Customer Profile
Supreme was opened in 1994 in New York by its founder James Jebbia; “the Lafayette Street store pioneered an art-gallery-cum-storagefacility chic, with its white walls and plywood shelving” (Williams, 2012). The brand’s history underpins much of its work as it references underground style currents like “the punkiness of Dogtown-era skatewear” (Williams, 2012). Supreme maintains its exclusive image by only working with a handful of manufacturers and “maintains just 10 retail locations, with only a few wholesale partners, like the ultra-hip Dover Street Market which has outposts in London, New York, Tokyo, and Beijing.” (Chayka, no date). The brand thrives on the “continued authenticity, to the skate culture it emerged from” (Chayka, no date) and consequently, Supreme has captured the hearts of many as it builds its name as “the Chanel of downtown streetwear” (Hagwood, 2012).
Demographic The target demographic of the Supreme brand is 16-35 year old males (Williams, 2012). According to Chayka (2012) as evidenced by the “line that forms outside every Supreme store every Thursday for the weekly product drop, the brand's most committed fans are often its youngest”. The brands “core demographic hasn't strayed much from male teenage skaters” and there are currently no plans to expand into womenswear. However, the clothes themselves are actually quite unisex, “it's the community, not the clothes, that can make it harder for non-male fans to identify with the brand”.
When carrying out primary research via an interview with two avid Supreme fans and customers, results showed that the target customer would be likely to have a creative job such as graphic design or marketing. In terms of salary, due to the price of the clothes the target customer is expected to have a disposable income of around ÂŁ800 per month and have no dependants.
Psychographic When looking at the psychographics of the brand’s target customer it is clear that there is a particular lifestyle that many of Supreme’s fans share. Its core customers are “skate urchins, graffiti artists, underground filmmakers and rappers” (Williams, 2012). Therefore, the target customers have a wide range of interests, music being a key one. According to Cubeyou (no date) the typical Supreme customer mainly listens to urban and hip-hop music; the key artists include Kid Cudi, ASAP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, Wiz Khalifa and Kanye West. As a result Supreme often play music from these artists in their stores to build a closer relationship with their fans. For example, ASAP Rocky’s rap anthem “Peso” was blasted out whilst fans queued up to buy items from the latest collection (Williams, 2012).
Another major interest of the typical Supreme customer is modern art and so the brand has been involved in “skate-deck collaborations with artists like Damien Hirst and Richard Prince” (Wilson, 2012). Supreme fans are also major fashion followers and so read magazines and websites such as Highsnobiety and GRIND (Gwilliam, 2015) to keep up to date with the streetwear latest trends. Supreme “tend to gift brand editorials to niche Japanese magazines” as a result the “garment gets sanctified by the magazine and reaches it target consumer while maintaining an air of exclusivity” which is crucial to the brand’s success (Wolf, 2016).
Behaviour In terms of the behaviour of the target Supreme customer, the most prominent trait is that they are habitual and brand-loyal customers. It was clear from interviewing two Supreme fans that they tend to shop from the same brands such as Supreme, Palace, North Face, Comme de Garcon, Stussy and Stone Island. They are typically trend followers and there is an element of snobbery among fellow Supreme fans especially when it comes to knowing about the history of the brand. Supreme makes clothes for “for that New York skater, who is a picky kind of person with good taste … He may look scruffy to the outside world, but he’s very sharp in the way he dresses” (Williams, 2012).
The interviewees also said that their purchases were planned and that they would often buy multiple items in one transaction. The reason for this is partly due to the fact that Supreme creates seasonal collections, but drops the products each week. Dealeon (2016) notes that “on the first drop day of a new season, traffic to the brand’s website can spike by as much as 16,800 percent”, which demonstrates how customers plan their purchases.
Geographic Finally, Supreme’s core customer lives in urban areas in economically developed countries; “bumper stickers with its fiery-red Barbara Kruger-esque logo can be spotted in bohemian neighborhoods around the globe — Harajuku, Tokyo; Shoreditch, London; Kreuzkölln, Berlin; Greenpoint, Brooklyn” (Williams, 2012). According to Alexa.com (2017) 45% of Supreme’s online visitors are from the United States, followed by Japan at 14% and the United Kingdom at 5%.
Customer Pen Portrait
Name: Jordan Lamar Age: 22 Occupation: Graphic Design Student Home: New York Dependants: None Shops: Comme de Garcon, MKI, Palace Interests: R&B music, reading street-style blogs, skateboarding, Instagramming, going to exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art
Nightlife: Going to gigs and clubbing
References
Alexa. 2017. [Online]. [Accessed 22 March 2017]. Available from: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/supremenewyork.com
Chayka, K. No date. Supreme. [Online]. [Accessed 22 March 2017]. Available from: http://www.racked.com/a/supreme
Cubeyou. No Date. Supreme Customer Profile. [Online]. [Accessed 22 March 2017]. Available from: http://customer-profile.com/apparel-andfashion/clothing/men-s-clothing/supreme-customer-profile.html
Deleon, J. 2016. What the Fashion System Can Learn From Supreme-Style Product Drops. [Online]. [Accessed 22 March 2017]. Available from: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/intelligence/high-fashionlessons-from-streetwear-drops-supreme-palace-gosha
Gwilliam, AJ. 2015. What H&M x Balmain Learned From Supreme. [Online]. [Accessed 22 March 2017]. Available from: http://www.highsnobiety.com/2015/11/10/hm-balmain-supreme-marketingcampaign/
Hagwood, A. 2012. Inside Supreme: Anatomy of a Global Streetwear Cult — Part I. [Online]. [Accessed 22 March 2017]. Available from: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/intelligence/insidesupreme-anatomy-of-a-global-streetwear-cult-%E2%80%94-part-i
Shapiro, D. 2016. Why are today’s men so obsessed with Supreme?. [Online]. [Accessed 22 March 2017]. Available from: http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/31919/1/supremacist-davidshapiro-why-are-men-obsessed-with-supreme
Williams, A. 2012. Guerrilla Fashion: The Story of Supreme. [Online]. [Accessed 22 March 2017]. Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/fashion/guerrilla-fashion-the-storyof-supreme.html
Wolf, C. 2016. Why Supreme Doesn’t Work With Mainstream Magazines. . [Online]. [Accessed 22 March 2017]. Available from: http://uk.complex.com/style/2016/06/supreme-warp-grind-japanesemagazines
Figures 1. 1. Richardson, T. 2015. Morrissey X Supreme. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: http://www.uniforme.co.jp/meiatwork/mei-yong-blog/1894 2. 2. Richardson, T. 2012. Kate Moss X Supreme. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: https://popmotif.com/products/katemoss-supreme 3. Welch, T. 2016. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: http://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/02/19/supreme-ss16-line-up-newyork/ 4. Welch, T. 2016. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: http://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/02/19/supreme-ss16-line-up-newyork/ 5. Welch, T. 2015. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: http://static.highsnobiety.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/SupremeFall-2015-Drop-Street-Style-01.jpg 6. Welch, T. 2016. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: http://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/02/19/supreme-ss16-line-up-newyork/ 7. Welch, T. 2016. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: http://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/02/19/supreme-ss16-line-up-newyork/ 8. Shinn, T. 2015. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2015/12/kendrick-lamar-xxl-magazinewinter-2015-cover/ 9. Lendrum, A. 2013. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: https://hypebeast.com/2013/3/aap-rocky-outtakes-hypebeastmagazine-issue-4-the-archetype-issue 10.Elderkin, N. 2012. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: http://www.wonderlandmagazine.com/2012/10/emerging-nabilelderkin-interview/ 11.Pitchfork. 2015. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/796-kanye-west-is-going-to-drop-abrick-and-its-going-to-hurt/ 12.Mandella, L. 2017. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: https://www.instagram.com/gullyguyleo/ 13.Mandella, L. 2017. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: https://www.instagram.com/gullyguyleo/
14.Mandella, L. 2017. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: https://www.instagram.com/gullyguyleo/
Figures 15.Mandella, L. 2017. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: https://www.instagram.com/gullyguyleo/ 16.Gentert, G. No Date. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: http://www.racked.com/a/supreme
17.Awin, B. 2017. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: https://hypebeast.com/2017/2/supreme-2017-spring-summer-londonrelease 18.Awin, B. 2017. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: https://hypebeast.com/2017/2/supreme-2017-spring-summer-londonrelease 19.Awin, B. 2017. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: https://hypebeast.com/2017/2/supreme-2017-spring-summer-londonrelease 20.Desnudo, E. 2016. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: http://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/02/23/london-fashion-weekfall-winter-2016-street-style/ 21.Rodich, B and Hyeong Yang, J. 2016. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: http://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/03/10/supreme-paris-grand-openingline-up/#slide-2 22.Rodich, B and Hyeong Yang, J. 2016. [Online]. [Accessed 3 March 2017]. Available from: http://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/03/10/supreme-paris-grand-openingline-up/#slide-2
Molly Winter
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