Avent 1 Justina Avent Professor Sharma INFO-UB 38-001 14 November 2019 Social Media Case Study: Dressbarn Brand Definition and History Founded in 1962 Stamford, Connecticut, by Roslyn and Elliot Jaffe, Dressbarn filled a need back then for women who were entering the workforce and were looking for fashionable attire at a bargain price. It began as an earnest entrepreneurial project by Rosyln and her husband Elliot, who worked at Macy’s as a merchandising manager. They had 3 kids to take care of, so they grew their chain slowly but surely, opening a new store each year and experiencing immediate success. The third store they opened ended up being a barn (how uncanny), which was turned into a more spacious distribution center. In mid-1966, the company's holdings were incorporated as Dress Barn, Inc. Through the 70s and 80s the company saw steady growth and expansion, acquiring other chains like Off the Rax and top designer brands like Calvin Klein and Jones New York, and continuing to sell it to career-driven women at 50-80% of the cost. On May 3, 1983, Dress Barn went public, offering its stock for $23 per share. Half of the shares were sold publicly, while the other half was retained by management insiders. They didn’t suffer their first major hit until the 90s, when competing department stores began to sell their own private-label, value clothing, and casual Fridays became popularized in workplaces nationwide. As a response, the company expanded into the plus-sized women’s market, relocated their distribution center to a state-of-the-art facility in Suffren, New York, and Avent 2 launched its own store credit card. Their efforts continued in the early 2000s with their increased investment in their in-house brand, which now included shoes, petite sizes, jewelry, and casualwear, as well as their rebranded “dressbarn” name (as opposed to “Dress Barn”) to reflect a more casual image. Stakeholders hoped that these changes would appeal to the younger, trendier working woman that seemed to be on the rise, rather than the old-fashioned business professional of the 60s. Following suit, Dressbarn purchased Tween Brands (formally known as Limited Too) in 2009, the parent company of Justice. Two years later, in honor of their various holdings as a company, Dressbarn reintroduced themselves to the public as Ascena Retail Group, Inc., a Delaware corporation. Despite their holdings in the tween girl market, and their 2015 acquisition of Ann Inc. (owner of Ann Taylor and Loft), Ascena Group hasn’t had a profitable year since 2014. After a long-time coming, on May 1, 2019, David Jaffe, Roslyn and Elliot’s son and heir to their company, stepped down as Ascena’s CEO and was replaced by Ascena Brands CEO Gary Muto. Shortly following, Ascena announced a closing of their 650 Dressbarn locations. No date has been set for this closing, but some 6,000 odd employees are bracing themselves for unemployment. Dressbarn vs Topshop vs Madewell Using the social media listening tool “socialmention,” I can see that Dressbarn is extremely lackluster compared to its competitors. It yields a devastating 0% of passionate buzz, compared to 65% and 34% by Topshop and Madewell respectively. Also, more than 5 days pass on average before the next mention, which signifies their dying relevancy. Although they scored the highest for having the least amount of negative sentiment, very few people are engaging with the brand. Avent 3 For their most searched keyword it seems to be coming from the same popular Flickr post being reposted over and over, rather than unique searches. Pictured in the following order: Topshop, Madewell, Dressbarn Why Dressbarn failed Most reports on Dressbarn’s collapse points the blame towards its adopted corporation, Ascena. According to GlobalData Retail analyst Neil Saunders, "Ascena really never invested in ​ Dressbarn and let it stagnate to the point where it has become completely out of touch with the needs of modern shoppers. Even the name now feels old-fashioned and dull." Ascena defended itself by rationalizing that they wanted to focus on Ann Taylor and Lane Bryant, its more profitable brands. So, yes, to some extent Ascena probably is guilty of not doing enough to stimulate growth for Dressbarn. But I think their failure was inevitable because of the societal changes of what it means to be a working-class woman. In the 60s when the Jaffes created the Avent 4 company, women primarily held jobs as teachers or receptionists. Today, women exist in a vast amount of industries, and there’s been a cultural revolution of athleisure in the workplace, and its overall acceptance in society. More and more businesses are becoming tolerant of nontraditional appearances and accessories as well such as tattoos, piercings, colored pants and vibrant prints. There is simply a disintegrating demand for the affordable dress wear they specialize in. It was their crucial job to keep up with the times but ultimately, they were surpassed by their competitors like H&M, Zara, and Target. Social and Consumer Blind Spot Besides missing the target on a trendier, younger working woman, Dressbarn also remained outdated with its loyalty rewards programs. Their credit card does not seem to offer the consumer any benefits besides 15% off their first in-store purchase. Then they have DB Dollars and DB Perks which offers more incentives ($5 gets you 1 point, every 20 points gets you $5), but only if you shop in-store. Besides the fact that all these systems are confusing to keep track of, it’s important to note that today ecommerce trumps brick and mortar shopping by a landslide. Dressbarn is very persistent in their SMS promotional marketing and targeted emails, but most of their promotions are in-store based. This does not make for a convenient, seamless consumer experience for today’s impatient, on-the-go working woman. After browsing through their Instagram, it also stuck out to me that they lack celebrity endorsements. Their last successful one occurred in 2016 with plus size model and internet sensation Ashley Graham with their More Than a Name campaign. Dressbarn’s photos show very isolated experiences of being a woman. They take place in front of some neutral backdrop, and a woman is doing some unnatural, Avent 5 happy-go-lucky pose. In order to present their brand as a lifestyle, and not merely a clothing company, they ought to start contextualizing situations in which you could wear Dressbarn, or contextualizing the kind of woman that wears Dressbarn. Is it a soccer mom in the suburbs? A single 25-year-old living in NYC? Or is there something for everyone? None of this is communicated through their digital marketing and content production. Concluding Thoughts Dressbarn’s collapse is part of a larger retail apocalypse in which when given the choice, shoppers will always gravitate towards online. It is a very interesting time to be around to see if physical stores can make a comeback, or if this trend of their extinction will persist. One thing I will say that they can capitalize on is great customer service-- something automated services and machines have not seemed to master. Dressbarn always prized themselves on this attribute, and if they ever wish to claim a stake in the fashion world again, they will need to weaponize this secret ingredient (along with much modernization). Works Cited https://www.businessinsider.com/dressbarn-closing-all-stores-why-visit-photos-2019-5#but-wait -theres-more-are-db-perks-different-from-db-dollars-and-how-does-the-credit-card-play-into-this -11 http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/the-dress-barn-inc-history/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dressbarn-closing-650-stores-latest-retailer-to-fall/ https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/mornings-on-1/2019/03/13/dress-barn-founder-roslyn-jaf fe-on-being-a-female-trailblazer- https://people.com/style/ashley-graham-veronica-webb-dressbarn-fall-campaign/ .