Marketing Strategy-ASOS
Introduction
As the popularity of e-commerce has been dramatically rocketing in the last decade,ASOS has successfully become one of the leading online fashion, cosmetic and stores globally for young people, ranked as one of the top 10 most popular online stores in fashion.(Statista,2018),thus it’s worthy digging in it’s marketing strategies.
Framework of Segmentation
From the figure above, the demographic information shows their first primary segmentation is the females and males from 18–34, the second segmentation is the females and males from 35–49.
Moreover, their website and social media accounts obviously demonstrates their young target segmentation.Those pages are full of young, creative, artistic, fashionable and stylish people in distinctive body shapes and culture backgrounds, most of the models are in the similar age which fits their primary segmentation by demographic.
Furthermore, from the figure of number of active customers of ASOS as of August 2020, by region(Statista,2021), it shows the primary segmentation is European Union, the second segmentation is the United Kingdom, by geographic.
ASOS Targeting
In terms of their target segmentations above, ASOS has done various targeting strategies to speak directly to their defined audiences.
Firstly, ASOS has both an official e-commerce shopping website and a smart phone shopping application, which already matches the young generation’s shopping behaviour.
Secondly, ASOS mainly focus their marketing on the social media where majority of the young people are very active on, ASOS’ social media strategy is proving a astonishing success, With 11.9 m followers on Instagram , 7.1 m on Facebook, 1 m on Twitter and 90.9k on youtube.The largest age group of Instagram is 25–35(33.1%), Facebook is 25–34 (26.3%), Youtube is 15–25, Twitter is 30–49(44%) according to Barnhart B’s report of Social media demographics to inform your brand’s strategy in 2021.(Barnhart B,2021), the age range highly fits the target segmentations of ASOS, therefore it helps the brand communicate directly with each other.
Thirdly, the brand imagery of ASOS is to feel trendy, young, energetic and elegant, in order to express the brand properly to their target audiences, they hire models in numerous distinctive culture backgrounds, body shapes and sexual orientations to represent the free spirit images on their official website or social media ,They also have different lines for curves, plus size, petite and unisex etc to meet those young segment’s needs in self expression and respect. It highly align with their value of creativity, positivity, democracy and respect in people with lots of fun.Moreover those also significantly help them differentiate them from their competitors and build certain emotional bonding with their target audiences.
Fourthly,ASOS builds a positive goal in driving force in their campaigns.
According to their astonishing advertising in London, there were a few attributes they used to arouse their young target audiences’ acquired needs and desires on the brand product.
- The strong emotional needs of self esteem, respect, love and expression, sense of belonging, open minded attitude to varieties of skin colours， cultures and personal preferences, innovative challenges of breaking the boundaries and stereotypes.(emotional arousal)
- By impactful images arouse cognitive thinking of the proud fun to explore the true spirit of ourself in our own style by using their products, it’s a platform without judgement.(cognitive arousal)
Positioning
The positioning statement of ASOS
‘WE ARE AUTHENTIC, BRAVE, CREATIVE AND DISCIPLINED TO OUR CORE’
‘We believe in a world where you have total freedom to be you, without judgement. To experiment. To express yourself. To be brave and grab life as the extraordinary adventure it is. So we make sure everyone has an equal chance to discover all the amazing things they’re capable of — no matter who they are, where they’re from or what looks they like to boss. We exist to give you the confidence to be whoever you want to be.’
ASOS emphasises on their Youtube description: This is a judgement-free zone.There are videos of trendy stylish cross dressers, homosexual people, different ethnicities, oversized people, athletes etc in their youtube videos, on their official website, it emotionally resonates with the target audiences in the acquisition, in the meanwhile, they deliver their statement and values in the services and products they provide, there are enormous fashion and accessory brands designed for different varieties of body shapes and needs which includes Curves,Plus Size,Tall,Petite,Pregnancy,Unisex,Wide-fit and standard in more than 30 sizes, and they provide all sizes at the same price.This kills target audiences’ pain points in looking for the tailored products, it also significantly makes them distinctive from the competitors such as Myntra or Nordstrom.
Furthermore, unlike other internationally popular fashion brands which are highly rated as the fashion competitors, for instance, Nike, Mango, Adidas and so on, ASOS owns it’s own-brand products while they owned around 8000 other branded products as well, which includes Nike, Mango and Adidas but at a lower price and on frequent discounts to meet their target audiences’ needs.
Moreover,ASOS has done a good job in delivering believability by launching a free, fast refund policy, consumers can return their products in very simple process within 30 days.This addresses potential customers’ concerns in quality or other online shopping issues and compelling for them to give it a try.
In addition,ASOS has a student section, dedicates to giving special offers to students who are one of the largest audiences groups — 10% off on all their purchases with a discount code(ASOS,n.d.). ASOS frequently announces special discount days offering from 10%-30% off all ASOS products by sending the reminding emails to their registered customers to maintain the customer life cycle.
Brand awareness
ASOS’ classic and simple black and white logo and packages have become a symbol which are often seen on the social media, email subscription, advertising and carried by couriers in some commercial and residential buildings. It frequently reminds consumers and drives the acquisition and engagement. However, the contents of their products on the website or social media are quite colourful and playful. Inspiring for people to imagine the colourful joyful and fun wonderland within the black and white bag.
Critical Reflection
During the research of ASOS marketing strategy, I learned how they analysis their target audiences’ consuming behaviours and social needs, trends and changes according to the demographic that they use the appropriate components in the design of the advertisements which highly resonate and communicate with the 20s segmentation, however, it’s also shown that they didn’t focus much on the 30s who is partially targeted as the primary segmentation and partially the second segmentation, and possibly less concerned in the trendy styles or self expression but quality, functional elements or ethical concerns, there are quite a certain amount of styles of fashion options on the website are designed for 30s as well, hopefully the sale will be raised to another level if they can put a bit more effort in that segmentation.
Additionally, this study makes me reflect on my own works, while i create an image, what segmentations i wanna approach that i can decide what components and contexts i wanna put on my image to approach and communicate with them, hence, i can create works in the marketing mind set.
References
Statista,2018,Most popular online stores in the fashion segment worldwide in 2018, by e-commerce net sales
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Brophy A,2018,ASOS — Marketing Week Masters ‘Brand of the Year’,Yougov,10 Oct
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VCCP,2018,USING OUTDOOR TO BUILD DIGITAL CORRIDORS,VCCP, 11 Jul
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ASOS,n.d.STUDENTS GET 10% OFF
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