Amazon makes fashion push with promo campaign

Thursday, September 7, 2017 - 08:57 by Graham Miller

It may be best known for selling thousands of products made by other companies via safe shopping online, but Amazon’s attempts to launch own-brand ranges continue apace this month with the announcement of its first ever series of fashion ads.

Marketing Week reports that a number of European countries, including the UK, will be targeted by the ads, which will be widely broadcast online as well as via billboards outside of the digital realm.

The fashion range, named ‘Find’, is aptly named as it seeks to appeal to people who want to sniff out their own styles rather than being given a limited range of options. This certainly fits in with Amazon’s broader e-commerce ethos, although it could also be seen as a promotional ploy which imprints the concept of individualism where it is not really present.

Find was first unleashed in the spring of 2017 but did not receive major coverage because Amazon deliberately chose to carry out the rollout in a low profile way, before building up to this campaign which it has launched almost six months later.

This is all part of Amazon chief exec, Jeff Bezos’ plans, to enable his company to penetrate markets from which it has previously been excluded; namely fashion and groceries.

The former is being handled by the Find range and associated ad campaign, while the latter is set to be achieved following the acquisition of Whole Foods which sent analysts into a tizzy in June this year.

Experts do not expect that high street fashion chains will be challenged immediately by the launch of Find, but Amazon tends to play the long game when it comes to safe shopping online and so any decisions it makes could have a knock on effect that will not be felt for years.