines because we’re pitching trend stories.

When brands want a push with celebrities, we’ll collaborate with a product placement agency that will do the placement, and then we’ll back it up with the PR.

CAN: Why don’t you put the jeans in a package and send them directly to the celebrities?

KS: Because it’s so oversaturated.

CAN: What’s the downside of using celebrities to promote your brand?

KS: The only thing that’s a drawback is that it’s fleeting. With the right celebrity and the right product, a company can really take off. But next month that same celebrity is wearing the next pair of jeans. So when you do celebrity outreach, you’d better have what’s next planned if you want to have longevity.

CAN: So marketing a brand today is different than when you began in the business?

KS: It’s definitely changed. We’ve taken new approaches to marketing fashion, specifically denim. We still work in the traditional route doing editorial placement with print media, but we do get involved with a lot of promotional programs, celebrity outreach, partnerships with other brands where a denim company may partner up with a lingerie or car company with the same target demographic. It can be much more cost-effective because you’re not footing the whole budget and you can share each other’s databases. And the Internet enables us to promote on online fashion trend websites.

CAN: How do the partnerships work?

KS: For co-branding promotions, you can break down your demographics and do a lifestyle analysis of what this customer wears, eats, etc., and then reach out to another brand. Then you bring in a retailer.

So, for example, you go into Nordstrom and buy a pair of jeans and you get 25 percent off an iPod. Then the two brands can share customer lists and work visuals together. Then you tie in a media partner that may want to promote this in a magazine, so you’ve got a big integrated promotion.

Sometimes we work with clients and tie in a charity with a retailer and a brand. We’ll create an item and sales proceeds go to a charity that’s relevant to the audience we’re selling to. It spreads goodwill among consumers that here’s a brand that cares; it drives traffic to a store, secures an order from the store, and obviously has charity benefits.

CAN: And what about promoting online?

KS: Right now we’re gathering a database of online trend services to which we can pitch our brands—Daily Candy, for example. We’ve been able to get a couple clients on Daily Candy in specific areas like L.A., and the reception is amazing. That particular audience is very responsive.

CAN: What if you’re launching a new denim brand?

KS: Then we focus on trade media, because you can’t do consumer PR until you have distribution— you can’t promote a brand unless people can find it and buy it. So we pitch trade publications like the California Apparel News, and may host events at trade shows to entertain buyers, do fashion shows, directmail campaigns. If brands have particular buyers they’re trying to reach, then we send them the features in particular publications.

CAN: What are the differences in promoting a large company like Lucky Brand Jeans and a small, new one?

KS: It’s driven by budget. With a large budget we can get more creative with visuals, events, and sponsorships. But with a smaller company you have to get more creative with how you communicate the message, how you pitch and spin stories, and come up with different angles. And a lot of that has to do with being on top of news and fashion trends. We also focus on trying to get them exposure at trade shows where they’re showing their product for the first time, making sure we get editors and buyers into their booth.

CAN: What has changed since your agency began asfar as what it takes for adenim brand to succeed?

KS: It’s obviously much more competitive. You really need to have something unique to your brand that stands out. Everyone’s got a great fit and imported fabric. There has to be something unique that we can promote. A lot of brands are saying and doing the same thing.

CAN: What does it take for you to represent a new client?

KS: We have a checklist of criteria for a new client. One, they have to have a product that is newsworthy, because denim is a very cluttered category. There needs to be a clear understanding of the target customer so we can effectively tailor a press list that is suited to this audience. They need to have samples, because we can’t secure media placement without samples to send. They need to have a person in-house dedicated to working with us. We’re very demanding: We need someone who can be the spokesperson, field sample requests, answer questions, and approve press releases.

There needs to be a budget. PR should not be overly expensive—it’s a cost-effective way to get brand exposure without having a huge advertising budget—but we do need some kind of monetary commitment so we are able to be creative in our approach with the media.

Editors can be very jaded, since they are inundated with product/materials by many brands. Finally, we need 150 percent communication with our clients—access to them so we can learn about what’s going on in their company. If all those things are there and we believe the product has some longevity—we don’t like one-hit wonder brands; we like long-term relationships—then it will work.

CAN: What else do you need to secure editorial placement?

KS: Product visuals like look-books and catalogs that allow editors to view the items and that make sample ordering easy. Digital photos, which are great for quick email blasts that can highlight a specific item. One-on-one editor contact through product previews either at a showroom or a special venue. Plus press events, corporate news releases for trade media, and attending trade shows, which are an excellent way to reach editors in an environment dedicated to brand buzz.

CAN: Do you have an illustrative example of a company that didn’t support its PR efforts sufficiently?

KS: There was a company that had everything going for it and was definitely a very top brand, but we didn’t get the cooperation of the client. We didn’t get samples. Everything was a struggle to pull. It’s a real synergistic relationship. I think a lot of companies know they need PR but don’t understand what it is.

Once we got a sample request for the cover of Oprah Winfrey’s magazine, O—a huge, high-profile magazine that everybody and their mother wants to be in—and we didn’t get the cooperation from the client, and at that point realized there wasn’t a dual commitment.

CAN: So the cover fell through and the client missed a golden opportunity?

KS: Exactly. The thing with editorial placement is that I can’t guarantee it. But if you give me samples, based on my successes in the past 20 years, I have a very strong chance of getting you placement in these magazines. So when a client doesn’t cooperate, it sets me up to fail. It also jeopardizes my relationship with an editor. So we’re very selective with whom we work.

In the fashion world, you have to be ready for a publicist.

CAN: What advice would you give to a newly launching denim brand?

KS: Make sure your product is unique, you have a story behind it, and you have resources to get it in the hands of the audience that can help influence awareness—that’s a wordy way of saying you have to be very strategic about how you launch your product in the market.

Just because Britney Spears is splattered in the pages— good, bad, or whatever—let’s get our product on her because it’s free publicity. But is that the kind of image and association you want for your product? Make sure you understand who your audience is.

CAN: What advice would you give to a young fashion publicist?

KS: You definitely need to have people skills, personality, passion, and the ability to challenge editors and clients.

Also, going back to what it takes for us to sign a new client, we also have to be personally excited and passionate about the product. We have an action sports division, and you have to be authentic and real to work in that industry. You can’t talk to a snowboard editor if you don’t snowboard—and they know when you don’t. So on our side, you need to love fashion, believe in it, and embrace it, because it comes out when you’re pitching.