Monday, February 25, 2013

Fashion Marketing Planning

What's in a fashion marketing campaign?
 
This article explores the components of a fashion marketing plan and how fashion brands can enhance their marketing strategy. Fashion marketing is concerned with meeting the needs, wants, and demands of your targeted consumer, and these goals are accomplished using the marketing mix.

Fashion marketing is distinct from fashion public relations in that fashion PR is solely concerned with communications and how the brand communicates with and resonates with it's targeted consumers.

A fashion marketing plan focuses on four essential concepts: 1) product development, 2) distribution management, 3) communications, and 4) cost. In order to implement an effective marketing campaign, the marketing mix must be consumer centric and focused on niche markets rather than catering to mass markets. This concept simply means that the marketing strategy and implementation should have consumers and their needs, wants, and demands in the forefront and with a very defined market that it intends to target.

Fashion Marketing Planning

Niche marketing is more focused and cost-effective and allows the marketer to focus on a particular market segment. Otherwise, a mass marketing campaign is all over the place and lacks a defined consumer to market to.

As an example, imagine if the luxury brand Louis Vuitton was a mass retailer and did not cater to a niche market. Essentially, this would mean that Louis Vuitton would market its products to the masses, when in fact this is unrealistic. Louis Vuittton's price point does not allow the brand to cater to the masses, which is why the brand channels all of its marketing communications to the luxury market. However, that does not mean that the brand is off limits to consumers who do not exactly fall into the luxury market; it just means that the communications strategy and the brand identity would resonate more with consumers in the luxury market. This approach allows the business to remain competitive and effective in its strategic approach.

Components of a Fashion Marketing Plan
 
1)  Product Development

The most important component of the product development phase is not the product itself. The product is just the byproduct of this phase. The most important component of this phase are the consumers. Consumers dictate all the components of the marketing plan, and consequently, dictates what the product is. Keep in mind that today's highly competitive global marketplace requires that businesses are consumer centric and focus on serving consumer's needs. Consumers dictate what the pricing strategy will be, the points of distribution, the communications strategy, and the final product outcome. In the example given above regarding Louis Vuitton, the targeted consumers dictate what the associated cost and value will be for the brand.

There are two orientations of the product development phase. The business can be product-oriented and choose to develop products first then market it to its targeted markets. Alternatively, the business can be more market-oriented and segment its markets first to determine their specific needs, wants, and demands then create the product to meet those wants.

Due to the transient nature of the fashion industry, fashion marketers are under short marketing cycles since product needs are seasonal. As the seasons change so do trends and tastes. Consequently, marketers are required to constantly adjust their product offerings with time.

2) Price: Cost vs Value

The pricing strategy strictly relies on the market segmentation. With a consumer centric marketing focus, the pricing strategy would take into account the associated costs to the consumer and the value afforded to the consumer. Pricing may vary based on the market segment and their perceived value of the product or brand. A consumer buying a luxury brand perceives the product to be more valuable and in turn is willing to pay more for the product compared to a price-sensitive consumer or a product that is mass produced with minimal differentiation.

3) Distribution Management

The distribution strategy determines the convenience and availability of the product. Traditional distribution channels for fashion brands include branded flagship stores, independent retailers, department stores, and online distribution. The more distribution channels used the more intense the brand's exposure and the greater the availability to consumer markets.

4) Promotions & Communications

The promotional strategy entails how the brand will attract its buyers and the series of activities used to communicate to the targeted consumers. The activities in this phase include developing the brand and its identity, sales promotions, public relations, product placement, advertising, event marketing, and sponsorships.

Fashion Marketing Planning
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Fabiola Fleuranvil,

N.Y.L.A. Entertainment Group

Music Promotions | Fashion Marketing | Entertainment PR

Email: Fabiola@NYLAEntertainmentGroup.com

Web: [http://www.NYLAEntertainmentGroup.com]

Phone: (404) 437-0078

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Sunday, February 17, 2013

Effective Marketing Strategy in Retail

The retail sector is one of the most competitive in the business world, and so effective marketing strategy is needed in order to be successful. However, many retailers get caught up in the day-to-day running of their companies and don't use all their business strategy expertise to push their business forward. If you are in the retail business, then you need to wake up and think carefully about your current marketing strategy. If you don't you could find yourself trailing behind the competition and losing business to other retailers. If you want to improve your retail marketing strategy, then here is some advice to get you started.

Use the Internet

With the Internet increasing in popularity all the time, it is extremely important to use Internet marketing as a way to improve market share. In order to improve your access to customers, create a web site where customers can view your merchandise and possibly buy products online. Selling your products online is a great way of expanding your business without having to spend lots of money on new premises or retail locations. However, if you don't want to develop online business, then you can still advertise your business online. Effective marketing strategy should use all mediums available to improve business exposure, and with online advertising a low cost and effective medium it makes sense to take advantage of the opportunity.

Effective Marketing Strategy in Retail

Offer a promotion

Retail business is extremely competitive, and so even the smallest of promotions can give you an edge over your competitors. Your business strategy should be to come up with regular and innovative promotions to entice customers into your store. These promotions can range from offering a free gift with certain products to a competition entry when certain items are purchased. If you keep your marketing strategy fresh with new promotions then you will definitely remain competitive and will attract customers to your products.

Signage and storefront are important

Although you can use plenty of complex marketing strategy techniques to attract customers, nothing is simpler and more effective than having a bold and effective storefront and signage. If you have a shop window, then keep the displays up to date and imaginative. Change the display each season and alter your sign every few years to keep things looking good. However, make sure that you keep the signage them constant so that your brand and store are easily recognisable. Make sure your sign can be seen from as far a distance as possible. Sometimes, the simplest marketing strategies are the best, and keeping your store bright and attractive is one such method.

Ask customers what they want

Your marketing strategy ideas might be great, but if you really want to improve your business then you need to ask the people that matter most - the customers. Effective marketing strategy should always begin by asking customers what sort of products, services and promotions they want. This will give you a better idea of how to market your products and improve your customer base. If there is one thing you should learn about effective business strategy, it is to listen to your loyal customers and then cater to their needs through effective marketing strategy.

Effective Marketing Strategy in Retail
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Julie-Ann Amos is a freelance business writer on business and property investment, and owner of exquisitewriting.com She recommends http://www.singingpig.co.uk as one of the most effective sources of information for small businesses and property investment. Their property investment forum is a place to find information hard to locate elsewhere.

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Saturday, February 9, 2013

Email Marketing: The Best and Worst Times to Send Out a Campaign

The success of an email marketing campaign can be influenced by various factors. While access to a profiled and managed opt-in database ranks as one of the most important factors, other smaller things can actually play a bigger role in a campaign's success than marketers realise. One of these factors is timing; sending the right email at the opportune moment can help your brand see a big improvement in email open and click-through rates and ultimately sales.

The best times to send

Of course the best sending times may vary according to the kind of customers you will be targeting and may even be influenced by your local laws regarding direct marketing. But, general statistics have given email marketers a pretty clear idea of which time slots work best for certain industries. By looking at a breakdown of the day and how it is spent by the average consumer receiving your emails, you can determine the ideal timeslot that works for your campaign.

Email Marketing: The Best and Worst Times to Send Out a Campaign

Morning

The 9AM time slot has many benefits. This is usually the time most people actively check their email and plan their day and are therefore quite receptive to all manner of marketing emails received at this time. After 10AM however, most people start buckling down as work demands increase, a fact that makes this a slightly trickier timeslot to manage, especially if you are targeting professionals or high LSM groups.

Afternoon

The lunchtime spot is usually used by consumers to catch up on news and to catch up with their contacts on social networking sites. Studies show that people are less open to marketing messages at this time. After lunch most workers get back to it, however email offers related to financial services have shown to be successful during this time of day. The hours after 3PM have shown to be very successful for both financial as well as property services, as the work pace slows.

Evening

After 5PM, email marketers have noted a dramatic rise in holiday promotions being opened. As the work day draws to a close, people start putting their affairs in order and can easily be tempted by email marketing that promises to whisk them away. However, focus seems to still be on work at this time as there is also a steep increase in B2B emails opened in this timeframe. People become susceptible to consumer promotions as they begin to unwind. This is especially true for companies that cater to niche interest groups as people are most likely to be thinking about their hobbies and interests at this time. After this last buzz of email activity, it is ill-advised to send out further emails. Most countries, including South Africa has regulations such as the Consumer Protection Act that prohibit email marketers from sending emails after a certain hour - and these restrictions should always be respected. Campaigns that are sent out "after hours" not only do badly, they also reflect badly on your business.

Email Marketing: The Best and Worst Times to Send Out a Campaign
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About Digital Fire

Digital Fire, an email marketing and digital media specialist with a head office in Cape Town. Digital Fire specializes in full service opt-in email marketing, email data rental, email database management, social media consultancy and management as well as Search Engine Optimisation. We provide cutting edge digital marketing and advertising solutions for our clients locally and abroad. Contact us today for digital marketing success http://www.digitalfire.co.za/contact/

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Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Email Marketing - Using Personalization

Email marketing is the cornerstone of a successful internet business. Without email marketing, you can't gather leads to sell to, you can't do backend marketing, you can't effectively sell services to people, and you won't have a qualified bunch of people to sell to that can get you sales right away.

Now most people get email marketing all wrong. They follow the "gurus" and start emailing everyday, only to find themselves getting unsubscribed to by the masses everyday. Soon, the rate that people unsubscribe from their list is 1 out of every 3. These extremely poor numbers.

Here's a hint: don't email everyday. Email every 3 or 4 days. This is enough to get them the time to "miss you", but soon enough to keep you relevant in their minds. Now there is a tip that you will want to follow if you want to earn a lot of money from email marketing, and that's what I'm here to share with you today. Here's the tip for earning a lot of money with email marketing:

Email Marketing - Using Personalization

- USE PERSONALIZATION

A lot people online say that personalization doesn't boost email conversion rates. They say you can simply tell them to enter their email address, and they'll receive your free offer or whatever. But I personally disagree with this. I think that personalization makes a big difference.

Whenever I test between email only, versus first name and email address... the first name and email address ALWAYS makes me more money. Other folks beg to differ, but this is just my personal experience. Personalization makes people feel like you care about getting to know them, and people like to buy things from business owners who they trust.

Now I will say this: offering email online will indeed increase the amount of leads that you get - but it won't necessarily convert higher than requiring first name only. Personally capturing email only can create a wide variety of problems for you. You will get a lot of bogus email addresses, "robots" online can enter an email address into the email field, people tend to unsubscribe more, and etc.

Personalization is definitely something that you will want to do once you set up your squeeze page or have an opt-in form on your site or your blog. So always ask for a prospect's first name and email address. Some people like to take this concept further by asking for a first name, email address, and phone number.

Most people are fine with submitting the name and email, but the phone number is something that throws them off. This is a great way to suppress the number of leads that you can get. Unless you have a good reason for asking for phone number - I wouldn't do it, and you shouldn't either.

Email marketing is a great way to boost your sales online. And personalization is simply something that can increase your conversion rates easily. Don't ask for too much information though. The only time it's justifiable is if you plan on doing some direct mail to your leads. Otherwise, keep it simple.

Good luck with your email marketing efforts.

Email Marketing - Using Personalization
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Randall Magwood is one of the most respected and highly-regarded online marketing experts on the internet. He has a website about internet marketing that helps small business owners learn how to market their business online simply and easily. To learn more, simply visit his website here: Internet Marketing Secrets

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Sunday, February 3, 2013

The Importance of Email in Your Business

Emails has been a very essential communication tool in this age of technology, and with the growing number of businesses doing transactions online, the email is indeed a great tool in managing your business.

Even for personal use or organizational use, it has become a part of our everyday lives - from communicating with friends to closing a deal, to applying for a new job or for almost any other transaction we do online. In fact, most services on the internet, even social networking sites, would ask you your email address before you could use their services. Indeed, the importance of email is everywhere.

To understand more about the importance of email, particularly in your business, here are specific things that you can do with your email and some of its advantages.

The Importance of Email in Your Business

- Free communication. In any business, communication is an essential factor in any transaction, planning or organizing and emails are free for you to use to communicate with your employees, your clients, as well as your potential customers.

- Emails also have a wide reach. Telephones and mobile phones sometimes require you to have international sim cards to reach to other parts of the world, not to mention that it can also be very costly.

- Aside from its convenience in sending communication, the importance of email especially in businesses is to keep a record of the transactions of the businesses. Keeping an archive of your mails can be very useful in rechecking past information and transaction. It can also serve as repository of files, purchase orders, contracts, requests and other files that are attached in emails, as they can all be recovered later.

- For businesses who advertise online, one useful way of getting potential customers is by email, and in fact, getting an email is one important thing you need to have to introduce your product online and in availing into some online services and tools. A business website or an online store should have contact information like email to build credibility and trust for your clients and customers. It is also a good tool to deal with customer queries and feedback.

- Monitoring and managing your business even if you are not on the business site is also another importance of electronic mails. With portable gadgets able to send and receive emails, you can actually manage your business even if you are traveling or in another place.

- Emails are also great storage of your client's addresses, potential customers, friends, employees and people you use to work together with. This database of contact information can also be conveniently retrieved anytime in your address book.

- You can also make use of an auto-responder to be able to get in touch with your clients, your potential customers, your contacts even without being always checking on your mails. This can help you manage your customers in a fast and convenient manner.

Aside from these main uses of email, you can also manage your tasks with the calendars and scheduled tasks. Indeed, email has been indispensable in managing your business and because of the importance of email in managing your business, it is also important to be able to troubleshoot common email problems that may arise.

The Importance of Email in Your Business
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Carolyn Anderson loves to share solutions to problems with your emails. To help you deal with errors on sending mails with your laptop or mobile gadgets, check out SMTP 2 Go. For other internet tools you can use, check out Evidence Blaster, a software that can help you erase internet history.

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