Welcome to the October 11, 2024 issue of Cotton News, a service provided by Plains Cotton Growers Inc. for the cotton industry in the Texas High Plains and beyond.
Hale County RACE Trial Presentation
How Do We Market Cotton Product to a Digital World?
By Kara Bishop
You’re 22 years old in 2021. Everything is available through your smart phone. You’re never going to pick something up when it can be delivered. Groceries, takeout, medicine, doctor appointments, clothes — all available through the phone. Your friends are people you have never met but follow on social media. Your counselors and advisers are “influencers” with millions of followers online. Your favorite trendy items are recommended to you by these friends on social media and thanks to the digital space, you can order it straight from your social media account. You subscribe to clothing retailers online who will “style” you by sending you things you might like to try on and send back if you don’t like them. You’ve never heard of cable, opting instead to subscribe to a ton of streaming services for all your favorite shows. You work from home, grocery shop from home, visit the doctor at home, workout at home, eat at home, talk to friends at home.
But now it’s 2024. You want to get out and experience the world again. You’re tired of isolation and want to have real tangible experiences with real people again. Turns out, it’s bad for mental health and overall well-being to be stuck in the house that long. Plus, you want to wear cute outfits again and go to coffee or out to eat before going to a concert.
You’re still addicted to your phone and heavily influenced by it. However, you’re trying to break some bad habits and create better ones. You want to put the phone down some and just live in the moment. Maybe go visit your mom instead of FaceTiming her. Maybe run at the park instead of the YouTube workout you have loaded on your T.V. Maybe you want to feel something rather than numbing your mind with a screen.
Congratulations, you just became the cotton industry’s target customer.
Cotton Shoppin’
Cotton Incorporated’s campaign “The Fabric of Now” made a splash in Dallas, Texas, the last weekend in September. Partnering with the global billion-dollar online retailer, REVOLVE, they showed customers how versatile, unique and high-quality cotton clothing is. PCG was invited to attend and see the experience first-hand as well as Cotton Incorporated and The Cotton Board leadership.
The REVOLVE contract is a six-month partnership that has been consistently paying off for cotton the last six years. In the beginning, REVOLVE offered 2,100 different cotton styles. Today that number is well over 18,000.
Since REVOLVE is an online retailer, they host pop-up shops periodically so customers can try on the clothes and see them in a brick-and-mortar setting. “It allows them to see our product, but also helps us get to know our customer base,” a REVOLVE employee told me at the event.
REVOLVE’s target audience are the 18 to 24 and 25-34 age ranges. While they have primarily targeted female audiences, they have broken into the male market with the REVOLVEMan brand. They are also the pioneers of the influencer marketing strategy. For years, they’ve worked with the “Stars” of social media. These relationships allow them to market to millions of customers without any of the heavy lifting.
You’ve Been Influenced
Influencer marketing is a social media marketing approach that uses endorsements and product mentions from influencers. Influencers are generally those with a large social media presence. The REVOLVE influencers in the Dallas area were invited to an exclusive event at the pop-up shop the day before it opened to tease the event to their audiences and drum up excitement for the weekend shopping extravaganza.
Some of these influencers included the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders who posted their cotton shop experiences to their millions of followers.
Influencers are successful at building large audiences because of the authentic online experiences they offer. They allow strangers into their worlds to the point where these followers feel like real friends. If an influencer thinks her followers will love something, she recommends it. And the followers will buy the tar out of it. I’ve seen influencers recommend something and it’s sold out within minutes. Small business owners have had their lives changed by a huge influencer recommending their product.
Typically, when contracting influencers to promote a product for a company, there is payment for the posts on social media as well as commissions for sales. However, the investment is returned many times over most of the time.
It’s About the Amenities
The pop-up shop featured free iced coffee lattes to shoppers as well as free permanent jewelry, both popular with the younger crowd. The more amenities you can offer, the better the experience is — experience is key for REVOLVE’s target demographic. It’s no longer about wearing clothes in a utilitarian way. It’s about wearing clothes for the experience offered by the outfit — how does this clothing make me feel when I wear it?
Throughout the temporary store, there was brand messaging consistent with Cotton Incorporated’s “Fabric of Now” Campaign. Signage educated customers on the versatility, comfort and adventurous spirit of cotton clothing. There were little decorations that were meant to communicate mindfulness, presence, relaxation and living in the moment. The pop-up shop showed customers that there is a cotton outfit for every occasion.
Each clothing item had a tag with the seal of cotton as well as a QR code. If the temporary shop was out of your size, you could easily scan the code and buy it directly from the online cotton shop.
Everything behind Cotton Incorporated’s newest campaign is designed with intention. The contract with REVOLVE stipulates that every item in the cotton shop must hold a minimum of 90% cotton for all denim products and 60% cotton for all other items.
Most of what I saw in the store was in the 80% to 100% cotton range and, surprisingly, most of the customers coming into the shop were already wearing predominantly cotton pieces as well.
The expectations for this event were exceeded in my opinion and it was nice to see so many people from different backgrounds sharing a commonality in their love for cotton products.
Stay tuned for part two of this series. Next stop: Aeropostale.