Information about Zalando’s plans to become the European destination for lovers of fashion, lifestyle and culture

The Drum caught up with Anne Pascual, Zalando’s senior vice president of design, marketing and content, at a pivotal moment in the retailer’s 15-year history. In March, Zalando underwent a major business strategy update that resulted in a repositioning of the brand, redesign of its assets and packaging, improved customer experience and a change of role from a high-budget brand campaign.

“This is an important moment for Zalando,” says Pascual, relieved that her team’s hard work is finally seeing the light of day.

Quality, lifestyle and entertainment

Refreshing the strategy is based on three key pillars. The first is quality. Pascual explains that Zalando wants to “stand out for its quality credentials when it comes to the range of brands it offers, as well as its customer service.” This resulted in app updates and improvements to the brand’s sellers.

The second is to promote Zalando as a lifestyle retailer, not just a fashion retailer. It has already started doing this, offering beauty, sports and electronics. Pascual adds: “We want to continue to really connect the different parts of our customers’ lives, their passions and interests in different areas of their lifestyle.”

The final “pillar” is entertainment and inspiration. Pascual explains: “Over the last few years, consumers have completely changed their shopping behavior when it comes to seeking inspiration and discovering new products and brands.” To increase visits to its website and app, Zalando is taking advantage of this shift in consumer behavior by creating entertaining content, including videos and articles. “Zalando wants to go beyond a purely transactional role,” he adds.

What am I wearing?

After defining the business strategy, Pascual’s team then worked to repurpose the Zalando brand. It ended with “helping clients become more confident.” Her original goal was self-expression, but Pascual argues that “self-expression is a means to an end, and that end is rather a sense of well-being.”

The brand’s redefined goal of ensuring customer trust was then used to refresh the brand’s values ​​by revitalizing the color orange and making the logo bolder. A more confident brand identity, says Pascual.

The business and brand update was then carefully packaged for the consumer under the “What Should I Wear?” at Zalando. campaign launched last month. Pascual says about the poem “What Will I Wear?”: “It captures that universal truth that we all have when it comes to one question while getting dressed in the morning, because it allows for pragmatic but also strategic reflection – ‘OK, as I want meet today and how I feel.’”

The first ads to appear in the “What will I wear?” section the platform was prepared by the creative agency Wieden+Kennedy, and features, among others: actor Willem Dafoe and Danish model Brigitte Nielsen. The action of the hero’s 30-second ad takes place in a subway train filled with uniquely dressed people, and each of them asks the question in their internal monologue: “What should I wear to…”

“Zalando’s previous campaigns were showcases that looked more like a fashion brand. But now we want to tell a story that shows that we are a retailer and that gives us more space for individual stories that can go a little deeper.”

On the creative side, the team worked hard on styling to make the outfits “accessible, exciting and fun.” The action also took place on a subway train to show the diversity of characters, ages and personalities. “The metro reflects society as it is, it is not overly aspirational or superficial,” he adds. The last important part of the campaign, says Pascual, was the presentation of the Zalando app and its packaging – it was the brand’s first solution. “There is a completely different energy; the way Zalando appears is much bolder, more joyful and confident.”

The campaign will continue over the next few months, followed by holiday and spring/summer ads created using the same platform. In addition to the paid channels, Zalando activated advertising through a content section with articles and videos about each character and made all outfits available for purchase.

@zalando Actor and style icon Willem Dafoe reveals what his equally iconic characters would wear #Fall #WhatDoIWear #ZalandoAW24 #WillemDafoe ♬ original sound – Zalando

Zalando content ambitions

In 2022, Zalando acquired a majority stake in Highsnobiety with the aim of combining the media company’s cultural relevance, storytelling and fashion with Zalando’s e-commerce capabilities. “Zalando was impressed and excited by Highsnobity’s storytelling capabilities, coupled with its strong curatorial aspect and cultural relevance, and all the things we wanted to offer more of,” Pascual says of the deal.

In September 2023, this collaboration culminated in the launch of Stories on Zalando – a content hub that links to the retailer’s website and app. Weekly segments include Cover Story, Style Bible, Guest Edit, The Perfect X and Unpacked. “The stories on Zalando are actually the first example in which we show that we have the ambition to go beyond offering customers only transactional convenience.”

A recent update to the platform is talent profile pages, or as Pascual calls them, “tastemaker” profiles: people who share content and products and followers, but are not social media influencers in the traditional sense, but have cultural credibility in the Zalando sphere , these are photographers, chefs and make-up artists.

He defines the Stories audience on Zalando as “cultural consumers” for whom fashion is more than just clothing, people who see themselves as “fashion enthusiasts”. Pascual clearly states that this strategy is not about finding a new target audience. “It’s clarity about who we’re focused on and why we’re the right offering and the right destination for enthusiasts.”

For the past three years, Pascual has been working to bring together the design, marketing and content teams to build one Zalando brand. Results? “One holistic Zalando brand with different touchpoints, but with an emerging red thread in how we show up and how we are perceived.”