Daiseana M Leonard Subject Professor’s name November 10, 2019 Advertisements and marketing in the fashion industry The fashion industry is one of the greatest growing and flourishing industries in today’s world. The tastes and trends of the fashion diligence are highly followed by people all around the world. The fashion industry has now become a way to express oneself. "Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak." Competition is an essential element in markets and the level of competition in the industry is high that means firms in the fashion industry have to compete to survive in the industry. These firms compete in various ways including price wars, introducing new innovative products for customers, advertisements and marketing that can be informative and persuasive. Moreover, the firms in the fashion industry can also compete by creating their brand loyalty among the customers that can be achieved by offering after-sale services, low prices, and good quality products, etc. Recently, firms have aggressively started to compete through marketing and advertisements. Fashion industry firms have started to invest a huge sum towards their marketing departments because right marketing can lead to the achievement of long term goals of the firm. Fashion and advertisements have a positive relationship the better and attractive the advertisements the more are the chances for a firm in the fashion industry to flourish. Advertisements are notices or announcements on public platforms that can be visual or in written form. On the other hand, marketing is a research process of gathering, analyzing and communicating decision-oriented information to use in making strategies to promote the brand or product. Through advertisements and marketing, fashion firms are able to communicate with their target market and can create a certain image of an impact too. The firms need to closely set up strategies for their advertisements and marketing campaigns in order to create a positive image.
In the past years, the platforms for advertisements and marketing have highly increased. Social media being one of the most influencing and important. That falls into the category of electronic media. Social media platforms like Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, and Tumblr have a high influence on today’s world. They have the power to make or destroy a brand's image. Fashion firms have taken full advantage of these platforms by making social media accounts and putting up an online catalog. This helps them advertise their brand in a less expensive way word-wide. Furthermore, these social media accounts help fashion firms communicate with their consumers. The internet era has made things easy in terms of easy advertisements and marketing. Customers are able to gain maximum information from one touch and are informed when a new product is launched. Furthermore, Fashion firm can hire social media models to promote their brand simply by wearing their clothes/accessories. Many note-able fashion firms have been promoting their brands in such ways, for example, Fashion Nova sponsoring Gabi DeMartino a Youtuber to wear their clothes for her Instagram pictures. Another way to inspire and attract customers is to provide them with the backstory of the brand by making videos and uploading them on social media accounts. A perfect example of this is Chanel inside alongside Chanel News, Inside Chanel is a microsite dedicated to telling the story of the brand – a key part of its overarching marketing strategy. Separated into 12 chapters, each detailing an important part of the brand’s history, it offers something of real value for consumers. Combining photography, digital sketches, and video – it uses rich content to bring the story to life. With 100 years of history, the in-depth and well-produced nature of the campaign also reflects the quality of the brand. This made a great impact on their target market because people got to know about their backstory and brand. Although social media plays a great role in advertising and marketing products it has brought many changes in the advertising and marketing market domain. On the contrary, many magazines and newspapers have lost business due to the increase in social media platforms since not many people prefer reading on pages these days. But, sometimes customers ignore online advertisements, there are technical problems due to the lo internet links or website downtime, There are too many options on the internet that creates a variety of choice for the consumers and they get distracted and it becomes difficult for them to narrow down choices. There has been an increase in online scams and it makes customers think twice before trusting advertisements online. The market of advertising and marketing has come a far way since the early years especially among the fashion firms. From door to door distribution of printed catalogs to online stores and catalogs just one click away. This truly has changed the market for advertisements and marketing for fashion, firms have moved from boring and irrelevant advertisements to eye attractive ones. Internet era has brought innovation and ease as fashion firms no do not have to allow a larger budget for marketing and advertisements. Even magazines and newspapers have made their social media accounts and online websites to stay up to date with today’s world. This has given the fashion firms a chance to create a worldwide image efficiently and effectively.
Over the years the marketing strategies in general of fashion firms have changed, they have been adopting various marketing approaches such as differentiated, undifferentiated and concentrated. Moreover, Fashion firms have lately been focusing on the use of the marketing mix that includes the 4 P’s Product, Price, packaging and most important promotions. In the marketing sense, promotion refers to the use of advertising, branding, sales promotions and public information to inform and persuade consumers. Marketing and advertisements are linked with each other. In other words, advertisements are marketing. There are three main types of advertising media, The most popular and common these are electronic media that mainly includes television, radio, internet, cinema, and local cable networks. Secondly, Print media that includes newspapers and magazines furthermore, outdoor publicity is the third type of advertising media that includes banners posters, billboards, wall chalking, leaflets, flyers, and pamphlets. As discussed before the use of electronic media is much more than the other two types due to obvious reasons for the internet era.
Fashion has found new roles and a way to showcase itself through different forms of advertisements and marketing. Six global brands (Zara, H&M, Prada, Gucci, Nike, and Adidas) were chosen to be analyzed due to their different types/category and their worldwide recognition. An ethnographic approach was used to conduct the data collection for a period of six months (Kozinets, 2010) to study how fashion brands are being successful in terms of online communication on Instagram. These are different types of fashion brands (i) Chanel, Prada, Dior, and Gucci are considered haute couture brands; (ii) Massimo Dutti, COS, and Hackett are considered high-fashion brands; (iii) Zara, H&M, Pull & Bear, and Asos are considered fast-fashion brands; (iv) Nike, Adidas, Reebok, and New Balance are considered sports brands. The Instagram accounts of these are globally active and not only national. A main attraction of Instagram is the interactivity of consumers with the brands, empowering consumers for online debates and participation in the decision-making process. While comparing the brands H&M had more videos of an image than Zara and more celebrity presence that gave them a competitive edge. H&M interacts with its customers more than Zara. On the other hand, comparing Gucci and Prada both of these brands have a strong presence and have good interaction with their customers. Both of the brands have celebrity supporting them as their ambassadors. While comparing Adidas and Nike. Adidas clearly has more posts and celebrity presence than Nike. Adidas also uses hashtags to promote their photos. At the end the of research it came into notice that according to the three main factors described above, H&M is the best brand communicating with the audience. Nike is the lower-ranked brand, with poor content and a very low number of photos and videos. The other brands have fulfilled almost every aspect that describes a successful communication.
This shows that people prefer those brands who communicate with the customers, look after their needs and satisfaction. Moreover, brands with celebrity presence attract more attention this is mainly because of their influencing powers as people intend to follow brands and styles wore by celebrities.
The fashion industry has been a great influence in terms of advertisements and marketing but, sometimes these advertisements and marketing are based on false facts and are persuasive. Moreover, the products provided on the base of these advertisements are not even one percent of what described in the advertisement or marketing campaigns. Such misleading advertisements, especially in the fashion industry cause chaos and this, make consumers question other brands who are selling legitimate products. “Telling lies does not work in advertising.” – Tim Bell. The result of these concerns has been attempting to increase regulation of advertising practices, Measures have been taken up to decrease advertisement frauds and to keep the customer community safe in the form of ASA in the US. ASA regulates advertisements that are misleading and takes action against them so that consumers are exploited. Here are some examples of false announcements and ASA taking up action against them, In the fall of 2012, the ASA in the United Kingdom banned a Christian Dior mascara advertisement featuring Natalie Portman because her eyelashes had been digitally altered to make them appear longer and thicker. The advertisement claimed that the mascara produced a “spectacular volume-multiplying effect, lash by lash.” The ASA banned the advertisement for exaggerating the effects of the mascara, which was misleading to consumers because there was insufficient evidence to suggest the product could actually produce eyelashes like those of Portman in the advertisement.
In early 2012, an L’Oréal ad for anti-wrinkle cream featuring actress Rachel Weisz was banned by the ASA for considerably changing the actress’s skin tone in a deceptive way and an exaggeration of the product’s possible results.111 In 2011, ads for L’Oréal-owned Lancôme brand and Maybelline brand foundations highlighting Julia Roberts and Christy Turlington, correspondingly, were also banned by the ASA for similarly deceptive consumers about the conceivable results of the product because of the digital augmentations to the skin of both women.
Fashion firms spend billions of dollars to make an advertisement to make their product a success but creating misleading advertisements is not an ethical way as consumers get highly exploited by paying a high price for an average product. Fashion firms owe loyalty towards their loyal customers in terms of providing them with the right information about the product, its making process, and ingredients. This can have a positive effect on the business and even create positive marketing and advertisements as a firm will be considered as socially responsible towards society, there will be lesser threats from pressure groups, less chances of legal actions, It’ll create a good image of the firm and positive impact on the consumers leading towards customer loyalty and a better brand image. At first, a fashion firm might face problems advertising in an ethical way but all problems are for the short term the long term benefits are greater and effect a fashion firm’s goodwill in a positive way. Management must change its approach towards business ethics and corporate social responsibility for smooth, long term and profitable business.
Advertisements and marketing play a great role in today’s fast-growing world especially in the fashion industry as they need to showcase their products through some channels of promotion.
The channels of promotions have changed rapidly since the early times and have become more responsive, innovative and effective that gives fashion firms a chance to showcase their product on a wider base and to a large audience even on a small budget i.e through social media. The internet era has opened gates to so many more potential markets and customers that can easily approach overseas products just by staying home. Internet Marketing is rapidly developing its ubiquity and significance. Today, the internet has become the center of attraction for the entire world. Entities of any age, ethnic upbringing and societal position are very much connected to the web. This has created so many opportunities for the fashion market to provide a wide variety of products that can be used worldwide. This will help a fashion firm expand and create a positive brand image based on diversity.
References
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