Anthropologie

For a few years, Urban Outfitters was my go-to place for clothes. I thought everything there was amazingly cute, and I liked the idea that I could just put on a top and skirt from there and look current, sassy and cute. At the time, I couldn't afford most of the stuff (yes, it is way overpriced), so I just waited until the sales came around and would pick up a piece or two.

Then at some point I shifted in my age bracket. I crossed the thirty threshold and started thinking about what looked good at my age, rather than what I saw in magazines or what was visually cute. The stuff at Urban Outfitters started to look a little too try-hard, and then I moved onto the other store, also owned by Urban Outfitters, designed for women my age.

Anthropologie always smells good when you enter. It's kind of a total shopping hypnosis. The vaulted ceilings, unfinished edges in the decor, tiny spaces in which to navigate, and piles and piles of clothes. The salesgirls always look like your overdressed friend who's on the verge of fashion victim but whose closet you covet. I started buying a lot of things from this store, just about the time when my price/pain threshold was raised.

I did a little research into the company, as I wanted to know where my dollars were going. The Anthropologie store struck me, besides, as an odd duck.

Things that stuck in my craw:
* the prices are about double what I would expect, about double that of comparable brands
* the girl in the dressing room always asks for you name and writes it on the board instead of handing you a number. she tells you her name, too.
* she then talks to you through the door. very annoying, as you can only answer back sweetly, "fine! thanks!" as you're half-dressed, half-entangled in their fripperies
* lots of different clothes, but in very small numbers
* at some point the salesgirl pinpointed me as potential consumer prey and started telling me things like, "i just love that dress. so flattering!" or "I love your shirt!" all in this confiding tone. I have to admit, I was flattered until I heard the same thing about four times on separate visits. They must have had a team meeting in which they came up with these phrases.

So as it turns out, that's part of their empathetic marketing strategy which is supposed to encourage the customer to buy. "Empathetic" was the word they used in their investor profile on the website. Here...let me go look it up.

Our established ability to understand our customers and connect with them on an emotional level is the reason for our success.

The reason for this success is that our brands - Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People - are both compelling and distinct. Each brand chooses a particular customer segment, and once chosen, sets out to create sustainable points of distinction with that segment. In the retail brands we design innovative stores that resonate with the target audience; offer an eclectic mix of merchandise in which hard and soft goods are cross merchandised; and construct unique product displays that incorporate found objects into creative selling vignettes. The emphasis is on creativity. Our goal is to offer a product assortment and an environment so compelling and distinctive that the customer feels an empathetic connection to the brand and is persuaded to buy.

Anthropologie tailors its merchandise and inviting store environment to sophisticated and contemporary women aged 30 to 45. Anthropologie's target customers are, for the most part, focused on family, home and career.

urbanoutfittersinc.com/profile/index.jsp

Okay, so that was slightly disturbing when I read it. I'm not sure what they mean by "empathetic connection to the brand," but I think it has something to do with the fact that middle-aged women are lonely and insecure.

I'll have to take more field notes.