Thoughts
Is Sears Throwing a Rap Party or a Wrap Party?
By Nathan Rome
Sears and hip-hop music. The two have connected through one of hip-hop's biggest influencers, LL Cool J, in hopes of raising the stores’ diminishing sales and encouraging the youth of today to see Sears as the latest trend. Such a mission would seem to be close to impossible, but Isaac Mizrahi and Mossimo did it for Target so it’s possible that Cool James still has enough lady lovers to pull it off for Sears. Of course, that would require more than a lackluster marketing program.
In August, Sears sent out a release stating it was beginning its marketing push for LL's new fall 2008 collection in stores. The advertising would consist of black-and-white photography taken by industry-veteran Mark Sigel and would feature LL and his family as well as some awkwardly-placed models clearly stalking him as shown in this picture. Seriously, what's up with the glare from the Adrien Brody look-alike? The ads were placed in Cosmopolitan, CosmoGIRL!, Seventeen, Spin and Vibe magazine to help promote Sears last hope exclusive clothing line.
The artwork is well done and the photos are nice, if not a little dull. However, it all seems a bit basic. In the end, it's a black-and-white photo with some art layered over it. The artwork itself is akin to a lot of the fluid vector art we're seeing in the digital art industry lately, but there is nothing that I would say jumps out at me or makes me say, "My son or daughter would love this." In fact, it's pretty much the same thing we've seen from just about every other hip-hop influenced designer over the past five years. The infusion of speakers and turntables is a nice touch, but it, much like the models, comes off looking forced. The only part of these ads that comes off natural or something someone could relate to is the relationship between LL and his family, and even then you're not looking or thinking about the clothes, you're thinking, "Aww, that's sweet." Overall, it's a nice looking picture, and I'd be more than happy to use it as a background for my computer, but a nice picture doesn't necessarily mean an effective ad.
Luckily – and I use the term loosely – it doesn't appear that Sears had to depend solely on these ads to sell the clothing. It was able to piggyback on the fact that LL has a new CD debuting around the same time. To gain some additional exposure, appearances on MTV, VH1, Project Runway and late night talk shows had LL singing the praises of the Sears line and his new CD. Probably the most publicized appearance was on Bravo's Project Runway in which he was a special guest judge for the hip-hop designs the contestants were asked to create for his new label. Yes, you heard it right. Sears is pushing its new hip-hop line for children and young men through the Bravo network. A network specifically targeted toward gay males and women interested in fashion. Now I'm sure there's an exception or two out there, but I would guess that your average person tuning in to watch the latest designs on the runway from up-and-coming designers wouldn't necessarily look to Sears as their next big clothing destination. That's just an assumption though...
So what could they have done differently? Well, not gone with LL Cool J for starters. Don't get me wrong, I rocked the bells with the best of them, and when LL told me my mama was going to knock you out I believed him, but his music and his persona just aren't popular with the new generation. Of course, the marketing team themselves had little control over this, and they were working with what they had, so let’s look at what else they could have done differently.
First of all, infuse the ads with some color and incorporate more action. The fluid lines are nice, but the black-and-white really deters from getting a sense of movement. Hip-hop is about movement, style and fluidity. Black-and-white doesn't convey that. Also, try to have the models more engaged in an action rather than a pose. There was only one ad in which LL wasn't posing directly at the camera. When you have someone looking directly at the camera, you lose that sense of action and freedom.
Additionally, this marketing campaign doesn't seem to know who it's focused on. Is it trying to get parents to connect with LL and influence them to take their kids shopping at Sears? Is it trying to get kids to connect with LL and the trendy designs? Families? You can't really tell and the wide displacement of the ads and celebrity placement opportunities demonstrates that the marketing team probably wasn't either. Just because something has a large audience doesn't make it the best fit for your marketing objectives. When you're dealing with a large consumer product, such as a fashion line, it can be easy to get a little wide-eyed about the possibilities, but you can't let this get you carried away because it will cause you to lose sight of your goals.
E-mail the author: Nathan Rome
