A lesson in targeting your market effectively – the Asos effect

Online fashion retailer Asos has announced that their sales figures have more than doubled in the past year. So why is Asos doing so well when all we hear from the high street is doom and gloom? The chief exec of Asos attributes their success to the continuing growth of their key target market - young people’s fashion, to an increase in international sales due to the weak pound and to the growth of the online selling as a means of retailing products.

But there must be more to it than that…

From the early days when the website started to become more popular in the public eye, I notice that Asos have vastly expanded their product range of late. Not only a place where the fashion conscious can satisfy their need to keep on top of all the latest trends any longer, Asos now sells maternity wear and beauty products, as well as a full range of men’s and kid’s wear.

Theirs is a great example of an online business which has started off in a niche market, has extended their product base to target new market sectors, whilst still maintaining a strong sense of their original brand identity. Job well done, I’d say.

As someone who regularly analyses websites from a user friendliness perspective, I would say that Asos are getting a great deal right with the site itself. They split down products into relevant and useful category filters – price, colour, product type, brand and celebrity. The site is stylish, targets its market effectively and is clear and very easy to navigate. The products themselves are displayed using great photographs, have multiple angles to look at and are often displayed using video catwalk – so you can get a really good idea of what the product looks like on.

From a search perspective, Asos seem to be covering their bases pretty well – particularly, I have noticed when it comes to keyword searches including the word “cheap”. Asos are in the first page of Google for “cheap womens jeans”, “cheap evening dresses”, “cheap day dresses” and “cheap womens clothing”.  So whether this is this a deliberate attempt to ride the economic downturn by targeting keywords associated with people looking for a bargain, or whether Asos have targeted these keywords directly as these are the search terms their core target market are using, it is working for them.

From a general marketing perspective, Asos well and truly have their fingers on the pulse. Brand awareness is very strong, and thanks to what I’m sure is an extremely hard working PR agency or department, their products regularly appear in magazine, newspaper and TV fashion items.

So why are Asos doing so well at the moment? Their site is easy to use, they have a great search presence and they have built their brand to be synonymous with great value, on trend fashion. And importantly, although they have vastly expanded their product offering and have widened their potential market, they have not lost sight of their core target market – continuing to appeal to and attract these customers through their search engine marketing campaign and the site’s ‘on target’ look and feel.