To Build a Strong Brand within the Fashion Industry: A Multiple Case Study Approach - Essay Example

? To Build a Strong Brand within the Fashion Industry: A Multiple Case Study Approach BUILDING A STRONG BRAND WITHIN THE FASHION INDUSTRY Building a Strong Brand Most consumers build loyalty to particular brands over the course of their lives. It is an understanding that various sounds, smells, and tastes can be associated with happiness and comfort (Delagarde & Baykal, 2011:p36). It is for this reason that consumers spend money on buying Gap T-shirts or Hellman’s mayonnaise. On top of a consumer associating a brand with quality, they also do so for other reasons like security and comfort. This points to why building a brand is important for a company. The strength of a brand is measurable by how fast it is recognizable and the feelings that the brand is associated with by the consumer (Kitty, 2004: p81). Whatever a company sells, they need a powerful brand to retain customers. The first branding tip is for a company to be focused and specific in order to be strong. Rather than attempting to be a renaissance firm, the brand should be focused and should be describable in one sentence (Kapferer & Bastian, 2012: p62). The company should also figure out the aspect that makes them special. It is essential to distinguish a company from its competitors by establishing their unique selling points. The company should make a list of these unique selling points and include them in their brand strategy. The company should also be authentic since customers can decipher phony brands very fast. Quality employees will also not want to work for a phony brand that cannot be trusted. Customers also respond to true personalities so the company founders and CEOs should take time to show their true side to the customers since they will respond better (Keller, 2009: p143). The company should also attempt to understand their client if they wish to build a successful brand as this aids in catering to the customer (Kotler & Pfoertsch, 2006: p33). To do this, it is important to understand the customer through basic market research to figure out the people buying the products on sale. The company should also define the voice of the company that should not be controversial or offensive unless this is what the company is going for. However, it should not be overly professional and the same voice needs to be carried in the communications too. In addition, the company should be alive to social media as it is now an essential part in building a brand (Kendell, 2009: p49). It is a perfect way to communicate the brand, although the company should be careful not to post too much. Social media is a low cost way to get across to the young population who do not have a preferred brand yet. Significance of Building Successful fashion Brands Being successful in the fashion industry takes more than simply crafting beautiful designs. Success is a measure through sales made by the fashion house (Chadha & Husband, 2006: p43). The easiest manner in which to sell fashion and clothing designs is via having a good brand. Brands like Zara, H&M, Top Shop, and D&G are iconic brands that convey an immediate message in relation to quality and style of their products. These brands, as well as Armani exchange, have worked hard in efforts to create distinctive brand identities. The brands mentioned have undergone careful nurturing to make sure that the use of their brand names delivers a powerful message to their clients. For this reason, it is easy to see the reason why brand is the single most significant asset in a fashion house, as well as the one that fashion houses are fastest to protect (Clifton & Ahmad, 2008: p41). One way that a fashion company can build a successful brand is through getting a name that is easily searchable, catchy, unique, sums up the business, is not a registered name, and can stand the test of time (Finskud, 2009). For the latter, one example is Armani, which is attached to the founder and has managed to stand the test of time. Consumers and journalists should not have to look too hard for the name, which should stand out like Zara. The company should also ensure that their name would give them an online identity that stands out as a twitter handle. In addition, the company should check that it could use a .com website with the name before settling on it, which should be set up and linked together with the twitter handle as fast as possible (Floor, 2009). To build a successful brand, the fashion company needs to identify their key customers. If, for instance, the company’s designs are based on a personality, the key customers will most likely be similar to the designer (Fulton & Lee, 2013). However, the company will need to broaden it out to maximize on the customers who will buy the fashion label. Definition of the key customer will also affect the bloggers, sites, and magazines that might feature the brand. This will help the fashion house think on whether theirs is a long term prospect or short term prospect that is trend-led and can be adjusted, adapted, and developed in the future (Ghemawat & Nueno, 2003). The fashion house should also seek to tell their story through their brand, especially some interesting facts like celebrity friends that encouraged one to design, work experience at a label that is well known, whether one is involved in sport, or was meant to study science in college. Basically, this should be anything that would interest a customer or a journalist. Price and production are other important aspects when building a successful brand. The price, obviously, is dependent on a number of factors including production and the fashion house will need to consult accountancy and business experts (Kapferer, 2008). However, it is important to remember that price defines brands since it could exclude customers one wants to appeal to and appeal to a market one does not want. High prices point to sophistication and luxury, although it could price out the ideal customer if it is too expensive. This is important since fashion magazines are essential in building a brand. Magazines normally have internal documents that specify product price points, for instance, 30% independent/high street, 40% mid-brand, and 40% high-end designer. Magazine cover stories usually feature six figure pieces and haute couture, while the pages at the middle have brands that are mid-brand to the high street. It is, therefore, essential to think about where one’s brand fits (Kapferer, 2008). Finally, it is worth thinking about the aspects of fashion that inspire the fashion house and looking around in books and fashion blogs to ensure that it is not too esoteric that customers may not get it, or too generic that it is not interesting. Constructing Strong Brands in the fashion Industry using Multiple Case Study Approach Brands have entered a new era where FMCG brands do not lead in the arena of branding. Brand managers are now looking towards the fashion industry when it comes to understanding how brands continuously captivate their clients and the consumer. Building, a strong fashion brand, begins with a strong vision market (Moore, 2012: p101). For H&M, this entailed creating their own world where they explicated their distinctive and unique relationships between the way that consumers approach their products and the way that they wanted to satisfy their aspirations, ambitions, and needs. Appreciating the interaction forms a basis for a philosophy that becomes, ultimately, the brand signature. Fashion brands also require creativity to build a strong brand. There needs to be a flow of innovative propositions constantly; this is the most potent manner of ensuring the philosophy of the brand is visible (Murray, 2003: p40). D&G has been able to do this by their innovative and controversial advertisements, which requires open mindedness and the will to experiment with various elements such as cultures and techniques to break through existing paradigms and conventions. D&G is able to do this by proving that they are willing to stand out from the rest. It is essential for a fashion house to be recognizable in a crowded market. This is only achieved by staying true to the firm’s philosophy as the basis of innovation. Armani is a perfect example of a fashion house that builds their brand in this manner (Nawaz & Saleem, 2010: p71). Armani challenges itself to retain the originality brought by Giorgio Armani since it gives them a distinctive and unique position in the market. In addition, it also contributes to a deepening of the firm’s relationship with its loyal consumers. The consumers appreciate the brand and authentic behavior that it exhibits, and view this as proof that this brand is out to build a genuine relationship with its loyal consumers. Armani also aims for elegance, as do all fashion houses. Assortments at various fashion houses of brands consist of many products. Giving the consumer a choice is an essential aspect of value creation because the consumer would want to be treated as an individual and possess the opportunity to use a product that fits the occasion (Okonkwo, 2007: p62). Therefore, Armani is very mindful of changing trends, especially among the youth, and trades, under different sub-brand names, to provide consumers with a choice based on the occasion, increasing their chance of maintaining relevancy. Selling a fashion brand is akin to selling a dream and fashion brands like H&M seek to sell consumers a dream that they aspire. While it is not always possible to achieve one’s dreams, this makes them even more desirable (Thread, 2013: p33). Their strategy of client profiling ensures that they know what each of the segments wants, and they are able to accomplish most of it. Since what a segment wants is their dream, which is synonymous with being scarce, it makes the fashion designs even more attractive. They also ensure that they build some selectiveness into their brand accessibility to keep them alluring. Future Construction of Strong Brands using the Branding Aspect The next frontier for fashion brands in the creation of strong brands has to do with being going green and insisting on ethics. The key element for a brand that aims at being a green brand is to remember the design’s importance. In this case, the aesthetic point of view will be the most important with the ecological one being a luxury or a plus (Black, 2008: p32). This is especially important since there is a new segment of consumers whop want to associate with ecologically conscious designs. Top Shop, a fashion house, is a good example that has integrated ecological consciousness into their designs. Seeing how garments were worn only for a while before being discarded. Realizing that, on the environment, this had a negative impact; they seek to ensure that every organic material is utilized in some way in the process of production. Since the consumer should have the ability to buy what they believe they are part of, the collections in most fashion houses are tending towards future vintage that have a classic appearance and use of real materials (Grant, 2009: p32). H&M is also pushing forward their new motto that every garment has a story, and care should be given to the garment. Research shows that there will be a gradual move away from fast fashion using fair trade fabrics, as well as the life span for products to the real product from the sketch becoming increasingly essential in the creation of brands with strong messages. Online marketing for this fashion brands is another frontier that fashion houses are aiming to use as a strategy with new fashion blogs, sponsored by the fashion houses, becoming a key point in the advertising and creation of a strong brand for group audiences (Torun, 2007: p22). These blogs are becoming more powerful in bringing brands to consumers and constructing strong brands compared to the magazines of old. Starting green brands has been slow to catch on, but research also shows that it will soon become very competitive as more fashion houses cater for the ecologically conscious consumer. While franchising for this segment may follow in step, for now, the fashion houses that have sought to use this strategy are more focused on organic growth to attain a global clientele. References Black, S., 2008. Eco-chic: the fashion paradox London: Black Dog Pub. Chadha, R. & Husband, P., 2006. The cult of the luxury brand inside Asia's love affair with luxury London: Nicholas Brealey International. Clifton, R. & Ahmad, S., 2009. Brands and branding: New York: Bloomberg Press. Delagarde, M. & Baykal, J., 2011. Differentiation strategies in the fashion industry: Zara case. Berlin: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. Finskud, L., 2009. 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