Gitano changes its image from cheesecake to apple pie - women's sportswear firm changes advertising image

Gitano Changes Its Image From Cheesecake to Apple Pie

NEW YORK -- In a dramatic shift away from Calvin Klein-sexy to Ralph Lauren-traditional, The Gitano Group will soon be sporting a far more wholesome image.

Gitano, based here, will launch its revamped marketing and advertising campaign under the tagline, "The Spirit of Family," beginning the week of Aug. 14.

"People are returning to simpler, cleaner and more basic lifestyles," John Amodeo, vice president of marketing and advertising at Gitano, told DSN in an exclusive interview. "By emphasizing `The Spirit of Family,' we can also emphasize our expanding family of apparel products."

The Gitano Group, which recorded $467 million in sales last year, is one of the major fashion-forward apparel suppliers to the discount store industry. Until recently, Gitano has carved out a sexy image--super-sexy as far as some of the more staid discounters are concerned--with provocative, junior-oriented, European-flavored ads and promotions.

Through massive TV, print and outdoor advertising, Gitano will make over its image, evoking a lifestyle out of Norman Rockwell and TV family sit-coms. The ads feature large families walking along windswept dunes, out on picnics, visiting grandparents and the like.

Amodeo told DSN that Gitano "has tripled our ad budget for print, TV and outdoor this year over 1988" in order to make a splash with the new campaign. He added that Gitano hasn't done primetime network TV advertising in two years, having concentrated on print.

The TV campaign, which consists of 10 different 30-second ads called "The Home Video Series," will break Aug. 18, airing on shows like Thirtysomething, Roseanne and The Cosby Show.

The first commercial--all are shot as though a family member were videotaping the proceedings--shows a family of seven walking along a beach in September, stopping to barbecue among the dunes, and eventually gathering for a family video shot taken by the father, at which point the image is freeze-framed, said Amodeo. He emphasized that the only identifying copy and voice-over comes at the end, during the freeze frame, and the message is simply: "Gitano . . . The Spirit of Family."

"We're just trying to capture scenes that really happen in families," said Amodeo, adding that the images are "not necessarily squeaky clean."

Sometime later in the week of Aug. 14, DSN has learned, Gitano and the retailer Alexander's will team up to publicize the manufacturer's new look in dramatic fashion--with live models recreating family scenes in the windows of Alexander's Manhattan store on Lexington Avenue.

In the Aug. 20 issue of "Fashion of the Times," the women's fashions special magazine section of the Sunday New York Times, Gitano will unveil its ad campaign over seven pages. It has a similar flavor to the TV spots.

Beginning in September issues, Gitano will be advertising for the first time in Ladies Home Journal, Family Circle and Redbook.

Also next week, Gitano will begin replacing its outdoor advertising--mostly on bus shelters and phone kiosks in Manhattan--with ads featuring the new look.

Amodeo said that in-store support, in the form of new point-of-purchase signage, will be shipped to Gitano's retail customers during the week of Aug. 14 as well. "We've previewed the campaign to some of our major accounts and we've received an overwhelmingly favorable reaction," Amodeo added.

Gitano's switching of image-marketing gears is timed to the important back-to-school period and is tied to the rollout of its Gitano shops-within-a-store. By Aug. 15, Gitano, which has assembled the majority of the shops over the past three weeks, will have more than 30 shops-within-stores at the following retailers: Caldor (12 units, most in northern New Jersey and Long Island), Montgomery Ward (eight units, seven of which are in Illinois and Michigan), Venture (five units in Missouri and Illinois), Ames (four units--one in Florida, one in Massachusetts and two in Michigan), Jamesway (one unit in South Brunswick, N.J.), and in Wal-Mart's "vendor store" in Wisconsin.

Later in the fall, Gitano will be doing four shops for Bradlees, three in Massachusetts and one in New Jersey.

The new family approach allows the manufacturer to more easily market its diverse product lines, which now include men's and boys' wear, maternity, panties and bras, bodywear, girls' (also under the Gloria Vanderbilt label), coordinates and career apparel, said Amodeo.

He added that the Gitano shop concept--in which the entire product line could be offered--naturally fits into the new family emphasis.

"About a year-and-a-half ago we began thinking about a change," said Amadeo.

The campaign, he added, taps into "a new sensibility in America. People are starting to get married again, moving to the country, having babies. They're even joining bowling leagues."

PHOTO : Out With The Old, In With The New: Gitano's hot and sexy look (left) is being replaced by

PHOTO : traditional images of the family under the tagline, `The Spirit of Family.' The new

PHOTO : campaign will break the week of Aug. 14.

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