Pitti Bimbo SS 2014: Marketing the Parents, Targeting the Kids.

As mentioned in my previous post “Monkey Sees, Monkey Does”, kid’s market is growing and brands are eagerly working to take the biggest piece of the pie. But as much as it is a tempting business, it is definitely not an easy one. Kids are very demanding and they are making their own choices.What mom wants is not always what the kid wants; from a marketing perspective it is also a puzzle: who should we target, the kid or the parents? What was seeing during the last Pitti Bimbo Show featured a good product direction to answer this question.

Big themes at the show as we decided to call them: Vintage Comics, Retro St. Tropez, and Nostalgic Chic. What’s in common on this? Of course retro! The biggest part of the Bimbo assortment was retro! Such a clever way to attract the parents with emotional nostalgia and to the kids with a “cool” factor... because, all the elements that can awake our early childhood memories are... sadly... old enough to be cool again to the eyes of our kids.

Vintage Comics – remember when fighting with your brothers for the Sunday’s comics in the newspaper just to see the latest Dick Tracy strip? That adrenaline rush is exactly what Young Versace and Kids John Galliano are offering for Spring Summer 2014. The trend is evolving from Fall 2013 and is just getting stronger with muted neutrals contrasting with saturated primary colors. Silhouettes are updated to be comfortable and cool, with retro color tone-on-tone jackets paired with jogging pants and vintage-looking tees featuring the cartoons of the golden times. [more at http://www.johngalliano.com]

Retro St. Tropez is an evolution of the Nautical Theme always present for Spring Summer. This time refreshed with nostalgia... Color palette is predominantly white and blue stripes with a vintage feel... forget about the bright blue for kids, Bimbo kids are sophisticated. The playful component comes with prints, 3d embellishments and accessories!Vintage tropical prints and marine white-on-white linen dresses with Cluny lace and eyelet are also part of this group. Silhouettes: dresses are very important for this season, bloomers and chemises are also included in this trend [suggested brand http://www.piccolaludo.it]

Nostalgic Chic: 50’s is back in simple and comfortable but totally girly silhouettes. Breathable fibers for the season woven or knitted in traditional gingham, eyelet and pointelle are the direction for this group. The color palette is playful with a primary color palette on dusty hues for the true stylish and retro look. [suggested brand http://www.caramel-shop.co.uk]

In conclusion the Pitti Bimbo assortment was playing with a nostalgic factor for the parents (or in this case for the buyers) but, tailoring the products in order to attract the kids, linking both ends of the kid’s marketing “problema”.

"Pitti Bimbo Spring Summer 2014 captures the essence of the retro nostalgia taking us into a flash back to our early years but bringing us back to 2013 with updated cool collections for today’s kids." 

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Roger ARTiga.