While Gap has long been battling slow moving sales, Old Navy is the captain of that sinking ship with same store sales down 34% in January. That’s where Cripsin Porter’s new campaign comes in.
A new flier has been circulating that looks a bit like a celebrity magazine. You know them right? The People’s and the US Weekly’s of the U.S.? The magazines whose sales are down 11 percent from July through December? Yeah, so the Cripsin circular looks like one of these and features mock-models the agency is calling “Supermodelquins” that are supposed to appeal to the young mom demo.
In the beginning, back in ’94, Old Navy was a star with its discounted fashions. Until, everyone started offering such fashions and some of them did it better, like Target. Old Navy President, Tom Wyatt said: “We walked away from our customer,” he said, citing an ad campaign that broke last April and featured a gold-lame bikini. “That is not what a 25- to 35-year-old mom is looking for,” he said.
The broadcast spots, which begin airing tonight, portray mannequins inside Old Navy stores talking to each and making jokes about value.
Analysts have said that: “The positioning part isn’t even half the battle,” said Morningstar analyst Joseph Beaulieu. “They’ve got to get merchandising right.”
“There are a lot of people that portray value, but no one portrays value with our quirky spirit,” Wyatt said. “Old Navy has always owned fun.”
So, this new effort from Crispin is supposed to be fun rather than what adjective you might be thinking of – creepy, off-putting, mistimed, etc., etc. However, when asked if the agency was going to start sourcing more fashion clients Alex Bogusky told AdAge that: “It could be fun. But right now it’s more of a matter of doing a good job with these guys. … It’s hard not to love the idea of making something available to more people [who] in December maybe decided they can’t afford to spend on certain things this year.”
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