Brandy Melville: Love it or Hate it?
The answer lies in the marketing, which is just as genius as it is cruel.
Labeled by Bloomberg as “Instagram First Retail Success”, Brandy Melville has relied entirely on social media marketing from the outset. Nowadays, the rising status of women and women’s counter-attack against traditional ideas have created topics and controversies for the brand.
Background
Brandy Melville was founded by Silvio Marsan and his son Stephen Marsan in Italy in the 1970s, inspired by an English boy named Melville and a California girl named Brandy. Melville was attracted to the American LA lifestyle in Brandy, and they fell in love in Italy.
Brandy Melville opened its first retail store in the U.S. in 2009 and has expanded ever since, currently opening around 100 stores worldwide.The brand is aimed at teenagers and specializes in inexpensive and fashionable clothing. Brandy Melville makes clothing in only one size. And the size is really small, U.S. size XS-S/2–4.
This California-inspired Italian brand has become a big hit in the U.S. Its casual, comfortable, and girly style has attracted a large wave of teenage girls, and in 2014 it was named the “Up-Trending” Brands for Teen Girls.
In September 2019, Brandy Melville opened its official website in China and opened its first store in Shanghai. Brandy Melville has created a “BM Style” craze on Chinese social media and has become one of the most popular brands among young Chinese girls in just two years.
On Xiaohongshu (one of the country’s top social media and e-commerce platforms), more than 100,000 discussions about Brandy Melville and more than 200,000 discussions about “BM”. In the Chinese market, every time BM releases a new product, it always sells out in a short time, and the demand for popular items is even higher than the supply.
So how did this brand become popular on the Internet in a short period and become one of the favorite brands of young girls?
Marketing Techniques
Using social media as the main publicity channel: Brandy Melville, which has never advertised before, aimed its publicity path at social media platforms such as Instagram and Xiaohongshu, following the trend of social media being the norm in today’s era and successfully screening the young teenage consumer groups that the brand is targeting. It was even named “Instagram First Retail Success” by Bloomberg. However, given the amount of criticism they receive, Brandy Melville has still managed to thrive; they have an Instagram page with 3.3 million followers, 95 locations worldwide, and an annual growth rate of nearly 25 percent.
Maximize KOL influence: Brandy Melville’s team selects influencers or models with good figures and a specific fan base to promote the brand, which subconsciously attracts consumers and significantly saves publicity costs.
Creating topics and controversies: Petite and average sizes create body anxiety, undoubtedly making the brand the target of public criticism. Nowadays, the rising status of women and women’s counter-attacks against traditional ideas have created topics and controversies for the brand. Topics and controversies are brand traffic.
Marketer’s point of view
Brandy Melville’s “one size fits all” brand positioning, “only one size,” and “only skinny girls can wear it “has constituted a very controversial topic.
Many criticize the brand for a perceived lack of size inclusivity and racist and fatphobic messaging. From a Marketer’s point of view, The brand has exploded in popularity quickly by building a personality and using clever communication techniques to capture the consumer’s psyche. From the company itself, Brandy Melville was undoubtedly successful. We can understand it as it is doing a more accurate user positioning. The more segmented the user group, the higher the user loyalty.
Personal Point of View
This marketing case is shareable content. I hope all those affected by it understand that the pursuit of trends is correct, but catching up and being kidnapped by the direction, losing themselves, and hurting themselves is not desirable. The real trend is the need to choose the right and suitable for their way, do not abandon their personality to cater to the group.
