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
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

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

watches cell phone Buy Bern Berkeley Winter Snowboarding Helmet Buy Auburn Gear 5420113 High Performance Series Differential Best Price Dual Motor Deluxe Power Unit For

The Psychographics of a Fashion Marketing Campaign

We talked last issue about the "oh my god" effect that happens between like-minded people upon recognition of each other, and as promised in a previous article, I'll elaborate.

Profile of Shattered Girlz

I met the designer of a fantastic t-shirt brand the other day that operates under the label "Shattered Girlz." She has a gripping personal story that instantly inspires one to root for her success. She suffered betrayal from men into whom she poured her heart and soul, and who in one case left her for another woman while she was caring for her terminally ill parents. This designer has an avatar, Dolly Tatume, a tattooed cartoon beauty whose life and loves are chronicled through the various t-shirt designs in the line. Dolly has also been involved in some dead-end relationships with men that have caused her a lot of pain, to the point that she refers to the men in her life as "Piggys." There are several female tattooed characters in the line that represent different examples of female empowerment, like a dancer, a corporate lawyer, a college student, even a soldier. Shattered Girlz's tagline at the moment is "Shattered Girlz: I can't be broken!"

The Psychographics of a Fashion Marketing Campaign

Psychographical Analysis of Shattered Girlz

Wikipedia's definition of psychographics is as follows:

Psychographic variables are any attributes relating to personality, values, attitudes, interests, or lifestyles. Some categories of psychographic factors used in market segmentation include Social class, Lifestyle, Behavior, Opinions, and Values. Psychographics can also be seen as an equivalent of the concept of "culture" as used most commonly in national segmentation.

Let's analyze the various aspects of this product line in terms of psychographics. Here's what I come up with:
Social class: young, college-aged urban women, perhaps in a street counterculture Lifestyle: goth and tattoos Behavior: searching for self-expression and empowerment Opinions: a negative attitude toward men in general, however fleeting Values: Women can rise from the ashes

Now, I don't know about you, but whenever someone tells me their story of heartbreak, I'm instantly captivated. However, it would be the wrong move in this case to market this product to all women, even though we can all relate. Instead, we need to find a smaller subsection of all women, in this case young women. But can we drill down any further? I think so, and the next subset would be young women who are into the tattoo lifestyle.

Though I myself don't have one, tattoos are interesting because they provide a deeply personal expression of the wearer's soul that mere words cannot transmit. Many people get a tattoo after the birth of a child, after the loss of a loved one and other such life-changing events. These are people who find expression in the visual arts; in fact, many of today's coolest tattoo artists come to the field with technical and fine art training. There are even shows about tattoo studios, like Inked and Miami Ink and LA Ink.

The Plan

Because of tattoo art's strong graphic element, my suggestion to this designer was to start a comic book. In fact, the plan I built for the beginning stages of her email marketing campaign includes the following: Concentrate on certain keyword themes that resonate with young women who get tattoos: feminine tattoo designs, female ink, lower back tattoos, tramp stamps, broken heart tattoos, girl genius, lost girls, girl's club, just to name a few.

Turn her blog into a subscription-based, free comic book. Create a pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaign based on the keyword themes to promote the comic book. Create a landing page for a subscription to the comic book. Make sure it uses the keyword themes as well. Ensure that the comic book site advertises the Shattered Girlz t-shirt line. Invite comments or questions about each installment of the comic book. This can spark a dialogue with the readers, inspire suggested storylines or characters from them, thereby creating a rudimentary online community (aka: captive marketing niche). This also appeals to the "goth" community, since they can sometimes trend toward the clannish. Create an excuse to email these subscribers regularly via comic book teasers, contests, etc., while also including a sales message in each of these emails.

I am very certain that this sort of targeted activity, which is also very process oriented and methodical, will garner her lots of results. I should point out for the record that this type of list building will take some time, perhaps even as much as three months or more. We're not talking about get-rich-quick schemes here.

But consider what will happen once she does build a list and eventually markets to it successfully. Sooner or later there will be flocks of beautiful tattooed college-aged young women who sport a Dolly Tatume t-shirt and who, upon crossing paths, will instantly exchange knowing, sympathetic looks. They may even engage each other in conversation, talking about the emotional wreck that used to be their lives and how Dolly and the gang really speak to them. They may even talk about the Shattered Girlz items they each have (ohmigodyouhaveadollyshirttoo!), and if we've played our cards right, they'll even recommend certain Shattered Girlz products to each other.

And this is exactly what we want to happen.

I'll keep readers posted on the results of this campaign on my blog. Until next time!

The Psychographics of a Fashion Marketing Campaign
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

Are you an independent fashion designer who struggles with the need to promote your brand but who doesn't have the money to pay a full-service marketing agency? Learn how to reach out to the consumer to generate sales and strengthen brand recognition by signing up for The Email Diva's weekly marketing newsletter at [http://emaildiva.net] EmailDiva.net is led by Andrea Merida, a long-time small-business consultant with particular experience in helping scrappy independent fashion designers break out into the fashion world. Sign up for the Email Diva's newsletter TODAY at [http://emaildiva.net]

watch cell phone Best Price Art S8 Balanced 8 Channel Microphone Best Price Dual Motor Deluxe Power Unit For