Creation of a fashion brand
Aim at creating a possible plan to create a new fashion brand
The aim of this document is to create a possible and realistic simple plan on how to create a new fashion brand that designs high fashion clothing.
TARGET MARKET ANALYSIS
The first thing, that needs to be clarified is whether the business even has a chance to break into the chosen target market. To do so, certain questions must be answered, e.g.: Is there a high demand for the products sold in the target country? Who is the main target group? Which channels are the most suitable ones? How is the competitive situation there, and what other factors exist, that could either impede or conduce the business’s objectives & goals?
Situation Analysis: Profitability & Suitability
The brand has to aim at creating brand awareness and build a clientele. Alt-Hough there are many countries to choose from, the United Kingdom is the best one to start for various reasons.
The first one is the national language. English is a global language and spoken by over 1.5 billion people
The second reason is, London has long been the scene for high-fashion events and currently hosts a multi-billion market with brands like Burberry the biggest company in the UK. Based on its market capitalization the luxury fashion company is valued over 10 billion dollar and had revenue of 3.8 billion dollar in 2017. Burberry sells its products through retail and wholesale channel, retail sales accounted for 77% of revenue compared to 22% from wholesale.
The digital era and the media play a big role too because information resources and project inspirations are way more accessible than years before. Social Media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest made fashion accessible to anyone with internet connection and established a place to get inspiration form. Even though brick & mortar businesses are more popular, online retailers experienced a peak in 2020, which is directly related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Due to the lockdown, many people in the UK used quarantine as an opportunity to start a new hobby or continue doing it. In these instances, young girls have found themselves indulging in online shopping sessions that made fashion a new hobby and made it a form of art in which to relieve stress from the current situation of the planet. Besides that, Paul Baker, a director of the crafting & art web shop Baker Ross, gives another explanation, by saying, people are trying to divert themselves from these unclear & worrisome times with creativity and art. (Wood, 2020)
Target audience
Based on the information above now we can create our preferable target audience.
š First segment: people fond of fashion, looking for fresh designs and creative ideas that do not currently exist on the market
š S Second segment: people that are above the age of 16, to be able to have a job and fiscal possibility to spend money on high-quality clothing
š T Third segment: possible people that are part of wealthy families, able to afford and establish a loyalty relationship with the brand
Initial Situation
The United Kingdom offers a good basis for the brand to build on. Not only is there a big group potentially interested in the products, but the national language offers many opportunities to expand globally and reach customers all over the world. Although the US offers an even larger market, competition in the US business system is far too fierce. If the overall business concept already exists and offers nothing innovative, it is almost impossible for a new and rather small company to gain a foothold.
However, competition in the UK is very strong. A lot of brands offer high-fashion clothing and their presence and brand awareness in currently at a high rate. But this should not be discouraging as uniqueness and innovation are highly praised and sought after. That is the key of every concept.
DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAING
Since this brand is only factionary at the moment, it is not yet active in the United Kingdom, it is necessary to examine how to can penetrate the market in the best possible way. This chapter describes a digital marketing campaign plan based on goals, objectives, tactics, and strategies.
Goals & Objectives
The overall vision of this campaign plan is to build a clientele in the UK. This is a first step towards creating and expanding brand awareness and become internationally known with the intention to operate globally and to build a much larger customer base to ultimately increase turnover. To achieve this vision, goals need to be set according to the ‘5Ss’
Goal 1: SELL - Increase Revenues
The main goal for every business is to make a profit and the penetration into the British market could be helpful to achieve this aim. Helpful KPIs (key performance indicators) to measure their success could be the achievement rate of sales targets or monthly revenue growth.
The two objectives can be:
š Generate in turnover by the end of the fiscal year
š Rise the number of sales/orders from 0 to 10%
Goal 2: SERVE – Target an audience in the UK
The purpose of this goal is to reach potentially interested parties
š Rank within the 1st SERP (Search Engine Results Page) at the beginning of 2024
š Generating website traffic by 25% by the end of 2022
š Establishing the conversion rate by 10% by the end of 2023
š Lowering the bounce rate by 10% by the end of 2023
Goal 3: SPEAK – Generate leads & increase customer engagement
Once a new customer has been drawn in, it is even more crucial to keep them interested and create a connection. To do so, a dialog must be created between the company and the customer to evaluate their satisfaction and make improvement based on it
š 10% growth in Net Promoter Score (NPS) in the first three months of 2023
š Increase the number of subscribers to the newsletter and new accounts by 10% in 4 months
š Conduct a customer survey with 30 participants by the end of December 2022
š Rise the engagement rate on Instagram up to 2% by March 2022
š Collect 10 reviews within the next 2 months.
Goal 4: SIZZLE - Grow digital presence and brand awareness
The last goal deals with the expansion of brand awareness by innovating and optimizing the brand’s digital self-representation, especially its website. In other words, how to make the company more attractive and stand out. There are many KPIs available for this goal similar to the previously mentioned ones.
š Increase brand awareness in the UK by 10% by the end of 2022
š Grow social media presence by increasing the numbers of likes, comments, shares, and tagged posts on all social media channels by 15% before the end of February 2022
Strategies & Tactics
In order to achieve the objectives, a marketing strategy has to be defined. To do so certain components have to be considered e.g., the target market & objectives the brand tries to reach, the company’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and online value proposition, and lastly, the tools, channels, and other resources available to achieve those goals
Out of these insights the overall marketing strategy can be defined: The brand’s strategy is going to impose an emphasis on the development of brand awareness in the targeted segments fashion events such as runaway shows, at the famous London Fashion Week or at different Showcases hosted in the lively London fashion hub by building a better presence on social media and generating leads.
Marketing Mix
Before defining a strategy, it needs to be assessed, which tools are most suitable for this campaign plan. One powerful tool is media. There are 3 types in total: owned, earned, and paid media. All of them have their own benefits, and it would only make sense to include all of them in the marketing plan, but the question is in which order and to what extent.
Owned media includes types of channels owned by the company itself. For example, this would be its website, all social media accounts, and their newsletter. Owned Media is essential to exist as the website is the only place for the customer to buy the product. So understandably, this is the first component to build upon. The main advantage is, that the owner has total control of it and how to use it. It doesn’t cost much either but requires a lot of skills, knowledge, and maintenance work on behalf of the commissioner especially in regard to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) since this is one effective way to make owned media grow. It is recommended to use more channels. Owned media is of high importance for a brand to have control over how they want to portray themselves on the digital market.
Earned media refers to any publicity created by external parties. This type of advertisement is ‘free’ as it is somehow deserved by the company e.g., due to its good reputation. This includes word-of-mouth, reviews and rating websites, articles & interviews published in magazines, newspapers or blogs, and of course social media. The biggest benefit is the gratuity of it. Since this type of marketing is done by others and not the company itself, it is perceived as more authentic. Also, the marketing process doesn’t require any work on behalf of the company, as it is done by other parties. At the same time, and this is the biggest disadvantage, it requires a lot of work to attract attention in the first place because as the name implies it needs to be earned. Besides that, the company has no control of the messages being delivered and this could potentially be hurting the brand image because not only positive opinions are shared. So, a brand needs to put a lot of effort into this, to make it work, as it is, after all, very effective if used correctly. Also, since the brand we are a newly founded company, they need to find cost-effective ways to promote themselves, hence earned media is optimal to spread brand awareness.
Paid Media is the easiest way of marketing. Here, the company has to invest to influence its channels. Besides common methods like affiliate marketing or advertisement it also covers influencer marketing. Using paid media also has the ancillary effect of increasing the probability of earned media. The benefits are clear: it requires the least amount of effort, is less time-consuming, can reach a large audience, depending on what tools are used, and gets faster results. The main disadvantage is the cost aspect, which is why it isn’t the most optimal solution for a newly established brand to start with. Still, it is inevitable for the company to make use of it if they plan to penetrate the markets. The brand should therefore use it in the beginning in small amounts e.g., cooperation with small influencers. After having created a big and solid audience and earning high revenues regularly, the brand can make more use of it.
Communication Channels
As an online business, our newly established brand has a wide range of communication channels to choose from. In the following, the most suitable ones are explained.
Search Engine Optimization is needed as their search engine ranking is non-existing at the moment. It also can be done by oneself, which makes this method even more appealing. Pay-per-click could also be an option, as you only have to pay, whenever someone clicked on your ad. Paid search or paid for inclusion feeds, on the other hand, isn’t ideal, as it can be very pricey.
Regarding Online PR, the brand should make use of publisher outreach to get in contact with local newspapers, magazines, or blogs in order to reach people from the UK. Brand protection is ineffectual, as there are already many business companies on the market with the same business concept, so this can’t be prevented.
Another way to reach the audience is with online partnerships, which consist of affiliate marketing, sponsorships, link-building, and co-branding. Because the brand is new to the market, an aggressive and straightforward approach to catch up with the competitors is not reasonable. Instead, it is recommended to use those competitors and take advantage of the situation. However, it might be hard in the beginning to find some.
Social Media Marketing is an absolute must as it makes it easier to communicate with customers. From engaging with the audience or managing their digital presence to receiving reactions and feedback, all intended purposes of social media marketing are valuable for the company. Another important communication channel that is based on engagement is interactive advertisement.
Most of the offline communication approaches are not advocated as the brand is an online business and digital marketing already offers plenty of marketing methods. It doesn’t mean that offline marketing is pointless, but there is no need to spend money on it when most of the online methods have the same effect with less effort or costs. Still, the creator should observe word-of-mouth as it will happen anyway, so it should be at least positive.
Marketing Strategies & Tactics
Based on the information collected in the previous sub-chapters, the different strategies and tactics can be defined.
Strategy 1: Use SEO, paid social media ads & e-mail marketing
The first step for higher website traffic is to have a high search engine ranking since it is the most commonly used channel for users. Ads placed on other websites and e-mail marketing can also direct new customers to the website.
The tactics that can be used for SEO include optimizing keywords, referral traffic, using keywords in website headlines, adding keywords to image file names, including keywords in the meta description, and improving URLs. In addition, the company can use Facebook Ads, Pinterest Ads, Instagram Ads, and Google Ads. Sending weekly emails that also includes a reference link to the website.
Strategy 2: Use content marketing, distribution & networking
Increasing the organic social media presence is a strategy that can be used to create more brand awareness in the market. Furthermore, the networking strategy can also help create brand awareness. Obtaining reviews is a strategy that helps to increase NPS.
The organic social media presence of a new company can be generated through daily posts, paid social ads, contests, polls, interviews, hashtags, and mentions. Many tactics can be used in the field of content marketing and distribution. The following are important: Regular Content Production, Infographics & Visual Content, Multimedia, Samples, Interactive Content, Email Taglines, and Industry Publications. The tactics that can be used for networking are Guest blogging, referral programs, partnerships, and community. A higher NPS will be obtained by providing the ability to conduct reviews after a customer's purchase. By giving an incentive for a review, customers will be motivated to write one.
Strategy 3: Borrow audiences
Borrowing an audience from people, who already made a name for themselves, is the fastest way to see results, there is no way around it for a new company. This strategy has the highest success rate compared to others. On the downside, the creator has to pay for it. Also, the choice of the right cooperation partner must be well-conceived, making sure that they have a strong bond with their audience, and are perceived as authentic and trustworthy.
There are different ways and approaches possible. The creator and founder of the brand could either pay for affiliate marketing or simple ads placed on the influencer’s social media accounts. Besides sponsorship, there is also the possibility of actual cooperation, where both parties work together on a project. One option could also be to send influencers products and ask them to give a review on their social media channel. Some influencers are even willing to do it for free, but they are then not tied to any restrictions and give their honest opinions. Instagram Influencers and YouTubers with a follower-base of less than 15.000 is a good base, to begin with.
Strategy 4: Exclusivity, engagement, and loyalty
Creating a sense of exclusivity generates a desire to the targeted audience of a more sophisticated product and increases the desire they have to own a unique product they only can possess. This tactic creates an illusion for the customers that will lead them to think they are part of an exclusive group that is able to afford and possess a quality garment.
A tactic to keep existing customers interested would be the implementation of a customer loyalty program. Notifications for shopping cart abandonment would increase the conversion rate.
Strategy 5: Be consistent
Whether it’s the creation of new designs or being active on social media, both must happen regularly. Following a schedule keeps the customers curious. They will get a sense of what they can expect on which day and might check the social media channels more often, than when content is posted on a non-regular basis.
Tactics to follow this strategy are very straightforward. Create different concepts, where content is posted or uploaded daily, weekly, monthly, etc. It could be ads, information, new products, or just simple messages for the customer. A content calendar can be helpful for this process.
REFERENCES
Dave Chaffey, P. S. (2017). Digital Marketing Excellence : Planning, Optimizing and Integrating Online Marketing (5. ed.). London, United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
Fashion United. (2022). UK fashion industry statistics. Retrieved from FashionUnited: https://fashionunited.uk/uk-fashion-industry-statistics/
Lyons, D. (2017, July 26). How Many People Speak English, And Where Is It Spoken? Retrieved November 19, 2020, from babbel: https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/how-many-people-speak-english-and-where-is-it-spoken
Smart Insights. (2020, August 7). Tools and templates for your next campaign. Retrieved November 25, 2020, from smartinsights.com: https://www.smartinsights.com/traffic-building-strategy/campaign-planning/structure-effective-campaign-plan/
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