As the back-to-school season reaches a fever pitch, some brands are pulling out all the stops to face out, even taking a page from many years past. For American Eagle, that entails bolstering its denim-centered marketing campaign with a ‘90s-inspired clothing collection influenced by past champions of fashion — a nod to Gen Z’s interest in hitting rewind.
“I believe that Gen Z likes to look back,” said Craig Brommers, CMO of American Eagle. “Some of their favorite shows are from the ‘90s and early 2000s, a few of their favorite style inspirations come from those eras.”
The retailer in late July unveiled its multi-channel back-to-school campaign, announcing with it a collaboration with Maddie and Kenzie Ziegler, a Gen Z sister duo best known for starring in the popular reality series “Dance Moms,” to craft a custom clothing collection, an assortment that the pair developed with inspiration from icons like Drew Barrymore, Kate Moss and Cindy Crawford. The dialed-in effort could signal how marketers are trying to level up during a season suffering from macro headwinds, though Brommers sees brilliant spots ahead, nodding to recent data about slowing inflation.
“It might be a choppy external environment that we’re navigating,” Brommers said. “But I believe it’s actually more optimistic right away, today, than our customer base was feeling three or six months ago.”
Still, forecasts for projected consumer spend this season have painted a dour outlook. Deloitte expects spending by families with students in kindergarten through twelfth grade to drop 10% year-over-year for a complete of $597 per child, per the company’s annual back-to-school survey, with overall spend for the season forecast to total $31.2 billion. The need for brands to market around value can be critical in the event that they want to capture the lion’s share of consumers’ modest budgets.
“It is the first time we’ve seen [that] type of a drop in a decade,” said Lupine Skelly, retail, wholesale and distribution research leader at Deloitte. “It really is telling that it’s been 18 months of inflation, parents are having to prioritize where they’re putting their money, whether that’s summer vacations or attempting to re-pad savings.”
Anticipating the slowdown
Paired with shrinking back-to-school budgets is a more fine-tuned list of things to be purchased, per Deloitte, with 34% of oldsters reporting that they plan to postpone buying non-essential school items this 12 months. Tech and apparel are expected to take the biggest hit, forecasted to be down 13% and 14% year-over-year, respectively. The decline could signal a return-to-earth for the two categories, which each saw periods of soaring sales in recent times tied to adjustments around the COVID-19 pandemic and return to in-person learning.
“There was a extremely strong alternative cycle last 12 months, and maybe this 12 months, [parents are] like ‘What can we get by with these first couple months?’ and just buy what is required,” Skelly said.
Accordingly, spending on school supplies is predicted to leap 20% year-over-year this back-to-school season, though inflation on such items has risen 23.7% over the last two years, per data cited in Deloitte’s report. It’s value noting that almost six in 10 parents reported that they might be willing to splurge on some items in pursuit of higher quality or to treat their child — clothing (57%) and tech (56%) being the two likely categories — findings that some marketers, including Old Navy, have seemingly already tried to capitalize on.
“I believe it speaks to how back-to-school has some nostalgia and family traditions involved,” Skelly said. “This idea of treating my child or allowing my child to specific themselves or slot in with their peers really got here through on the data.”
This 12 months’s spending outlook is predicted to have a variety of critical implications for advertisers, based on Aruna Natarajan, chief client officer of GroupM’s EssenceMediacom. Among them, the exec expects to see advertisers match consumers tone this season with softer, more intentional media spend.
“Advertisers are pulling back spend for the season and should prioritize what products they support,” Natarajan said in emailed comments.
Among other implications, campaign messaging will see increased verbiage around discounts and promotions, Natarajan added. Lighter consumer spend for the period may also have a “knock on effect,” the exec said, which is able to see advertisers bring forward seasonal items for holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving at an earlier date in effort to sustain momentum.
Doubling down on value
Looking to ring a bell with price-conscious parents, Amazon for its back-to-school campaign this 12 months resurfaced its “spend less” messaging used for last 12 months’s campaign, a nod to similarities in consumer behavior year-over-year as macro headwinds endure. The campaign, launched in July, is designed to be lighthearted while still addressing the conflicting realities of the season head-on, based on Jo Shoesmith, executive worldwide creative director at Amazon.
“Back-to-school promoting traditionally shows smiling kids, brilliant colours, and completely satisfied music, nevertheless it ignores what parents are really interested by: how caring for kids may be incredibly expensive, with school shopping every year being a frightening reminder of this,” Shoesmith said in emailed comments.
Key to the campaign is a tongue-in-cheek spot starring actor Randall Park, who presents the idea of spending less on back-to-school shopping as novel, later receiving support from financially astute children, including one who notes that spending less is “fiscally advantageous.” The effort, developed in-house, is airing on TV, online video, digital, and across social media throughout the summer and promotes Amazon’s quite a few deals and online back-to-school shopping guide.
Much of the tone for Amazon’s back-to-school campaign this 12 months resembles its 2022 effort, an intentional alternative supported by positive feedback from consumers last 12 months who felt the messaging helped relieve the pressures of the season, Shoesmith said. The exec also noted that, in making the spot, it was vital to align with Amazon’s underlying values.
“Candor is incredibly essential, because consumers are savvy and can ignore campaigns or messaging that don’t feel relatable or real to them,” Shoesmith said.
Approaching the season with lightheartedness has been a point of interest for a variety of retailers this season. For example, Gap in July teamed with “Recess Therapy,” an internet series popular for conducting candid interviews with children like the now-iconic “corn kid,” to ask quick-witted kids for his or her opinion on the first day of college. Similarly, Carter’s brand OshKosh B’gosh unveiled an upbeat spot, “Find Your Back To School Beat,” featuring a variety of kids busting a move in back-to-school attire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqyCxgwIbrY
As consumers concentrate on cost-cutting, other once-prioritized values have moved to the back burner. Notably, consumer interest in purchasing sustainable goods dropped to 35% this 12 months, down from 50% last 12 months, Deloitte found. During the 2022 season, parents concerned about sustainability were expected to spend 22% greater than average.
“It’s form of like when push involves shove and [with] 18 months of inflation, suddenly parents are like, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna protect my wallet and never the planet,’” Skelly said.
To find the best deals, consumers proceed to signal that shopping earlier is best, with 59% of budgets expected to have been spent by the end of the July, per Deloitte, up from 53% in 2022. Parents may also favor mass retailers (80%) and online retailers (60%), indicative of a desire for convenience.
Winning Gen Z
For American Eagle, making the most of the back-to-school season means marketing on to its goal Gen Z audience, a technique observant of the proven fact that the cohort could make independent selections, Brommers said. While less prioritized, the retailer also utilizes some below-the-line marketing efforts intended for “mom and pop,” the exec added.
“We’ve at all times found that for those who capture the hearts and minds of Gen Z, you’ll have the ability to capture the wallets of their mostly Gen X and Gen Y parents,” Brommers said.
To reach the younger cohort, a tie-up with the Ziegler sisters, each who command tens of millions of followers across social media, is supposed to transcend the “multi-hyphenate hustle” of Gen Z, Brommers said, nodding to the stars’ multiple profession advances following their run on “Dance Moms.” The two will promote their versatile clothing collection across social media, notably by posting self-shot content in an effort to speak authenticity.
“The fun thing about Threads is that we’re letting it rip — I’m not sitting here approving anything.”
Craig Brommers
CMO, American Eagle
American Eagle also will heavily utilize social media to advertise its larger back-to-school campaign, counting on Gen Z-favorite platforms like TikTok and Instagram while leveraging partnerships with tons of of content creators. The brand moreover is testing its luck on Threads, Meta’s answer to Twitter, which it activated on soon after the platform’s debut in July. Following its launch, Threads quickly amassed over 100 million users, angling it to be an element for social-focused brands like American Eagle.
“The fun thing about Threads is that we’re letting it rip — I’m not sitting here approving anything,” Brommers said. “The [social] team is basically going for it, and we appear to be rewarded by that experimentation and risk taking to date.”
Beyond social media, American Eagle for the back-to-school period has planned its largest outdoor push since the pandemic, the exec continued, with activations slated for August and September inclusive of promoting liveboards throughout New York City and a 3D billboard in Times Square. The move comes from the commentary that, despite being digitally driven, Gen Z desires to stay connected to the real world, Brommers said, especially as conversations around mental health endure.
At the top level, the retailer’s back-to-school marketing approach this 12 months sees the brand stretching itself across the various ways Gen Z wants to specific themselves, Brommers said, adding that the cohort doesn’t wish to be placed in a box. With a diversified strategy, and a shopping season the exec defines as “optimistic,” Brommers is confident that American Eagle has hit the ground running.
“Our opportunity is to attach with this customer base in a really authentic way, in something that only AE can do, be a bit disruptive on the market, and offer product that has the ability to be worn in all the different occasions Gen Z has,” Brommers said. “We feel like we’re arrange for achievement as we get into the heart of that August and September back-to-school shopping.”
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