Public and store modernization is Marisa’s new bet

A major overhaul of the brand and a new positioning in the market make up the strategy of fashion retailer Marisa to finally overcome the crisis that it has been going through in recent years.

Suffering since 2016 from the effects of a series of bad choices – such as a disorderly expansion -, the network tried to turn around operations in 2018.

But three years later, when it looked like it was putting the worst behind it, the pandemic came. Now, in 2022, the company’s president, Marcelo Pimentel, wants to show the market that the company has finally hit the spot, although investors are still suspicious.

One of the measures to demonstrate this new moment was to reformat and reposition the brand. The logo, for example, has changed: highlighting the ‘M’. The network hired the singer and actress Lellê to interpret the hit Chega Mais, by Rita Lee, slogan of the new phase, in a campaign that begins to be aired this week.

“We made several bets for multichannel growth, we launched our marketplace and social selling (direct selling platform), and this campaign. The time has come for us to talk to women again and get closer to them”, says Pimentel.

age group

The choice of Lellê, according to Marisa’s marketing director, Christianne Toledo, went through a lot of studies. Born in 1997, the artist will be 25 years old in 2022 and this is the audience that the company wants: women between 25 and 45 years old, mainly from the C and D classes.

“We added Rita Lee’s music, which brings a memory to older consumers, and we saw that together with Lellê it reaches women of all ages and classes”, says Christianne.

In addition to targeting a younger target audience, the company will reformat physical stores and invest in the multichannel model to recover pre-pandemic sales levels.

Marisa is redesigning most of its 344 stores with a focus on a more modern format and features to speed up service. Some stores already work with infinite shelves (which connect customers from the physical to the digital point) and mobile payment locations, to avoid the checkout line.

Marketplace

The company also wants to accelerate digital business. The marketplace was launched in November and the goal is for e-commerce penetration in sales to jump from the current 14% to 25% in 2025.

Marisa is also testing a digital wallet model for its financial arm, Mbank.

In addition to loans for consumers, the idea is to include other products in its ecosystem, such as pet insurance.

For Alberto Serrentino, founder of consulting firm Varese Retail, the company is heading in the right direction after difficult years, but it will need to chase its competitors.

“Marisa suffered more in the crisis than the others”, he says.

Currently, the company is worth about R$ 1 billion and the president himself admits that the value is very low. Faced with the lower capitalization of competitors, experts and investors have questioned when the company will be sold.

Last year, there were conversations with Americanas, which wants to expand its range of own products, but the business, so far, has not evolved. “Now, we have no movement in that direction and we are totally focused on the company’s recovery”, says Pimentel.

“We are looking inward and taking away any and all distractions.”

The information is from the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.