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According to Kotler in 1988, advertising is one of the four major tools companies use to direct persuasive communications to target buyers. Advertising is thus used in the retail industry and has impacted this industry positively from the use of online marketing techniques to advertise such as using ‘networking (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.)’ as it has been defined as ‘the best way to enhance the customer engagement’. (Rathnayaka, 2018).
Consumer engagement is an important aspect within the fashion retail industry and therefore the chosen article ‘Does London Fashion Week do well for Retailers?’ published by the Retail Gazette (appendix 1) explores how London Fashion Week uses its platform to advertise and promote retailers garments by showcasing them in the fashion show. The article expands upon retail theory within the fashion industry in the way that it focuses on both the digital and physical side of advertising. The Internet and digital technologies allow fresh interactive forms of communication, where consumers have greater involvement for their part in the communication process and London Fashion Week use the advantage of digital technologies within their shows. For example, ‘some brands at London Fashion Week will take advantage of the opportunity to engage with a wider audience than just those at the event, with a 360° live stream of catwalk collections via social channels.’ (Nazir, 2019). With this innovative way of involving consumers who aren’t attending the fashion shows, the retailers can communicate to consumers through the Internet as it’s a distribution channel and communication medium that allows consumers to communicate in a variety of ways, making it easier to reach consumers on a more global scale.
Arguably, London Fashion Week inherits aspects of the Retail Communications mix as it uses advertising by reaching large and distant geographically dispersed audiences by introducing the live feed video of the fashion show, enabling audiences to enjoy the grandeur of the show and also see what retailers are showcasing, therefore giving them the experience to tap into new technology trends in fashion (Nazir, 2019). Another aspect of advertising that London Fashion Week uses is the concept of celebrity endorsement. Aaker in 1997 states that ’An endorser is a ‘source’ of the information in the advertisements, which plays an important role in persuasive communication’ and therefore fashion shows and fashion retailers using celebrity endorsements positions the consumers one step closer to their ‘idols’ by wearing garments that they have been wearing. Drawing upon the public relations side of the retail communications mix, the London Fashion Week ‘triggers conversations about influencers, local brands and the fashion world’ states retail specialist Sandra Perriot. Public relations reaches many aspects missed by other types of promotion; it’s highly credible because news stories and events reach audiences globally, and so with London Fashion Week inheriting a more digital side to their retail marketing techniques, it helps them gain attention that retailers need from consumers to sell their fashion.
London Fashion Week arguably contributes to fast fashion, transforming catwalk designs into inexpensive clothes. Consumers are becoming more demanding and fashion savvy which is forcing fashion retailers to provide the right product at the right time in the market (The Economist, 2005). Fashion stores like ZARA and H&M are constantly replicating famous designs and styles from fashion magazines and fashion shows in small quantities more frequently (Christopher et al 2004) and they’re arguably doing this due to consumer demands. Bhardwaj and Fairhurst state ‘fashion runways and fashion shows were the biggest inspiration for the fashion industry’ and arguably they still are as they elevated the ‘see now, buy now’ trend within fashion retailing. Previously, brands like Burberry for example incorporated the ‘see now, buy now’ trend by making their garments available immediately after showcasing them. However, the ‘see now, buy now’ trend has expanded onto the dimensions of fast fashion as this strategy means that retailers have an idea of what styles have been successful at the London Fashion Show and this means they can plan to pre-order garments in a similar design. Fernie and Sparks 1998 expand on this further by illuminating the fact that marketing factors such as low predictability, high impulsive purchasing, and high volatility of market demand are all aspects of how fast fashion works within the retail marketing industry, and because consumers are consistently craving innovation in new fashion trends and wanting them in the shortest amount of time, this is where retailers use fast fashion to make a profit.
Fashion designers forecast trends (Saranya) which is helpful for retailers because the fashion retail industry demands for constant newness and trends and marketing has driven the want for the consumption of new innovative designs as close as possible to the time of consumption. Two important aspects of fast fashion are quick response, which is where demand is met in the shortest amount of time, and agility, which is the ability to reach the market demand quickly and have the ability to adjust to new trends in the least amount of time. A company that has excelled in fast fashion is ZARA. They develop garments 2-3 weeks after the design process, relating to the ‘see now, buy now’ trend that consumers are becoming more comfortable with.
The biggest fashion weeks have an important economic impact in the cities they are held in, as does the fashion industry itself (Parcerisa, 2018) and this can be seen through the DRIP model. The four aspects of this model parallel the desires of retailers to retain and gain consumers. Through the fashion week, retailers use the aspect of differentiating their garments from other competitors by immediately copying/drawing inspiration from the garments shown on the fashion shows, and with the aspect of technology, in particular social media coverage, retailers can estimate which garments are more popular with consumers online and therefore produce them and sell them in stores as fast as possible, much like ZARA do with their 2-3 week process of developing garments to sell in store. The second step is reminding/reassuring customers of the benefits of a past transaction. Due to the fast pace of fast fashion retail stores like ZARA having a short life cycle, new collections remind consumers that these retailers are making their consumers a priority in that they’re providing them with constant freshness and innovation through fashion. Past scholars have stated that it is more valuable, beneficial, and cheaper to retain firm current customers rather than get new ones (Rust and Zahorik, 1993), and with fast fashion retail stores constantly updating their collections so that customers can wear the innovative garments showcased in London Fashion shows it retains consumers and builds loyalty between buyer-supplier relationships. The last step is to inform and persuade, which means retailers can inform current and potential customers of the latest offerings and how it would benefit them; due to the popularity of fashion already, fast fashion retail stores can use this to their advantage by making garments inexpensively available to consumers 2-3 weeks after their showcases.
Fashion stores like ZARA could use the communications planning process to forecast what garments would sell well to consumers. The communications planning process determines key marketing factors that help influence a brand to move in the right direction with consumers in the way that it will eventually predict what will sell to their consumers. They do this by segmenting characteristics through their market research, so they can predict which type of consumers, i.e age gender location, are reacting positively to whichever style of clothing, and then they could implement this by evaluating the level of awareness, perception, and attitudes that consumers have reacted with to certain garments.
Because consumers are becoming more involved in the digital era of the ‘online shopper’, it’s arguably a challenge for retailers to retain consumer attention in physical in-store engagement. The importance of managing customers as valuable assets cannot be emphasized more and luxury brands should engage in social media marketing activities (Kim and Ko, 2012) to have a more positive engagement This is arguably why London Fashion Week has decided to transition to a more digital orientated event to gain more consumers on a global scale. The Internet allows a business to target customers all over the world for less cost than opening a store and website and B2C activities are an advantageous means of marketing for the firms (Salmeron et al 2006). London Fashion Week is catering more to the ‘online shopper’ using its innovative and sleek website. For example, on their website there is a ‘Press Portal’ which mentions the dates and times of events surrounding the London Fashion Week, allowing consumers fast access and involvement in the show. They also have social media coverage by incorporating posts from their Twitter page such as showing ‘Highlights from the shows presentations including designers like Alice Archer’.
Because marketing and capital investment have been identified as the driving forces of competitiveness within the fashion industry (Sinha, 2006), fashion retailers use push-and-pull marketing techniques to push their consumer engagement further. Push marketing techniques used by fashion retailers take the product to the consumer and use platforms like showrooms to demonstrate new innovative and fresh garments. London Fashion Week is a platform that influences fashion stores to showcase designer garments in stores due to retailers using inspiration from their designs. Fashion retailers also use pull marketing techniques which bring the consumer to the product through media coverage and advertised sales promotions and with the garments being produced quickly by stores at inexpensive prices it will help consumers engage with these stores and buy the clothes they’ve seen showcased within London Fashion Week.
Moreover, fashion customer relationship management is a key aspect of retaining customers. It can be defined as a ‘business process where customer relationships, customer loyalty, and brand value are developed through marketing strategies’ (Rathnayaka, 2018). These particular marketing strategies include segmenting consumers based on their loyalty over time and their preferences evaluated through levels of perception, perhaps calculated on social media to determine which garments are more popular with their consumers. Because loyalty is low within fast fashion, there is a need to increase loyalty in buyer-supplier relationships. Arguably, this can be achieved through means of having consistently new collections in stores through retailers updating their ranges every week, allowing customers to see new products every time they step into the store or go to their online website, which caters to consumers and their demanding behavior within the fashion industry.
London Fashion Week has been described as celebrating the ‘intersection between fashion, music, art and design’ (londonfashionweek.co.uk) and provides a platform not only to designers but for retailers to replicate popular designs and sell them to consumers as soon as possible through means of fast fashion.
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