By Jenn Szekely, President at Coley Porter Bell
Boohoo Group’s PrettyLittleThing is trying to erase its fast-fashion history. It’s scrubbed its socials to remove all past content and revealed a ‘quiet luxury’ aesthetic for its logo, website and products. Will it work?
Is the grass always greener when it comes to rebrands? Does the promise of new prospective shoppers outweigh the loss of existing ones? PrettyLittleThing’s (PLT) new branding is a reminder that rebranding to mitigate sales decline is not a simple solution. In PLT’s case, it decided it wanted the green grass of accessible luxury, a sector that is expected to grow significantly in the next few years. But – how to get there?
Over the past decade, PLT has established a reputation as a fast-fashion brand providing shoppers with low-cost, low-quality clothing. Bolstered by its fun aesthetic of bubblegum pink and unicorns, this positioning worked for many years. However, with rising competition from the likes of Shein, and regular criticism around its sustainable and ethical practices, PLT was at a crossroads. Continue with what once made it successful or take the plunge and shake it up. PLT chose the latter.
The online retailer now promises to “redefine accessible luxury for a new generation” and leave fast fashion behind. A serious pivot from its existing positioning and the reputation it has built over many years. To make this new position stick in consumers’ minds and emphasize that this is a new era for PLT, a drastic change was necessary – the bubblegum pink and unicorns had to go.
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