Unit 16 : Marketing campaigns

«New marketing ideas are critical to business success.»

Perhaps this is one of the most important things to learn from the fashion industry. The sense of style never changes. This is evident from the work of great designers who exist or have ever lived. But from a business perspective, just passion and warmth are not enough. Marketing is the minimum requirement for the success of a fashion business.

Promotion in this industry is a very broad issue and requires much more in-depth study. To start your preparation process, we picked up a few “killing” ideas that you can safely turn into your marketing and earn.

• Get ready for all the strategies

Before moving on to the search and implementation of unique marketing ideas, you need to be fully prepared for marketing. Without market analysis, you cannot pick up an idea that will show even the most minimal result. The best marketing strategy always starts with following the basic principles of promotion:

• −  identify key business goals;
• −  select promotion channels;
• −  identify the target audience and its behavior;
• −  ensure competitive positioning;
• −  work on content;
• −  provide online customer interaction.

• Create a catchy slogan (communication)

The first thing you need to do right now to create a differentiation factor for your brand is to create a slogan that will emotionally connect with your market. For example, if you are targeting a female audience that loves traveling, combine these two factors.

It can be something banal, like “Freedom in traveling” or “Travel with a feeling of lightness”. Maybe a more complicated phrase. We won’t give you the real slogan at this moment: it’s a creative and it costs money. But there are a few examples that you can view to stimulate your vision.

Levi’s – style for every story. Realistic slogan. Everyone has a life story. While we are telling it, the listener roughly represents the clothes based on the situation. Some storytellers even focus on their clothes. Thus, each story has its own style. Levi’s used this fact and achieved success.

Diesel – be silly. It doesn’t sound very good at first, right? But, such a slogan prompts to know its roots and essence. Accordingly, it is already attracting attention to the brand. “Be stupid” is a campaign that encourages consumers to take risks and go beyond the limits of life. Such an idea is motivating, isn’t it? This is a catchy slogan, but this approach is only suitable for those brands that constantly focus on negative marketing.

Nothing will pass me and my Calvin’s. Humorous slogan. But it notes the strength of consumer relations and things. The integrity and cleanliness of his wardrobe is very important to a person. If no one from outside exerts influence, the “safety” of things remains at the proper level. So, Calvin Klein reminded people how to relate to their things and to the CK brand in particular.

Lee – The Jeans That Built America. In this case, the brand tells the world that their jeans were worn by everyone who once built the greatest power today.

• Use social networks

This approach is more and more obvious, but at the same time not enough attention is paid to it. The difficulty is that many do not know how to effectively use social networks. In the short term, the ROI of this method is very low. Why? It is necessary to get to the audience and understand its behavior. But if you are in this game for a long time, then the money will definitely pay off and make a profit.

In the field of fashion, one of the best ways to use a social network is to consider it as a means of telling a story.

Create a real and reliable brand history, and then think about how to properly provide this information to the consumer. Divide it into several posts to keep the intrigue and desire to return to your account all the time. Tell us about the unique cases that occurred during the development of the brand.

For a story to be successful, it must be formulated as a series of expressive ideas. For example, each post is a story about a significant problem and the way you came up with to solve it.

Everlane – Know Your Factory and Costs: Always Ask – Why? This brand tells about its own factories and workshops, specific materials. This provides radical transparency. A similar idea after Everlane began to be used by many novice brands.

The company talked about factories and working conditions to show its reliability. Here they displayed their transparency and positioned themselves as an “environmentally conscious” brand. The modern consumer always wants to think that he does not harm the environment by buying certain things.

Wabby Parker. The brand tells its story about how they launched their own car to combat the status quo of expensive glasses and how one company maintained a monopoly in the market. That’s what they say to their consumers:

«By passing the traditional channels and creating our own points, we directly interact with the buyer. Thus, we can offer better products with a “special” recipe for a small price».

They continue to talk about this story, supporting the nonprofit organization VisionSpring, distributing glasses without glasses with every pair sold from their brand.

• Giveaway Campaigns

This approach has been trending for several years. It is especially popular in the fashion industry. Why? The brand always has many positions that can be presented to the consumer. A company never loses profits using such a strategy.

One of the tasks that this campaign solves is to increase brand awareness. Creating viral ads is a very expensive pleasure. At the same time, telling people about the gift is very cheap. Why? They respond quickly to free stuff.

Lay out all your own goods in front of you. Think about what you can give to any consumer without any problems. Find a unique idea to present such a gift. Promote it through all kinds of sources. Tell us about your generosity.

It is important to understand that such a strategy does not bring immediate results to increased sales. The user needs to realize the brand value in order to return after the gift received and buy something else.

On the other hand, you can be motivated to receive a gift. For example, “Buy 5 dresses and get a ticket to your band’s concert.” In this case, the gift offer itself should be more valuable. After all, first the consumer will have to spend a considerable amount.

• Make friends with competitors

Many market players very often perceive other brands in their niche as competitors. But if you take a short break and study different companies in more detail, you can find companies that will become your partners.

Joint product promotion works much more efficiently. Firstly, two teams work on advertising, instead of one. Secondly, consumers begin to discuss the benefits of each brand. Thirdly, the uniqueness of your offer is growing. And the user begins to select it. The power of partnerships in the fashion industry deserves a special place. Then it is important not to lose sight of the opportunities for cooperation with other brands. These things accopmlish wonders with both advertising and results.

• Find a brand ambassador

How often do you see the words “Brand Ambassador …” in the profile header of a famous person? Almost constantly. This is one of the best ways to convey the value of your company to the end user.

If you have the money to go for the greatest celebrities, this is great. In this case, the search for a brand ambassador is not difficult. But if not, you don’t have to wait until the money appear to consider a similar strategy.

Scroll through YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms for new talents that match your brand and talk with them about cross-promotion. You can grow with rising stars, providing each other development and increased recognition.
Educate and promote talents. When they really reach great heights, your brand will get a huge rush of consumers. This is an effective and inexpensive way to promote.

The strategy may seem very complicated, because you need to find a person whom the public does not know very well, to grow a “leader” out of him. But this approach is guaranteed to provide a return on investment.

If you do not have a large marketing budget, you can safely assume that the best place to start a promotion journey will be promising talent. For example, this can be found on the conditional “The Voice”. On such shows, people get their first popularity and attract public attention.

• Start blogging

In the modern world, a blog is a working marketing idea, regardless of business. But, in many industries it must be made part of the site. Website development is an additional cost. The advantage of the fashion industry is that you can start a blog here without having a website. Why?

• −  too wide range of possible topics for discussion;
• −  human interest in fashion.Every day, millions of users ask Google to help with the color scheme, choose the style for the event, evaluate the compatibility of accessories and so on. All this is part of fashion. You, as the owner of the brand, must understand this. Most importantly, you can teach all this to your consumer.

  First of all, in this way you will gain trust. As soon as your tips help users become more attractive in the real world, they will follow you so as not to lose the level.

  Also, an interesting and informative blog will increase the recognition of you as a person. This will be useful during the development of your own brand. Why? People will no longer have questions about whether you understand the style. Accordingly, your brand and things will become trendy by default.

  Each new blog topic creates a landing page for your audience. In addition, the blog can be used to distribute any news or updates that occur in your company. You can provide users with new styles with real-life examples to help the audience with their appearance depending on the season.

In general, a blog is about ensuring close contact with the target audience, increasing recognition and increasing the level of trust.

• Spend more promotions during the holidays

By the time of the holidays, many buyers become inclined to shopping. After all, you need to find gifts for your family and friends. Buying things from a brand is always one of the ideas for a gift.

Therefore, as soon as a mass holiday is approaching, accumulate your resources and promote the brand several times more. From banal emails to marketing through brand ambassadors.

Come up with interactive ones. For example, if it’s Easter, do something like “egg hunt” on your website. Place Easter eggs on different products, having found which the consumer will be able to get a discount. Such a move costs almost nothing, but it stimulates interaction with the user and gives him a chance to buy goods cheaper.

Creative in the midst of the holidays knows no bounds. This is your chance to not only get to know a new audience, but also to show that they will never be bored with your brand.

• Stimulate an audience to create a community

You can have tens of thousands of buyers, but it costs nothing if they do not generate content for your brand. Therefore, it is necessary to stimulate the promotion of your brand in any way.

One of the easiest ways is to create hashtags. It very well affects the female part of consumers. Very often, after making a purchase, they want to share their experience on social networks. If you have a unique hashtag, then be sure that it will appear on the pages of different users. Accordingly, there will be an instant increase in coverage and recognition.

When you have a permanent brand community, they will themselves seek news about your company. Thus, they increase the reputation of the company among search engines. So, search engines will begin to trust you more. And next time, after the next request “to buy a beautiful dress for the conference,” your site will be one of the first.

• Do not be afraid of discounts
Many brands do not give big discounts because they are afraid of losses. Thus, they lose the competition. Why?

The consumer goes where it’s cheaper. And if a reliable brand at one moment screams about the low cost of some thing, then the client is even more willing to buy from him. Then he will tell friends about the discount. Thus, the store will be hype, and by the end of the day there will be need to lay out new goods on the shelves.

But the main thing in this approach is not just to provide a discount, but to blow about it in all possible ways. Social networks, ambassadors brands, billboards, signs at the entrance to the store, posting information on the site. Discount advertising must be viral. In this case, it is necessary to provide a deadline. Explain that the special offer does not last long and you need to act now.

A commonplace example is Black Friday. This is a golden time for business. Many consumers do not even think that they spend much more money on things than usual. Why? Delicious price beckons them.

Therefore, do not be afraid of discounts and draw attention to your brand this way. Most importantly, do not underestimate the price too much. Otherwise, there will be doubts about the quality of the product.

• It’s easy to move in fashion

Despite high competition, fashion marketing is one of the easiest. Firstly, there is a field for creativity. Secondly, there is always a buyer. Target audience – the whole world (with the exception of “exotic” styles). Thirdly, the style is constantly talked about, because the name of the brand can be on the lips of many customers.

All that is needed for success is to start the marketing machine and not stop it