Old Navy Goes Old School for Back to School

Retailers. They're everywhere, and that becomes glaringly apparent around seasons like back-to-school when a myriad of companies are vying for your business. So what's it take to get them noticed? Great advertising to reinforce the great deals they're offering. 

This season, we've noticed a couple of stores gearing up for back-to-school (which really is a shopping season that extends well beyond the years of primary and even secondary education) with a bang. 

J. Crew, for example, is heavily engaging in advertising right now and wanting to reconnect with its base audience. While they're not purely targeting the back-to-schoolers, they are targeting another concentrated market: the "jcrewaholics," or their most loyal shoppers. Their latest tagline, "We know you are out there," speaks right to the "jcrewaholic." What this shows is not that they're resting on their laurels by advertising to those that already shop with them, but that they're reinforcing brand confidence and recognizing who their shoppers really are. Instead of spending the money it takes to advertise to and obtain new shoppers (which is undoubtedly on their to-do list also), they're spending the money it takes to advertise and communicate with their already-loyal customers. They're creating and reinforcing an identity through their ads.

On another advertising front, and a slightly more playful one at that, Old Navy is waxing nostalgia with their new commercials. Who are their shoppers? Well, it's the back-to-school season so it's safe to say a lot of mothers will be perusing their selections. But who are their moms? Well, it's 2012 so a lot of their mom shoppers grew up in the 90s watching the television show 90210. And that's exactly who's staring in their newest ads -- the stars of the hit television show. Talk about a throwback! 

But the most interesting part of these commercials is not the tingly, fuzzy reminder of youth or remembering your wardrobe in the summer of '92 (I still have some of those flannels in my closet), but how obviously their ads are targeting such a specific audience. Unless you watched 90210, you'll have no idea what the commercials are about (short of the basic selling of Old Navy apparel). But the storyline of the commercials caters to such an age-specific group that most likely followed the (almost cultish) show that it's either borderline brilliant or borderline insane. Ok, insane might be a stretch. You decide.