Positioning

 

 The ASOS website creates a distinct image for this online retailer, positioning the brand in the mind of the consumer.  As an online fashion destination with a global audience, viewers are immediately directed to the site that corresponds to their current geographic location when logging on, ensuring that they are serviced with sizing and pricing specific to their region.  The aesthetic environment created by ASOS appeals to the customer visually, highlighting merchandise and images against a stark white background.  When initially logging onto the site, the consumer is met with an editorial aesthetic, as large images fill the screen with limited text.  When shopping through the actual merchandise, a simple site layout allows the products to shine, as they are highlighted by the contrasting page color.  This creates a site that is easily navigated by consumers.  Detailed product images as well as video are featured for individual products to enhance the interaction and digitalization of the site.  This creates a shopping experience tailored to the online consumer.  Extensive product offerings and unique brands make ASOS a distinctive online shopping destination for a global audience. 

Merchandise Assortment:

ASOS has successfully differentiated itself from its top competitors, both in the world of e-commerce and brick and mortar stores, by fulfilling a distinct consumer need for variety and exclusivity with their site.  As ASOS exists solely online, they are able to feature a vast selection of brands and designers from around the globe, presenting consumers with unique and diverse merchandise.  ASOS features a variety of products including men’s and women’s clothing, accessories, and footwear as well as beauty products.  Additionally, they feature a maternity, petite, and plus size colleciton.  Prices range from $5 for private label goods to upwards of $600 for designer merchandise. A diverse array of brands compose the more than 850 labels sold on ASOS, including designer labels, high street labels, and the ASOS collection.  Some of these brands include:

Brick and Mortar Comparison: 

Competing brick and mortar retailers, such as Topshop, are limited by the physical selling space in their stores.  This creates an assortment that lacks variety and diversity, limiting the consumer’s choices. The merchandise assortment at Topshop features mainly private label merchandise, with product categories including men’s and women’s apparel, footwear, accessories and makeup.  Additionally, Topshop features a small selection of branded concessions, including Office and Lloyds footwear.  Topshop has collaborated with designers throughout the industry, such as J.W. Anderson and Mary Katrantzou, to feature limited edition capsule collections for the retailer.  Prices at Topshop range from $15 for a basic jersey tee to upwards of $300 for exclusive dresses and leather products.  The Topshop website features merchandise displayed on a contrasting white background.  The site lacks interactivity, as flat images are presented for each product with limited zoom options and no video footage.  Additionally, the site features edited trends from company insiders that display the latest fashions of the season. 

ASOS  has differentiated itself from this competition by presenting consumers with options, featuring a variety of product categories, price points, and brands.  Through their customer friendly and interactive site, they have positioned themselves clearly in the mind of the consumer and, as their logo states, allowed a global audience to discover fashion online through their distinctive site.

Multichannel Marketing:

ASOS maintains a blog, a monthly magazine, and communicates with consumers through a variety of social media platforms including:

Facebook

 Twitter

Google+

Instagram

 Pinterest 

Tumblr

YouTube

The ASOS  YouTube channel features videos that contain both compelling content as well as shoppable elements, where the viewer can click on a pop-up image to purchase items featured in the video.