Can Hypebeast Magic Revive J. Crew?
Like many fashion-forward retailers, J. Crew has a reputation for being one of the most exclusive places to shop. The company’s stores are often known for their rich décor and high-end fashions. But what if it turned out that J. Crew could be a brand with a little less hype and a little more credibility?
At the recent IACC Fashion Marketing Summit, fashion marketing company Hypebeast, headed up by Jonathan Dagan, took over the IACC Hotel to explore the possibility of J. Crew reviving its brand through a more conventional marketing strategy.
Jonathan Dagan was the cofounder of Hypebeast and an associate professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology. He had previously been a chief marketing officer at Saks Fifth Avenue and a vice president of business development at Dillard’s. He was also the author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Online Shopping” and “The Idiopathic Psychosis of Dillard’s.”
During the IACC Summit, Jon showed off his own experience with J. Crew reviving its brand. He used his own experience as a point of comparison in explaining why J. Crew is unlikely to revive its brand in the fashion space.
J. Crew is very much a fashion brand, and fashion is the fastest-growing sector in general. But the luxury fashion space is extremely competitive. Even the very top-tier fashion houses are struggling to compete with the most popular clothing lines. The best-known luxury fashion house, Gucci, is experiencing declining sales and has had to slash its workforce to keep up with demand.
It’s a very different environment from the fashion house market in the mid-1990s, when there was a much smaller number of fashion brands and a very small number of stores. Today, the number of fashion brands is much bigger, and many are trying to compete.
It’s also worth noting that today’s fashion houses are owned by multi-millionaires, which is a much tighter set of controls. They are trying to maintain quality for their customers and their employees, while also attracting a wider audience.
One of the differences between today’s fashion houses and those of a decade ago is that many of today’s fashion houses have not been able to expand or acquire new fashion brands. Their goal is to maintain their existing brands. For them, it’s about sustaining what they
