Sister Jane - Virtual Town House

BSP5021 Experiential Fashion Strategies Level Five 2020-21 PORT1

ST20139481

virtual town house

Brand concept

Campaign plan Consumer journey Exploration Mock-ups Conclusion

contents

Objectives

overview of brand concept Summary The Sister Jane Virtual Town House is a digital space for consumers to style, shop, and experience the Sister Jane aesthetic. The virtual space will be released as part of the Sister Jane app, allowing customers to shop more easily on mobile devices. The virtual townhouse will include a styling ‘dress up’ game, a Cha Cha café personalised gift service, and an educational video on the process of creating each new collection.

There will also be hidden discounts, exclusive offers and products available for those that visit the online space. The launch of the app will be accompanied with a launch party at the original Sister Jane Townhouse in London.

Purpose

(similarweb, 2021)

The purpose of creating an app for Sister Jane is to make the brand more accessible to an increasingly digital consumer. 47% of their website views already come from mobile devices (similarweb, 2021), showing the customer interest, with this statistic over 50% for their competitors such as Anthropologie (similarweb, 2021).

Having a digital space for the Sister Jane customer will also allow the community to experience the town house and general vibe while adhering to coronavirus travel restrictions and reaching customers further away from London. Growing the sister jane community will lead to an increase in sales, enabling the company to continue to ethically produce quality garments. An engaging game-like space will allow the customer to explore and immerse themselves in the retro environment which , as Pine and Gilmore state, will connect the consumer to the brand in a personal and memorable way ’ (Pine, J. Gilmore, J. 2011). This deeper connection and time well spent gives the brand a higher value.

Popularity (Instagram Followers)

positioning map Price (Dress Price Range)

As a smaller brand with only 171,000 Instagram followers and under 22,000 website visits per month (similar web, 2021), Sister Jane relies on social media visuals, word of mouth and quality products to reach and satisfy their customer. Due to the mid to high price point, which is the second highest in this list of similar competitor brands, Sister Jane need to increase the product value through quality garments, sustainable practices, and time well spent (Pine, J. Gilmore, J. 2011).

brand identity (Sister Jane, 2021)

Promise To be transparent with customers about design and production process and to create unique, whimsical, and retro apparel as sustainably as possible for the Sister Jane community.

target market Demographic Female Millennial & gen X 24+ British Employed Pre-family Middle class Digitally aware

Geographic Countryside/ London Works in London Online

Psychographic Career driven Social Girl power Values uniqueness Enjoys vintage Climate conscious Instagram and Pinterest Benefit Quality Uniqueness Loyal to brands Not price sensitive

BETTER Sister Jane are open and transparent about the struggles and efforts in making their products sustainable and ethical. This honesty paired with the kind tone of voice helps create a strong emotional connection between community and brand. The virtual space will increase this connection through the Cha Cha café gift personalisation and in depth behind the scene videos which help put faces to the brand.

Having a three week monitor and adjustment period after the app’s launch will ensure customers are enjoying the experience and will help fix any problems there may be. After this three weeks all app participants will have the opportunity to fill in a feedback form so the brand can continue making improvements. Staying active on social media by replying to comments and stories will build a trusting relationship between the brand and consumer.

As a brand with strong visuals, Sister Jane relies mostly on Pinterest and Instagram to reach new customers. For this reason Paid adverts will run on Instagram stories to encourage growth. Word of mouth, is another key player used to reach new consumers. This will be used by inviting new brand ambassadors to the launch party.

objectives Grow Instagram following from 171k to 200k in 10 weeks

Growing the instagram will help Sister Jane in finding new millennial customers.

A bigger platform will mean a larger audience to earned media promotion.

Increase website traffic 22,000 views/ month to 30,000

Besides Sister Jane attracts website traffic most on visual platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram vs Facebook or direct searches (similar web, 2021), Instagram ads and growth will help increase website traffic. The online virtual townhouse will also encourage more customers to visit the website to take part in this experience.

Increase volume of sales by 15% by week 12

The previous two objectives will naturally lead to an increase in sales, partnered with the new purchasing platform (app) and promotional codes makes this an achievable goal.

Achieve 70,000 app downloads in 4 weeks

Although the average number of downloads per app worldwide is almost 150,000 (42matters, 2020), due to the short time frame and size of the brand it has been adjusted to a realistic objective.

campaign plan The app is useful as it creates another access point for consumers to purchase product. An app is also a more convenient way of shopping as smartphones become by far the most common way to make an online purchase (Attest,2019). This is due to the digital consumer being more trusting of smart phones.

The app will be similar to other retail apps such as Urban Outfitters and Asos with a homepage with categories to shop, however it will also give the consumer the option to enter the Virtual Town House.

Keeping the design clear and simple will make it easy to use for the consumer.

campaign plan The uniqueness of Sister Jane is reflected in the uniqueness of the Virtual Space. Modelled on the real London townhouse, it will have a retro feel. As many online stores don’t have a physical space like this, this virtual version will intrigue customers.

The app will be accessed through the app store/ play store as well as a swipe up link on stories and a link on the website.

The virtual space will be found on the homepage of the app as well as on the website.

gantt chart Week

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Run Instagram advert Ambassadors search Announce app launch on SM/web Instagram countdown Invite Influencers to launch party Influencers sponsored reels/posts

Launch party 20% off 15% off app discount Monitor and adjustment period Achieve 200k Instagram followers Achieve 70,000 app downloads Increased sales by 15%

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gantt chart Influencers

Paid media Influencer collaboration Owned Media Promotions Objectives

Influencers will be scouted to join the #SJSisterhood and be a Sister Jane ambassador. This will involve the influencers sharing sponsored posts and reels in the 4 weeks building up to the app launch, as well as an invitation to the Sister Jane Virtual Town House launch party in the London townhouse.

The influencers that will be approached will be both macro and micro fashion and lifestyle bloggers such as Victoria @inthefrow, Lydia @lydiamillen, Niomi @niomismart, Melis @melissekrem, Paula @hillhousevintage.

Promotions

Running a 20% off promotion on the launch day and 15% off for customers with the app for the first three weeks, will encourage engagement, app downloads and purchases. The digital space will also have a hidden discount in a different spot in the Virtual Town House each week to keep engagement high.

consumer journey The brand touch points are currently the owned media in the form of the Sister Jane website, and London townhouse. This project will add another touchpoint, the Sister Jane app. Other earnt touchpoints are the brands social media – Instagram, Facebook page and Pinterest. This plan will also introduce paid media into the mix in the form of Instagram story adverts as well as sponsored posts by #SJSisterhood ambassadors.

The consumer can follow the brand on social media and interact with posts and stories.

They can also use the hashtag #SJSisterhood to share their own Sister Jane products and outfits. With the introduction of the app, the consumer can enter the Virtual Town House at a tap of a screen and explore the three available floors. Interactive objects will lead to secret discounts and exclusive products. While in the showroom, the customer will also be able to click on a rail to shop a category to integrate easy purchasing as if they were browsing in real life. When using the style studio, after the user has created you outfit, complete with hairstyle and accessories, they will be linked to the individual products to view or quick add to their basket.

customer journey The virtual environment will have many links to purchase ingame, the success of these will be monitored in the first three weeks of release to see which is most successful in converting customers. The key performance indicators that will be tracked are Instagram followers, app downloads, website visits and sales volume.

One way the app will encourage sharing is through the Cha Cha café. In the cafe the customer can create a custom cake to deliver to a friend or family member. Delivering a gift and discount code directly to a new customer. Being able to share the outfits curated in the style studio to Instagram is another way to encourage consumer to consumer marketing.

The digital space has elements that stretch across Pine and Gilmore’s realms of experience, however it sits mostly in the escapist realm. The customer will be immersed in the Sister Jane retro aesthetic and be able to move and shop around the environment like they would in store.

(Pine, J. Gilmore, J. 2011)

mood board

exploration Cha Cha Kitchen

Retro style arcade game

sketch up

90% virtual town house

Sister Jane App Homepage and Loading screen

promotional material

Free delivery to United Kingdom over £35

Cha Cha Café

virtual town house

virtual town house

Conclusion To summarise, this campaign aims to expand the Sister Jane community by growing their current social media and introducing a virtual environment for customers to experience, shop, and style Sister Jane apparel. The digital space will help to reconnect the community to the brand in a covid safe environment and to appeal to the evolving digital consumer.

Bibliography • Attest. (2019). Shopper journey: share of devices consumers use when making purchases online in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2019 . Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: May 10, 2021. https://www-statistacom.ezproxy.cardiffmet.ac.uk/statistics/1041386/devices-used-when-making-purchases-online-uk/ • Good on You (2018) Sister Jane. Accessed May: 4, 2021. https://directory.goodonyou.eco/brand/sisterjane • Pine J, Gilmore J (2011) The experience economy. Updated edition. Harvard business school publishing.

Boston.

• Posner h (2015) Marketing fashion, strategy branding and promotion. Second edition. Laurence king publishing. London.

• Sherman, L. (2021) The Age of the Enlightened Consumer. BoF Proffessional. Accessed: May 4, 2021. https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/retail/the-age-of-the-enlightened-consumer

• Similar Web (2021) Similar web marketing intelligence. Website. Accessed: May 4, 2021. https://pro.similarweb.com • Sister Jane (2021) sisterjane.com. Accessed: May 10, 2021. https://sisterjane.com/pages/about • 42matters. (2020). Average number of downloads per app by publishers from the United States as of May 2020 (in 1,000s). Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: May 10, 2021. https://www-statistacom.ezproxy.cardiffmet.ac.uk/statistics/1119893/average-number-downloads-united-states-apppublishers/