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My Take on the Term Plus Size
Media attention and social comment on the term "Plus Size" was pretty prevalent before Christmas but seems to have died down. As most of you may know the term "Plus Size" originated in the twenty's with Lane Bryant's Misses Plus Sizes, and then was picked up by other companies and shortened to Plus Size. The term used before that was stout.
From a retailers perspective you need your products to be easily identified by your prospective customers. This is especially vital if you are an online merchant. In these days of internet based paid advertising, attracting customers who aren't your target market can add significantly to your advertising spend. It could be argued that this is no different to print or TV media adverts where they are seen/heard by a wide audience rather than your specific audience. The internet was supposed to improve our lives though so I feel that we should be able to categorise our product to make it easier for our prospective customers to find.
From a customers perspective it is really frustrating to be searching for something and be directed to a site that doesn't stock your size - regardless of what that size is.
While we show the size range on our banner so that it can be seen immediately some on checks out our website from a search engine perspective we still need to categorise somehow.
So how should we segment? What term should we use? Curvy or Curve (doesn't necessarily apply to the sizes we cater for), Real Women (ummm, aren't all women real?), Rubenesque (scantily clad women lying draped on sofa's), Buxom (visions of a barmaid in a romantic novel), Junoesque (not all of us are 6ft +) ... I don't find any one of those terms are really inclusive or descriptive enough so I guess we take it back to the original meaning - a clothes size grouping rather than a personal description.
And I don't know about you but I would rather be Plus than Stout!