The marketing value of Fashion’s Night Out; even wealthy consumers aren’t shopping or spending

Last year, I wrote a pretty lengthy post on the value of Fashion’s Night Out. In the post, I concluded that for a retailer, Fashion’s Night Out wasn’t worth participating, as the people who came out didn’t come out to shop but were there to spot celebrities and watch other people. This year, I put my ideas the test.

Instead of taking part in New York or Los Angeles, I stayed home in Orange County (recap here) and ventured to Fashion Island, an outdoor mall located in one of the three most wealthiest cities in Orange County.

I knew LA and NYC would be reflective of what happened the year before (online media, Forbes and brand professionals shared my sentiment in recent coverage); I figured that Orange County, a place where shopping comes in just behind Botox, Sprinkles cupcakes and cycling, would be the perfect environment to show see what consumers are doing. The results dismal, the wealthy kept their wallets shut.

I attended well organized events at Fluxus, Lululemon, Trina Turk, Jonathan Adler, Room Service and Nordstroms and the same thing I saw everywhere was happening – people were walking and browsing, drinking all the free alcohol and eating all the free desserts they could find

Young girls where running from store to store for free makeup, free samples, free anything, taking them and leaving. They weren’t making purchases; less than 15% of them were buying. And the retailers noticed; a few even complained amongst themselves.

I found it ironic that people were more engaged and connected to the street dancers from Step Up 3D and America’s Got Talent that Room Service brought in than with anything else going on. The dancers didn’t draw shoppers into Room Service’s store BTW.

Also, half the retailers at Fashion Island didn’t participate in the event. With the exception of Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Fluxus, Lululemon, Jonathan Adler and Max Studio, the retailers that did participate offered very small promotions or discounts. Ummm, if we’re having an international shopping event, shouldn’t there be sales, incentives or really good promotions?

As one of the few women spending money, I didn’t feel the warm fuzzies in opening my wallet. It didn’t feel like Fashion’s Night Out Orange County was well planned or executed; it almost felt like they didn’t care. The worst experience was at Anthropolgie.

First, Anthro served Ralph’s grocery cookies and Trade Joe’s iced tea (at least it was on their nice plates). Secondly, they seemed understaffed. I had to wait 30 minutes to get a pair of full-priced shoes I wanted. Anthropologie is built on environment; it’s built on aesthetics (and the price points to go with them) and this is what shoppers got? For the $200 I shelled out for one pair of shoes, I expected a bit more. Anthro could have partnered with Boutiquing.com or some cool OC retail group to liven up the place and create a great shopping experience.

The one thing that was selling, as it did last year, were the Fashion’s Night Out shirts at Trina Turk and Bloomingdales.

This morning, I tweeted out to followers, asking them about their experiences. Out of 25 responses, only ONE person said they shopped, and that could have been false. Most of the tweeters stayed home or went out to people watch.

All in all, Fashion’s Night Out, an event aimed at driving in-store retail sales fails to deliver.

Could Fashion’s Night Out Be Turned Around?

I think it can. The concept of Fashion’s Night Out is correct, promoting consumer purchases in the areas they live in. Instead of focusing on celebrities and events showing off designers and other notable figures in fashion (which people are frankly tired of), what if retailers truly tried to do some good and kept the event hyper local? I mean, hyper local as in a 1.5-2.5 mile (walkable radius) distance of their community.

What if each neighborhood could figure out what the value of a Fashion’s Night Out could mean to them them and the people in their local community .  What if these neighborhoods included other businesses?.

For instance, could the retailers in the downtown Los Angeles area, within a six block radius of the California Market Center, use a geolocation service like Foursquare and a customer discount service like Groupon, partner with local area food trucks, restaurants and other business?  Could they all create a community event (much like our monthly Art Walk) that benefits a local area non-profit (like Union Rescue Mission) or charitable cause that has a direct effect on the community on a daily basis?

Last year the AIDS fund benefited from Fashion’s Night Out. Forty percent of sales from the Fashion’s Night Out shirts went to the AIDS fund, raising $500,000  for the organization.

Can you imagine if we, as downtown LA business owners or residents, could raise $50,000 for Union Rescue Mission,  Hope Gardens or Raven + Lily?

Again, I think this was set in motion last year when local Brooklyn retailers found some interesting uses of the FNO promotion to drive longer lasting marketing and publicity of their stores.

This year in Orange County, Lululemon did a great job with True Kitchen and YogaWorks (had they donated a potion of their proceeds to a wellness non-profit, they would have gotten it 100 percent right).