Marketing strategies for fashion industry

Marketing strategies for fashion industry

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Today, the fashion industry has almost unlimited resources at its disposal.  Information and photographs that appear on the Internet instantaneously reach millions of women the world over.  Immediately, they know which fashions are in and which are out.  They see the colors and trends on splashy, popular websites.  They find out very quickly what they should be wearing and what they shouldn't. 

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.

Another specific strategy used by the fashion industry is online advertising.   The use of the Internet involves several strategies which include: creating an online version of a print magazine, banner ads (ads placed on specific sites for greater exposure) and well-placed photographs and articles about the fashion industry.  According to an industry report on the Internet and marketing strategies by women’s magazines, “The Internet has become a billion-dollar business” (Industry Report).   This article also reports that according to Nielsen Net Ratings, more American women use the Internet than men at a rate of 51% – 49%.  It goes on to say; “Women online readers in the United States tend to visit general interest sites on the Internet, such as shopping sites, beauty sites, and health sites. Therefore, magazines discovered the Internet several years ago as another method to better serve the customer since magazines” .  By targeting the large numbers of women who regularly participate in online activity, fashion magazines that maintain an Internet presence provide themselves with continuous, free advertising.   It is an extremely effectively strategy to “ offer other information, such as press releases or news that relates to the company or to their industry, or provide information about special events that relate to the company to their industry”

A constant theme in fashion marketing is to create ideas or themes for what it means to look good or look attractive.  Therefore, marketing to women with various body sizes and shapes makes for good business strategy.  However, the marketing of fashion to women isn’t just about what you look like but what they want you to look like.  That is, part of marketing strategy is to generate ideas in women’s heads about what kinds of clothes we need to wear in specific situations – the work environment, social situations, etc.  As in many other countries, Japanese women seek to wear the latest trends.  “As a market segment, young Japanese women continue to seek new ways to appear trendy and fashionable. In either theme, clothing that is well designed to make women look more beautiful, has potential”

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Indian Garment/Fashion Retail Sector

      Anew focus on the apparel retail sector has attracted attention in recent days. Top exporters have introduced their own brands and are aggressively positioning themselves within segments of the domestic market. The rising importance of branded segments in the domestic market combined with the pressure of import competition is blurring the boundaries between exports and domestic production in countries with large home markets, such as India. With the changing lifestyles, organized retail is playing a key role in structuring the Indian domestic market, reinforced in particular by rising incomes and growing purchasing power among consumers in rapidly growing sectors of the economy such as information technology and business process outsourcing.

Retail sector in India is witnessing a huge revamping exercise as traditional markets make way for new formats such as departmental stores, hypermarkets, supermarkets and specialty stores. The branded apparel market represents the largest source of growth. The men’s branded apparel market is growing at a rate of 21.8% and branded women’s apparel segments represents 35% of the total branded apparel market and is growing at an incredible 23% annually.

Leading domestic retailers are becoming more firmly entrenched, increasing their scale of operations and stabilizing their logistics and technology initiatives. A few significant foreign players have been selling their branded apparel in India for number of years. But, now, just like their India counterparts, global apparel brands are setting up their own apparel outlets, instead of just selling through departmental stores. Though local retailers generally enjoy higher margins, they wont be able to keep global retailers at bay for long because of international experience, buying power, IT systems and cash flow to tolerate lower profits. Presence of these brands will make the Indian Consumer become more aware of the international fashion and lifestyle trends leading to a move-up of the industry in the value chain. In this paper, the recent trend and prospect of apparel retail sector in India have been discussed.

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 company’s 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 producer’s target customers and for responding to the preferences of those customers.

Marketing operates at both the wholesale and retail levels. Companies that do not sell their own products at retail must place those products at wholesale prices in the hands of retailers, such as boutiques, department stores, and online sales companies. They use fashion shows, catalogs, and a sales force armed with sample products to find a close fit between the manufacturer’s products and the retailer’s customers. Marketers for companies that do sell their own products at retail are primarily concerned with matching products to their own customer base. At both the wholesale and the retail level, marketing also involves promotional activities such as print and other media advertising aimed at establishing brand recognition and brand reputation for diverse characteristics such as quality, low price, or trendiness.

Closely related to marketing is merchandising, which attempts to maximize sales and profitability by inducing consumers to buy a company’s products. In the standard definition of the term, merchandising involves selling the right product, at the right price, at the right time and place, to the right customers. Fashion merchandisers must thus utilize marketers’ information about customer preferences as the basis for decisions about such things as stocking appropriate merchandise in adequate but not excessive quantities, offering items for sale at attractive but still profitable prices, and discounting overstocked goods. Merchandising also involves presenting goods attractively and accessibly through the use of store windows, in-store displays, and special promotional events. Merchandising specialists must be able to respond to surges in demand by rapidly acquiring new stocks of the favored product. An inventory-tracking computer program in a department store in London, for example, can trigger an automatic order to a production facility in Shanghai for a certain quantity of garments of a specified type and size to be delivered in a matter of days.

By the early 21st century the Internet had become an increasingly important retail outlet, creating new challenges (e.g., the inability for customers to try on clothes prior to purchase, the need for facilities designed to handle clothing returns and exchanges) and opening up new opportunities for merchandisers (e.g., the ability to provide customers with shopping opportunities 24 hours per day, affording access to rural customers). In an era of increasingly diverse shopping options for retail customers and of intense price competition among retailers, merchandising has emerged as one of the cornerstones of the modern fashion industry.

Media and marketing

Media of all kinds are essential to the marketing of fashion. The first dedicated fashion magazines appeared in England and France in the late 18th century. In the 19th century, fashion magazines—such as the French La Mode Illustrative  the British Lady’s Realm, and the American Godey’s Lady’s Book—proliferated and flourished. Featuring articles, hand-colored illustrations (known as fashion plates), and advertisements, fashion magazines—together with other developments such as the sewing machine, department stores, and ready-to-wear clothing produced in standard sizes—played a significant role in promoting the democratization of fashion in the modern era. The development of effective and inexpensive methods of reproducing photographs in print media in the early 20th century led to the rise of fashion photography and of heavily illustrated fashion magazines such as Vogue. Magazine advertising rapidly became a principal marketing tool for the fashion industry.

The creation of cinema newsreels—short motion pictures of current events—and the rise of television made it possible for people all over the world to see fashion shows and to imitate the fashionable clothing worn by celebrities. The dominance of visual media continued in the Internet age, with fashion blogs emerging as an increasingly important means of disseminating fashion information. Red-carpet events such as awards ceremonies provide an opportunity for celebrities to be photographed wearing designer fashions, thus providing valuable publicity to the designers.

India’s apparel market is in the throes of change. Rapid growth and rising urbanization have spawned a new class of consumers with more money to spend, and a growing passion for fashion. In India’s high-growth, fast-changing retail clothing market, we see significant new growth opportunities for foreign and domestic players.

In India, apparel is the second largest retail category (behind food and groceries), representing approximately 10 percent of the total market. This growth is being driven by following factors:

·        New occasions:As the lifestyles of India’s prospering urban consumers have evolved, their clothing needs have broadened, reflecting more varied usage occasions. For men, clothing choices once came primarily in three basic categories: home-wear, work clothes, and special occasion wear. Now, with more “socializing” opportunities, men are buying more sophisticated combinations of outfits: party wear, sportswear, clothes for hanging out at the mall. Not long ago, for example, men from India’s northern regions only required a good dark suit or Sherwani, the traditional long coat, to cover big occasions and important celebrations. But over the past several years, men have begun to supplement those staples with expensive Western style jackets, and collared shirts—some in “funky” patterns and cut for a night on the town, others in stripes or checks for casual meetings with important business associates. Today, Indians are more inclined than consumers in other markets to buy apparel for a specific purpose.

·        Fashion increasingly a form of self-expression. Increasingly, Indian consumers are embracing the idea of fashion for its own sake, as a means of self-expression, and not merely as a functional purchase. Television, movies, advertising and the Internet bombard today’s Indian consumer with new ideas about style, even as American-style shopping malls lure them away from traditional marketplaces. Traditional clothing remains central to the way consumers dress, and the quality and craftsmanship of classic Indian clothing have drawn rave reviews in recent years from some of the world’s leading designers, style magazines, and fashion blogs. In a recent McKinsey survey of Indian consumers, 62 percent said they thought it was important to “keep up with trends.”

    Example

    Pantaloons:

   Pantaloons are one of the biggest retailers in India with more than 450 stores across the country. Headquartered in Mumbai, it has more than 5 million sq. ft retail space located across the country. It's growing at an enviable pace and is expected to reach 30 million sq. ft by the year 2010. In 2001, Pantaloon launched country's first hypermarket ‘Big Bazaar’. It has the following retail segments:

·        Food & Grocery: Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar

·        Home Solutions: Hometown, Furniture Bazaar, Collection-i

·        Consumer Electronics: e-zone

·        Shoes: Shoe Factory

·        Books, Music & Gifts: Depot

·        Health & Beauty Care: Star, Sitara

·        E-tailing: Futurebazaar.com

·        Entertainment: Bowling Co.

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Things to expect in the fashion marketing in 2013

Things to expect in the fashion marketing in 2013

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 geo-localizing 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 one’s 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).

THEfashion 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-the-scenes 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.

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Why do brand fail?

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 don’t truly believe there’s a huge difference between products,’ which means brands have to establish ‘emotional ties’ with their customers.

However, emotions aren’t 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 Coca-Cola 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 didn’t 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 Knight’s 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, let’s say, perfumes, would it be appropriate? Most certainly not! A similar case happened in 1999, when the famous women’s 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 Boy’s fly pimp styling’s. 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.

Levi’s - 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 don’t 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 Levi’s made Fashion Fumble #41b: Celebrating the launch of a product before checking to see if anyone RSVP’d to the Evite.

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Clothing Brand Promotion

Clothing Brand Promotion

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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

Brand: Color-plus

Company: Raymond

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.

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Marketing Strategies of Garments Industry of India

Marketing Strategies of Garments Industry of India

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The ready made garments industry has been chosen for various reasons. Firstly it plays an important role for it’s 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 firm’s current position, showing the strengths & weaknesses (internal factors) and opportunities and threats (external factors)
Marketing objectives and strategies	What the marketing function wants to achieve (consistent with corporate objectives) and how it intends to do it (e.g. Ansoff, 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

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The Strategic Marketing Process organizes 29 marketing subjects into three categories:

 

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