ch.15 Integrated Marketing Communications

  -American Apparel's promotional strategy
American Apparel is well known for its "provocative" advertisement. They create real images of real people, not models, who are mostly their employees. But, it has been controversial because of its images. The images in their ads are amateur-porn-style. "Sex sells." Besides that, American Apparel has been doing advertising and campaign called "Legalize LA” and "Legalize Gay" to express their political point of view. Also, they advertise their business model "vertical integration” using the phrase "manufacture with pride in the USA". 
In order to increase sales, American Apparel mostly focuses on displays. Their retail stores are decorated with unique posed mannequins and each item are displayed according to the colors. They display new items in front of the main door to captivate customers’ attention. They started offering, "Buy three, Get one free" on a few items like socks, underwear, and shirts. In online store, American Apparel suggests visitors to register for e-mail updates and send them 10% promo code for online purchase. They also offer free-shipping service for customers who buy over $75.
   - Explaining American Apparel's denim Advertising with communication process.
American Apparel has launched its first line of jeans last week. Dov Charney, CEO and founder of American Apparel, said, "Jeans are an iconic, essential part of the modern wardrobe, just like the t-shirt. No one does basics like American Apparel. We've mastered the basic t-shirt, now we're getting excited about jeans," The company aims to add a new denim basic to women's wardrobes. And they emphasize that the jeans are made in USA not like other competitors. Thus, American Apparel launched a new campaign of the denim line "J E A N S". In order to encode their message to the receivers, American Apparel uses just the word "jeans" in a simple font and "manufactured with pride in the USA". That's all. Also, they use simple images of a girl wearing a pair of jeans and a white t-shirts in a white room. The ads just stress the jeans simply. 

Then, for transmission of the message, American Apparel uses various forms of mass media, such as Twitter, Facebook, their website, blogs and magazines and their retail stores itself. When people receiver the message of American Apparel's new jeans advertising, people can easily find that it's basic yet still very American Apparel-ious.
Sometimes, there is miscommunication of promotional messages with consumers. American Apparel' advertising has been controversial because of their sexual images. For example, one ad in the enormous billboard in downtown Manhattan was very criticized by people. In the ads, there is a young-looking girl, shirtless but in tights, bent over with her legs spread, and it was written " GEE, I WONDER WHY WOMEN GET RAPED" across the front of it. It was a hot potato that women who saw it felt very offensive.

In addition to ch.10

 American Apparel has been in demand because of their quality and fit. Their shirts,  jerseys, sweatshirts, t-shirts, pants, socks etc. have no logo, marks, insignias or anything on, but people could find that it's American Apparel product easily. Their products are high quality, fitted, modern, practical and sexy at the same time. Moreover the brand's motto Vertical Integration, "sweatshop free", gets people's attention. Their concept (or motto) grabs customers: For them, purchasing a product in American Apparel means quality and stylish shopping and at the same time supporting "sweatshop free conditions".

[new item review] visiting American Apparel store in Soho

I visited the American Apparel store in Tribeca to check out new denim line that has been launched lately, but the staff told me that only a few store in Soho, NYU, and lower east side have new denim line so I went to the store in Soho. The Soho AA store (429 Broadway New York, NY) displayed the show window with their new denim line.

When I went to the inside, I could find one denim shorts and two denim pants in two colors immediately because I focused on finding them.  But, people might not find them easily because it was not that outstanding. I picked up two denim pants and tried them on.

( I couldn't take a picture that i was wearing..) They were quite tight for me because it's a skinny jean or maybe I gained weight. It was very high-waist so I could tell you it's so American Apparel-y. The American Apparel's new denim line contains their unique style that can be found in their other pants. If you look for a denim in 80's style, check out AA's  new denim line. It's $80, but you know they were made in USA;) I will buy one.

Ch.10 Product Concepts

 
  American Apparel provides heterogeneous shopping products. They have very wide product mixes because there are tons of product lines, such as, jeans, t-shirts, dresses, bodysuits, skirts, leggings, pants, under wears, outwears, stockings, shoes, eye wears, nails etc.. so you can find everything from head to toes. Also, their product line depth is a great number of items. For example, the t-shirts line includes v-neck t-shirts, round neck t-shirts, not-so-basic t-shirts, short sleeve, print t-shirts, see thru, long, short....to name a few..
  American Apparel often modifies the style of their product items by adding more colors, fabrics, and details. For example, they upgraded their tight(skinny) pants, one of their steady selling items, by adding trendy colors in the season and zippers on the side of the pants. Recently, American Apparel launched denim line to extend their product line and be more competitive. Their denim line will attract customers who satisfied with American Apparel's pants or expect American Apparel-version in the denim.
 The brand name 'American Apparel' is very simple and strong, and tells what they make and sell. it identifies the company's products which are literally American apparel made in America. They have no brand mark but their unique ads contributes to have the strong image with their brand name itself.
  American Apparel's packaging is also simple and clean. Their shopping bags are made of vinyl and printed the names of the cities where their retail stores are located ,and of course the brand name.  the printed letters are all white and same font.
 

[News] Exclusive: American Apparel Launches Denim Amidst Rumors of Bankruptcy

By Leah Chernikoff Monday, Apr 4, 2011 / 4:23 PM

American Apparel has dominated the headlines recently for all the wrong reasons: former employees alleging that the label’s founder, Dov Charney, sexually harassed them; the company recently reported a net loss of $86.3 million for 2010; today’s WWD reports that “a looming April 30 deadline that could cut off its ability to borrow from banks and cover daily operating costs, which could potentially trigger a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.” In spite of all that–and perhaps in some part because of the troubles the label is facing–American Apparel is launching denim.
“Jeans are an iconic, essential part of the modern wardrobe, just like the t-shirt,” Charney said in a press release announcing the launch. “No one does basics like American Apparel. We’ve mastered the basic t-shirt, now we’re getting excited about jeans.”
American Apparel’s denim line has been in development for a year and will be in store tomorrow (and trickling into a few stories today). The line launches with two styles for women–a high-waist tapered leg blue jean and a high-waist cuffed jean short–and plans to roll out a heavy-weight untreated men’s jean for back to school. The jeans will be produced in American Apparel’s LA factory, using 100% cotton 14 ounce denim which is thicker–i.e. made to be broken in. The jeans will retail for $80, and the sewing and dying process to complete a single pair of jeans uses more than 40 fair wage workers.
American Apparel has tapped denim vet Georges Atlan to be the director of denim production. Atlan’s indigo resume includes launching Guess jeans with Georges Marciano in 1980 and he’s worked with most major denim brands including Levi’s, Seven, Rock & Republic, Joe’s jeans, and Calvin Klein to name a few.
So can denim put American Apparel back on track? That remains to be seen. It’s undeniable that the company’s in financial hot water right now. But as for filing for Chapter 11, Charney told WWD today “In my opinion, there’s no chance of that. That’s not an option we are going to explore…We have a variety of options. We could do a private placement of stock. Or we could use the resources we have. We do $10 million a week in sales.” When Reuters asked Charney why his company might file for Chapter 11 he responded, “”Why don’t you speak with a legal expert and he’ll tell you why…we have to put it as a risk factor if it’s in the realm of possibility, even if it’s 1 in 1,000.” Chapter 11 or not, American Apparel’s brand is strong, their basics can’t be beat (we imagine their denim will fit right into their stable of staples) and they’re probably not going anywhere anytime soon.

From Fashionista.com

chap.18 Sales Promotion and Personal Selling

American Apparel used not to go on sale because they thought they could control the inventory. However, due to their financially losses these days, they starts promoting Groupon sale coupon and going on sale as tools for consumer sales promotion. Also, in their online store, they suggest people who visit their online store to sign up for e-mail update and then send them 10% off promo code for online purchase. Once customers signed up for e-mail update, they receive exclusive offers, invites to sales and updates on American Apparel's latest styles. For their loyal customers, American Apparel invites them to the company's surprising sample sale. In order to grab brand switchers and price buyers, they offer bonus pack such as 'buy three, get on free' for socks and underwear and markdown last season's items. To grab competitor’s customers, they use eye-catching displays in their retail stores, which are their strongest advantages. Their mannequins are worn their products in various ways that show how to wear and posing unique posture. Their displays catches people who pass by and make them buy the products. American Apparel focuses on point-of-purchase promotion, such as, putting television monitors in the stores showing how to wear the product in many ways. In online store, they don't charge shipping fees for customers who purchase over $75.

ch.17 Advertising and Public Relations

  Unlike their peers, American Apparel has been doing provocative and somehow controversial advertising. It helps them to set up unique character in the fashion world and become successful world wide. Like their products, they produce everything about advertisment in L.A. They don't need any help of ad agencies, retouchers, makeup artists or stylists. American Apparel's ads represent their authentic images and carry socially relevant messages that the company concerns. Interestingly, their models for ads are not 'models'; they are grils and boys next door. By appointing fans, friends and employees from around world as models, American Apparel has gained familiar image to come closer to young people. Their iconic ads show the diversity, individuality and independent spirit that the company was founded on. They display their ads on famous fashion blogs and magazines, such as thesartorialist.com, streetpeeper.com, Paper magazines and so on, whereas they don't do TV commercials. American Apparel's slogan 'Made in USA' emphasises vertical integration that is the company's business model. 
 They support to legalize 1.8 million undocumented adult Latino immigrants in L.A and other places so that they express their concerns in ads with the slogan 'Legalize L.A'.

 

images from thesartorialist.com ,streetpeeper.com