When J. Crew Group saw teasers for Michelle Obama’s upcoming appearance on The Tonight Show, they recognized their outfit. Knowing that clothing costs were an issue with women in politics, J. Crew quickly built a landing page and bought the keywords “Michelle Obama” on Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.

In a Nov. 17, 2008 article in Media Talk, the New York Times provided an excellent example of a Landing Page. Marketers at J. Crew Group created a Landing Page on their website designed specifically for shoppers looking Michelle Obama’s outfit. The Landing Page page could be reached only by clicking on the text ad they created to link to the page.

The text ad could be found by searching for “Michelle Obama” on Google, Yahoo or Microsoft search engines because the marketers at J. Crew had moved quickly to purchase that keyword and to train their call-center representatitives show to handle queries about Mrs. Obama’s fashion.  Because a Landing Page is designed for a particular text ad and keyword, it usually does not appear on the website’s main navigation.

Mrs. Obama surprised J. Crew when she wore one of its outfits on her Oct. 27 appearance on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.” Dressed in a $148 pencil skirt, a $148 yellow and brown tank top and a $118 yellow cardigan, she seemed to be promoting both fiscal prudence and the overlooked appeal of mustard-colored clothing.

“I want to ask you about your wardrobe,” Mr. Leno told her, alluding to the news media reports that Sarah Palin had a campaign clothing budget of $150,000. “I’m guessing about 60 grand? Sixty, 70 thousand for that outfit?”

“Actually, this is a J. Crew ensemble,” Mrs. Obama replied, to cheers from the audience. “Ladies, we know J. Crew. You can get some good stuff online!”

J. Crew is not the only marketer to use Mrs. Obama’s popularity to sell its clothes. The shopping sites TopButton.com, Overstock.com and White House Black Market are all running Google ads that show up when “Michelle Obama” is typed into the search box.

J. Crew Landing Page