Australian supermarket juggernaut Coles has been planning its first fashion venture ‘Mix’ for 12 months, with key representatives required to sign confidentiality agreements ahead of its launch.
As reported on www.ragtrader.com.au, the chain launched the budget range at its Burwood (Victoria) store on September 1 and will release it across 50 additional stores from October 6. Brand manager Beverley Johnson, who was appointed to the brand six months ago, said the best kept secret was a result of strong confidentiality clauses.
“It’s been in the pipeline for a year and we wanted to be the first to market with this sort of initiative in Australia,” she said.
The creative team is headed by Canadian-based powerhouse Joseph Mimran, with NY Brand Studio (New York) working on design and production and a small team in Australia liasing between the departments. Johnson said there were around 15-20 people working on the venture in New York and a similar figure locally.
“We really wanted to engage a team that had worked on this sort of venture before,” she said. “We looked at everything from history and experience and the same decision was made in sourcing suppliers. The products are made primarily in China, Bangladesh and India.”
Johnson declined to reveal how many units were being produced per style, but confirmed 120 styles in up to 10 colourways were launched as part of the debut range, with new stock dropping every two weeks. In addition to a 16-page brand catalogue, print advertising, local area marketing and point of sale initiatives, a ‘Mix’ combi van will travel around Australia on store launch weekends to promote the line. A stand-alone website was also launched on September 1.
Johnson revealed that marketing and product decisions were based on qualititative research from Coles’ consumer insights department, which conducted a study with around 30 women to identify key demographics. The core category for Mix is time-poor young mothers looking for fashionable but affordable updates to their wardrobes.
“And through that we see our competitors as Cotton On or Just Jeans, not other [value] stores like Kmart,” she said. “Kmart offers a lot of different brands, whereas Mix is designed for and exclusive to Coles. It’s branded and all of our campaign material is shot in New York to create that real lifestyle appeal.”
Johnson declined to detail the 50-store rollout but confirmed it would be skewed towards the Eastern seaboard. Assia Benmedjdoub
