INTEGRATED COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
SUBMITTED TO – GAYA CALABRO SUBMITTED BY – LOVISH AGARWAL
PROGRAMME LEADER
MASTER’S FASHION MANAGEMENT
DOMUS ACADEMY
INTRODUCTION
In this assignment, I will talk about the brand Pull&Bear. It consists of details about the brand’s founder, history, about the brand, marketing and communication strategies, and in the end my analysis of the same.
The assignment is largely based on my personal real-life observations about the brand from visiting their physical and online stores
Amancio Ortega (Founder)
Workaholic, reclusive, frugal, billionaire, businessman. You can give Amancio Ortega any adjective you’d like but the one that is most fitting for him is Inspirational. His companies at present are the world’s leading fashion brands. Ortega sits in the world’s richest people’s club owing to the massive success his hard work earned him.
Born and brought up in the small Spanish town of Leon, Ortega’s father was a railway worker and they belonged to a middle-class family. Ortega got his hands on the fashion industry when he started working with a tailor in his hometown. Mastering the craft then he knew what this entire industry holds for him and even he wouldn’t have imagined that he will be this successful with time. His presence is renowned around the world and masses of people opt for brands owned by him to fulfill their needs and wants.
The many brands under Inditex are
• ZARA
• PULL&BEAR
• MASSIMO DUTTI
• BERSHKA
• STRADIVARIUS
• OYSHO
• ZARA HOME
If you’re a fashion or lifestyle enthusiast, you simply can’t ignore these brands. They’re the best of the best. Ortega built them from the ground up to where they are today.
In this assignment, I present to you a study that I did on one of the brands by Ortega, which is, PULL&BEAR.
PULL&BEAR HISTORY
After their first successful venture with Zara, Ortega decided to diversify the Inditex group. In 1991 his next target was the young and urban male audience. So he came up with Pull&Bear. As he would have it, Pull&Bear was loved by the public and hence in 1998, they decided to add a new female division to the group as well.
The next target was the young, urban, and hip-hop community which included mostly teenagers and themes and designs specifically designed for them.
Pull&Bear started up in 1991 with a clear international mission and with the intention of dressing young people who are engaged with their environment, who live in the community, and who relate to each other.
Their merchandise started including graphics from movies, TV shows, cartoons, video games, street styles, etc. which were a perfect fit for their target audience.In 1998, Pull&Bear debuted the "XDYE" line, a more technologically advanced and sporty line of clothing inspired by the icons of contemporary youth culture. (Wikipedia, 2022, Pull&Bear, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pull%26Bear, 26/11/2022)
The brand till day is working in the same manner and has achieved over 800 stores worldwide, 3000+ employees and generates about $1.8B in revenues every year for the Inditex group.
No wonder Amancio Ortega is a marketing genius which credits to his success. Over the years his companies have used several strategies to communicate with their target audience.
In this submission, I will try to discuss and highlight various marketing strategies used by the brand to reach where they are today.
WHAT IS MARKETING?
Marketing refers to activities a company undertakes to promote the buying or selling of a product or service. Marketing includes advertising, selling, and delivering products to consumers or other businesses. (Twin, A, 2022, Marketing in Business, 26/11/2022)
This is the dictionary definition for marketing, but for me, marketing is basically a business’ way of communicating with the public. A brand cannot personally go and promote its product, thus various forms of communication are used to market itself to the general public.
The two main forms of advertisements used in the modern-day world are
• Offline Marketing
• Online Marketing
OFFLINE MARKETING STRATEGIES
1. Fashion Shows/ Social Events
One of the oldest and most classic ways of displaying your collection still remains the as fashion shows. Pull&Bear has always displayed impeccable style and tastes to their audience with their latest and trendsetting collections. Even in the advent of Covid-19 where many fashion shows were canceled and several brands lost their chance to display their collections, Pull&Bear was one of those brands which accentuated the digital space and hosted a virtual fashion show.
2. Store Positioning
Milan, New York, Paris, wherever Pull&Bear is located, it’s always in the heart of the city. It’s very easy to spot a
store in the city’s shopping district. The locations are always situated alongside the most premium brands so that the consumer directly perceives the brand to be one of the premium brands thus enhancing the brand image in the consumer’s mind.
3. Trends
If you visit a Pull&Bear store, you will always find merchandise that is of the latest trends, patterns, and designs. For example, currently, everyone is after baggy patterns which include funky details and prints. The Pull&Bear stores are filled with such designs. So once you visit the store and see it for yourself that they are this up to date with the trends, whenever you will be bound to shop again, the first name to pop into your head would be Pull&Bear.
4. Product Positioning
The key to achieving good offline sales is having proper product placement. A brand cannot just have ample stock and
keep anything anywhere. At Pull&Bear and other Inditex-owned brands too, there are proper themes set for each store where products of the same theme go together. For example, shirts and trousers are kept together, baggy t-shirts are kept near baggy pants and sneakers which results in the customer judging the products quickly and easily and making a quick purchase.
5. Print media
Nowadays, it’s less relevant to the younger generations but is still one of the widely used forms of marketing to the masses. Print media include several examples like billboards, newspaper ads, posters, etc. You might’ve noticed in your own hometown, Pull&Bear still with a launch of every new collection, fills the cities and all public places with cool billboards/digital pop-ups and hoardings to communicate to the public that fresh designs and collections are now available.
ONLINE MARKETING STRATEGIES
1. Social Media
All social handles under Inditex can be easily distinguished as they stand out from the rest of the brands. All content posted is for the millennials with whom they easily resonate. As one feels very connected to the brand, the brand definitely becomes a priority and the first choice for them. Keeping up to date with the trends, happenings around the world, funky content and captions, and cool pictures which aren’t always from a photo shoot but sometimes come out from the camera rolls of their consumers who flaunt their products on social media. Social media has become the largest form of marketing in the current world and will continue to dominate in years to come as people are amassing on social platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, etc.
2. Application
On downloading the Pull&Bear app on your cellphone, you will right away receive a discount code on behalf of the brand to welcome you onboard. Who isn’t attracted to discounts?
Everyone is. So once the brand is installed on your device, the brand then starts new communications with the consumers in form of pop-ups or notifications in your device, which then for once make your brain think let’s take a look at least. Once the consumer views the products and deals offered, they’re then easily lured in as the consumer knows they’re getting great quality products at bargained prices. One of the greatest ways of communication in my opinion directly leads to a sale.
3. Online advertisements
The brand smartly places advertisements in-between places where lots of online traffic is directed at. For example, when a YouTube video is starting, or when a song is playing on Spotify. The brand makes short and cool videos to display in such advertisements to get the consumer interested in what they are offering.
4. Online campaigns
With multiple campaigns about current social happenings, Pull&Bear acts as a part of the community and blends in with the spirit of the customer. They also launch several virtual campaigns where a consumer gets the ethos that they are a part of the brand. For example, currently, they choose pictures from people who use the hashtag #PULL&BEARCOMMUNITY and select
random pictures from Instagram/Facebook and post them on their official handles. This has attracted many people to use the hashtag and through Instagram influencers, they get free publicity and in return, the influencer gets featured on a social handle with over 7 million followers. A win-win situation for both the brand and the consumers.
WHAT DOES PULL&BEAR DO DIFFERENTLY TO COMMUNICATE BETTER?
The answer to this question is, Pull&Bear acts as a part of the community, not only in the manner of words but by its actions as well. The horizon in which they function mostly consists of teenagers and young adults. They have certainly displayed well enough with the help of their collections that the brand’s number one priority is the customers’ needs and their second priority is to fulfill those needs in the most responsible way they can.
The brand communicates with young buyers in a fun language through its collection, which consists of several elements with which they resonate on a social and personal level.This can also be termed as inclusive marketing as everyone gets a feeling that they belong, a feeling every teenager wants. Pull&Bear develops at the same rate as its customers, keeping up with emerging technology, social trends, and the hottest musical or artistic fads. Its designs and retail spaces both show how all of this is portrayed. The product lines are often refreshed and are based on the storied Californian city of Palm Springs. New stock is sent twice weekly to every retailer on earth.
ANALYSIS
With a clear and defined global vision and the goal of dressing young people who are connected with their surroundings, who live in the community, and relate to one another, Pull&Bear was established in 1991. young people who want to dress casually, avoid preconceptions, and want to look beautiful no matter what they wear. In order to suit their requirements, Pull&Bear takes the most recent global trends, combines them with influences from the streets and the sexiest clubs, and reworks them in accordance with their style, creating clothes that are cozy and simple to wear.
It is clear that Pull&Bear is a progressive business that respects every age, gender, and nationality. They are highly known for their accessibility, affordability, and excellence. Their modern marketing techniques have demonstrated the significance of the business and its people. Everyone should go to a Pull&Bear store to learn for themselves!
CONCLUSION
To conclude about Pull&Bear’s marketing and communication strategies, it’s affirmative to say that the brand continues to use multiple channels of communication with its end user, including social media, lifestyle events, in form of designs, and most of all working in a way which they can relate to and making them feel included, for example, the millennials are the one fighting the most for a sustainable future, hence the brand communicates to them much more efficiently about its own sustainable practices and also supporting their movement to fight against the same.
The takeaway from this project tells us that even though the communication and marketing strategies seems effortless, it still takes a lot of effort to reach this level.