The quarterly results for retail outlets show the teen fashion market is up for grabs now, and JC Penney (JCP) is wasting no time reaching out to to young people to win their business. The company enjoyed a strong quarter with same-store sales growing by 10.8 percent, one of the top retail performers. Other usual retailers appealing to teens got clobbered for the quarter.
What Penney's is doing now is developing an online teen reality show called "Flipped." The company has chosen Saatchi and Saatchi to create the show, which can be accessed at www.jcp.com/mixitup.
"That was the idea in creating the series…why don't you mix things up and try something different?" said Matthew Atkatz, interactive creative director for Saatchi and Saatchi New York. "We know that kids are incredibly savvy and sophisticated about marketing messages today, so we were looking to reach to them in a more authentic voice. We also really wanted to communicate in the medium that kids spend the most time, which is the Internet, so melding reality TV and the Web was natural for us."
The idea behind the show is short segments with students interacting with different teen groups outside their own cliques. The reasoning is to introduce teens to the various styles at JCPenny they can mix and match to create different looks.
Clothing designers Chip and Pepper Foster are the hosts of the show.
Along with the short-form reality episodes, the site also has contests, profiles of the teens in the shows, contests, fashion tips and an online store.
The company adds that the site is more than simply trying to make some direct sales, but an attempt to brand itself to the young visitors.
Penny's hasn't abandoned traditional media by any means, as they promote the site on TV and with print ads. But in the young demo, they are definitely continuing to look at the Internet as the key way to reach this fickle demographic.
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