“It’s a game of niches,” is almost what Al Pacino said in Any Given Sunday. Had he said exactly that, he would not be talking about football but commerce—retail, in particular. Just look at how Gap is treating its 13-year-old, $150 million purchase, otherwise known as Athleta, which is, with care and precision.
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Athleisure is a niche. Some would say a niche within a niche. And as such, brands like Athleta cannot really rely as heavily on new customer acquisition as other brands in other niches can. So, they must be as smart and aggressive as possible on that thing called “Customer Lifetime Value.”
And even an occasional, flimsy glimpse at the first fold of Google’s result page when searching for “Athleta”, shows just how much this brand is focused on its existing customers.
See the image above? See how (existing)customer-focused all these messages are? This is a brand that is serious about treating customers right.
And, of course, it goes well beyond the language it uses on Twitter.
Just earlier this summer the brand announced the debut of AthletaWell, “a digital platform offering workout content and safe spaces to discuss topics from mental health to body positivity,” as described on CNBC.
Of course, this messaging goes hand in hand with the company’s biggest endorsed celeb, gymnast Simone Biles, and the topics she is openly promoting.
And all this customer-centralism works. According to a report on CNBC, “over 50% of its sales come from loyalty members… A loyalty member spends two-times more money, on average, than a regular customer. Loyalty programs also provide retailers with important insights into customers’ habits, which can help guide future product development.”
That how smart brands look at things.
And now, mother company Gap announced Q2 net sales of $4.2 billion – up 29% versus 2020 and up 5% compared to 2019 pre-Covid, and its highest quarterly sales in more than a decade in the second quarter. “Athleta and Old Navy continued to lead the way for Gap Inc.,” said a report on BizJournals. A fantastic bottom line for anyone in the CRM Marketing realm.