As any stateside ’90s kid can attest, backpack brand JanSport reigned supreme in the late ’90s and 2000s. Now, what’s old is new again. Fueled in part by Gen Z’s nostalgia for decades past, “we’ve resurged as America’s number-one backpack,” said Monica Rigali, JanSport’s vice president of global brand management.
“Our consumers have a real affinity for what they view as a simpler and less complicated time,” Rigali said. “We’ve seen a trend toward the ’90s and early 2000s not just in our product choices but in fashion, makeup and content.”
That means corduroy is back, as are other soft fabrics and “things that make people feel comfortable, safe, good and comfy cozy,” Rigali said.
JanSport taps into the multitude of data points on “what the consumer is doing, vibing on and appreciating” to craft marketing messaging and branding that are on point. “Data leads how we make strategic decisions, and we’re in it each and every day,” Rigali said.
Rigali spoke with AdExchanger.
AdExchanger: What consumer trends do you expect to see in 2023?
MONICA RIGALI: We stay really close to the Gen Z consumer and the Gen Alpha consumer coming up right behind them. What we’re seeing right now is a trend toward being yourself and being real. For this generation, we’ve seen the rise of social media channels like BeReal and TikTok and posts and content around body positivity, authenticity and trust.
Could you describe your target market?
Our marketing speaks to 14-22-year-olds, with a target zone right around 16-18-year-olds. Right now, we’re not getting outside of that range. Why is that? Why wouldn’t we try to speak to moms or dads to buy backpacks?
JanSport wants to capture, reflect and become a platform for that time of a person’s life. We think it’s a really transformative time for every human.
How do you use data in your marketing?
Constantly. We’re a consumer-led brand. There’s an anecdotal part: We watch, listen and learn. We do a lot of social listening. But there’s a scientific part of that as well, in that we launch consumer insights studies. During back-to-school, we [want to] understand why people are looking at our product, why they’re out in the market for a backpack and why they’re choosing us or not choosing us.
We bring that data into our sales meetings and our go-to-market process but also our DTC environment, JanSport.com and JanSport.eu. It provides us with daily insights on how consumers are searching, what they’re searching for, what their purchase behavior looks like on our site.
After Spider-Man, “green backpack” was our top search because we had a deep juniper backpack [in “Spider-Man: No Way Home”] last December. Right now, we’re seeing deep juniper corduroy and the word “corduroys” being searched a lot, and so we’ve got some amazing corduroy products out there, harking back to that ’90s vibe.
Does JanSport have a first-party data strategy?
We’re watching how Gen Z is responding and reacting to first-party data concerns and privacy concerns and trying to get ahead of it as much as we can. We have a legal team internally whose primary focus is privacy and leading us toward new technologies to ensure that we are being responsible with first-party data. People have to opt in.
Being responsible with first-party data is table stakes for any brand to be able to continue to make an authentic connection with this generation. It will become stricter going forward, and we’ll need to adapt to that as well.
How do you use programmatic advertising in your digital marketing strategy?
Programmatic is one method to help us remarket, retarget and optimize who we’re talking to and how we’re bringing them into our marketing funnel. It’s not the only tool, but certainly with the onset of AI and machine learning, it’s a pretty powerful tool. Our income team is dialed into how we programmatically optimize for reaching target consumers and for tracking and understanding consumer behavior.
Are inflation and a possible recession impacting JanSport’s marketing spend or strategy?
We’ve been looking at macroeconomic trends as a predictor of how our consumer is going to be behaving or what they’re going to want and need in back-to-school 2023.
We really think they’re going to want value. We think the consumer wants fewer things, but more things that last. The two key purchase drivers for Gen Z are: Will it last? And does it look cool on me? Our back-to-school campaign in 2023 will be about value and durability and standing the test of time.
How does JanSport stay cool as a brand when what’s cool can change so fast?
Everything’s cyclical. You’re going to see the trends come and go. Skinny jeans, wide-bottom jeans. Side part, middle part. But brands like JanSport stay true to who we are, which I think resonates with consumers of every generation.
But we are constantly looking for new innovations: trims, materials, upcycling, our circularity, different ways that we can expand the aperture of what we do. That keeps us relevant. If we stop innovating, we’ll probably die on the vine, but it’s not in our DNA to stop innovating.
How would you describe JanSport in one word?
Fun. At the end of the day, we’re a really fun brand. We’re fun to work for. And when you see a JanSport on someone’s back, you think, “Oh, that person is really fun and cool.”
This interview has been edited and condensed.
