River Island: Critical & Analytical report by Bethany Mbuzia

TALK I N G PO I N T

iver Island a Brand founded by Bernard Lewis in 1948, River Island is a privately owned business kept within the Lewis family. Due to the company being a privately own business many of the company’s profits are reinvested into the company as an aim to make the brand bigger and better. River Island was rebranded in 1988 from Chelsea Girl for womenswear, and Concept Man for menswear. Since this rebranding River Island had been a fast growing and internationally known brand with over 350 stores throughout the UK and worldwide including; Sweden, Holland, the Middle East, Malta, the Philippines, South Africa, Peru and China.

RIVER ISLAND

River Island is a high street brand that offer a broad range womenswear, menswear and children’s wear at an affordable price, River Island offer new fashion piece each week online and in stored to keep customers returning. River Island is one of the few high street brand that have noticed the high demand for fashion with young men and are in progressing of creating an even split amongst the men’s and women’s wear. However although River Island aim to be a unisex brand the demographic can be identified as a female between the ages of 19- 28 and would consider themselves as fashion savvy and up to date with the current fashion trends.

IN CONVERSATION

River Island’s biggest marketing technique is the use of social media and celebrity endorsements and collaborations with new British designers. The use of social media is in a bid to create a communication with River Islands targeted demographic. River Island also use social media to give customers an insight to upcoming collaborations. The use of celebrities raises awareness for the River Island brand introducing the brand to new customers and keeps existing customers returning.

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TALK I N G PO I N T River Island was founded in 1948 by Bernard Lewis and is still to this day a privately owned company owned wholly by the Lewis family. The Lewis family is estimated to have a fortune of £920 million. As well as founding and owning River Island, the Lewis family has a trust group which also owns property and hotels in Israel and the USA. The Lewis Group is based in London with its headquarters office in Chelsea, London. Prior to the company being renamed River Island in 1988 it was called Chelsea Girl for womenswear and Concept Man for menswear. Chelsea Girl was one of the first boutique chains in the UK and was based in Chelsea due to the popular culture that came from living and being in Chelsea. Chelsea was a haven for culture, music and fashion that came from Kings Road in the 1960’s and 1970’s .The company have since been a fast growing brand with over 248 stores in the UK alone. The company has also had international success with stores all over the world including Sweden, Holland, the Middle East, Malta, the Philippines, South Africa, Peru and China. The online brand Riverisland.com is one of the most frequently visited high street brands online with 3,029 visitors a day just after the top high street online brand New Look with 4,280 visitors a day (Mintel, 2015). Riverisland.com has six websites operating in four currencies, which increases its accessibility all over the world. Riverisland.com is available for worldwide shipping and offers click and collect options for those in the UK. River Island is a high street brand aiming to achieve affordable trend-led fashion for men and women. River Island offer products for womenswear, menswear, children’s wear, accessories and footwear. River Island is one of the leading high street brands competing against stores such as Topshop, Topman and New Look. River Island’s profits are soaring due to the recent launch of children’s wear in all UK stores. River Island are activity engaging with their young target audience by launching collaborative clothing lines with celebrity endorsers such as Rihanna and British designers such as Jean- Pierre Braganza.

These are all factors which are increasing River Island’s market share and the brands sales by 10% from the previous year. River Island offer a broad range of stylish clothing for men, women and children. River Island aim to be an affordable high street brand; they also heavily base their pricing so it in line with their competitors such as Topshop, New Look and H&M, which are all highly successful high street brands. River Island have taken a new approach to enlarge the products they offer as they frequently bringing in different brands to cater for people with different styles, for those consumers that are style conscious and collaborations with celebrity’s and new British designers.

River Island is primarily known for its womenswear and accessories, however the company have recently increased the presence of its menswear’s lines in stores and online, allowing them to access both women’s and men’s market. The items in the menswear lines are more sophisticated collections with better quality fabric. River Island is actively engaging in men’s fashion to meet a growing demand for fashion for young men. River Island aim to achieve a more even split among men’s and women’s clothing within its stores and online. The River Island consumer is atypically a female between the ages of 19-28, they would consider themselves as fashion forward and stylish. They have a good basic knowledge of fashion and are aware

of the trends. The brand consumer has a standard wage with a job such as a manager or supervisor of a company, they have no children and are free of responsibilities. River Island allows this consumer to access affordable fashion-led pieces that have a designer edge at high street prices. However with River Island aiming to expand on theirs menswear, the male consumer is a man between the ages of 19- 35 who is proportionally wealthy with little responsibility on their income. River Island offer 32 menswear brands and also has a menswear collab-oration with Baartmans (Mintel, 2014) to bring in more male customers and attempt to create an even split around the men’s and women’s wear.

. In 2011, Ben Lewis, Chief of River Island reintroduced Chelsea Girl as a mini brand to feature inside River Island stores and on the River Island website. Chelsea Girl is a fashion collection which is inspired by vintage clothing bringing in fashion trends from the 1940’s to the 1970’s, which includes trends such as the mini shift dress from the 60’s, the flared leg trousers from the 70’s and pin-up styles skirts from the 40’s. This nostalgic nod to the origins of River Island also allows the store to access a growing need to unique fashion items as “vintage clothing continues to inspire fashion” (Ben Lewis 2011) River Island aim to introduce new fashion items into stores and online every week to keep customers returning to the shop or online. All clothing from river island is own labelled, excluding the new collection with commissioned designers

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TALK I N G PO I N T River Island use social media such as twitter to keep their customers up dated on what’s happening in stores and on their website riverisland.com.

River Island has over 350 stores across the world, they are a highly successful brand that not only focus on the shopping experience but bring a whole new experience with shopping with the use of blogs and social media. River Island exists within is a highly competitive marketplace with other brands such as Topshop, H&M and New Look who are not only excelling in the fashion industry but they are tapping into the beauty industry by launching their own makeup products to appeal to customers. Topshop are the biggest competitor for River Island as Topshop as aim to create a new experience for shopping with DJ’s, nail, hair and beauty salons, personal shoppers and stylists much like River Island creating store designs that are captivating and storytelling. River Island’s unique selling point is that they bring in a new celebrity endorser or a new upcoming British designer to create a

limited edition collection for each season this is something that works well with River Island and has increased sales by 12% (Mintel 2014)

River Island use social media to share news such as upcoming events, new celebrity endorsements, sneak previews of new collections. River Island also use social media to announce the start of sales and to give out promotion discount codes. “Social media is a backbone of our marketing as it’s so widely used among our 18-25 year old target demographic” (Vale, 2015) River Island also use social media as a way to communicate with their targeted demographic and to create an initial buzz buff on new collections, sales and events. River Island also use Twitter as a way to communicate with celebrity endorsers and fashion bloggers as part of their PR strategy; making all aware of upcoming projects. River Island also use Twitter ads, online portals and sponsorships on social media to increase brand awareness and create visual and captivating promotions to target new and existing customers to the River Island website in result driving more sales and revenue.

River Island’s use of celebrity endorsements has been a strategic move to create a hype and buzz round the season’s collection and it is something that customers can get excited for. The Rihanna collection launched in 2013 created such a buzz on social media from customers there was a pre order option and many of the items in the collection were sold out after a week of being launched, also the collaboration with Rihanna brought in so many sales that it led the company into further expansion (Mintel 2015). The use of different and new British designers such as Jean Pierre Braganza, Sandra Hagelstam and Katie Eary not only creates a sense of patriotic pride in British fashion but it also creates a differential in the own labelled collection at River Island in comparison with its competitors and makes it more appealing to existing and potential customers. River Island use various media platforms, including traditional mediums of television adverts; aired at prime time therefore reaching the

River Island is one of the top high street brands to focus their profits on reinvesting into the business. They heavily rely of the advertisement such as online ads, emails of new sales and new collection of clothes, they have television advertisements, bill boards, and clothing sales to attract new and existing customers River Island heavily rely of social media mainly Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to connect with then consumers, with a following of 3.3 million (twitter, 2015) they are reaching and attracting new customers all the time.

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TALK I N G PO I N T most views at one time, to multiple billboard and print advert campaigns which can be seen on sides of buses and at bus shelter in magazines. This marketing allows the company to create and maintain brand awareness. It is this mix of accessing the marketplace through traditional and new mediums that allows River Island to optimize their communication to their target audience. River Island does not offer a loyalty scheme however they do have a store card which allows the consumer to access discount events primarily focused on students and they also offer 20% student discount at multiple times during the year. River Island do many in-store advertising campaigns such as sales which can be up to 70% off and not only is that captivating for customers but they also provide bags that have 70% sale written on them so that when you are still shopping around other unaware customers will know about it. River Island also send emails to customers that have shopped with them before letting them know about any sales or new collection that are upcoming. River Island aim to achieve a shopping experience, River Island spend millions on store designs and renovate its stores regularly to create a new unique and captivating store designs that create a story telling experience and incorporate works of art to make the shopping experience more enjoyable and an experience for all (Mintel, 2015) River Island much like Topshop have introduced a new personal shopper and stylist system to appeal to all new and existing customers.

“We don’t have a demographic but we are focused on those that are young in demographic” Ben Lewis

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hall, J. (2011) ‘Ben Lewis interview: River island Chief on reviving 80s-style Chelsea Girl’, The Telegraph (March) Hall, J. (2011) ‘Chelsea Girl fashion brand to return’, The Telegraph (March) Hall, J. (2011) ‘From Chelsea Girl to concept man: History of river island’, The Telegraph (March) Mintel (2015) River Island Profits Soar 70%. Available at: http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/display/ id=749850?highlight#hit1 (Accessed: 17 November 2015). Mintel, M. (2014) Clothing Retailing - UK - River island Clothing co. Available at: http://academic.mintel.com/display/720008/?highlight (Accessed: 17 November 2015). Mintel, M. (2015) Clothing Retailing - UK - River island Clothing co. Available at: http://academic.mintel.com/display/752282/?highlight#hit1 (Accessed: 17 November 2015). Vale, A. (2015) How River Island’s Stylish Social Strategies Connect With Over 3 Million Fans. Available at: http://www. socialbro.com/case-study-interview-howriver-islands-stylish-social-strategiesconnect-with-over-3-million-fans/ (Accessed: 17 November 2015). WGSN (2015) Investments pay off for busy River Island as mobile business kidswear launch brings success. Available at: http://www.wgsn.com.lcproxy.shu. ac.uk/news/?p=1237061 (Accessed: 17 November 2015). WSGN (2015) Profits leap at River Island as Rihanna collaboration, mobile investment pay out. Available at: http://www.wgsn.com.lcproxy.shu.ac.uk/ news/?p=1237061 (Accessed: 17 November 2015).

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