Super Pumped for the Super Puff: The Rise of Aritzia via Social Media
“Everyday luxury”
As of last year, Vancouver based fashion brand Aritzia has been making big waves in the North American market. With 63 boutiques located in Canada and 21 in the States, Aritzia is projected to increase their presence in the American market. This growth can be attributed to the boutiques use of social media in the last year.
The Super Puff — if you haven’t heard of it, you’ve probably seen it — you know, that big puffy jacket, that’s sort of reminiscent of the Michelin man. In October of last year, Aritzia released the Super Puff, which was the catalyst to a year of growth, success and brand awareness. But what made this puffy jacket different from its competitors in the same space? The answer is Kendall Jenner.
With the release of the Super Puff, Aritzia leveraged a behemoth influencer marketing campaign via social media. Where they appointed Kardashian-Jenner bred, Kendall Jenner as the face of the campaign. Jenner and Aritzia engaged in a symbiotic relationship, where the star posted photos on Instagram of the jacket to her 117 million followers in exchange for payment #ad #paidpartnership.
This partnership ultimately generated hype and intrigue surrounding the company and the release of the jacket. Following the posts featuring Jenner, Aritzia’s online engagement and following went up. In an interview with Yahoo Canada, Brian Hill, the founder of Aritzia commented that “Within a day, we acquired 10,000 new Instagram followers and our rate of sale for this item increased by over 700 per cent,” (Siekierska, 2019).
With a successful campaign under the company’s belt for 2018, the company is currently upping the ante in preparation for 2019’s colder seasons. In mid September, Aritzia expanded the Super Puff line to include 1 additional style, and 41 additional colours and patterns. On October 24th the company also announced the release of the Mr. Super Puff, Aritzia’s first official item for males.
In addition to this, the company is ramping up their roster of celebrity influencers and they are not shy to show it. If you take a peak of Aritzia’s current Instagram feed, you will notice that there is a variety of celebrities (including men) being photographed in their puffers, no longer is it just Kendall Jenner. Ultimately taking influencer marketing to a new extreme.
Through the use of celebrities, the company is doing an impressive job at positioning themselves in the market and targeting their desired target market via social media. Evident in their selection of celebrity influencers, Aritzia has been able to identify the individuals that they feel best represent their company. Leveraging their influence and status to attract and target their desired target market. Increasing the company’s credibility amongst potential consumers as they are seeing that their favourite celebrities are wearing pieces from the brand.
In comparison to other fashion retailers, Aritzia is doing a stand-up job at separating themselves from the crowd. Aritzia is pricey, and they know it, but the company uses this price difference to define the brand and to create a sense of status for whomever they do business with. Brian Hill defines Aritzia as “Everyday luxury”. By partnering with trendy and popular celebrities to promote their items such as the Super Puff, Aritzia is further cementing themselves as an everyday luxury retailer. They are demonstrating that their differentiator amongst other retailers is through the quality, culture and status of their clothes. The use of celebrity influencers via social media is helping to convey this narrative; allowing them to command a premium price.
Aritzia’s social media strategy was robust to begin with. They had a good content mix on their Instagram and effectively promoted new collections. The company was ripe for further growth and the release of the Super Puff with Kendall Jenner was the social bomb they needed to advance. The question now is that with all this newfound attention, can Aritzia draw attention to other items besides the Super Puff? Will they be able to out do the Super Puff? And if they do, how?