News Feature | March 11, 2014

PBTeen Launches Blog For Teens

By Kara Murphy, contributing writer, Integrated Solutions For Retailers

PB Teen Website

Upscale home retailer the first to focus exclusively on teen market

PBTeen has started a blog for teens called The Stylehouse. The blog is designed to give teens and tweens a place to find design inspiration and fuel an imaginative personal style, the company said in a news release. The upscale home retailer has plenty of low-cost, do-it-yourself ideas on the new blog, and also connects its young readers to more expensive products on its website.

The blog includes four primary channels:

  • Decorate, including roundups of personal style and DIY project ideas, and inspirational home decor and trend ideas from the PBteen design team.
  • Celebrate, including ideas for holidays and life events like graduation, prom, and birthdays.
  • Dorm, including tours of cool dorm rooms, recipes for dorm-friendly meals, and content written by current college students.
  • Behind the scenes, featuring profiles of PBteen employees, sneak peeks at catalog shoots, and stylist tips.

Teens are an important demographic for retailers. A 2012 Harris Poll YouthPulse study showed that children and young adults ages 8 to 24 controlled $211 billion in spending. That same study showed that 76 percent of 8- and 9-year-olds, and 91 percent of 16- and 17-year olds are on the Internet an hour or more each day.

A 2013 study, Piper Jaffray’s "Taking Stock with Teens," showed 79 percent of females and 76 percent of males shop online. Starting a blog aimed at teens was a “natural extension of the PBTeen brand that allows us to connect with our teen customers in a thoughtful relevant way," said Sandra Stangl, president of Pottery Barn Brands.

The retailer’s marketing efforts also got attention over the 2012 holiday season when it opened five pop-up stores anchored around a “Design Lab” where parents and teens could create personalized looks with the help of onsite design specialists.

Building a customer-centric model for retail

PBteen, headquartered in San Francisco, is one of the Pottery Barn brands owned by Williams-Sonoma. PBteen was launched in 2003, the first home retailer to focus exclusively on the teenage market.