Picture this: While inside a clothing store, you overhear a customer complaining to an employee. She is looking for additional sizes, but the manager replies, “I’m sorry but one size fits most. It doesn’t fit all.”
Touched upon in Eileen Li’s blog, Brandy Melville, an Italian brand, recently expanded with over 30 locations in USA and 10 stores within Canada. It’s target market is teenage girls…assuming they can fit into the retailer’s clothes.
Coining the term “Brandy Babes”, Brandy Melville is not only selling clothing but also an ideal that girls everywhere are buying into. This aesthetic is largely promoted through Instagram, where pictures of Brandy Melville models are uploaded at least once a day. With 3.0 million followers, their customers are constantly receiving exposure to the brand.
Although Brandy Melville has received lots of negative feedback, I agree with Eileen that the store should “not be attacked for it’s exclusiveness”. However, the company should consider catering towards all customers. Speaking from personal experience, employees are required to wear Brandy clothing while working. By this logic, the company only hires “skinny” girls, reinforcing the company’s image. Consequently, the store is limited in hiring and target audience. Competing stores are now producing “dupes” in a wider range of sizes, satisfying those unhappy with Brandy Melville . Inevitably, the brand’s profit margins will suffer due to narrow-minded thinking and the world will see the fall of the Brandy Babe.
Sources:
Huffington Post: An Open Letter to Brandy Melville
Smells Like Teen Spirit: Inside the Secretive World of Brandy Melville
Yahoo Finance: Hottest Teen Retailer Sells Only to “Skinny Girls”