Group project assignment paper MKT due 30

Target Mossimo

Table of Contents

Why Target Mossimo? ............................................................................................. 2

History of Target Mossimo ..................................................................................... 2

Chapter 6 - The American Society: Families & Households ............................... 4

Family Decision Making .............................................................................. 4

Marketing to Children (teens/young adults) ............................................ 5

Chapter 8 - Perception ........................................................................................... 6

Marketing/Retail Strategy ........................................................................... 6

Brand Name & Logo Development ........................................................... 7

Media Strategy Advertisements ................................................................ 7

Chapter 9 - Learning, Memory, Product Positioning .......................................... 8

Learning & Memory Retrieval .................................................................... 8

Chapter 12 - Self-Concept and Lifestyle ............................................................... 9

Independent Self-Concept .......................................................................... 9

Extended Self and Brand Engagement ................................................... 11

Nature of Lifestyle ….................................................................................. 12

Why Mossimo?

The brand we chose to research was Mossimo Supply Company (Mossimo), which is a clothing brand sold at Target stores. The brand falls under Target’s Apparel and Accessories category, which represented 20% of the company’s sales in 2016 (Financial Highlights, 2017). Our group chose Mossimo because, as one of Target’s private label brands, it is a name that we were are all familiar with and that the majority of us had purchased. We thought it would be interesting to study a brand sold at Target because the company is so ubiquitous. According to a 2017 study done by consumer research group NPD, 84% of U.S. consumers made a purchase at Target at least once in 2016 (Where Consumers Spent in 2016, 2017).

The History of Mossimo:

Mossimo Supply Co. is a clothing company currently owned by Iconix Brand Group. The company was founded in 1987 by Southern California Native, Mossimo Giannulli. His vision was to create a lifestyle brand that epitomized the laid-back surfer culture he had grown up with. In 1987 Giannulli dropped out of the University of Southern California and started the company out of his garage with the help of a $100,000 loan from his father. Through marketing to local surf shops Giannulli made $1 million his first year in business (FMD, 2018).

Following this success, Giannulli made the decision to expand his clothing line in 1991 to include knits, sweaters, and sweatshirts and to market his brand to larger stores as well as in small surf shops (Banks, 2015). In 1995 he further expanded the line to include both men’s and women’s apparel, including tailored suits (FMD). By 1996 the Company had over 300 employees and went public with and IPO. At the time of the offering, Giannulli was 32 years old and was noted as the youngest chairman of a company on the New York Stock Exchange (Banks). His unbridled success however, was short lived and in 1998 the company’s stock had fallen from a high of around $50 to just $4.75, and lost over $18 million. According to a 1998 article published by the LA Times, the decline was caused in part by Giannulli’s rapid transition from casual sportswear high-end, designer pieces, a 180° that left customers confused as to the brand’s aesthetic (Stanton, 1998). This spurred Giannulli to make a deal in March of 2000 with Target Stores for $28.7 million giving the chain exclusive rights to sell the Mossimo brand (Banks).

This agreement was the first of its kind for Target and brought the retailer’s clothing selections into the sight of frugal fashionistas. The partnership allowed Giannulli to design in a range of product categories without sacrificing the feel of his brand, while at the same time taking advantage of the far-reaching marketing and distribution capabilities of the Target empire (FMD). The Mossimo/Target deal set the precedent for Target’s design partnerships that continue to this day, most recently with lines by Victoria Beckham and Hunter.

In November of 2006, Mossimo was acquired by Iconix Brand Group, a brand management company that licenses brands to retailers. The deal was valued at $135 million. Although the deal led to Giannulli giving up his majority share of the company (in exchange for an estimated $88 million), it also made provisions for him to join Iconix as the creative director for the Mossimo brand. At the time of the sale, Target announced it would continue to work with the brand (Colker, 2006).

Target’s relationship with the Mossimo clothing line continues to this day although not in the same capacity it once did. When the partnership was first struck, the Mossimo line was a real draw to fashion savvy consumers. Now, Mossimo clothing is thought of as just another one of Target’s house brands and doesn’t have quite the same draw that newer designer collaborations have. In the Summer of 2017 Target announced a slew of new brands in its home and apparel categories. These new exclusive brands bumped some of the long-time house lines off the market, including the clothing line Merona and Mossimo’s men’s line (Cohn, 2017). That aside, Mossimo’s women’s and accessories lines continue to remain a Target staple.

Chapter 6: The American Society: Families & Households

Family Decision Making:

Purchasing decisions made within families are determined either directly or indirectly by two or more family members. Although, family decision making is a bit more complex than just two or more members compromising to make a decision to most benefit their family. There are many individual roles that play in the family decision making process; the initiators, information gatherers, influencers, decision makers, purchasers, and users.

The initiators of a product will often be a who the target market is, for families marketers will aim their products towards children and teenagers. Mossimo’s brand is most initiated to the families by the children and teenagers because they are influenced by what their friends have and what they see in school and on tv. The information gatherers are the the ones who seeks a particular good, they can change depending on the step of the consumer process. Typically, the parents are the information gatherers in the process because they want to know what the product is and if it is necessary to purchase. Influencers are typically the ones who will decide if the product will be purchased or not. They present alternatives to the initiators, and then make a final decision to make the purchase or not. The decision makers are the ones who make the final decision that the purchase is necessary; again, in the family decision making process, this could be more than one person, teenagers or the parents. The purchaser, even though similar to the decision maker, they are the one(s) who complete the actual transaction. For example this could be the husband of a family, while the wife was the decision maker. Then, following the purchase of the good/service, the users are the members who use the product. More often than not, the initiator(s) are the ones who also become the users, like the kids and teenagers.

Marketing Strategy & Family Decision Making:

The family decision making process plays an important part in determining the purchase roles for a family. The characteristics of a purchasing decision are largely dependent on the culture and subculture of the family; factors like education and income level have a large influence on the family decision making process. Families shopping the Mossimo clothing brand typically are in the middle income or higher level, so these families’ decision making is less determined by income levels than families who might shop at Walmart and have a lower income level.

Marketing to Children:

Marketing to children is one of the most beneficial tactics that marketers use to get consumers to buy their product because they know that children don’t have the buyers’ ability to process information, but children are some of the biggest initiators for a family. Marketing to children and teenagers is beneficial for Mossimo because they are the most likely consumers who will wear their clothing. They also know that it will create incentives for teenagers to initiate the topic among their parents. This also benefit Mossimo because it allows their products to be angled towards the older children and teenagers, those who have the ability to funny understand the advertisements and products.

Chapter 8: Perception

Information Processing is a series of activities by which stimuli are perceived, then transformed into information, and then stored. Within information processing are four major stages that eventually lead to purchase and consumption decisions which are: exposure, attention, interpretation, and memory. Exposure occurs when a customer becomes aware of or comes in range of an ad such as a banner or commercial. Atten is when the stimulus, such as an ad, is seen or heard. It is then interpreted by the person, is assigned meaning or understanding by the person. Then lastly memory is the short-term use of the meaning for immediate decision making or the longer-term retention of the meaning. This could be active problem solving, or stored experiences, feelings, or values towards the ad.

One major point about Mossimo brand clothing is that it’s rarely advertised and promoted, which means that the brand itself won't get much exposure with customers. Part of the reason for this is by not spending a lot of money on marketing, Target is able to save money and increase profit margins on their products. This helps the Mossimo brand stay inexpensive, which is a major aspect for not only Mossimo but Target in general. There are however banners and ads within the store that often show the latest styles, trends, and lifestyles in addition to the low prices. This is the exposure that the Mossimo brand mostly gets. Then there’s the factor of attention, if you walk through Target you’ll see large banners for their clothing. These ads are usually large, and colorful, in addition to advertising any sales or low prices. In addition to the prices, a lot of the banners are positioned on top of product shelves that are very close or next to the main aisles. This allows for much more exposure as the ads are more intrusive and forced into the senses of customers. It’s then up to the customers to view the ads, then to interpret them in their own meaning and understanding. An affective interpretation for this plan would be when a passing by customer sees one of the banners displaying sales or low prices. This would quickly trigger a positive emotional response from the person due to the prices. Of course not everyone responds to these brands and types of advertisements the same. Many people associate or interpret low price products with poor quality. However many of those who already shop at Target are there because they’re shopping for lower priced items. This is something that Target has based its entire business model on by offering low prices, but better quality and better experience than shopping at say WalMart. Lastly the customers hold this information within their memory. If it's their first time on the spot being exposed to the ads, they’ll have to make a short term decision to decide to buy some of the clothes. If they do purchase some of the clothes and are happy with the product, its up to their long term memory ie stored experiences, feelings, and so on to lead them into the final decision of purchase and consumption.

Chapter 9: Learning, Memory, & Product Positioning

Learning, Memory, & Retrieval

Learning information is beneficial to a company’s advertisement because it makes it more likely that a consumer will retrieve the key information for strength of learning. The six factors that really help emphasize strength of learning is: importance, message involvement, mood, reinforcement, repetition, and dual coding. The importance of a product to a customer refers to the value of the item to the customer; for Mossimo, it would be importance of stylish clothing for the teenagers, kids, and young adults. Message involvement sometimes means the customer is not motivated to learn the material of the advertisements, but they pick up on the message being given. Consumers also tend to relate to advertisements a lot based off of their mood. When Mossimo shows that their clothes make people feel happy and confident, that puts their customers in a great mood, thus making them want to purchase their products. In this instance, the parents notice Mossimo clothes will make their kids happy and confident. Reinforcement is the increase of the likelihood of a response. For example, a teenager sees that a new Target will be built closer to her house, then she wants to go to is to see the Mossimo brand. Repetition is when something is repeated so the customer will remember the information needed for the product. For example, the consumer will repeat the phone number on a billboard until they can stop and write it down. Dual coding is when consumers store information in different ways; for Mossimo consumers, they dual code the same summer sundress shown in a two separate commercials, one taking place on the beach, and one on a date. This is stored in two seperate ways, as the sun dress can be worn at the beach or on a summer night date.

Consumers could have a difficult time retrieving information similar to other already stored information, causing them to have memory interference. Mossimo is often confused with Target because they are partnered together. Luckily, that works out in the favor of both Target and Mossimo because they would increase business for each other.

Chapter 12: Self-Concept and Lifestyle

Independent Self-Concept:

In order to understand what independent self-concept is, one must backtrack to ensure understanding of self-concept as its genesis. The consumer behavior text defines self-concept as, “the totality of the individual’s thoughts and feelings having reference to himself or herself as an object” (420). In more simple terms, it is how we as individuals think about ourselves, and the attitude that we hold about ourselves. This broad idea can be further divided into four parts: actual self-concept, ideal self-concept, private self-concept, and social self-concept. To put those into layman's terms they can be thought of as: how we actually are, how we would like to be, how we would like to think of ourselves, and how others think of us. This idea is then built upon to reflect cultural values. For those of us in western cultures the most prevalent form of self-concept is Independent. Independent self-concept places importance on personal goals, characteristics, achievements, and desires. People who have a deeply rooted sense of independent self-concept derive their worth from what they have done and what they have.

The concept of a lifestyle brand in general fits well into the definition of the independent self-concept. The brand that Mossimo Giannulli first introduced in the late 1980’s promoted the laid back, beachy, surfer mentality that is inexorably linked with Southern California. The brand capitalized on the current popular culture to cement the idea that cool and popular were dependent on looking like a native Southern Californian. In this case, the independent self-concept that was promoted was based on looking like one spent their days in the sun, laying on the beach or surfing (speaking to the ‘what they have done’ aspect of the concept), and dressing in such a way as to make that believable (the ‘what they have’ aspect). With this in mind it is no wonder that Mossimo’s early success was so extreme and why the brand has experienced continued popularity as a Target house brand as it has managed to be the vehicle to bring Southern California Chic to the American masses.

Extended Self and Brand Engagement

The notion of the extended self builds upon that of the various forms of self-concept. This is the idea that people place great weight on the meaning that they associate with some products and possessions, and indeed even define themselves by those possessions (421). The notion of the extended self takes self-concept one step further by linking person and the possession, meaning that without said possession the person would have a different identity. This concept goes hand in hand with that of brand engagement, which is the idea that a brand that an individual is very loyal to or has a great interest in becomes an important part of his or her self-concept.

The nature of the extended self is relevant to the story of the Mossimo brand not only in its promotion of the Southern California aesthetic, but is also shown through the story of the brand itself. When it was first starting out and staying true to its roots it was wildly successful. However, as it continued to grow and branch out into higher end pieces and retailers the consumers who were once loyal to the clothing line felt lost and abandoned by the brand. The company’s decline speaks to the fact that Mossimo was no longer engaging its loyalists but hadn’t yet managed to capture the extended selves of the new market it was seeking.

Pairing with Target brought Mossimo to a whole new set of consumers who otherwise might not have had access to the brand. With the backing of the super store not only could Mossimo afford to stay true to its beachy roots, it could also expand into new product categories in such a way that would keep the items accessible to the general public. The partnership also served to attract a whole new set of consumers who were first and foremost loyal to the Target brand, and as a result soon became brand loyal to the Mossimo brand as well. Although the nature of Mossimo’s current consumer may be very different from that of the original purchasers, their engagement is arguably more heavily felt as the consumer is more apt to be able to visualize ownership of a product that is easily accessible in his or her local Target.

Nature of Lifestyle:

Although it is not always obvious to consumers, the nature of his or her lifestyle plays an integral part in their purchase decisions. Lifestyle is, in a very broad sense, “how a person lives” (427). One’s lifestyle is determined by an assortment of demographic characteristics such as culture, social class, personality, emotions, and values; as well as one’s activities, interests, and attitudes. Together, these factors influence what, where, and how consumers purchase and consume goods.

Before it was a Target brand, the lifestyle of Mossimo’s original consumers was one of a laid back, casual, young person. As the brand grew and Giannulli’s designs became more sophisticated, he began to attract consumers from different social classes who were purchasing his clothing not just as casual everyday wear, but as high-end designer pieces. Had he been able to capture enough of these customers, the brand may have been more successful in department stores. As it is though, once the brand became a staple in Target stores Mossimo has been able to capture not only the same casual-cool consumers the brand attracted in the first place, but also consumers who are looking for well-made, classic pieces without breaking the bank. In addition, the line has attracted the Target loyalists who are consumers looking for the convenience of one stop shopping without having to sacrifice their budget or fashion sense. This trifecta of consumers has cemented Mossimo’s place as an anchoring brand for Target stores and as a household name for much of America.

Appendix A: Target’s Financial Highlights

Works Cited

Banks, A. (2015, July 20). How Mossimo Went from Being Head-to-Head with Stussy