Fashion retailing, marketing

Once the clothes have been designed and manufactured, they need to be sold. But
how are clothes to get from the manufacturer to the customer? The business of
buying clothes from manufacturers and selling them to customers is known as
retail. Retailers make initial purchases for resale three to six months before the
customer is able to buy the clothes in-store.
Fashion marketing is the process of managing the flow of merchandise from the
initial selection of designs to be produced to the presentation of products to retail
customers, with the goal of maximizing a companys sales and profitability.
Successful fashion marketing depends on understanding consumer desire and
responding with appropriate products. Marketers use sales tracking data, attention
to media coverage, focus groups, and other means of ascertaining consumer
preferences to provide feedback to designers and manufacturers about the type and
quantity of goods to be produced. Marketers are thus responsible for identifying
and defining a fashion producers target customers and for responding to the
preferences of those customers.
Fashion marketing techniques apply many of the same marketing strategies that large
and small businesses use. Fashion marketing includes market research, advertising and
promotion. Research gathers information about the market for a particular brand or
product. Advertising helps generate sales, and promotion increases brand or product
awareness. Some fashion marketing techniques include fashion events, print
publications, press releases and media relations, digital media and product placement.

Fashion Blogs
People are frequently introduced to brands by friends and family, but they often
venture online to do their research and look for reviews from other customers. A
big part of the online community includes blogs and social networks. In many
instances, bloggers are also tweeting about the topics they discuss on their blogs.
Because of this, it's beneficial to establish strong, mutually beneficial relationships
with local and national fashion bloggers and websites as a part of your creative
marketing strategy. Develop interesting angles, as they are inundated with requests
from up-and-coming designers daily. Send a professional pitch and your look
book. If you need help locating bloggers and websites or determining what to send,
contact a public relations professional for assistance.

Fashion Showcase
Consider hosting a small gathering of 30 to 50 people to debut your line or
boutique to key people in the fashion industry. Invite bloggers, editors, buyers and
potential high-profile clients. This is a creative way to network and personally
introduce your brand through your own vision. During the event, allow time for a
small fashion show, and also display items throughout the room. You can use your
look book as inspiration and tie elements of it into your event.

Events
Fashion marketers conduct promotional events. Product launch events invite the
media and public or private guests to learn about new product offerings such as
jewelry and other accessories. Runway events showcase fashion apparel that is
worn by models. Spectators view the models to see how the clothing fits and
evaluate the overall look. Other events involve hosting or sponsoring charity
events and causes that help build brand awareness.

Print Publication
Fashion marketers use print publications to promote the brand or product offering.
Print publications include the brand's self-published magazines, trade and
consumer magazine advertisement, mailings and newsletters that feature individual
products, flyers and posters at store locations, point-of-purchase announcements
that are placed at the checkout counter, product inserts that are included with
product purchases and billboard ads along highways and city streets.

Press Releases
Fashion marketers create and distribute press releases. Fashion marketers use press
releases to announce the brand's activities. Releases may introduce a new fashion
line or brand, or introduce the brand's founders. Press releases often keep the
public informed about the brand's activities by announcing new and upcoming
product launches, runway events, successes and newsworthy stories about the
brand or individual products. Marketers distribute press releases to newspapers and
other media outlets, and may use a public relations firm to help reach larger
audiences.
Digital Media

Fashion marketers use digital media for research and promotion. Web technology
provides an efficient platform for collecting survey data that reveals information
about the brand's market. For example, some brands that process orders online ask
the customer to fill out a satisfaction survey after they complete the purchase.
Other Web technology involves social media applications that accomplish outreach
and promotional goals. Fashion marketers can keep target markets up-to-date with
live status messages, and use profile queries to find new potential customers and
distribute e-promos to relevant audiences.

Product Placement
Fashion marketers, publicists and other promoters use product placement
marketing techniques. Product placement techniques involve featuring fashion
items and apparel on television programs, movies and celebrities. Product
placement displays the product without explicitly advertising it, because this
marketing technique displays the product within the context of the primary
entertainment. Sometimes, television commercials follow-up on television shows
that feature product placement items to increase awareness or credibility.

Things to expect in the fashion marketing

Brands have continued to leverage social networks for big product launches. Previous
year, the fashion industry proved particularly keen on location-based gaming platform
Foursquare. Using Social media to run promotions or build buzz is an excellent
resource for the fashion industry to utilize. Namely, twitter is one of the biggest
emerging social media websites to execute promotions and also spread information
bursts to a target customer in a fast amount of time.
Consumers are tired with the omnipresent marketing. Consequently, to be more
effective, fashion marketers will have to reach further be more mature and try to
establish real relationships with fashionista, not only depend on the use of social media.
To accomplish that, in 2013, they will come back to the roots of the marketing and turn
away from the globalization:

Localization and targeting

Consumers are more and more convinced of small, local brands. Therefore releases will
have to be targeted more accurately, and marketers will have to take geo-localization
more seriously. Applications such as Foursquare or Facebook Places will be used more
often. Understanding the importance of the localization is already underway, but the big
fashion companies will still have to go down to a more local level than targeting their fan
pages or adverts.

This year, marketers will try to reach the single customer, for example by using geolocalizing applications and tools, and causing the change of the brands image the
global brand, marketers represent, will be perceived as a luxurious shop from the
neighborhood.

Distinction between mobile and tablet and integrating real and digital grounds
Fashion marketers will acknowledge the difference between people using smartphones
(concentrated on social media, but also on specific tasks) and people using tablets
(concentrated on social media, entertainment and information).
They will also remember that one person can use multiple, different devices. Thanks to
that, they will be able to use more accurate strategies, also those outdoors ones, and
better connect campaigns in real life with those in the web. And this is the main direction
of the evolution of the fashion marketing.

Integration of social media

A lot of social media come into being in recent years, and a lot of them we are able to
integrate. Unfortunately, the fashion brands still do not lead a coherent communication
on them and do not integrate them. I am sure it will change in 2013. Fashion brands will
see a potential and relatively low costs of a coherent social media strategy, thanks to
which they will be able to reach to a wide group of consumers and save on different
expenses (for example: on a media planning, or even SEO).

Tradition
Tradition is following just after geo-localization. Everyone likes the local fashion, mainly
because it allows distinguishing, identifying oneself, and underline ones descent and
individualism. The perfect example is Style Bubble, who builds her image and blog
power on that. In relation to this, in 2013, with the progress of so called fast fashion we
may be able to witness a twist in a fashion distribution as well as in communication
undertaken by the big brands with their customers.
The main fashion houses are already inspired by multiple cultures see Dolce &
Gabbana recent collections or pro-British communication by Burberry. I think they will
go even further they will refer to multiple customers traditions both in a content (of
different collections), and in a form of communication (variety of strategies, going back
to the provincial sales).
THE fashion industry functions much like your least favorite high school clique: A leader
boldly undertakes something new, a few imitators cautiously follow suit and the rest
then clamber to participate before the trend dies out.
The same pattern has emerged so far this year, as brands sample new digital and
mobile technologies to market to and engage with consumers. In particular, brands took
to location-based social network Foursquare to build buzz around new product

launches, like Jimmy Choo's line of trainers and Oscar de la Renta's limited-edition
series of python iPad clutches.
In addition to campaigns, fashion brands released a significant amount of behind-thescenes content on a regular basis, ranging from blurry mobile snapshots of runway
models for quick distribution over Facebook and Twitter, to professionally produce short
films delivered exclusively on company websites and mobile apps.

Why do brand fail?

Proper branding can result in higher sales of not only one product, but on other products associated with
that brand. For example, if a customer loves Pillsbury biscuits and trusts the brand, he or she is more likely
to try other products offered by the company such as chocolate chip cookies. Brand is the personality that
identifies a product, service or company (name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or combination of them) and
how it relates to key constituencies: customers, staff, partners, investors etc.
Some people distinguish the psychological aspect, brand associations like thoughts, feelings, perceptions,
images, experiences, beliefs, attitudes, and so on that become linked to the brand, of a brand from the
experiential aspect. The experiential aspect consists of the sum of all points of contact with the brand and is
known as the brand experience. The brand experience is a brand's action perceived by a person. The
psychological aspect, sometimes referred to as the brand image, is a symbolic construct created within the
minds of people, consisting of all the information and expectations associated with a product, service or the
company(ies) providing them.
Careful brand management seeks to make the product or services relevant to the target audience. Brands
should be seen as more than the difference between the actual cost of a product and its selling price - they
represent the sum of all valuable qualities of a product to the consumer.
Your brand strategy is how, what, where, when and to whom you plan on communicating and delivering on
your brand messages. Where you advertise is part of your brand strategy. Your distribution channels are
also part of your brand strategy. And what you communicate visually and verbally are part of your brand
strategy, too.
We are living in a world where water is sold with a name, clothes are being marketed with signature signs
and food items are being promoted with trademarks. The concept of branding has completely shaped the
way people consume commodities. Customers in this day and age prefer status symbols over necessity.
This shows the importance of branding and its influence on businesses.
Scott Bedbury, Starbucks former vice-president of marketing, controversially admitted that consumers
dont truly believe theres a huge difference between products, which means brands have to establish
emotional ties with their customers.
However, emotions arent to be messed with. Once a brand has created that necessary bond, it has to
handle it with care. One step out of line and the customer may not be willing to forgive.
This is ultimately why all brands fail. Something happens to break the bond between the customer and the
brand. This is not always the fault of the company, as some things really are beyond their immediate
control (global recession, technological advances, international disasters etc). However, more often than

not, when brands struggle or fail it is usually down to a distorted perception of the brand, the competition or
the market.
It takes years to erect a successful brand identity, but only an instant to destroy it. All the famous brands
and corporations have risen to their current status after a lot of painstaking effort. Failure is common for
small businesses and start-ups, but have we ever wondered how famous brands falter? Today, I seek to
uncover some of the most common reasons why renowned brands fall by illustrating the cases of some
famous brands.
Brand amnesia For old brands, as for old people, memory becomes an increasing issue. When a brand
forgets what it is supposed to stand for, it runs into trouble. The most obvious case of brand amnesia
occurs when a venerable, long-standing brand tries to create a radical new identity, such as when CocaCola tried to replace its original formula with New Coke. The results were disastrous.
Brand ego Brands sometimes develop a tendency for over-estimating their own importance, and their
own capability. This is evident when a brand believes it can support a market single-handedly, as Polaroid
did with the instant photography market. It is also apparent when a brand enters a new market for which it
is clearly ill-suited, such as Harley Davidson trying to sell perfume.
Short-Term Approach: For a successful brand, the short-term approach is always hazardous as it
restricts the domain and vision of the company. While it is an inherent truth that all companies are there in
the market to make money, one cannot keep such a short-term and narrow-minded mindset if it wants to
win customers for a longer period of time. A recent case in point was British Petroleum that didnt
accurately forecast the repercussions of its business on the environment and ended up becoming the bad
company in the eyes of the general public.
Brand megalomania Egotism can lead to megalomania. When this happens, brands want to take over
the world by expanding into every product category imaginable. Some, such as Virgin, get away with it.
Lesser brands, however, do not.
Brand deception Human kind cannot bear very much reality, wrote T S Eliot. Neither can brands.
Indeed, some brands see the whole marketing process as an act of covering up the reality of their product.
In extreme cases, the trend towards brand fiction can lead to downright lies. For example, in an attempt to
promote the film A Knights Tale one Sony marketing executive invented a critic, and a suitable quote, to
put onto the promotional poster. In an age where markets are increasingly connected, via the Internet and
other technologies, consumers can no longer be deceived.
Too Slow to Change: In this day and age, companies cannot afford to lag behind in technology and
advancement. Those who were too slow to adapt to the changing environment lost the race in the long run.
I remember a 64-Bit Commodore system lying in my attic that was once used by our grandparents for
computing and entertainment purposes. The company was too slow to update their systems and lost the
race to giants like IBM, Compaq and Apple.
Going Against the Image: Honda, Toyota, Ford and Ferrari all of these brands have built an image of
being reputable car manufacturers. This brand image is attached to the company and affects their future
operations as well. If one of these car manufacturers decide to enter a totally diverse field, lets say,
perfumes, would it be appropriate? Most certainly not! A similar case happened in 1999, when the famous
womens magazine, Cosmopolitan, introduced its own line of low-fat yogurt. The brand failed badly since
the customers were reluctant to accept a yogurt linked to a female magazine.
Brand paranoia This is the opposite of brand ego and is most likely to occur when a brand faces
increased competition. Typical symptoms include: a tendency to file lawsuits against rival companies, a
willingness to reinvent the brand every six months, and a longing to imitate competitors.

Some Examples:
Outkast clothing Created By: Outkast Founded: 2002
When Outkast announced that they were going to launch their own clothing line, Andre said that fans would
be able to get "everything...the furs, the leathers...hats...everything." But when it hit stores it looked like a
rehashed Enyce. It didn't represent 3 Stacks, the George Clinton of hip hop style or Big Boys fly pimp
stylings. It was just kind of boring. And they never wore it. Rule #1 of the celebrity clothing game: If you
don't wear your clothes, no one else will.
Levis - Type 1 Jeans
Apparently jeans that are perfect for those situations when you're being dragged through the dirt while
hanging on to a rope wrapped around a possessed car dont resonate with the masses. This confusing
Super Bowl commercial was simultaneously the debut and the death knell for Levi's Type 1 Jeans.
Why it failed: Fashion is a capricious field. The designers at Levis made Fashion Fumble #41b:
Celebrating the launch of a product before checking to see if anyone RSVPd to the Evite.

Clothing Brand Promotion

Brand promotion is a strategy that is commonly used in marketing in order to
increase customer loyalty, awareness of products, and sales. Instead of focusing
on a specific product or products, a company instead tries to focus on the
promotion of its brand.
Great brands are no accidents. They are a result of thoughtful and imaginative
planning. Anyone building or managing a brand must carefully develop and
implement creative brand strategies.
To aid in that planning, three tools or models are helpful. Like the famous Russian
nesting
matrioshka dolls, the three models are inter-connected and become larger and
increasing in scope: The first model is a component into the second model; the
second model, in turn, is a component into the third model. Combined, the three
models provide crucial micro and macro perspectives to successful brand building.
Specifically, the three models are as follows, to be described in more detail below:
1) Brand positioning model describes how to establish competitive advantages in the
minds of customers in the marketplace;
2) Brand resonance model describes how to create intense, activity loyalty
relationships with customers; and

3) Brand value chain model describes how to trace the value creation process to
better understand the financial impact of marketing expenditures and investments.
Collectively, these three models help marketers devise branding strategies and
tactics to maximize profits and long-term brand equity and track their progress
along the way
One of the biggest problems new clothing lines face is promoting their brand in such a saturated
market. For typical clothing, not only are you promoting yourself to the stores that you will sell to but
also the end user. As a result of the importance of self-promotion you will find that most of the time
you will spend running your clothing line will be promoting your brand and its ethics.
Using wholesale clothing as a promotional giveaway is a great way to brand your business and get
your logo and company name recognition as well as exposure. Not only that, but brand name
clothing is more likely to be worn frequently by your employees, clients, and just about everyone,
bringing you extra advertising impressions along the way. Increase the visibility of your corporate logo
and brand message in the communities you value most. This thoughtful and significant practice is not
only a useful marketing technique but also rewards recipients with designer apparel that impresses
the high-quality values now connecting your brand and the manufacturer. And available in women's,
men's, and children's sizes and styles, Pinnacle Promotions has perfect piece of brand name
wholesale clothing to fit your needs, brand, and budget.
Develop a brand strategy to help you communicate your positioning and value proposition every
time you touch your market. Together, these strategies are the essential building blocks for your
business.

BRANDING AND MESSAGING

Branding is a powerful tool for positioning your product. Branding is used on almost all customer
facing elements of a product, from the packaging design to the style of writing used on posters. Every
communication a customer received ads up to form a mental picture of your brand and can
influence the price they are willing to pay for your products. This ability to charge more due to the
positioning of your product is known as 'brand equity'. Your branding also needs to consider your
unique selling points (USPs) and ensure these are easily recognized through your messaging is your
product the best value, longest lasting, sweetest smelling or fastest?
GETTING THE BEST RESPONSE
To get the best response from your target market, you need ensuring the message is relevant and
clear once you've managed to gain the valuable attention of your customer the last thing you
want is for them to be confused about what you're saying. Determine the objectives of the advert
and ensure these aims are addressed clearly. Think about the next steps you would like the audience
to take, whether this is visiting a website, ringing a number, or being able to recall your brand when
they are next in the shops.

Case Study
Colorplus: consistency pays
Color-plus was launched in 1993 by color-plus Fashions which was a unit of
Coimbatore based Ambattur Clothing Limited. It was launched at a time where
no global brands were seriously exploring the Indian market. I would say that no
serious branding effort was there in place during that time. The ready to wear
segment was in a nascent stage. Color-plus as a brand now has an iconic
status in the ready-made segment. The brand which is carefully crafted and
brilliantly communicated is the perfect example of brand management.
Rajendra Mudaliar, managing director, and Kailash M Bhatia, CEO has been
clear on what the brand is and how this is to be communicated.
In 2003 this brand was acquired by Raymond. I thought that the communication
and brand strategy would change but to my pleasant surprise, it is the same.
Thank God...
The brand falls under the Smart casual segment in the ready to wear market
with its presence in South and west Asia. In this era of celebrity endorsement, this
is a brand which uses no celebrity, and Color-plus is always the star. The brand is
exposed through careful media selection and you never see a TVC of this

brand. The copy and the layout are ever so consistent and the ad has
maintained a classy look throughout its existence.
Seen only in premium publications and business magazines reveals that the
brand is clear about the target segment.
Raymond by acquiring this brand has now entered the premium casual wear
segment which is now fast growing. With Parx at the lower end and Color-plus
on the premium end, Raymond is hoping to gain a major foothold in the Indian
ready to wear segment in years to come.

Marketing Strategies of Garments Industry of India

The ready made garments industry has been chosen for various reasons. Firstly it plays an
important role for its directly concerned to one of the basic needs of every citizen. The garments
industry operates in a highly complex environment. Indian garments industries has been creating
in a rapidly changing environment particularly since mid-seventies. It is therefore important to
examine what the modern trend are being introduced by the companies in their marketing
strategies and cope with the changing environment because this is a fashion age and everyone is
concerned about the new fashion and wants the new test specially the young generation. Second
reason to choose the ready made garments industry is that the contribution of the garments sector
in the sphere of production, earning of foreign exchange and investment in the Indian economy
has been quite significant. Third, the functional performance of majority of the garments sector
that is in the private sector deserves a significant consideration. The profitability trends, working
of garment units dependence of garments industries on imports are some of the areas which
have also been touched upon and lastly the leadership role of garments sector in India as this is
the second employment providing sector after agriculture. The garments industry alone provides
the major employment to the Indian citizen as this sector is concerned to small scale industries
sector.
A marketing strategy serves as the base of a marketing plan. A marketing plan contains a list of
specific actions required to successfully implement a specific marketing strategy. An example of
marketing strategy is as follows: "Use a low cost product to attract consumers. Once our
organization, via our low cost product, has established a relationship with consumers, our
organization will sell additional, higher-margin products and services that enhance the
consumer's interaction with the low-cost product or service." Without a sound marketing
strategy, a marketing plan has no foundation. Marketing strategies serve as the fundamental
foundation of marketing plans designed to reach marketing objectives. It is important that these
objectives have measurable results.
Observing how people shop, when they shop and where they purchase from is crucial for
determining future marketing strategies. In 2005, only half of the American populace shopped
online. By 2008, that number grew to 65 percent and continued to jump each subsequent year.
This reality forced many retailers to expand their Internet presence by purchasing more online
advertising and not just advertising in fashion magazines. In addition, companies were forced to

improve or establish their e-stores to allow for convenient shopping. Companies increasingly
partner with member-only communities and other merchants to sell product.
Marketing is the process of developing and communicating value to your prospects and
customers. Think about every step you take to sell service and manage your customers:
Your knowledge of the market and your strategy to penetrate it
The distribution channels you use to connect with your customers
Your pricing strategy
The messages you deliver to your market
The look and feel of your marketing materials
The experience you deliver to your market and customers
The actions of your sales and service reps
All of the planning, preparation, forecasting and measurement of your investments
From the diagram, the main components of a marketing plan can be summarized as:
Component of the plan

Description

Mission statement

A meaningful statement of the purpose and direction of the

business

Corporate objectives

The overall business objectives that shape the marketing plan

Marketing audit

The way the information for marketing planning is organised.

Assesses the situation of marketing in the business the products,
resources, distribution methods, market shares, competitors etc

Market analysis

The markets the business is in (and targeting) size , structure,

growth etc

SWOT analysis

An assessment of the firms current position, showing the strengths

& weaknesses (internal factors) and opportunities and threats
(external factors)

Marketing objectives and What the marketing function wants to achieve (consistent with
corporate objectives) and how it intends to do it (e.g. Ansoff,
strategies
Porter)
Marketing budget

Usually a detailed budget for the next year and an outline budget
for the next 2-3 years

Action plan

The detailed implementation plan