John Lewis announces major fashion campaigns

Department store John Lewis is rolling out its new luxury shop fit for womenswear to more branches this autumn, including to its flagship Oxford Street. The rollout will coincide with a number of significant marketing initiatives to drive sales.

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re is a list of things to look-out for:
The department store is launching its first ever fashion catalogue for Autumn/Winter 2010, showcasing both own-brand and branded offers on womenswear, menswear, childrenswear and accessories.

A print ad campaign launched yesterday will appear in glossy magazines and supplements throughout the month and will be supported by an outdoor campaign on the London Underground.

John Lewis is also undergoing an eight-week online marketing campaign including over 44 million display ads, e-mail and search marketing as well as a strategic commercial campaign with fashion website Fashion Confidential.

Visual merchandise agency Millingtons has been commissioned by the department store to create an advertising display for shop windows across the country. The advertising display will be unveiled on Friday 10 September and will include, for the first time ever, the whole front run of windows at the Oxford Street branch dedicated to fashion.

A customer event will be held on Thursday 16 September at Oxford Street to celebrate the opening of the refurbished womenswear department and a pop up shop will showcase the department store’s exclusive design collaboration with fashion designers Osman Yousefzada, Philip Treacy, William Tempest, Terry de Havilland and Alex Monroe.

The overhaul forms part of a £10 million investment in revamping its fashion business.

In addition to this, branches in Southampton, Cribbs Causeway and Watford will undergo a refurbishment of their beauty departments from October. The new look departments will include updated fixtures and beauty treatment rooms, as well as new brands including BareMinerals and Laura Mercier.

Craig Inglis, Director of Marketing at John Lewis, commented: “We're really proud of our fashion offering for the coming season so we've gone for a comprehensive marketing push. Our aim is to help drive reappraisal in our offer and to support and drive sales of our assortment in store and, increasingly important, online.”

The John Lewis Partnership operates 30 John Lewis shops across the UK, johnlewis.com, 231 Waitrose supermarkets and Greenbee.com, a direct services company. The business has an annual turnover of over £7.4 billion and it is the UK's largest example of worker co-ownership where all 70,000 staff are partners in the business.