Photo: WeWork
J.Crew partners with WeWork and LinkedIn to reach younger consumers/workers
In a partnership with WeWork and LinkedIn, J.Crew is hosting a panel discussion series featuring the “next generation of entrepreneurs and goal-getters,” selling items inside some WeWork locations and featuring WeWork members in an ad campaign.
The initiative marks the first collaboration with a fashion company for WeWork, the co-working space that stunned the investment community last July in when it earned a $20 billion valuation in a funding round, becoming the most valuable startup in America outside of Uber and Airbnb. Founded in 2010, WeWork has 212 locations across 66 cities serving more than 200,000 members.
The arrangement also appears to be the first such retail partnership for LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network.
As part of Style Your Success, a panel discussion series “celebrating entrepreneurs and the individuality of success” is being held at WeWork locations in New York, San Francisco, Atlanta and Philadelphia, as well as select J.Crew locations.
The first, held on February 13 at San Francisco’s WeWork Embarcadero Center, featured Cynthia Nimmo, president and CEO, Women’s Funding Network; Michelle Dalzon, founder and chief visionary, The Black-Owned Market; Amanda Holstein, founder, Advice from a 20 Something; Victoria Taylor, WeWork’s director of digital community; and Page Williams, senior marketing manager, brand and social, LinkedIn.
For LinkedIn, the panel discussions complement its new #InItTogether global campaign that celebrates its members’ career paths.
For J.Crew, the alliance includes the opening of pop-up shops inside WeWork locations in key cities. WeWork members will receive discounts. Eleven of WeWork’s members — eight men and three women — will be featured in a J.Crew catalog modeling spring styles from the brand. On J.Crew’s blog, the entrepreneurs discuss their career path, style, interests, daily routine and aspirations.
Beyond any sales, J.Crew is gaining visibility and learning how to connect with younger workers. Cam Wolf wrote for GQ, “You know, the kind who want to dress down their button-ups with a hat that says ‘Hustle.’ J.Crew is figuring out how to sell to folks who work in a way that would have baffled the company men who came before them, too.”
- J.Crew X LinkedIn X WeWork – Facebook
- J.Crew blog – J.Crew
- At J.Crew Photo Shoot, WeWork Shows Off Its Model Entrepreneurs – WeWork
- WeWork Launches in Tokyo, Welcomes 200,000th Member – WeWork
- LinkedIn, J.Crew, and WeWork Set the Stage for Success – LinkedIn
- WeWork moves into retail with new partnership with J.Crew – Glossy
- J.Crew Goes After a New Type of Workwear – GQ
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Will J.Crew’s partnership with WeWork and LinkedIn help the brand connect with and relate to Millennial workers? How do the ways younger workers dress and work make the generation more challenging for retailers?
Poll
BrainTrust
Brandon Rael
Strategy & Operations Transformation Leader
Dave Bruno
Director, Retail Market Insights, Aptos
I really think this idea has great potential for J.Crew. Partnering with WeWork and LinkedIn gives J.Crew a chance to integrate their brand directly into their target audience’s lifestyle. The pop-up shops allow for immediate monetization of the investment. And even if the pop-ups don’t perform extremely well, participating in this partnership will give J.Crew unfettered access to the audience, allowing them to capture feedback through both their wallets and their opinions. A winning proposition no matter how well sales increase through the pop-ups.
I believe an interesting question to ask is this: Will LinkedIn morph into an e-commerce platform?
I don’t see the value of LinkedIn maintaining the status quo. I believe LinkedIn should host the front end of their corporate customers who already have a presence on LinkedIn. In turn, LinkedIn can integrate Microsoft’s Azure platform to give corporations the ability to sell direct to LinkedIn members.
In the example of apparel, LinkedIn can provide an overview of the dress code at different corporations and set up a subscription service whereby associates, regardless of their age, can purchase apparel guaranteed to fit into the culture as well as meet their style preferences.
Facebook, in my opinion, has the most potential for becoming a disruptive e-commerce marketplace, retailer and platform.
WeWork has become ubiquitous in NYC and is expanding across the country and the globe, as the shared economy is on the rise. J.Crew has the opportunity to take full advantage of this partnership as an early adopter.
This is an absolute win-win scenario for both J.Crew, as they look to regain their marketplace relevance, and WeWork as they begin to express their brick-and-mortar retail ambitions. J.Crew has the opportunity to reinvent themselves, resonate with the Millennial generation and fully capitalize on the shared economy and office space proposition supported by WeWork.
For J.Crew, retail pop-ups within WeWork locations enable the brand to take a calculated risk, without the significant overhead of long-term leases. In addition, the WeWork spaces will provide J.Crew the opportunity to experiment with new assortments, styles, price points and gain new loyal followers in the form of the Millennial entrepreneurial set that populates the WeWork spaces.
As much as this is an interesting initiative, J.Crew’s problem is not with connecting per se — it lies in not being relevant and having prices which are far higher than the product can justify. So, sure, this may generate some new sales — but it’s a temporary and partial fix at best.
I see this as a brilliant move for J.Crew, more so through the relationship with WeWork than LinkedIn. Finding new ways to include brick and mortar concepts is smart. Having pop-ups in the WeWork locations along with providing a discount to WeWork members is an excellent way for J.Crew to expand their business.
As we see the store within a store concept growing, and e-commerce businesses opening stores, we now see another outstanding idea of taking the old retail brick & mortar business and reinventing it in an excellent way that will appeal to a new generation of customers. I would expect other retailers to follow with similar programs.
Smart partnership for all involved. LinkedIn is entirely designed to support career mobility and success and so aligning with that intention is a very move for J.Crew. Millennials seek some individuality and personal distinction even as they look and behave in the same ubiquitous manner as older demographics. J.Crew can position itself to fulfill this need, while LinkedIn can be the platform that inspires.
I am pretty skeptical that this will have an impact or positive ROI. The structural reasons for why J.Crew has lost its way need to be resolved (price point vs. quality, relevancy, competition from fast fashion, etc.). Some great blog content and panel discussions are not going to right the ship.
I’ve worked in a WeWork before. Interruptive marketing doesn’t really work as people rush to and from their jobs. It’s an interesting idea to integrate commerce more directly and organically into the workplace, but ultimately the customer is more intentional in their decisions on work attire and “dressing for success.”
The win here seems to be more for WeWork, which is establishing themselves as a community valuable enough to be targeted and monetized, where brands can subsidize R&D and experimentation and leverage underutilized space. The connection between WeWork and LinkedIn, as work oriented communities, has more of the untapped potential here than the retail angle.
Lastly, remember that LinkedIn has a fundamental execution problem. They have largely failed to move into the content world as a media company, despite hundreds of millions of subscribers and the most prolific authors in each industry (Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Arianna Huffington, etc.). The thought that they could execute and recommend work attire by company profile, in my mind, is well beyond their ability to execute beyond their current ad and subscription programs.
I like the idea, it’s smart, relevant and potentially fruitful. But until they fix the product “P” it’s not going to matter that much. It’s great to hear what customers want, but don’t forget the Henry Ford thing about a faster horse. J.Crew has to fix the fashion and that comes from talent first and insights second.
This presents a unique opportunity for J.Crew to both learn from and integrate themselves with their target audience. An audience with whom they have lost touch in recent years. Hopefully, this will raise awareness of the brand for them, but they will need to follow up with new designs in their merchandise to keep interest levels.
For WeWork this brings another potential benefit to members and associates them with the fashion industry. Putting pop-ups in a WeWork location will no doubt deliver some value to members on its own. So far, a win-win for both.
I find the LinkedIn connection interesting, however, as this feels like a new direction for LinkedIn to partner with them. From the information in the article, it seems LinkedIn is acting as a facilitator more than anything else to identify panelists for these discussions.
I’m sure this will benefit … someone, tho I’m not sure who, but my instant reaction is that this seems maybe a little creepy. Ss if WeWorkers are so chained to their desks that they can’t get outside and shop. Pop-up shops inside WeWork locations? Aren’t most of these locations in the middle of downtowns with a multitude of retail options nearby? This sounds like an unnecessary workplace distraction.
A step in the right direction but J.Crew has a lot of work to do besides their go to market strategy. Over the years the company seems to flux back and forth between designers leaving Millennials unsure of what they’ll find season after season.
If J.Crew can get back on track and push out high-quality designs that pass the “WoW” test than the pop-up stores and LinkedIn partnerships we’ll give them a great connecting point with their Millennial shopper base and should help spread some brand recognition.