FW: pre-sell
November 06, 2008: Isn't it ironic? Or not.
From: AbercrombieSubject Line: winter coats to keep you warm.
Date: October 30, 2008
From: Abercrombie
Subject Line: layer-up in classic style.
Date: November 6, 2008
I'm having a little trouble figuring out Abercrombie's latest email campaign. Maybe someone can help me sort it out.
The first email shown here has the subject line: winter coats to keep you warm. But, ummm, the email features a plaid flannel shirt. I guess it would be ironic if the guy happened to be naked or something, but he's not. So it just looks odd. Although, the links do make sense: Boys Outerwear and Girls Outerwear. At first, I thought it was just a production error, like maybe the wrong file was sent or something, until I received the second email and I realized they're trying to be ironic.
The second email's subject line is layer-up in classic style., which uses a hyphen incorrectly, but that's not really the issue, so I'll move on. The hero image features a guy with no shirt on, albeit he does have a short-sleeve tee draped over his shoulder. So, what exactly is he layering here? I guess it's ironic, but does it really sell the clothes? Maybe on a huge billboard it does, but in email when the whole objective is to get people to click through, does it work? The thing that's too bad is that the link to Boys Knits goes to some cool long-sleeve knit pullovers, tshirts, etc. IMHO, it would have been good to show at least a few products to tell the story and spark someone's interest enough to click the links. The way it is now, you really have to be a die-hard Abercrombie fan to be interested enough to click through.
It's election week: Let's put it out for a vote. Check out the two emails and share your thoughts. But remember this: It's like rain on your wedding day, a free ride when you've already paid, and having 10,000 spoons when all you need is knife. That's ironic, don't you think?
Comments
I think the big question is "Does irony work?" and in this particular case, I don't really think so. I think showing some of the actual clothing they are trying to sell could have improved results.
HOWEVER, the "half-naked guy" theme is a prominent one for Abercrombie - I just recently walked past one of their stores with a huge picture of a bare-chested model at the entrance. You can't even see the clothes without walking fully into the store. It's an interesting approach...
Perhaps this works for them, but I'd love to know if they've tested out different content.
Personally, I think showing a model wearing various layers in different ways could have more effectively inspired potential customers to make the purchasing leap.
Posted by: Kristen Gregory | November 7, 2008 02:16 PM
I think that A&F secretly wants to be a nudist colony. It's extremely rare for the models in a A&F photo to be wearing more than one piece of clothing--and if there are two models in a shot, they still only get one piece of clothing between them, which usually means a girl in a halter and a shirtless guy. They definitely have a unique method of marketing clothing.
Posted by: Anonymous | November 7, 2008 02:46 PM