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The board and streetwear brand has launch an exciting project called Design For Humanity - Christelle Kipping, Billabong Girl's Marketing Manager, explains what it's all about, and how Billabong Girls will grow and grow.
What is Billabong's Girls core product, the mainstay of the business?
Billabong is a lifestyle brand with its inspiration in boardsports. Devoted to the active teen girl, Billabong has helped make the connection between action sports and a lifestyle that lets each girl express their individualism, creativity and sense of style. Supported by some of the best surf and snowboard athletes in the world, Billabong is a product of its environment, made up of peole who live the lifestyle they promote.
Of the other products, what area promises the most growth for you? Where has the most growth for the company been in recent years?
While remaining true to our surf roots, we have continued to evolve our line by introducing progessive fashion trends, as well as vintage-inspired surf apparel. Our brand territory is bikinis and boardshorts (we propose a wide range of different cuts and prints and match/back) and we are very strong also in dresses and logo line t-shirts.
Our girls snowboard range has also been getting some good result in the last few years. Accessories for girls is a promising category.
Is it difficult to diversify from your core product, as you're so well known for surfwear?
We are a lifestyle brand and propse a wide range of products to our consumers, not only bikinis and boarshorts but also some complete silhouettes. We have also a more urban/treny part of the range since we address to teenagers who follow the trends and always try to innovate in our products and offering.
I understand the company has a snowboarding range for women, which seems a logical extension of the brand.
We propose a full range of technical product for girls going from wetsuits, board pads to a wide range of snowboard gear. The snowboard range for girls exist since 1999 so it's not really new. We have also started some collaboration with some renowned artists in the snowboard range since 2006 so it's an ongoing development and we are putting a lot of effort on the girls snow range.
We sponsor the best UK snowboard rider, Jenny Jones, who finished second at the world TTR championship last year. We also have Jamie Anderson (USA) in our team who is one of the most promising young snowboard talents. So we are very active in the girls snowboard market and this year we are sponsoring the Air + Style event in Inssbruck.
Who are your customers? How do you identify the end user, how do you market to them specifically?
Our consumers are aged between 15 to 25 years old. The Billabong girl is a natural beauty who enjoys a free spirited natural lifestyle. She is confident in herself and speaks up for what she believes in.
Billabong aims to help to empower and have a positive impact on girls at grassroot level. We organize a learn to surf event call the Billabong girls days where girls from 10 to 25 can discover surfing and its lifestyle with some environmental workshops, yoga and hip hop lessons, BBQ and a live concert.
Billabong also sponsors two stops on the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women's World Championship Tour: the Billabong Girls Pro Brazil and the Billabong Pro Maui, as well as several amateur surf contests throughout Europe.
How do you think the customer perceives your gear?
We sell a dream. Our consumers come to Billabong for functionality of products, colours and fashionable gear but also because they are buyers of our lifestyle. We inspire youth and we offer to the active teen girls to enter our universe.
Do you have any key celebrity endorsements? How do you identify the best person to act as a brand ambassador?
Our brand ambassadors are our athletes. Billabong endorses a team that comprises some of the best surf, skate and snowboard athletes in the world who are continually being honored, nominated, and featured by high profile media networks reaching audiences and spectators around the world.
Our main ambassador of the DFH intitiative is Sanoe Lake who is a Billabong team rider and actress, discovered in her co-starring role in big screen hit Blue Crush. She is a very positive and fun-loving person. She is a firm believer that life is about taking chances and is adamant about living each day to the fullest. She loves surfing for its lifestyle, travel and challenge you get from it so she is a perfect Billabong girl ambassador since she represents the value of the brand.
As Sanoe herself has said: "I am very proud to be a part of what Billabong is doing through Design For Humanity. I feel incredibly blessed to be able to give my voice and support to this beautiful cause. It is my hope that through our efforts, more people will jump on board and get involved. My dream is that this will become more than a project, that it will become a movement."
How do you use internet marketing? Is it an important part of growing awareness of Billabong?
We have a specific billabonggirls.com website which will be totally revamped in the next few months to be more interactive and at the forefront of technology. For the DFH [Design For Humanity] intitiative we will launch a new website totally dedicated to the concept and launching at the same time our DFH art contest through the website. There will be info about the cause, the concept, the event that was held in Paris with a gallery of pics from the art show and info on how to take action and help the humanitarian cause SurfAid International.
Design for Humanity - what's that all about? How is such a project beneficial for the Billabong brand?
As our brand continues to grow, Billabong women's division has recognized the importance of giving back and we have created the DFH initiative and event.
Design For Humanity is Billabong's charitable division created at an international level that seeks to generate funds from the sale of limited edition products to donate to environmental and humanitarian causes.
It operates under Billabong's philosophy of 'be the change you want in the world'. This is a challenge for people to live their lives by example and be proactive in creating a more responsible world.
Design For Humanity allows Billabong to empower, encourage and promote awareness of environmental and humanitarian issues relevant to the youth of today through fundraising and promotions.
All activities are centred around a chosen charity and aim not only to benefit that cause, but to celebrate the environment, fashion and art.
The charity chosen for this project is SurfAid International. The mission of SurfAid International, a non-profit humanitarian aid organization, is to improve the health of people living in isolated regions connected to us through surfing.
We propose a DFH t-shirt and bag in our Summer 08 collection sold to the profit of SurfAid. Each product will have a specific swingtag explaining the concept to the customer and trying to raise awareness on the SurfAid cause.
During the launch of the DFH event, which took place in Paris on the 8th of November, the evening started with a gallery exhibition showing the work of three very special artists: Blami (Spain), Andy Ward (UK), and JM Tixier (France). These artists have joined the Billabong cause and have exclusively created designs for a special limited edition Arty series that will be part of the next Billabong Girls Collection. Their t-shirt will be available in stores in June 2008 and the profit will go to SurfAid International.
This European trio of artists will also be part of the jury of a big Design For Humanity art contest. The contest is a search for one talented artist, the prize to join the ranks of Blami, Andy Ward and JM Tixer and have their design become the fourth t-shirt in the Design For Humanity series.
The contest will be launched in January of 2008 in all Billabong stores, across the press and on the exclusive Design For Humanity website.
This event was the start of a very special project, which merges the worlds of art and fashion to benefit environmental and humanitarian causes.
Apart from the goal of raising funds for specially chosen humanitarian or ethical projects, DFH wants to empower girls to react, to promote awareness of social and environmental issues, and to give them something to aspire to.
The Design for Humanity concept has been a huge accomplishment for our brand and the money raised with the sale of a limited edition range should prove to be very beneficial for the work SurfAid is implementing to help the populations in the Mentawaii islands. We are very proud to be part of this project.
Billabong supports a more environmentally and responsible world. We think that together our combined actions can make a difference. For us the oceans and nature is our playground and for this reason we need to help preserve them and stand behind some ONG that help this cause and we see this as an opportunity to pass the message to future generations.
