Overview
The fashion retail industry has a reputation for rewarding the trendy and dismissing the established or traditional, watch any reality show on Bravo or the CW for examples of such behaviors. Any business, however, that can enjoy longevity and sustained success has either defined and dominated a market segment by understanding and listening to its needs or embraced a culture of innovation – regardless of passing trends. Lane Bryant, the plus-sized women’s retailer, has done both.

Since the company’s humble beginnings more than 100 years ago, from single store front to mail order catalog to an online store, Lane Bryant has consistently been at the forefront of supplying the market’s needs (in this case, plus-sized women), liberating women by embracing their curves and providing real-world clothing solutions to become the dominant force in plus-sized women’s fashion.

In 2008, when Lane Bryant decided the time was right to go mobile, it looked to a dominant force to collaborate with in the world of mobile marketing, SmartReply. SmartReply was already a trusted provider of voice marketing solutions to the retailer, and had an excellent track record of running successful campaigns so the choice was an easy one for Lane Bryant.

But first things first; history in the making
Lane Bryant was founded in 1904 by Lena Bryant, a very talented and entrepreneurial dressmaker, who had an eye for unique styles that were ahead of current fashions and thinking of the time. At the turn of the 20th century, proper ladies who were pregnant were rarely, if ever, seen in public. But when one of Bryant’s pregnant customers asked her to design something “presentable but comfortable” to wear on the street, Bryant created a dress with an elasticized waistband and an accordion-pleated skirt, which was to become the very first known commercial maternity dress. Bryant’s innovation liberated the increasing number of middle-class women who wanted to break with Victorian tradition and helped the poorer pregnant women who had no choice but hide their “condition” to go to work. The maternity dress soon became the best-selling item in Bryant’s shop, and the concept of maternity wear was immediately born.

With innovation and entrepreneurship firmly ingrained in Lane Bryant’s DNA, the company significantly grew its maternity wear line and by 1917, maternity mail-order sales exceeded $1 million. Bryant’s next great innovation came in the form of ready-made clothing for the plus-size woman, which was, up until the First World War, a growing market that had been overlooked by every mass clothing manufacturer.

Lane Bryant seized the opportunity and by 1923, overall sales had reached $5 million with sales of plus-size clothing outstripping those of maternity wear. By 1950, Lane Bryant’s mail-order sales of plus-sized clothing made it the sixth largest mail-order retailer in the United States. By 1969, it had over 100 stores and combined sales of $200 million.

Back to the future
Today, Lane Bryant operates over 790 retail stores nationwide and generates close to $1 billion in sales. Throughout its history and growth, the retailer has stayed true to its culture of innovation, and so reaching its audience using the relatively new marketing medium of mobile was a progressive and natural step forward.

Lane Bryant approached SmartReply Inc., a leading voice in mobile marketing solutions to many of the nation’s top retailers, to partner, develop and implement a comprehensive and innovative mobile campaign. Through its knowledge of voice, IVR and mobile marketing strategies, the company has consistently helped clients achieve outstanding results in new media and markets, netting many industry awards. In SmartReply, Lane Bryant found an innovative partner with the experience and know-how to take Lane Bryant’s new marketing campaign to a new level – via mobile.

The Concept
In a marketplace flooded with information and marketing messages, Lane Bryant was looking for a different, yet effective way to reach consumers and to ensure that its brand was always in its customers’ consciousness.

In considering the new marketing vehicle, i.e., mobile, Lane Bryant also needed to build its express consent database through incentive based opt-in offers that were exclusive to the mobile program (and not available in other forms of media). This meant Lane Bryant customers would only receive special coupon offers via text messages which they had opted-in for. For a retailer whose industry dominance stemmed from listening to its customers, this relationship marketing element was extremely important, with new technology providing increased access to a loyal customer base and knowledge of their marketing preferences.

Some other considerations also came into play while developing the LB MSG ME! text message program. Would Lane Bryant customers be open to receiving text message communications? Would enough customers opt into the text message campaign to make it viable and successful? And finally, would a mobile program translate into sales and brand loyalty?

For some companies, the thought of testing a new marketing channel may be overwhelming, but with mobile’s impressive growth and adoption by American consumers, Lane Bryant felt confident this was the right decision. Currently, one of the fastest growing segments of mobile users in the United States is women over thirty, and more than 51% of all users who encounter a mobile advertisement respond positively in some way. With Lane Bryant’s target audience being women aged 25 to 45, a mobile marketing campaign looked to be a perfectly timed medium and an excellent opportunity to engage more customers.

Meeting business objectives
The LB MSG ME! program’s primary aim was to determine whether mobile marketing was a viable medium for Lane Bryant customers and if so, to develop a strong mobile presence for the retailer. This was to be accomplished by opening a communication channel with existing customers and developing a comprehensive express consent consumer database. The campaign needed to be executed simply, without major infrastructure investment and within a short time frame. SmartReply partnered with Lane Bryant to develop an overall campaign strategy, and was asked to handle various aspects of the project’s implementation including startup consultation, ongoing project integration, evaluation, and other value-added services in addition to the technical development of the marketing campaign.

The Implementation
In approximately five weeks, a complete solution was created for Lane Bryant, including micro-site development to facilitate express consent, an IVR opt-in channel, a short code for mobile opt-in, message creation, back-end support and database development.

LB MSG ME! was a double-opt-in program, providing a higher degree of stringency to ensure those consumers who received text messages in conjunction with the campaign were expecting and welcoming the communication. There were three specific avenues that a consumer could use to initiate the process of opting in: IVR (voice), SMS (text) and micro-site (Internet). This meant that interested users, after initially texting, calling, or registering online to receive messages, also had to respond affirmatively to the initial text message to receive the first coupon. Users responded via a leased short code provided by SmartReply, side-stepping the time-consuming provisioning process that can sometimes accompany short code usage. Lane Bryant also advertised their SMS option in their direct mail and email programs, driving more consumers to start the opt-in process to receive these promotional messages.

Msg me this!
The LB MSG ME! participants were sent bi-monthly text message offers, after the initial double opt in process, with a coupon code in the body of the text message ready for redemption at checkout, either in store or online depending on the message. These post opt-in incentives included a discount offer (either in the form of a dollar or percentage value), as well as an opt-out option - which is a standard feature included as a best practice in all of the marketing initiatives that SmartReply develops for its customers. An incentive similar to the one below appeared on the respondents’ mobile device with a text message:

LB MSG ME! 15% off ur online purchase 7/23 - 8/5/08. Enter cde XXXXXXXX at chkout. Exclus apply.
C site 4 dets. 2 opt out, rply STOPLB or call 888-479-6514.

SmartReply provided micro-site development in advance of the mobile implementation and supplied Lane Bryant with a solution for housing data collected through the mobile campaign. The micro-site design was customized to include additional and easily accessed data fields and also added Lane Bryant’s privacy, coupon and usages policies. The Interactive Voice Response (IVR) portion of the campaign also facilitated opt-ins and opt–outs, providing an additional customizable platform for Lane Bryant’s customer communication, and funneled information directly into the updated customer databases.

The results are in!
The LB MSG ME! pilot program lasted from July through October 2008, and was used to measure and determine the effectiveness of an ongoing mobile program extending through 2009.

As an ongoing program, it is premature to evaluate the LB MSG ME! in terms of revenue generated or return on investment. However, the pilot campaign’s initial launch generated a least 16,000 subscribers in the test period from July to October 2008.

“We are very pleased with the response to our mobile marketing pilot program. SmartReply’s expertise has helped us investigate a new way to effectively give our busy customers the power of choice in how she receives offers and communications from us.”- Jay Dunn, Lane Bryant’s Vice President of Marketing

Typically, the ROI for a mobile marketing campaign can be extremely competitive in comparison to “spray-and-pray” broadcast or traditional media campaigns. These campaigns also tend to have higher positive response rates and lower opt-outs. Consumers who opted-in are committed to the Lane Bryant brand, and therefore have a much higher value. Text messaging, though a relatively new yet highly effective marketing medium, has proven once again to be an incredibly efficient means of reaching a target audience and offering messages relevant to their interests and needs – like Lane Bryant’s.

In the space of several months, Lane Bryant went from being a mobile beginner to having a mobile presence that will become an integral part of the company’s overall marketing strategy. The text message pilot campaign also laid a foundation for an effective mobile marketing customer database, with the potential to generate many direct marketing initiatives in the future.
Mobile Marketing is here to stay.

From its 100 plus years of retail success, Lane Bryant knows that a business has to stay ahead of the competition and continue to innovate. SmartReply’s collaboration has helped Lane Bryant achieve these business imperatives by introducing mobile to optimize and compliment the company’s marketing mix and offering Lane Bryant customers innovative messages that address their needs and enhance their relationship with the brand.

Permission marketing strategies can be as unique as the company that implements them, as we’ve seen in the LB MSG ME! campaign. Lane Bryant’s strategy was achieved with a series of unique offers and relevant messages that enticed customers. With opt-in mobile messaging, Lane Bryant is now able to deliver messages immediately and at lower cost per touch than traditional marketing methods, triggering impulse buys and delivering great value.

As a final testament to the success of the program and partnership, Lane Bryant intends to continue working with SmartReply to increase its mobile presence through 2009.

To learn more about how mobile marketing can impact your business, visit smartreply.com or call 800.785.6769.