Digital Communication Analysis of Aerie

Section 1: Introduction
In 1998, American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) released their first table of AE Intimates (AEO
Inc., 2023). Venturing into the new market of intimates, the line included boy briefs, a shelf
cami, and PJs. “Fueled by brand loyalty for AE’s popular jeans, customers were excited for more
products to incorporate into their day-to-day lives'' (AEO Inc., 2023a). This early adoption of the
new line by loyal customers of the brand allowed for AEO to have an even bigger future into
intimates. In 2006, AEO launched their sub-brand, Aerie, formerly AE Intimates, which is a
combination of “AE” and “lingerie” (AEO Inc. 2023a). Today, Aerie now includes activewear,
swimsuits, loungewear, and of course their original inspiration and focus; intimates. In 2020,
they released another sub-brand of Aerie called OFFLINE by Aerie (Ell, 2020). This paper will
be analyzing the digital communication strategies of Aerie by looking at their social media
strategies, the company’s website, their email strategies, and will provide recommendations
within each section on how to improve their digital presence.

Section 2: Market Research, Competitor Analysis, and Target Consumer

AEO identified a gap in the market for comfy underwear that was made for real girls,
unlike Victoria Secret, who wanted to feel confident but not overly sexy (AEO Inc., 2023a). At
of the end of 2020, Aerie had a 4% share in the women’s US intimate apparel market (AEO Inc.,
2023b). In the financial year of 2021, Aerie generated 1.4 billion US dollars (Smith, 2022). This
has been a substantial grab of the market share as one of their biggest competitors, Victoria
Secret, has seen their sales drop 16% over 2015-2018 (Euromonitor, 2019). In the competitive
matrix found below, Aerie is seen as highly inclusive and to be much more comfortable and
versatile.
 Figure 2.1: Competitive Positioning Matrix

When designing this matrix, the recent trends in the lingerie market were considered. One major
factor that is thought about when choosing lingerie is comfort. When women are more
comfortable, this can bring them more confidence in their own skin (Neilson, 2018). Today,
many Western countries have seen increased women’s empowerment, which has in turn changed
the way women think about the lingerie they are buying. Intimate apparel has had women
looking for brands that are more inclusive and that fit all body types, seeing beauty in everyone
(Neilson, 2018). This change in inclusivity is a huge factor into how the lingerie market has been
changing. As women are searching for more brands that are adopting these models of inclusivity,
it explains why the biggest competitor, Victoria Secret, has seen a decline in sales. As brands like
Lively, Savage x Fenty by Rihanna, and Aerie have been listening to their consumers, they have
been able to capitalize on this movement. Although Aerie is placed in the lingerie industry and
those are their main competitors, one could argue that they are moving into a different category
with their recent addition of other clothing products like swimsuits and loungewear. With all of
their other products, Aerie should consider a repositioning in a different market catergory. This
could be risky with the clothing industry being highly saturated, but this could make a difference
in drawing in a wider customer base, besides those just looking for intimates.
As for their target consumers, Aerie is focused on young women aged 15 to 25 (Kohan,
2020). One of the keys to finding the right target consumer is listening to what they want and
need and personalizing your brand’s messaging to that segment (Stranjak, 2023a). Based on
lecture content, below is the buyer persona of Ashley Smith (Stranjak, 2023b):

Figure 2.2: Buyer Persona

Ashley is a 22 year old who is looking for lingerie that is inclusive, trendy, comfortable, and
versatile. Much of her information search comes from Instagram and YouTube. She enjoys
watching videos that give styling tips and hearing reviews from others that look like her. She
chooses brands that are sustainable and align with her morals of inclusivity.
Below is the possible customer journey that our persona may take when making a
purchase with Aerie (Stranjak, 2023b):
 Figure 2.3: Customer Journey Map
When looking at this journey we can see that consumers for Aerie are heavily influenced by
social media and how the brand portrays inclusivity and comfortability. When the consumers are
satisfied with Aerie they are likely to post on social media or tell their friends about the brand.

Section 3: Social Media Strategies

As we have identified in the persona and consumer journey, those that shop at Aerie are
heavily influenced by Instagram, Youtube, and TikTok vlogs. Content marketing, which Aerie
utilizes, is suited to the needs of the consumer unlike advertising that is suited to the needs of the
company (Stranjak, 2023c). Aerie is also more inbound focused as they revolve around content
that offers independent value to their customers that are already interested in the brand (Stranjak,
2023a).
Figure 3.1: Aerie Home Page Figure 3.2: Post for Taylor Swift Tour Figure 3.3: Repost Try-on Haul

In the above figures we can see what Aerie’s Instagram feed looks like. Aerie currently
has a massive following of 1.5 million (Frigure 3.1). As their target consumer is 15-25 year olds,
data shows that 67% of people ages 18-29 use Instagram (Khoros, 2022). This means that their
presence on Instagram is very important in reaching their target consumer. Aerie is using
audience content marketing where they are creating more posts that are entertaining and
shareable. They are seen to be more engaging and genuine and less “ad-like” resulting in a better
connection (Stranjak, 2023c). With the season changing they are releasing their new swimwear
line and staying relevant with their consumers by representing different women wearing their
products. As the Taylor Swift Eras Tour recently sold out and faced hardships with Ticketmaster,
Aerie took to social media and made a joke with their consumers about whether they got tickets
or not. The post also featured the theme of Swift’s tour but with Aerie’s models and products
asking which era they belong to, to gain engagement and relevance (Figure 3.2) (Savage &
Armesto, 2023). Aerie also posts a lot of content from micro influencers trying-on and giving
styling tips with their products, again, to relate with their audience (Figure 3.3).
Figure 3.4: Aerie’s TikTok Page Figure 3.5: Aerie’s YouTube Page

Aerie also has a large video platform presence on TikTok and Youtube. Their TikTok has
208.8k followers and their YouTube has 43.5k subscribers (Figure 3.4 and 3.5). Sticking to their
audience content they create consistent messaging across all their platforms (Stranjak, 2023e).
Much like their Instagram, these two video platforms represent “real” women with how-tos and
relevant pop culture. One major differentiator is the personal stories from their micro influencers
that they feature on these pages calling them their “role models” rather than just models. Aerie
choses models that have voices to represent all women and create a sense of empowerment for
their consumer to feel beautiful. This is important to their consumers as a study shows that 88%
of women compare themselves to images they see on social media (Emotion Matters, 2023).
Having individuals that represent people that look like their consumers builds a deeper
connection.

Recommendations:
 When making these posts, being relatable can be risky and can backfire later on
(Stranjak, 2023e). For example, not everyone is a fan of Taylor Swift and would have had a hard
time relating to the post. In 2016, Aerie faced backlash from creating a campaign around
#AerieMan. This was meant to be seen as a joke and featured men of all shapes and sizes but
instantly faced an uproar as people believe that body image is no laughing matter (ABC News,
2016). The problem is that they did not release a line of intimates for men along with the
campaign. These are a few examples of how trying to connect with your audience by being
relatable can have negative consequences.
Aerie has already seemed to master consistency, which they should continue to do, but on
their YouTube they have videos that are 1-4 years old. When managing consistency Aerie must
keep up across all platforms.
Lastly, Aerie should consider more paid advertising. They should continue to use micro
influencers as they are seen as more relatable and genuine (Stranjak, 2023d). Aerie is using both
social and content influencers. Social influencers mean that there is a more general interest about
the person themselves. Content influencers are in a niche internet or hobby and produce content
adapted for that type of audience (Stranjak, 2023d). Most of Aerie’s influencers are seen as
aspirational and the consumers are more interested in what the person is doing and how they are
feeling. They may not give a consumer the biggest reason to make a purchase from their
“expertise,” but even having a wider audience that is not too niche can be effective. Although
Aerie already gives many different product offerings, which will be discussed in more detail
later, they should consider having codes for their “role models'' and influencers to post with
content to see how effective these campaigns are. They then should utilize metrics like cost per
acquisition (CPA) and return on investment (ROI) (Stranjak, 2023b). Their competitor, Savage X
Fenty by Rihana, already does this successfully with large celebrities and influencers offering
codes for subscriptions (Wright, 2020). Another form of paid advertising that should be highly
considered is Instagram ads. Aerie’s largest following is on Instagram and Instagram shopping
has also seen an increase in recent years with 44% of users engaging with shopping on the app
(Wise, 2023). Aerie would also be able to track the effectiveness of these ads with click through
rate (CTR) metrics (Stranjak, 2023b).
Section 4: Company Website
Aerie’s website can be seen as a one-stop shop for any clothing need with the most
comfortable, stylish, and body-positive messaging. Those that are looking for a company that
celebrates all body types can find it with Aerie. Pictured below is Aerie’s homepage of their
website:

Figure 4.1: Website Home Page

In Figure 4.1, their front page always features the ongoing sales and promotions that they are
having. There is never a sale that is not going on with their website. They also have a tab titled
“today’s offers” with all of the promotions for the day. Aerie also prides themselves on only
having models that are inclusive of all sizing, diverse, and only have unretouched photos.

Figure 4.2: Aerie App Figure 4.3: #AerieREAL Page on Website

 Aerie’s app is highly compatible with their website with consistent images and both are
user-friendly (Figure 4.2). Their website also features a chat box for any customers that have
issues. If the automated answers do not have a solution, the customer is able to chat with an
agent. Aerie’s most impressive campaign to note is #AerieREAL. Found in Figure 4.3, we can
see on their website the direct link to their social media. Here, they are collecting posts that have
#AerieREAL captioned or have @Aerie tagged. This organic collection of unretouched photos is
then displayed on their website. If one were to click on the #AerieREAL page they would see a
wide range of young women, like their target consumer, wearing their products confidently and
comfortably. These photos also can be seen when a customer is online shopping where that
specific item can be seen being worn by other customers that have used the tagging, giving the
potential customer another comparison besides just the model. In a survey run by Northeastern
University Boston, young women said that “they felt that these images made them feel more
confident, more accepting of their own bodies, and reduced pressure to conform to the thin ideal”
(Rodgers et al., 2019). Having these pictures on their website can also help Aerie gain an
increase of trust and loyalty to the brand. These “real” reviews can provide an average of 18%
uplift in sales (Ghann, 2023).

Recommendations:
When you search lingerie shops on Google, Aerie is not even on the first page. This may
be because they do not only sell lingerie, but the problem is that is what market they are
competing in. As mentioned before, a repositioning in the clothing market would be important.
Aerie wants prospective consumers to be able to find their brand as easy as possible from search
engine optimization. When customers shop online, 68% of these online experiences begin with
an online search engine and 39% of purchases are influenced by relevant searches (Stranjak,
2023c). If Aerie were to reevaluate and take advantage of keyword searches that best matched
their product selection, this would allow their website to be found easier.
Section 5: Email Messaging
When a prospective customer becomes interested in Aerie’s products they have to sign up
for their Real Rewards program. It is free to sign up to the program, but this is the only way to
begin receiving emails from Aerie. The Real Rewards program runs the email marketing for both
Aerie and American Eagle:

Figure 5.1: Aerie and American Eagle Initial Emails Figure 5.2: Real Rewards Benefits

As you can see in Figure 5.1, the subject line shows what the email includes (Lecture 5). Once an
individual has signed up they receive an extra 10% off their first order. Later, the emails include
any offers that they have going on and their duration, these are also directly linked to the same
promotions that are found on the “today’s offers” tab on their website. Although the emails may
have offers that are the same on the website, we can see that by signing up for the real Rewards
program you have exclusive members-only sales and events (Figure 5.2). Aerie is able to create a
more personal connection and leverage an existing relationship with their customers with this
program (Stranjak, 2023e). They are also gaining more insights into what their target consumers
enjoy shopping for and what they find more meaningful when they log-in with their accounts
(Stranjak, 2023e).
Recommendations:
When a customer signs up they automatically receive both American Eagle and Aerie
emails. As Aerie’s target consumer is young women this makes sense, but American Eagle is also
targeting young men. As these two brands work closely together, this is a strategic way to gain
more purchases, but they need to be wary of those that are not interested in receiving too many
emails or not interested in shopping with American Eagle. As it is in the name, Aerie is an
American brand and needs to be cautious when acquiring emails as GDPR laws may prohibit the
way they run their email strategy overseas causing them to adapt it (Stranjak, 2023e).

Section 5: Conclusion
This paper has taken a critical analysis of Aerie’s digital communication strategies and
has made recommendations that should be seriously considered to improve their connection to
their target consumers. As noted before, Aerie’s website and rewards program is also connected
to their parent company American Eagle (Figure 4.1 and 5.1). When marketing for female
empowerment, Aerie needs to consider whether or not American Eagle is also following their
lead as some “female audiences are not always so naïve, however, and women often react
hesitantly toward overt attempts at female empowerment by brands, especially when a product is
explicitly mentioned” (Hunt, 2017). American Eagle is marketing to young men as well and
Aerie needs to make sure that they are not just trying to make a profit, but that their message of
real women and real beauty continues to be perceived as genuine to their consumers.
References
ABC News. (2016). American Eagle Under Fire for Male 'Body Positive' #AerieMan Videos.
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/american-eagle-fire-male-body-positive-aerieman-videos/s
tory?id=38159139
AEO Inc. (2023a). Aerie’s Journey to $1 Billion – Early History.
https://www.aeo-inc.com/2021/03/08/aeries-journey-to-1-billion-early-history/
AEO Inc. (2023b). WWD: Aerie Surpasses $1 Billion in Revenues; More Offline by Aerie Stores
Coming. https://www.aeo-inc.com/2021/03/04/wwd-aerie-surpasses-1-billion-inrevenues-
more-offline-b-aerie-stores-coming/
Ell, K. (2020). Exclusive: Aerie Introduces Activewear Brand Offline by Aerie. WWD.
https://wwd.com/feature/offline-by-aerie-1203687213/
Emotion Matters. (2023). How Does Social Media Influence Body Image?
https://emotionmatters.co.uk/2018/10/04/how-does-social-media-influence-body-image/
Euromonitor. (2019). Falling Angels: Victoria’s Secret Struggles in its Home Market.
 https://www.euromonitor.com/falling-angels-victorias-secret-struggles-in-its-home-
marke t/report
Ghann, J. (2023). Why Product Reviews Are So Important For eCommerce Stores. Fera.
https://www.fera.ai/blog/posts/product-reviews-important-ecommerce
Hunt, A. R. (2017). Selling Empowerment: A Critical Analysis of Femvertising.
Neilson, L. (2018). How Today's Newest Underwear Brands Are Changing the Game by
Focusing on Inclusivity. Fashionista.
https://fashionista.com/2018/05/new-underwear-lingerie-brands-inclusivity-2018
Khoros. (2022). The 2022 Social Media Demographics Guide.
https://khoros.com/resources/social-media-demographics-guide
Kohan, S. E. (2020). AEO’s Aerie Brand, Built On Body Positivity And Inclusion, Is Slowly
Edging Out Sexy Supermodel Juggernaut Victoria’s Secret. Forbes.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/shelleykohan/2020/06/28/aeos-aerie-brand-built-on-body-p
ositivity-and-inclusion-is-slowly-edging-out-sexy-supermodel-juggernaut-victorias-
secret
/?sh=6e1d775c42ba
Rodgers, R. F. et al. (2019). Getting Real about body image: A qualitative investigation of the
usefulness of the Aerie Real campaign. Body Image, 30, 127-134.
https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2019.06.002

Savage, M., & Armesto, J. (2023). Ticketmaster apologises for Taylor Swift tour sales fiasco.
BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64384304
Smith, P. (2020). Net revenue of the Aerie brand from the financial years 2019 to 2021. Statista.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1343308/aerie-net-revenue/
Stranjak, D. (2023a). “Intro to Digital Marketing” [Lecture], BU7218: Digital Marketing
Communication. Trinity College Dublin. 31 January.
Stranjak, D. (2023b). “Behavior & Analytics” [Lecture], BU7218: Digital Marketing
Communication. Trinity College Dublin. 7 February.
Stranjak, D. (2023c). “Content Marketing & SEO” [Lecture], BU7218: Digital Marketing
Communication. Trinity College Dublin. 28 February.
Stranjak, D. (2023d). “Influencer & Affiliate Marketing” [Lecture], BU7218: Digital Marketing
Communication. Trinity College Dublin. 14 March.
Stranjak, D. (2023e). “Social Media & Email Marketing” [Lecture], BU7218: Digital Marketing
Communication. Trinity College Dublin. 28 March.
Wise, J. (2023). How Many People Use Instagram Shopping in 2023? Earthweb.
https://earthweb.com/how-many-people-use-instagram-shopping/
Wright, G. (2020). How Savage X Fenty used social media to solidify itself as a top lingerie
Retailer. Retail Gazette. https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2020/10/savage-x-
fentylingerie-rihanna-inclusivity-fashion-feature/