Ch.4-The Marketing Environment

Chubbies shorts are not exclusive to a certain class, age or ethnicity. Although their target market is typically males between the age of 20-30 usually in college they encourage and try and push the message to wear shorts all the time to everyone. Chubbies is a men's clothing line and does have one pair of shorts available for women but they even encourage women to wear the products and often have many pictures of women wearing Chubbies clothing and managing to add a feminine twist to their style. Chubbies may seem like a 'frat brand' similar to Hollister or Abercrombie but aside from their weekender reputation Chubbies marketing aims find its way into the closest of those with component lifestyles. The diversity of the Chubbies customers ranger from surfers to stock brokers. Chubbies benefits from its open minded and 'up for anything' culture because its market is open to all. The price of Chubbies shorts are moderately higher than a department store but still lower than a designer brand therefor allowing purchasing power to a greater amount of consumers.

Ch. 18- Social Media Marketing

The force that launched a startup clothing line from the Bay Area to a national trend was without a doubt Chubbies social media platform. Since their start in 2011 Chubbies now boasts over a million followers on Facebook 234,000 followers on instagram a youtube channel with over a million views and a twitter with 125,000 followers.

Owned Media- Upon arriving on the Chubbies Website you will see funny and wild pictures and radical names and terms such as "mailing list awesomeness" and "boomshakalaka". Chubbies shorts website is where all of their products are sold and the names and descriptions of their products do not fall short of the "weekend has arrived" mentality that Chubbies promotes. Customers can scroll through their newest arrivals and original products and see names like "the Aloha Fridays", "Chubstocks", "Founding Fajas" and many other cleverly named shorts. Their website is the main way their product is sold therefore it is regularly updated, monitored and always promoting their up and coming or newest products.

 Earned Media - Chubbies promots a culture of being outrageous and wild whilst wearing Chubbies shorts and in return create a culture among customers to display and boast their adventures wearing Chubbies. Chubbies social media platforms are updated daily and Chubbies ensures that its followers remain entertained by adventures and stories told by those who also wear Chubbies. Even on their own website Chubbies has a dedicated section to Chubbies wearers from colleges, some celebrities and Chubbsters alike wearing Chubbies at their wedding, skydiving, on ice burgs and even soldiers deployed overseas take their time to submit a photo of them wearing Chubbies in a foreign combat zone. Chubbies wearers take it upon themselves to promote Chubbies and start a conversation about the radical shorts by sharing their photos and comments about their favorite shorts.

Paid Media- There are few actual paid advertisements in main stream media promoting Chubbies and for a good reason. Along with little cost to Chubbies for advertising most of Chubbies promoting is done via fans, social media and "ambassadors" of the brand throughout the country. Chubbies has a few short commercials but odds are you will find them on their youtube channel as opposed to on television or radio.   

Ch 2- Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage

Shorts are by no means a new concept so how do you put a new spin on an old concept and still manage to remain relevant? Chubbies being a relatively new brand has followed the approach of knowing its audience and never straying from the beliefs that founded their company; making a line of clothing that represents the weekend no matter when or where you wear it.

S.W.O.T

Strengths of Chubbies would be their impeccable knowledge
of their fans or 'chubbsters'. Chubbies began by attracting a specific crowd and building a sort of fan base via social media. They accumulate followers and most of their advertisements are done through their own customers. This is done by chubbsters submitting photos of themselves wearing Chubbies products and Chubbies uses that as their advertisement.  Chubbies also networks with their target audience by contacting fraternities and sororities primarily and hiring them as brand ambassadors. Chubbies sends their ambassadors free products and they will wear them around at social events and parties and promote the Chubbies name. Chubbies greatest strength is without a doubt their ability to attract a loyal base of customers that promote their product and spread the word for free.

Weaknesses of being such a new name in the world of men's fashion  can also be related to their greatest strength; their fan base. While it is Chubbies target audience that does their promoting for virtually no cost to Chubbies the demographic of chubbsters has a lot to do with how affordable Chubbies are. The majority of the chubbster nation is made up of early to late 20 year old men. Chubbies price from $49-$50 which although may not seem astronomically high compared to designer shorts in department stores it is a pretty penny for a broke college student. Buying two pairs  of shorts for $100 is near the price of competitor brands such as Hollister and Banana Republic who's target audience tends to be those that are older and have steady income.

Opportunities for the brand are quite possibly endless. Since the start of their small company they have pushed their name across the U.S accumulating over a million fans and followers in just a few short years and Chubbies recently had a bid for a free 30 second commercial in the past super bowl. Chubbies does ship internationally and their social media platform does allow them to reach out to fans over seas. As Chubbies grows it will have a greater opportunity to promote through more traditional means of advertising such as magazines, television and online ads. Once Chubbies finds  its way into the mainstream media it will have the potential to grow into a name brand that is as common as Hollister, Abercrombie or Dockers.

Threats Chubbies faces are among the common threat any new and emerging brand. Chubbies only makes shorts, unless you are a resident of Hawaii, Southern California or Florida odds are in the fall and winter you will not be wearing shorts anywhere. Chubbies are a seasonal trend and although they do remain relevant by releasing holiday edition and sweats they are still shorts. Another threat is their promoting strategy of only releasing limited numbers of shorts. This has lead to people ordering their shorts and reselling them at a higher price on Amazon and Ebay. Chubbies knows this resale and has taken action by searching for resellers and attempting to block or hold their orders to prevent their resale.

Ch.1- Overview of Marketing (Brief History and Mission Statement)

Chubbies shorts were founded by Kyle Hency, Rainer Castillo, Preston Rutherford and Tom Montgomery in 2011. The four men met at Stanford University and pursued careers in finance and cooperate retail after graduating. They later came back together after going through a number of jobs to start their own company and thus Chubbies shorts were created.  They tested the waters of their new company by making a few pairs of their future shorts and wearing them to a 4th of July party in Lake Tahoe, California. Immediately people demanded to know where they found such flashy and unique shorts.  Soon the four friends began brain storming patterns and designs for their future clothing line. Chubbies was created around the idea that the shorts would represent the weekend for the working man. The founders refuse to ever make pants, cargo shorts or capris and firmly stick to their belief that mens shorts shorts should be short, cropped and fitted making a statement in the world of mens fashion. 

The four founders of Chubbies 

"To us, pants are a necessary evil - built for the work week because your boss just doesn't get it. You see a Chubster in pants or cargo shorts and he looks like a fish out of water; a radical fish that's probably krumping on the beach, but nonetheless OUT OF WATER. But this exact passion for shorts is why Chubbies are so righteous. We don't do pants. We don't do cargos. We don't do capris. We do shorts and only shorts. We have put painstaking effort into these shorts. We have engineered them for the toughest shorts critics - ourselves."