Fashion Marketing
Fashion Marketing is no different than any other marketing. To understand why I am saying this you must understand what marketing really is all about.
Marketing in its simplest form is:
- When you are involved in the buying and selling of products.
That is it. Everything else that people try to make it into is pure BS.
When marketing products there are 4 main areas that you need to be concerned with:
- Product
- Place
- Promotion
- Price
These 4 areas all have to do with the buying and selling of products. The only way any business has a chance at being successful is if they buy at the right price and sell at a profit. Anything else will put a company out of business.
You may attend a fashion marketing school that will teach you all sorts of things about the fashion industry. But if they don’t teach you the basics of business and sales then they are not doing their jobs. Marketing is business and fashion is a product. It is important that you realize that so there is no misunderstanding in your mind what knowledge your ultimate job will require.
A fashion designer has a specific job. It is to produce products that the consumer will find attractive and be willing to purchase. If the fashion designer does their job properly then the product should not have any trouble moving through the supply chain, into the retail environment, and ultimately being purchased by the consumer.
Of course the fashion marketing strategy will take into consideration the price point that the company is trying to position itself and the product into. Also of great importance is who they think will be the ultimate consumer of the product. In order to sell successfully you must know your customer. You need a really good feel for what they want and how much they are willing to spend for it. It does you know good to have a product in the market that you are trying to sell at too high of a price. Nobody will buy it and you will be left with a deep loss.
What companies have done to make sure that this inequality in the sales equation does not occur with any great amount of frequency is called fashion brand marketing. If you have a “brand” that is considered high end or designer, then people will automatically expect to pay more for it. There is a solid base of customers that look to purchase at this end of the spectrum. They become fans of a certain brand and actively seek it out.
Branding also works at the lower end of the sales spectrum. There are certain fashion brands that have become synonymous with affordability. Just like the higher end there are people that seek out these brands because they know they can afford them.
People and companies that have been successful in branding include:
- Tommy Hilfiger
- Marc Jacobs
- Betsey Johnson
- Donna Karan
- Calvin Klein
- Ralph Lauren
- Alexander McQueen
- Vera Wang
- Carolina Herrera
- Vivienne Westwood
- Coco Chanel
- Versace
- Armani
- Gaultier
- Oscar De La Renta
Fashion marketing trends change as quickly as the weather. In order to have a proper marketing campaign you would certainly need to keep up with the latest trends. What has become popular in the last few years is to send people out onto the streets and observe what the “young and hip” crowd are wearing. If it seems it is a fashion that might catch on and the companies believe that fashion customers will buy it then the new ideas are passed on to the designers and then the marketers.
Fashion promotion with a new trend can be tricky. If you push too hard then the kids feel as if they are being manipulated and you can lose them rather quickly. If you don’t push hard enough then the trend can pass by without your being able to take advantage of it. It certainly is a balancing act that has to be played out in real time with real money on the line.
The fashion business certainly is not for the weak at heart. It is cut throat, with design, marketing, sales, and image. But once again you must remember that it is a business. If you forget you will be left in the dust and unemployed. There is a heap of talented people who thought that their talent was all that was needed to be successful. They were wrong. Business knowledge is just as important, if not more so, then fashion sense. In reality they are both important, but you can’t survive with just one….you need both.
Fashion design, marketing, and business sense will determine your success. It is best to be prepared early in your career to have a good base of knowledge with all three of these areas.
Any top rated fashion company will make sure that your fashion marketing sense is rooted in business. They will do that because they realize that to stay in business the people that work for them always need to make decisions based on fashion and business. It is constantly drummed into their employees the importance of sales when it comes to marketing.
Global fashion marketing is a department that has really taken off as the world has become a smaller and smaller place with the help of technology. It is much more cost effective to be able to include in your fashion marketing strategy a global push rather than just a regional one. This is not always possible because of cultural differences, but it is certainly a goal worth pursuing whenever possible.
Fashion advertising can be tailored for customers around the world in media, print, and internet. Images can remain the same with words and speech changing to include the core audience.
Fashion marketing, advertising, and design all go together to create one fluid business model that creates product and then is able to see that product through with the precision of a well orchestrated marketing campaign.
Fashion merchandising starts on the runway and concludes in the retail store. It is the coming together of product, placement, promotion and price. This is really where the rubber meets the road. If you want to sell you must get this right.
Retail fashion marketing is where your money comes from. You absolutely can’t overlook the retail store. If you do you will fail. All fashion marketing research leads to this one area-The Consumer. The consumer will determine if you will be successful or just another has been in the fashion industry. The retail store, and more and more internet shopping sites, is where the consumer will cast their votes.
Fashion marketing is a large industry that serves a great purpose in society. People feel good with fashion, they make decisions based on fashion, and project images that depend on fashion. Fashion marketing helps people develop these ideas.