Frederick's of Hollywood Uses Email to Promote 'Bombshell' Fashions

Frederick's of Hollywood, founded by Frederick Mellinger in 1946 with an eye toward bringing sexy European-style lingerie to the American woman, has always been known for its innovation. Frederick's is credited with product breakthroughs: from creating the first push-up bra in the 1940s to introducing the thong panty to America in the 1980s.

It's no surprise, then, that when Frederick's decided to bring its email marketing efforts in-house, the company turned to another innovative product: Lyris ListManager.

Goals and Challenges

Frederick's had previously worked with an outsourced service that prevented the company from enjoying direct access to its email database. ListManager's native integration with Oracle was its first appeal.

The company was also looking for a solution that would support tracking of its key email marketing metrics: demand generation, conversion rates, and orders. "Integrated marketing is very important for us," explains Director of Online Marketing Jennifer Bedolla. "Our catalog business feeds our Internet business and vice versa. It is vital for Frederick's to know where our leads originate."

The Solution

Frederick's set up two mailing lists with ListManager. The "Star Club" list was created for prospects who requested the company's email newsletter. Prospects are likely to receive an offer such as free shipping or a discount with a minimum purchase to encourage them to become Frederick's customers. A second, loyalty-based list of nearly 500,000 receives special promotions reserved for current customers.

The company then used purchase history data to create segments — for example, enabling special mailings for buyers interested in non-lingerie products such as shoes and swimwear.

The Results

"Our retention email program is by far our most important and profitable marketing channel," notes Bedolla. "It is a proven marketing channel: our conversion rate now far exceeds those of other online marketing vehicles such as portal, search, affiliate, or prospect marketing."

While retention is the company's crown jewel, opt-in emails to prospects are also performing well, delivering a strong 6-9% conversion rate. And although mailings are frequent, Frederick's maintains a low unsubscribe rate. "People really want to know about our new products, especially in the fall when we release a lot of new items," says Bedolla. "They also like to take advantage of our Internet-only specials."

Currently, the company is returning to its roots, promoting a "Bombshell" line that harkens back to the glamorous lingerie fashions of the 1940s and 50s. While the fashions recall the past, Frederick's' tradition of product innovation continues, and the marketing strategy and technology the company depends on is just as cutting edge.

Future Plans

A major Web site redesign enabling smarter shopping technology has just been completed. Bedolla is now looking forward to using ListManager's Refer-a-Friend feature to help grow her prospect mailing list.

She'll also be promoting the site's new Wish List and Wedding Registry features and using the resulting findings about Frederick's customers to further improve the site and the email program. (Although you might not think of Frederick's as a traditional selection for a wedding registry, Bedolla explains that sexy lingerie is a popular choice for bridal showers!)

Bedolla is intrigued with ListManager's new Triggered Mailings feature. "Triggered Mailings will allow us to automatically send special offers to customers who had been visiting a particular page of our Web site," she says. "Frederick's is all about customer satisfaction and really understanding our customers' needs."

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