The Power Of Fashion Marketing
Designing and manufacturing clothing is just the beginning of the process that ends with the consumer purchasing the clothes and taking them home. One of the most important parts of the process is fashion marketing. Labels probably spend more money on marketing than they do on producing the clothes people wear every day. Fashion marketing is more than just advertising. It also includes designing, the choice of colors selected, and business administration as well. Without these areas working in combination, creating a market full of consumers ready and willig to purchase the clothes would be near impossible.
Read more: 10 Schools of Fashion Marketing
Creating A Market
It used to be said if you build a better mousetrap people will beat a path to your door. Fashion labels do not have time to wait and hope the consumer will find them. With thousands of labels creating new garments every season, unless a clothing manufacturer is able to grab the consumer’s attention and keep it, they may end up going out of business. That is why fashion marketing is so important. Fashion marketing is the process of making consumers aware of the clothing a manufacture has available and motivating them to seek the clothing out and purchase it.
Leaving Nothing To Chance
It takes a deep understanding of consumers and the fashion world for a fashion label to get a new clothing line the attention it needs in order to be successful. Fashion marketers must know what types and colors of clothing consumers prefer at the moment and what will be hot in the near future. That takes vision and a little bit of luck. But fashion houses spending untold sums of money producing clothing cannot afford to hope they will be lucky enough to sell them. Instead they create excitement around the clothing and convince consumers the line of clothing is the hippest and hottest thing around and it will make the consumer look great.
Behind The Scenes
Much of the work involved in fashion marketing happens behind the scenes. Fashion labels hire scientists and researchers to help them understand what motivates consumers to purchase certain items of clothing. They leave nothing to chance. They try to identify the hidden persuaders that will attract consumers to their clothing. Fashion houses study consumer buying habits, keep abreast of trends, and create marketing campaigns aim at certain key demographics. They leave nothing to chance. These companies conduct focus groups and hire innovative marketing companies to get their clothes into the faces, minds, and closets of the consumer.
Crafting An Image
Fashion marketing focuses on crafting and conveying a certain image of a label to the public. Whether that image is quality, comfort, durability, or style, they drum it into the minds of the public to the point where the consumer begins to parrot the fashion label’s marketing line without even realizing it. Then the fashion manufacturer goes even further. They link their clothing to celebrities, use product placement in movies, television shows, music videos and more. The labels often go as far as to make sure their merchandise is offered in select stores depending on whether they are trying to create mass appeal or they are looking for a specific, exclusive demographic.
A Team Approach
Fashion marketing takes team work. Some members of the team focus on researching fabrics and how they impact consumer buying choices. Other members of the team may focus on identifying ways to reach the demographic group the company wants to reach. There are members of the fashion marketing team whose only job is to make agreements with particular celebrities to wear the clothing. It is the job of other members of the team to organize and host fashion show in New York, Paris, London, Milan, and all the world’s fashion capitals. Still other members of the fashion marketing team are responsible for getting the clothes into the right stores as fast as possible.
Using Media Wisely
Placing pictures of clothing in the right publications and splashed across billboards, and busses is also very important. To give their fashion an even broader reach, some fashion labels work in conjunction with websites to make select pieces of the fashion line to make an internet sensation. They the add the use of innovative radio and television advertising to get their brand into the public consciousness and keep it there. This type of media saturation can cause the general public to go into a frenzy seeking out and buying clothing from a particular label.
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The Power of Exclusivity
Another very effective fashion marketing tactic is exclusivity. Some clothing lines do not plaster their products all over the media. The simply select certain highly respected and admired people to wear their clothing. The fashion label may also limit the stores where their clothing can be purchased. This tactic is generally employed by fashion labels that carry very expensive clothing lines. Clothing worn by kings, queens, and captains of industry. These people are able and willing to pay any price for clothing that looks great and are never worn by the unwashed masses.
Some labels use a multipronged approach to fashion marketing. They have high-end styles that appeal to one demographic and diffusion lines to market through department stores and chain retailers. It all depends on the goal of their fashion marketing campaign, the demographic at which it’s aimed, and the most effective method for getting it done right.
Examples for Fashion Agencies: