How Zeeman became a cult brand

For years, many self-respecting adolescents wouldn't even want to be found dead in a Zeeman store. I admit I walked away quickly and hid my yellow plastic bag after I bought a skirt there for carnival a few months ago. However, the textiles discounter managed to turn around their reputation and uses the recession to re-position the brand.

Since November, Zeeman has been giving away free boxershorts, which are available on their website. Customers only have to pay the shipping costs. Quickly, the hype was picked up by a large audience and the boxershorts, that came with a tag that said 'Wear it with pride!', were out of stock for months. At the Überstoere zeemanboxers group on social network Hyves, members have uploaded pictures of theirselves wearing the boxershorts, with pride indeed.

Jacques van der Bom, marketing and communication manager at Zeeman, explained that the campaign was an ironic hint at the trend of youngsters clearly showing off their underwear (such as the popular Björn Borg boxers) but that it is also an expression of their new brand identity. (source: marketingtribune)

With this campaign, Zeeman won the Positive Young Media Award 2010 this week. This is a prize for creative initiatives that set new, positive rolemodels for young people. According to the jury, Zeeman offers the youth a worthy alternative for the expensive branded boxershorts.

Now, Zeeman is also aiming at the female recessionista's while advertising during Project Catwalk on rtlgemist.nl. It appears that the company successfully made use of the current economic situation and used it for their benefit. Do you think Zeeman will be able to maintain the success once the recession (and the boxershorts buzz) is over? Let me know!

Coup de couture: bloggers vs. traditional media in fashion

Bloggers are taking over the front row at Fashion Week in London, The Times wrote on Tuesday. This phenomenon has been rising over the past few years, and is recently getting a lot of attention. Leading character in this discussion is Tavi Gevinson, a 13 (!) year old blogger who, using a simple Blogspot account just like most students in our course, made her way front row and towards fame, writing about fashion and the role it plays in her life. She and collegue Bryanboy, whom Marc Jacobs named a bag after back in 2008, have even been added to the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America). One might wonder whether they even have time to go to school anymore. 

Left: Teenage blogger extraordinaire Tavi
Right: Marc Jacobs' Bryanboy bag (photo By George Chinsee)

Meanwhile, online shopping website Racked National playfully took up the buzz and sent a five-year old girl to the New York Fashion Week to report about it. While this stunt received many indignant comments, Racked-editor Danica Lo explained it as "a tongue-in-chic (forgive the bad pun!) answer to the child-blogging-gone-wild movement happening in fashion right now", and made sure the child did not get her own seat, but sat on her lap instead.

Cécile Narinx, editor-in-chief of the Dutch fashion magazine ELLE, discussed this issue last month in De Wereld Draait Door. [in Dutch, 8:30]



What I find particularly interesting about this discussion, is the way it explores the boundaries between regular, traditional media and a more democratic, 'anyone can write' guerilla style way of publishing online. As long as each of them provide their own, unique qualities well, I think it's perfectly possible of them to co-exist.