Selfridges Missed the Target Audience. The Target Audience Missed the Point

In a bid to attract a younger millennial and Gen Z audience, who are known to be more eco-friendly and environmentally conscious, UK-based high-end department store, Selfridges, has announced a new shopping initiative.

The retailer plans to start offering clothing rental, recycling, and repair services to move towards sustainable shopping and circular fashion.

“The cycle of consumption has been broken by the pandemic, marking a moment of change in our customers to a more considered mindset and requiring us to set new expectations for retail,” Selfridges Group global managing director Anne Pitcher said.

“We firmly believe evolving the way we do business and supporting change in the way people shop is essential to building a more sustainable business. Selfridges has the platform to change how shopping is done wrapped up in the destinations, experiences, and inspiration customers want from us.”

And so, in a joint effort with online fashion rental platform HURR, 100 items from more than 40 fashion brands, will be on offer for up to 20 days at a time.

So far, so good. Right?

Um. Not quite. Because, while this could have been yet another successful attempt by a brand to do the “woke” thing, and perhaps gain some points with the younger demographics, it did not go as planned.

First, because it’s questionable just how effective and impactful the initiative is.

Birmingham City University lecturer in fashion business and promotion Laura Arrowsmith said, “It’s a respectable strategy to try, yet I do not feel it is necessarily enough to stamp Selfridges with a sustainable logo. Renting clothing isn’t something that’s innovative, and it’s not something Selfridges has brought to the table.”

And secondly, the target audience almost completely disregarded the green-ness of it all and instead made it the butt of many, many jokes on social media.

Here are a couple of examples from Twitter, we kept the more NSFW ones for you to lookup on your own.

On the one hand, this might use as a cautionary tale for any brand out there trying to “speak to young consumers” in a way that isn’t maybe all too natural. It’s such a tricky, gentle “art”, that could easily backfire. And in this case, the retailer never would have expected such a reaction. There’s a fine line between finding the right value or trend for the intended target audience and being a laughingstock.

But, on the other hand, there might be a different moral here. Here’s what Emily Rhodes, a Fashion Marketing and Branding Graduate and marketing professional at Accent Clothing (a designer destination for luxury fashion), commented on LinkedIn the other day:

Find the post here.

So, what is this story about? A brand missing the target, or a target audience missing the point? Probably both. It’s a classic example of how two people can look at the same glass and see completely different things. If you’re on the brand’s side, we encourage you to always keep on trying to do the right thing.