NEW YORK — Mirroring the unpredictability of fashion itself, a survey has found that the celebrity most likely to influence Americans’ purchases of apparel is Christina Aguilera — despite her hiatus from the fashion ad scene.
NPD Group last week disclosed results of the survey of 3,241 adults and teens, drawn from a representative sample of 11,000 adults and teens polled online in September.
Almost half of the consumers polled, 46 percent, said at the time that 25-year-old singer/songwriter Aguilera was likely to influence their purchases of apparel. Although succeeded by “American Idol” winner Carrie Underwood as the face of Skechers in August, that same month Aguilera was one of a half-dozen celebrities, including Cindy Crawford and Salma Hayek, who lent their images to an HIV/AIDS-fighting ad campaign sponsored by YouthAIDS and Aldo Shoes.
“Christina Aguilera has an aggressive style that announces itself,” observed Robert Thompson, professor of pop culture at Syracuse University. “It’s a mercurial style that’s ranged from extraterrestrial to slutty.” Her eclecticism may be particularly appealing to teens who, Thompson said, “want to dress like they didn’t shop for their clothes at the mall.”
Halle Berry drew the second-strongest response among those rating the pull of pop culture stars on their apparel purse strings, with 45 percent, followed by Eva Longoria, 41 percent; Sean Combs, 40 percent; Mischa Barton, 40 percent; Cindy Crawford, 39 percent; Daisy Fuentes, 39 percent; Jennifer Lopez, 39 percent; Teri Hatcher, 38 percent, and Hilary Duff, 38 percent.
About 17 percent of apparel purchases transacted last year were influenced by celebrities, accounting for $32 billion of the $186 billion expended on clothing overall — and nearly double the 9 percent portion of apparel purchases so influenced in 2004, according to NPD. “There was also twice as much celebrity [hawked] product on the market than there was a year earlier,” noted Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD Group. “The more something is out there, the more it will bring something to the consumer’s conscious thought process.”
The three things most likely to determine a celebrity’s sway over apparel consumers, in Cohen’s view, are the star’s overall popularity, his or her personal connection to a brand and his or her likelihood to use the product. Such considerations, the analyst said, have contributed to the popularity of apparel brands marketed by Isaac Mizrahi, Daisy Fuentes and Jaclyn Smith.
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As Cohen believes brands benefit most by forging close bonds with celebrities, particularly through proprietary deals that call for a celebrity’s design input, he was surprised Aguilera and Oscar-winner Berry were rated first and second. (U.K. clothing company Basic Box announced in March 2005 it was dropping Aguilera’s licensed line of apparel.) Aguilera did prompt the strongest response, however, of the celebrities featured in the Youth AIDS/Aldo Shoe HIV/AIDS campaign last summer. “By far, Christina Aguilera was the most popular of the six models featured in the HIV/AIDS campaign,” noted Neil Kraft, president of KraftWorks, which created the public service ads, making reference to requests received for Aguilera’s poster and for fund-raising dog-tag necklaces. As for Berry, when Donatella Versace told WWD in December about Berry’s upcoming appearance in Versace’s spring ads, she said: “She represents everything that is great about this collection — someone who loves color, has a real sensuality and who is strong yet feminine and who is a real woman who has lived. For me, she is easier to relate to and more relevant than a model.”