Officials at Chico’s want more of their customers to experience their brand and share their feelings about why they are loyal and why they are devoted advocates.
This week Chico’s launched its #HowBoldAreYou campaign, which seeks to celebrate women, their unique life experiences, and the authenticity and joy that comes with age. The campaign launch coincides with Chico’s first full season of updated product styles and silhouettes under Chico’s brand president, Diane Ellis.
After two years of research, Chico’s discovered that most of its customers don’t define themselves by age, and care deeply about expressing themselves through fashion. As a result, the #HowBoldAreYou campaign is part of an overall refresh by Chico’s brand to refine its messaging, its experience, and its products to help customers celebrate every moment of their lives with styles that encourage her to grow bolder as they grow older.
“Chico’s is telling our loyal customers that we see her, we appreciate her, and we celebrate her,” Shelagh Stoneham, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Chico’s, explained to Loyalty360. “We know she loves us for our bold colors and prints, and that she has a style that is all her own. We want her to feel, 'Yes! This is the brand I know and love!’ We want more women to experience our brand and the most amazing personal service our associates provide in the stores and online. From an engagement perspective, we’re really reaching out to her through social media and our #HowBoldAreYou hashtag. We want to encourage her to talk to us and share her experiences. We have a whole site dedicated to sparking that conversation with her at chicos.com/HowBoldAreYou.”
Stoneham said the two-year research revealed invaluable insights.
“We learned so much about our customer, who she is, and what she loves,” Stoneham said. “We learned that she is not one age, one size, or one ethnicity, but that she is many things. We tried to represent that in the campaign.”
What’s more, the listening process is vitally important to Chico’s.
“Listening to your customer does resonate,” Stoneham said. “You’re able to speak more authentically to her, and create a more emotional bond with her, if you are truly listening. From her comments on our social media pages, to the interactions she has with our store associates, the best way to make our customer happy is to hear what she is telling us. That means evolving our course of action, which we are happy to do, to give her the style and service that she wants and expects from us.”
Chico’s currently operates more than 600 boutiques and over 100 outlets across the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Chico’s FAS comprises the following brands: Chico’s, White House | Black Market, and Soma Intimates.
Chico’s officials believe the campaign can change perceptions about the brand, who its customers are, and how they embrace life.
As part of the brand refresh, Chico’s refined its product assortment based on customer feedback, focusing on original prints from Chico’s artisanal heritage, bold colors, silhouettes designed with a range of body shapes in mind, and amplifying practical solutions, like customer favorite no-iron shirts that can be washed and dried. The prints and colors will be a core feature across all marketing channels, including store windows and shopping bags, to further articulate the brand’s bold positioning.
Ellis stressed that this is “not a one-and-done campaign.”
“It means that the message of the ‘How Bold Are You?’ campaign is one we stand behind−that we celebrate women in every stage of their lives in their own unique style,” Ellis explained. “It’s not just about Spring 2018. It’s about sticking to this message this year, next year, and beyond.”