In 2021, Simply Be was hampered by its plus size heritage. Despite stocking clothing for sizes 12-32, the brand was only associated with plus size clothing. Because of this, it wasn’t on most women’s radar, and those that were aware were embarrassed to shop there. Our strategy addressed this misperception and reframed Simply Be’s brand truth to make it relevant to women of all shapes and sizes. We created a movement that united all women against a universal enemy. In doing so, it gave the business a clear purpose, broadened the brand’s audience, boosted consideration, and increased sales.

Simply Be had a big problem.

Despite stocking a full range of sizes, the brand was broadly known only as a plus size retailer. And most brand cues - from SEO to model choice to messaging – were reinforcing and compounding this misperception. This meant that, for most women Simply Be wasn’t on their radar and 71% of women aged 25-44 who were aware of the brand dismissed it as “not for them”. Worse still, even women who were plus size felt embarrassed to shop

there.

The retailer was not top of mind, it was misunderstood and dismissed by the majority; we needed to address this declining customer base. And fast.

Key objective: increase penetration, with a focus on broadening our audience out to younger and smaller-sized women, aged 24-34 and sized 12-18. To do this, we needed to create an emotional connection and boost our fashion credentials.

Simply Be was resonating with neither its historic audience, nor its intended (smaller-size) audience; it needed to build an emotional connection with both.

Whilst championing women with curves was once revolutionary, the body positivity movement has moved on. Body diversity is more commonplace. For plus size women, singling them out is just another way of ‘othering’ them.

“I don’t want to be singled out as ‘plus size’, we want to feel like we can be in it all together.”

Smaller-size women didn’t see expertise in fitting curves as relevant to them so didn’t have a reason to shop at Simply Be.

We needed to reframe Simply Be for both audiences. Rather than showing our expertise in fitting curves, we needed to show how we serve women of all shapes and sizes. We needed to move Simply Be from a plus size specialist to a specialist in fit for every body.

Simply Be had product innovations for women of all sizes, but we needed something more: a point of view everyone could get behind.

Through stakeholder interviews; qual groups; influencer outreach and immersion in the body positivity movement, we explored the importance of good fitting clothing.

Whilst bad fit is typically considered to be just a problem for plus size women, our research showed it was actually a problem for all women. So Simply Be’s USP could hold even broader resonance.

The real breakthrough was just how damaging bad fit can be. When something doesn’t fit women blame their bodies, not the clothes. Instead of saying the cut is wrong, they’ll say “my bum is too big”. Instead of questioning

the sizing of the clothes, they’ll question their self-worth.

This made us angry. Furious.

We hadn't discovered an insight, uncovered an enemy. We needed to wage war against bad fit.

Our idea became a true campaign. Strategy was clear that this wasn’t just about highlighting our rational proof points around better fit, we needed to spark a movement; to make our audience feel the same anger we did and

to unite them against a common enemy: bad fit.

Cutting through the homogenous tropes of the category, our campaign stuck two fingers up to the industry that had repeatedly made women feel unworthy in their skin, through the irreverent play on words “F-IT”. This rallying

cry called for women to reject bad fit and its physical and emotional effects; from straps that dig to the tendency for women to blame their bodies and not the clothes.

Launching with a bold manifesto film, the campaign was supported by impactful OOH and amplified by a passionate and diverse cast of voices from the body positivity movement who shared our frustration.

Our business objective was to increase Simply Be’s penetration. The campaign increased customers by 23% and transactions by 7%. Following the campaign Simply Be’s active customer base was at its highest level since the

brand launched in 1999.

Our bold rallying cry resonated with our audience, achieving a 10% increase in emotional connection and a 14% increase in brand consideration (+31% amongst our crucial size 12-14 audience), making a dent in those ‘solely

plus size’ associations. The ad was System1’s ad of the week, hitting the maximum 5.9 star score amongst 25-45 year-old women.

Our audience joined us in saying F-IT to toxic industry standards. Our social media followers increased 71% and engagement was up 391%. But most importantly we showed women that they should stop punishing their bodies

and demand more from clothing:

“As a woman who’s tried to change my body my entire life, this is really powerful.”