J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and men's magazine Esquire have joined forces to launch Cladmen.com, an e-commerce site geared toward fashionable men who need style guidance when shopping for clothes.
Following a year of market research, Penney's Growth Brand Division determined the area of opportunity to grow revenue online was in men's apparel, says Cladmen's vice president of marketing, Amber Benson.
"The Growth Brand Division was looking for an opportunity to leverage Penney's knowledge of retailing and e-commerce infrastructure, and they saw a unique need in the market," Benson says.
Aimed at men ages 25 to 54, Cladmen sells apparel, accessories and grooming tools; the retailer says the average price of items on the site is $185. The retailer is collaborating with Esquire on the venture to deliver what it calls editorial commerce. Shoppers on Cladmen.com, which launched last week, will see Esquire Picks throughout the site, as well as a Damn Good Advice section where Esquire editors include instructional articles such as How To Tie a Bowtie.
Each outfit is built with items from several brands and shoppers can purchase each item separately or buy the whole outfit at once. Some issues of Esquire will include a 16-page Clad Report in which editors comment on outfits pulled from Cladmen merchandise. J.C. Penney is following in the lead of such retailers as Macy's Inc., Target Corp. and Gilt Groupe in combining editorial content with online retailing.
The campaign included social media marketing, the Clad report printed in September and November issues of Esquire, print ads in the magazine and on Esquire.com, and an interactive iPad advertisement within Esquire's iPad app.
When the site launched last week, Benson says, Cladmen sent an e-mail to those consumers who signed up and got a warm response. The retailer has mounted an online marketing campaign that includes paid search, feeds to comparison shopping engines and banner display ads. The retailer also plans to roll out a mobile-enhanced site early next year.
Fluid Inc. contributed to designing the site and imc2 LLC developed Cladmen's "Own It" digital marketing campaign.
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