NATIONAL: Many leading fashion businesses have upped their outlay on advertising over the last year, suggesting a bid to attract the consumer dollar in tough times.
According to recently released data from market researcher The Nielsen Company, clothing and footwear brands' total estimated advertising expenditure in main media (excluding catalogues, cooperative advertising, direct mail, promotions, suburbans and internet activity) for the period from January to November 2008 was $91.7 million.
This marked a 4.9 per cent increase from the previous corresponding period, when the overall spend totalled $87.4 million.
Leading the top 25 fashion advertisers from January to November 2008 was mid-market casualwear brand Rivers, which upped its spend to $7.5 million from $4.9 million in the previous corresponding period, while footwear specialist Athlete's Foot came in second, upping its spend to $4.1 million from $3.8 million.
In third place, discount department store Target had boosted its spend from $2.5 million in the 2007 period to $3.3 million in the 2008 period.
Not all brands flashed the cash however. While leading fashion house Just Group showed some labels boosting their outlay - Jacqui E's rose to $1.0 million in the 2008 period from $0.2 million in 2007 while Dotti's rose to $0.8 million from $0.4 million - others tightened the purse strings. Just Jeans' spend dropped from $2.8 million to $1.5 million and Portmans' from $1.5 million to $1.1 million. Department store David Jones' spend remained the same at $1.5 million.
Other brands whose budgets had dropped included discount department store Kmart - which spent $1.0 million in the 2008 period compared to $1.2 million in 2007, and womenswear specialist Cue Design, which spent $0.7 million compared to $0.9 million in the same comparative period.
Nielsen's figures confirmed department store Myer also dropped its spend to $3.0 million in the 2008 period from $3.6 million in 2007. This was in stark contrast to the retailer's recently unveiled marketing blitz - dubbed Project Bullseye - which promises to double its previously planned spend for the three months from February 2009.
Announcing the initiative on February 2, Myer also confirmed it had clinched reduced ad rates with several leading media companies, and had persuaded 165 suppliers to underwrite half the cost of its campaigns, in exchange for committing to tens of millions of dollars of extra stock.