• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, April 24, 2023

Just in time for Mother's Day, Shapermint is using a new crop of influencers to encourage women to feel better about their bodies, curves and all.

With some 8 million customers, the shapewear and intimates brand hopes the "Boost Your Momfidence" campaign will build sales in both its D2C and retail channels.

The effort hinges on the BodCon, a virtual community the company created to build body confidence, encouraging people to talk about body issues without worrying about the snarky judgments that happen in so many digital spaces.

"Mothers are a large part of our customer base, and we wanted to do a campaign that would enhance their self-esteem," says Gabrielle Richards, brand director for Shapermint and The BodCon.

"Our research found that two out of three moms say that they don't have anyone to confide into, or they don't have a support group," she tells Marketing Daily. "So we tapped influencers who are strong within the space of body confidence and moms."

The problem is that, at this point, dozens of brands feature images of women of all body types flaunting their curves. So this effort hinges on community, led by a different kind of influencer.

One is Julieanna (Julz) Goddard, aka @YesJulz,  known for her curves and activations with brands like Puma and Lyft. She is also the mom of a daughter born with gastroschisis, a disease that affects just 1,500 infants a year in the U.S.

Another is Miriam Lara-Mejia, @lagordafeminista, a content creator focusing on body diversity.

"Both these women are about creating change, and that's what we want to emphasize, as well as their curves."

The campaign features images of both women and five others, who will also post on the BodCon, encouraging other moms to post their stories, both for inspiration and conversation.

Richards says the campaign also hopes to set itself apart from the category's many zaftig models through its product emphasis.

Unlike other shapewear, Shapemint doesn't rely on the intense compression of brands like Spanx, Richards notes. "Shapermint is incredibly comfortable in a way that is unique for shapewear. It allows women to show and highlight their bodies without feeling like they're changing their bodies," she says. "The idea is that we smooth and shape curves, but don't restrict them."

Both Shapermint and the BodCon are owned by Trafilea, an ecommerce company that includes Truekind, a bra business. While the brand began as a D2C company, "in the last year and a half, we've exploded into traditional retail," she says. It's now sold at Nordstrom and Belk, "and our QVC business is growing."

Richards says the brand connects with women between 35 and 75, somewhat older than competitors. And 80% are moms, "so they know how much their bodies change over the motherhood journey."

So far, she says the BodCon has about 18,000 followers on social media. And with a newly launched app, it hopes to build that faster, with the goal of 10,000 downloads this quarter.

To further set itself apart from the many other influencer-led fashion efforts,  Shapermint is analyzing social media metrics differently. Besides looking at the standard benchmarks of views, clicks, and likes on Meta and TikTok, "we're looking at their impact on their followers and the type of content they create. So that means we want people who not only share content about fashion and sell but are also tied into a mission of promoting confidence," she says. "We are going deeper into that type of data."

Interviews with the new influencers, including podcasts, appear on Shapermint's social channels. It's also running a monthlong Mother's Day sale, with many items marked down as much as 70%.