Consumer Demographic

Topshop started as a youth extension, for 13- 24 year olds, and inner department to the high street department store Peter Robinsons, first named Peter Robinson’s Top Shop upon launching. This aim at being a youth brand has followed Topshop through its growth as a brand, even from when it first became its own shop in 1973 it was branded as “High Fashion for the young and different generation”, which is similar to the demographic they aim for now, fashion forward young adults and teenagers wanting to look more mature while maintaining a look unique to each customers individual style, following trends is key. Their main target age is 16-30, the generation that is influenced by celebrity styles and instagram models, this generation is easily influenced by what they see on their screens, Topshop and many other high street brands recognise this and use this as a way to find trends and styles that are going to be desirable to this audience while fitting the aesthetic they want for their brand. Topshop is aware that their main demographic may not have much of a disposable income and many of them may be students, this is why they promote their ‘Blogger’ and influencer lifestyle at a more approachable price point. They try and sell the blogger life to their customers, taking a lot of inspiration from styles that current bloggers use, they are almost trying to sell the lifestyle through clothes. 

Topshop has three main lines through which they do this, there is mainline which is where the majority of the ‘blogger’ and ‘influencer’ style clothes fit, unique in which they sell the more obscure side to influencer fashion, such as festival chic and current trends going round, much like the neon trend circulating currently, finally there is boutique line in which Topshop try and make clothes more aimed at the older side to their demographic, sort of more marketed at 25+ but still suitable for all audiences, this is just Topshop’s way at reaching a larger audience by showing that if you are of that age you can come into Topshop and find more wearable clothing.

Their view on their audience seems to be not very much inclusive, they like to use blogger images to promote their products, however even the images posted by bloggers and 'normal' people they repost all seem to fit with the type of woman it seems they want in their clothes. There is no sign of a diverse range of skin colours, ages, abilities or races. 


Current Consumer Demographic Mood board

This moodboard shows the current demographic Topshop aims for. They like to promote the blogger lifestyle on social media using imagery showing the big city lifestyle, through photos of coffee shops and influencers standing in front of high street shops and houses. They cater to their demographic through their 3 clothing lines within the brand, Mainline which caters to this blogger lifestyle following most current trends and being the main subject of most online posts the brand makes. Then there is Boutique which is not too dissimilar to mainline however is proposed to cater more to 25 plus women, being a more refined style. And finally Unique line which is meant to be the more stand out-ish line, where most of the festival styling and edgy clothes are promoted, this being another side of their target demographic, the 'young free women who try not to stick to fashion boundaries'.

Proposed Consumer Demographic Mood board

This mood board shows the growth in their audience, it includes a wider range of shapes, sizes and colours to their models creating a more inclusive feel to the brand, maybe bringing in a wider audience with plus size some feeling welcome and included in the brand. Also on this mood board it shows my idea of bringing back collaborations however on a different scale, having collaborations with high end brands like Chanel or Burberry would pay off in many ways, as seen by the Moncler x Valentino collection it is proven that collaborating with a high end brand boosts a companies growth. The growth TOpshop could have from such a collaboration could be to expand into a more high end market, people who tend to only shop with high end could see such a collaboration and look at topshop as more of an approachable brand for someone with a high end taste, this kind of collaboration would also give Topshop's regular audience, those who might not typically be able to affrod such brands as these, the chance to own something with a luxury label to it, much like the Moncler x Valentino range this could be sell out bringing in new audiences for both brands and a high profit rate also.