FCI Staff Writer Sacramento 
fciwomenswrestling.com article, weheartit.com photo
Great ideas can be rare unless you follow the Social Media where they seem to be popping up all over the electronic stage.
The idea that Female Competition International (FCI) embraces is that the extreme eroticism, MMA cage violence and Diva carnival acts will become less prominent as fully competitive women’s wrestling creatively utilizes the Social Media and partner with other inside female sports like cheer, dance and gymnastics to propel advertising revenue.
A perfect example of massive growth through the Social Media is the results of the sizzling hot retailer Brandy Melville.
The great information source bloomberg.com reports, “Brandy Melville doesn’t do any traditional advertising. Storefronts carry discreet signage. The brand’s popularity is fed almost exclusively through social media buzz. It has 2.2 million followers on its main Instagram account, 65,000 followers on Twitter (TWTR), 218,000 “likes” on Facebook (FB), and a robust board on Pinterest.
The popularity of Brandy, as it’s affectionately known, is noteworthy given the recent poor showing of other teen stores. Delia’s (DLIA) said it will file for chapter 11 bankruptcy on Dec. 5. Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) will have closed 60 stores by the end of this year, and Aéropostale (ARO) is shuttering 120 stores in the U.S. and Canada.
Brandy Melville doesn’t have those problems, and by setting trends, not chasing them, it’s winning over the coveted teen demographic.”
Part of the allure of the electronic approach is fairly obvious. Without the bricks and mortar, there is far less overhead and employees to pay for.
It’s always wonderful when you can speak for yourself.
At brandymelvilleusacom they express, “Since arriving in the US, Brandy has become a cult favorite of fashionistas everywhere. Brandy Melville’s styles range from loose fitting off-shoulder tees, to soft angora sweaters and stylish dresses and tops. Women of every age can find something at Brandy Melville to fit their style, closet, and budget. Brandy girls always have the newest looks, and you too can always look your best while standing out from the rest.[adToAppearHere]
Brandy Melville’s dresses, jewelry, and tops have made it a favorite for fashionistas everywhere. It’s the only place where stylish women of any age to find super cute looks to fit their physique, fashion, and finances!”
Okay, so Brandy has our attention. In some ways they have caught a few of us off guard with how they have stormed our shores. Part of the surprise is in the name itself since the trendy label is made by an Italian manufacturer. Weren’t we taught in school that most Italian names end in vowels?
The fashion site racked.com confirms, “Despite its all-American teen dream aesthetic, Brandy Melville was actually founded some 20 years ago in Italy by retail vet Silvio Marsan and his son Stefan; the first U.S. outpost popped up in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, just a block from the UCLA campus, in 2009. As store owner Jessy Longo told the Daily Bruin at the time, “We love this location because it reminds us a little bit of Europe, where people walk on the street.”
Longo helped bring the family-owned brand State side, and there are now 11 Brandy stores in California, six on the East Coast, and one in Hawaii, as well as a healthy e-comm business. The press-shy company (that, after initial contact, ignored repeated emails and phone calls from Racked) is notoriously tight-lipped, which means you’ve probably never read about them and definitely haven’t seen any advertisements.”
I think we are starting to get a grasp on this recent phenomenon. So who is the Brandy Girl and what does she look like?
They continue, “The Brandy Melville girl has long hair and longer legs. She’s a California cool girl, very young and very thin, in short shorts and oversized sweaters. Even if you haven’t stepped foot inside a Brandy Melville store, even if you haven’t heard of the wildly popular brand, you’ve seen Brandy girls at the beach, at the mall, and very possibly on your phone.
While some appear to be professional models prepped by agencies, many are part of Brandy Melville’s product research department, which may very well be the most brilliant part of the company’s business strategy. Brandy Melville has assembled a teen army to tell them exactly what to do.”
For those of you beautiful young ladies reading this, how many of you consider yourself a Brandy Girl?
Apparently there are plenty of you since Brandy Melville has caught the attention of the business community as well. The respected business news source businessinsider.com expresses, “The Italian clothing company Brandy Melville is the next hot brand in teen retail.
The company, which sells a wide array of tiny crop tops, high-waisted bottoms, and slouchy sweaters, didn’t exist in the US until five years ago.[adToAppearHere]
It still has a small store presence in the country — just 18 stores total — but thanks to a robust e-commerce business, it’s now ranked No. 1 among brands that teen girls in the US say they are starting to wear, according to Piper Jaffray’s most recent survey on teen spending. The company wasn’t even ranked among the top 10 up-and-coming brands in previous surveys.
Brandy Melville’s marketing is reminiscent of how Abercrombie & Fitch rose to prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Abercrombie’s advertising featured frolicking, half-naked co-eds, which upset many parents and made the brand even more attractive to their kids.
But unlike Abercrombie, Brandy Melville’s ads don’t feature any men.”
It’s important to keep things simple and Brandy seems to have figured that out. As the Brandy girls have made clear, the strategy benefits shoppers if it makes the process easy.
As a young female wrestler, this is encouraging news. The future looks bright if we team and figure out how to use the Social Media to our advantage to attract advertisers.
We’ll keep in touch.
Online of course.
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Sources: brainyquote.com, Wikipedia, fciwomenswrestling2.com, FCI Elite Competitor, photos thank you Wikimedia Commons.
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-12-11/brandy-melville-instagram-s-first-retail-success
http://www.racked.com/2014/9/24/7575693/brandy-melville
http://observer.com/2015/07/these-one-size-fits-all-clothes-are-actually-size-zeroes/
http://www.businessinsider.com/brandy-melville-is-wildly-popular-2015-3
