SKIMS & Their Marketing: How They’re Breaking The Internet (in the best way possible)

As told on the official SKIMS Instagram, the immensely successful brand by Kim Kardashian is a “solutions-oriented brand creating the next generation of underwear, loungewear and shape wear.” After being founded in 2018, a year after her makeup company KKW Beauty was founded in 2017, SKIMS is an estimated $1.6 billion dollars in terms of net worth and by the day, they are growing! Thanks to the amazing feedback by her audience, followers, and fans, Kardashian was landed on Forbes’ World’s Billionaires List.

The continuous achievements obtained by Kardashian are not just because of how well fitting and inclusive the products are, but because of their marketing techniques, the models they have wearing SKIMS, and how every new drop for a collection leaves people waiting with excitement for more. I’ve broken down everything there is to know about SKIMS including their initial launch, how social media is a huge impact on them and what’s going to come in the future.

Disclaimer: No photos within this blog post are mine.

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The Launch of SKIMS

Kim Kardashian officially announced the launch of her brand in 2019 and that it would be called SKIMS. This would be set to release on September 10th and according to Evening Standard, she made $2 million dollars of her first SKIMS products within minutes! It is said to also be a breaking record in the most amount of shapewear sales ever being made in a single day. As she continued to release new collections, new items, and bring on more for her audience, the attention of Kardashian’s brand was now reaching stores such as Nordstrom and Selfridges. On February 3rd, 2020 she had Nordstrom become their first retail partner. According to Yahoo Finance, Kim says,

“It was a natural choice to bring SKIMS to Nordstrom as our first retail partner. It was essential to me that we launch with the full range of sizes and shades that SKIMS has to offer, which is a value shared by Nordstrom.”
source: yahoo!finance as spoken by kim kardashian

When the first release of SKIMS came out and everyone was looking to get their hands on any item they could get, some of the availability included undergarments from briefs and bras, to loungewear such as leggings. Now, the brand currently carries underwear ranging from thongs, to boxers, and boy shorts. Even loungewear such as pajamas, robes, build your own cotton or cozy set, shapewear bodysuits, waist trainers, maternity shapewear, and more. Collections that they currently have right now as well range with materials from teddy, to summer mesh, jelly sheer, velour, and essentials collections with cotton, boyfriend, contour bonded, seamless sculpt, soft lounge, and much much more that is perfect for everyone to find something they would like.

The Faces of SKIMS

With Kim Kardashian having the status and connections that she does, it’s no doubt that she can get possibly anyone to model for her brand and it is always exciting to see who is going to be next. The internet went crazy last week when Megan Fox and Kourtney Kardashian were wearing their SKIMS sets feeding each other cherries on the floor and many other promo shots that were getting reposted all over Instagram. It was definitely a moment that made everyone pause because of how iconic it was. The duo were spotted at the Met Gala with their boyfriends and after posting pictures side by side in a bathroom stall at the Gala, no one was expecting them to have a promo shoot for SKIMS just a few days later. You can visit the official blog page on the SKIMS website for every other star and personality they’ve had wear this brand.

In July of this year, we even saw Kate Moss in a new ad wearing her SKIMS as well. Kardashian has also had her sisters Kendall and Kylie represent new collections such as the Valentine’s Day Line. They looked phenomenal and of course had the internet in a frenzy as well seeing this duo be put together for their older sister Kim. Khloe was also seen in the beginning launch of SKIMS in their promo videos and content on the official Instagram back in September of 2019. TikTok star Addison Rae was in a ad for the Fits Everybody Bodysuits. Others include Amelia Gray, Delilah Belle, Naressa Valdez, Mae McKagan, and many others.

How They’re Attracting an Audience With Their Marketing

The secret behind a lot of the success that brands have, is in fact due to much of the marketing, promotion, and ads for how an audience will find out about them, and of course be inclined to buy the product. No one is going to go out and watch a movie if they’ve never seen it being promoted, seen the trailer, or even a commercial. The same thing goes for clothing. You’d be more interested in buying a product if you at least see a review on the item or anyone online who has bought it and tried it on. For SKIMS, one big part of their marketing is influencers. Many brands have gotten on the influencer route for their events, products, or anything related to them so that they can continue to have new audiences learn about them. You will see big companies and brands send items to influencers or content creators so that they can show these products in a video or picture on their social channels. Not only does this technique work, but it definitely encourages others to want to receive some product as well, possibly buy SKIMS on their own, and hope the brand will notice to want to work with them too! Social media is a powerful tool and the possibilities are endless on there for how you can be recognized.

To continue to be even more friendly with their audience, they have a blogs page on the official SKIMS website which was mentioned previously all about the sizing, fit, and review on any items you’d want to see. There is a entire page dedicated to videos on try on hauls, the items up close and even seeing them on Kim Kardashian herself. Doing content like this allows potential customers and reoccurring customers to see items that they can buy and how they fit on a real person. SKIMS also does marketing with different body types so that everyone can see what it would look like on a body type closes to them. This is perfect for many consumers because not many companies provide this and having the option to do so is great and is a perfect user friendly experience.

For the new collections being released as well, SKIMS always will have photoshoots of course and different ways to promote and market the items being launched soon. This is to not only show the items being used outside of a studio setting, but also to provide excitement for the audience to wait for it to be released and it creates urgency. For their Teddy material and all-weather collection, they introduced new items which dropped a few weeks ago of a series of photos on their Instagram with girls outdoors wearing these fleeces. They were running around, climbing trees, shooting archery, splashing water, eating fruits and more. I truly believe that when you see the focus that goes into every campaign shoot, it makes it more exciting for the consumer to get the item and want to try it for themselves.

Will This Benefit Them In The Future?

Just like the success of their many other brands, Kim Kardashian is going to continue to see success from SKIMS for years to come. This is a company that provides loungewear, shapewear, and underwear for all. No one expected the pandemic to hit and when it did, everyone converted from their business pants and blazers, to hoodies, sweatpants, and other comfy items for chilling around the house. People were even investing in more pricey loungewear for being at home and this spiked up sales in SKIMS which was a perfect opportunity for her to release more items while the hype and demand for loungewear was higher. As someone who owns a few SKIMS items herself, I believe it’s so worth the hype and I’d love to buy some more items to try out just how great they are. Investing in good quality items such as loungewear is something I will always support and their undergarments as well. These are items which will last years in your closet and I always find myself going back to my basics when I have no clue what to wear.

Continuing to invest in their current marketing strategy will also benefit them for years to come because social media is only continuing to grow and get bigger, more brands are leaning towards the influencer route when they are looking for promotions because it’s less expensive on their end to fly out someone, do a shoot, and then get everything else prepared for them. It is essential cheaper for companies to just create a budget on the side for content creators, have someone write out notes for them, put together boxes, ship out the item, and send a influencer guideline email on the kind of content they should create. I’ve been on the influencer side for many brands and doing this saves them time and money, plus the influencer has a chance of possibly getting reposted on the brands’ social media which could help them as well. Some companies even pay the content creator as well which is great on their end too for getting compensation for their work. If SKIMS continues this, and their cool promo shoots for new collections, there is no doubt they won’t continue to break sales records.

The Success of SKIMS & What’s To Come

As of this week, it was announced that SKIMS will be heading to Paris and launch September 28th at Galeries Lafayette. The brand has expanded to many retail stores such as we mentioned Nordstrom and Selfridges. This week she also exclaimed a new item to the company — SKIMS Socks! They have many loungewear items but of course, socks are a necessity to anyone that is going to be chilling at home or going out and about. These are dropping on Wednesday September 29th at 9 am PT and 12 pm ET. The range of socks being launched are from styles such as ankle socks, crew socks, mid calf, hosiery, sport, slouch, and everyday ones. Prices go from $8-$16 depending on the type of style you are going towards with your outfit.

The success of SKIM is going to continue to reach higher limits and break new sales records. As Kardashian said herself, she couldn’t find the right shapewear for herself and decided that SKIMS would be a great way to advocate for all others out there that feel the same way and she has done a great job doing so.