New Forms of Advertising in Digital Age and Social Media - Research Paper Example

? New forms of advertising in digital age and social media. Fashion Blogs: A viable tool for marketing fashion brands? Advertising was always the best medium to communicate with the consumer. It was reliable and extensive and the advertiser had control over what he wanted communicated to the public. Come the present times however, there has been a totalt transformation in this scenario due to social media. Advertising in traditional media is undergoing a dramatic decline due to the increasingly popular use of digital media and increased methods of bypassing traditional advertisement. Today if a brand is not on a social networking site their presence on internet is equal to zero. Social networking which is a creation of user-generated content has very rapidly taken over traditional forms of advertising. Long gone are the days when the marketer had complete control over the content that was being passed on to consumers about their brand. Due to social networking tools, now the consumers are the marketers. They create, consume and then distribute the content amongst hundreds and millions of readers. Social media has changed the media ecosystem today (Browning, 2008). Social media websited include Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and many more. These websites are easy to use and instantaneously pass on a message to millions of people. The makers of these sites have even released versions that work on mobile phones and tablet PCs, making these sites accessible from literally anywhere. Gone are the days when you had to switch on your PC for every little thing. You can post a blog even on the move. It is because of such factors that blogs, as an example of “new advertising”, is a rapidly growing trend in Internet advertising. As the internet is expanding its horizons, blogging has become an integral part of businesses marketing strategies. They are however not only restricted to businesses, the “blog” is the 21st century alternative to a website. What makes a blog so appealing is the fact that anyone can create his a blog about any topic they want, free of cost.This makes blogging a preferred medium, especially for people who are socially active. Today, along with other social websites such as Twitter and Facebook, blogs are a source of appeal to several advertisers. They not only use it to promote their brands, but also to reach out in a better manner to their audience. This paper aims to highlight the relevance of blogs as a new form of advertising with respect to the fashion industry. Fashion blogs are one of the most successful blogs today. Fashion bloggers are not just journalists or writers, they end up becoming brand ambassadors and thus, more influential than the physical clothing outlets (Wright, 2009). Fashion Blogging- What is it? Fashion blogs like the name suggests tell the readers about the latest trends in fashion. They cover everything from clothing, accessories, runway trends, street style and celebrity fashion. The trend of Fashion blogs was first reported in the U.S. in 2002 and since then it has rapidly increased. In 2003, just a year later 40 fashion bloggers were invited to New York fashion week. In the blogging world fashion blogging leads a very competitive environment between independent fashion bloggers and fully funded fashion blog networks (Heathcote, 2010). Fashion blogs target young adult women, female teens, and men with an interest in fashion. In addition, such blogs often have more appeal to the white Western community although readers of fashion blogs come from all over the world. They usually start as a hobby targeting one outlet and then gradually grow as they get more viewers. Fashion bloggers do not have any difficulty in attracting viewers to their blogs because of their unique writing style. As it is no formal journalism, the bloggers can adopt any writing style which they believe will make it easier for the reader to be convinced. It’s all about connecting with the reader. A fashion blog can contain photographs (possibly taken from the blogger itself) about anything they are inspired from. While some bloggers will photograph their trips to the most select high fashion parties, others will write about topics from a personal level. It does not matter what they write about. That is the beauty of blogging. This makes it easier for the reader to connect with the blogger. Bloggers report news from the fashion industry, give their opinions on events and new styles. They may even be budding designers who share designs with the public and get their opinions. Whether it’s about the launch of a new perfume or the trends from a designer’s fashion show, everything goes on to someone’s blog. Unlike other websites, bloggers are allowed to give their opinion about a certain topic and the industry pays attention to these details because of the influencing power these bloggers hold. The power of blogs is so high that people who are not able to attend elite fashion events, follow the events online. For instance, the London Fashion week created a rage when they announced that they could be fllowed on all sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and even Pinterest. (Indvik, 2012) Once a blog becomes famous. That’s when the real business starts. Bloggers start asking for either cash or for merchandise which they will try and then write a review on. Since the bloggers have a hold over their audience, brands know of the influence and fear it. A bad review by a famed blogger could be bad for business. Take for instance The Man Repeller. (manrepeller.com) This blog has more than 12,000 followers. One bad review and the message could reach these people immediately and by word of mouth and re-posting, the message could reach millions in a matter ofminutes. This is one way through which bloggers earn money. Since fashion bloggers do not ask for much it has given the new designers to promote their clothes and accessories without exceeding their marketing budgets (Heathcote, 2010). Today, fashion bloggers also get opportunities from sponsors such as Handpicked Media (handpickedmedia.co.uk). They bring together the best of blogs and give them opportunities to do well. As a fashion blogger myself, it has made me realise the relevance of fashion blogging as a viable marketing tool for fashion industry. In this research, I, through my experience will highlight how fashion blogging has evolved and today holds a very important position in the fashion industry. The study will also act as a guide to new fashion bloggers who are looking for ways to make money out of fashion blogging. The Growth of Fashion Blogs: Fashion blogs mainly became famous in 2002. Some of the initial fashion blogs that made public appearance were The Budget Fashionista and Fashiontribes.com. Other two blogs which picked instant fame were LookOnline Daily Fashion Report and She She Me which are still functioning really well today. The very first accessories blog was started by Manolo under the name of Manolo’s Shoe Blog. With time the number of fashion bloggers has increased drastically. Today it is not just U.S. and U.K that holds fashion bloggers in fact several other countries such Japan, Korea, France, Sweden and Italy play home to many popular fashion bloggers. The best aspect of fashion blogging is that the blogger does not require an educational qualification to be successful. A passion for fashion is sufficient enough to encourage one to start a blog. Today fashion blogs are maintained from all corners of the world by a wide demographic of people from young teenagers to professional fashion journalists (Vesilind, 2009). Having your own fashion blog is no doubt very interesting as it allows you to enter a certain community and have access to certain privileges. It seems like today, fashion bloggers are becoming trendsetters, and they are being followed by the big names from the industry, from designers to the high-end glossies. Long gone are the days that the consumers had to wait for a month to get their hands on the next issue of Harper’s Bazaar or Women’s Wear Daily to know who was wearing what on exclusive parties and events or which designer had the best collection on the run way show. Today, technology has ensured that consumers who do not get to be part of the major events like Fashion Week, get a chance to virtually attend it (Indvik, 2010). Today, designers have realised the power fashion bloggers possess. This is why many designers call bloggers to their events. Jenni Kayne, a designer from Los Angeles makes sure she calls all the famous fashion bloggers especially the ones from www.whowhatwear.com. The designers appreciate the promotion tools bloggers use on their blog to market their events. Sixteen year old blogger Jane Aldrige was invited to cover Corinne Grassini latest collection she had put on Barneys New York after the teen had started selling show tickets through guest book on her blog (Vesilind, 2009). Fashion blogging was socially accepted in 2005, when a large number of fashion bloggers were invited to cover Fashion week. Ever since then, fashion blogging has become extremely competitive. Time is seriously money in the virtual world. If you do not upload a video or a blog post within the next couple of hours after you see it on the ramp you’re way behind. Also, the content of these blogs has improved extensively; instead of two basic paragraphs you can easily find numerous websites that give you every minute detail on the events (Indvik, 2010). A fashion blog carries information, news or simply photos. From the latest trends to street style, some will agree that fashion blogs are very similar to “the content of fashion magazines. Some retailers in the fashion industry have even started blogs of their own to promote their products” (La Ferla, 2005). It all comes down to what the blogger wants to share with his/her audience. While some fashion blogs may have a personal approach (personal work, personal style etc.) others have more of a journalistic approach such as www.fashionista.com or www.fashionologie.com. One may wonder why there is such a growing interest for fashion blogs. This has been nurtured by the media. From fashion documentaries such as The September Issue starring Anna Wintour (editor in chief at Vogue US), fashion TV shows (Sex And The City, Project Runway, Rachel Zoe Project, America’s Next Top Model), fashion personalities from designers to stylists to models are coming more in the spotlight. They are considered as the new wave of marketing. All that designers have to do is invite bloggers to their events and give them free drinks while they reach out to the audience they have been trying to reach to for ages. Bloggers have already done that. They have connected with the audience that designers want to. Bloggers however, have not risen to their state without critique. The biggest criticism received yet was by the creative director of Elle Joe Zee. He, on the panel of New York's Fashion Institute of Technology stated that fashion bloggers are unreliable sources of knowledge as they do not know what they are talking about. When his statement created uproar in the world of fashion bloggers he explained his statement by saying “What I was trying to say is that you can't compare Cathy Horyn and Tavi”, this time he had targeted the famous New York fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson who will turn 16 in April. In Zee’s opinion, a teenager is not equipped enough to comment on brands and trends of the fashion world. Whatever the case maybe, the truth is that fashion bloggers have turned out to be extremely influential and they achieved this status in a matter of a few years. Marc Jacobs got a bags made out of his name and Bryan Boy. He and Tavi were given CDFA awards on June 7, 2010 (Wilkinson, 2010). Today, bloggers don’t only get front seats at fashion shows. They have cover stories are written about them and they have also been photographed by famous photographers. All in all, bloggers are the new celebs, the new brand ambassadors. One can see why. It is easier to connect with someone who you can relate so easily with. Fashion Blogs: A Marketing Tool: Fashion blogs have been characterized as a marketing tool, especially after the economic crisis of 2008. The fashion industry needed a boost and, therefore, many blogs arose at this time. Today, fashion blogs are becoming a viable marketing tool. Fashion bloggers are not just fashion journalists. Many are designers and businessmen/women, i.e., they, often, profit from their blogs. Bloggers have different ways of earning out of their blogs. The fashion blogs that have sponsored articles are no doubt making a lot of money. Sponsored articles are posts written by a designer or a brand themselves in which they are giving product details to the readers. Usually at the end of the sponsored post appears the name of the company that is paying the blogger for posting the article in his/her blog. Sponsored articles however, do have an ethical issue. Since fashion blogging is supposed to be about honest reviews, sponsored articles make one think that when company writes the content for their own product they do not highlight any of its negative features and therefore it ends up beingas good as commercialised advertisement. Fashion bloggers only blog because they possess a passion for fashion. But they too would want to nmake money from their blogs. This is possible through affiliate programs. Affiliate programs work only for those who know how to work on them with commitment. Initially when I started with affiliate marketing I wasn’t able to generate a single penny and then I realised the mistakes I was making. Since then, affiliate marketing has been one of the most profitable tools which I believe every fashion blogger should use. One of the best ways to use affiliate programs is ads. Affiliate programs give you the option to insert ads in your blog. Either a huge full-page ad, a side bar or the mosteffective text link. Text links within the content always work best. The blogger may write an article about a product they have used and then give the the link where people can find the particular product. For instance one good way of making commission would be to review a product and then create a list of eBay Shops telling the readers they can find the product there. For this to work however, it is best if the blogger purchases and uses the product before writing a review on it for the simple reason that no one will believe a review of something the writer hasn’t used personally. There are numerous affiliate programs that a blogger can join. The best program is one what gives you good commission and is marketing products you are interested in. eBay Partner Network is so far the best one. It gives 50% commission on every sale. The links can be easily inserted into the blog and they also provide a long list of interactive widgets which add glamour to the blog giving it a better look. Fashion bloggers also like Commission Junction and Amazon Associates (Mischief, 2010). Another popular way is by accepting free stock or freebies. Bloggers contact designers and suggest they will write for them as soon as they ship some merchandise to you, free of cost. Once received, the blogger wears the clothes and accessories, takes pictures and uploads them onto the blog and writes a review. This is by far the most popular way in which fashion blogger start, but it is recommended that the stop taking freebees from cmpanies as they progress since if the companies get a whiff that a blogger is doing this just for the money, they won’t be too keen on paying. In other words, bloggers are freelance writers that will be willing to advertise for a product (whether it’s a new handbag, a new pair of shoes or sunglasses) for free while expecting something in return such as a gift vouchers, or for the most influential and famous fashion bloggers it can go up to front row seats at the designer’s fashion show during fashion week. Some bloggers like Bryan from www.bryanboy.com Rumi Neely from www.fashiontoast.com or the young 16-year-old Tavi Gevinson from www.thestylerookie.com are the biggest names in the world of fashion blogging. As you can see, age does not matter. Sixteen-year-old Tavi Gevinson has a strong voice and a highly developed sensed of style for her age and this is what appeals to the industry. Advertorials are also a great way to make money on a blog. An advertorial is an advertisement in the form of editorial content. The benefit of an advertorial is that people obviously trust editorials more than paid advertisement. (advertorial.org) 1.Quantitative research 1.1 Content Analysis For this research project, our research is based on analyzing the content of the most popular blogs according to Signature 9 http://www.signature9.com/style-99. Signature 9 ranks the top 99 most popular blogs and we decided to take every 5th blog listed or so (sometimes 1 rank higher or above) and analyze the number of ads they had listed on their blog. The website mentioned provides the top 99 most popular fashion blogs but therefore, we cannot prove the accuracy of this statement. Also, for the purpose of this study, we looked at the presence of ads and we didn’t get into the different size banners. If the ad appears twice it will count as an additional ad. Through this methodology, we’re hoping to see a correlation between the ranking and the number of ads, assuming that the most popular blogs will have the most ads featured on their page. Table of most popular blogs BLOG NAME BLOG URL RANK NUMBER NUMBER OF ADS The Sartoralist http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/ 1 1 Fashionista http://fashionista.com/ 5 2 Fashion Gone Rogue http://fashiongonerogue.com/ 10 2 From Me To You http://fromme-toyou.tumblr.com/ 15 0 Style Rookie http://www.thestylerookie.com/ 20 1 The Cut http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/ 25 5 Garotas Estupidas http://www.garotasestupidas.com/ 30 3 Red Carpet Fashion Awards http://www.redcarpet-fashionawards.com/ 35 0 Naturally Curly http://www.naturallycurly.com/ 40 8 Street Pepper http://streetpeeper.com/ 45 3 Make Up and Beauty Blog http://www.makeupandbeautyblog.com/ 50 6 On the Runway http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/ 55 3 What I Wore http://whatiwore.tumblr.com/ 61 0 The Cobra Snake http://www.thecobrasnake.com/ 65 0 All Lacquered Up http://www.alllacqueredup.com/ 70 2 Hint Mag http://www.hintmag.com/ 75 2 Put This On http://putthison.com/ 80 0 A Blog To Read http://www.ablogtoread.com// 85 7 Japanese Streets http://www.japanesestreets.com/ 90 4 My Fashion Life http://www.myfashionlife.com/ 95 4 Tokyo Fashion http://tokyofashion.com/ 98 1 Data analysis Before conducting this experiment, we were under the impression that the more popular blogs would have more advertisements. We were proved wrong. Based on our sample, we found out that most blogs carry in average 0-3 ad banners on their website, exept for blogs like “The Cut”, “Make Up and Beauty Blog”, “A Blog to Read” and “Naturally Curly”, that had more than 5 ad banners on their blogs pages. The results were very surprising and nevertheless interesting. We now know that ranking and popularity has nothing to do with the number of advertisements on the blog. Perhaps, we can assume that the bloggers mentioned in the ranking are already popular enough to make some profit out of their blogs. In addition, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of this content analysis, as the website is not accredited and not updated recently. But overall, it certainly gives us a general idea about ad placement in fashion blogs. As seen previously, we’ll have to assume that fashion bloggers are using other techniques to make some profit out of their hobby such as sponsored articles for instance and affiliation programs. This being said, due to our time restrain, we were not able to push this reasearch futher but it would be interesting to know, in the future, if there is an existant correlation between the number of ads (including sponsored articles, affiliation programs etc.) and the popularity of the blog. Furthermore, having a popular blogger speak out and reveal what his monthly gains are through blogging would be an interesting topic for futher research. 2.Qualitative Research 2.1 Interview In the frame of this research paper, I interviewed 2 people with a known interest for fashion: Caitlin and Daria. To protect their identity, pseudonymes were used. The purpose of these interviews was to establish the readers motivation and how they felt about fashion blogs in general. 2.2 Case Study By conducting these interviews, we noticed 3 major factors of Fashion Blogs: the use of fashion blogs, the reader’s identity and their motivation, and the emotional vs. intellectual aspect of blogs. These major themes were found in both interviews and became a viable tool to our case study. a) Usage We quickly realised that our two subjects had diverse opinions and knowledge when it came to fashion blogs. Caitlin looks at blog whenever she has the chance, and admits that it has become part of her “daily routine”. On the other hand, Daria looks at blogs once a week. It becomes clear to us, that Caitlin has a need to be updated and therefore makes it a point to check blogs everyday. Daria on the other hand seems to be more detached and probably just needs the highlights of what is happening in the fashion world. b) Identity and Motivation The notion of identity came up several times in these interviews. From a psychological perspective, we can say that Caitlin has a real interest for fashion by the way she was dressed and how she expressed herself about the topic. Therefore, when she stated “Any girl with an interest in fashion “like me”…”, Caitlin used air quotes. During both interviews, she tried to pay attention to body language. As we know it, some details can be given away through body expression. In this particular case, in reference to the concept of identity, it somehow shows an insecurity or doubts about how Caitlin perceives herself. Another interesting point is that she mentions looking at blogs to be updated with the new trends and used the term what is “in” and “out” accompagnied with a hand gesture that emphasized the “out”. From this, we can interpret that Caitlin actually feels insecure about herself and she needs to have some people to look up to in order to dress accordingly. On the other hand, Daria showed more superiority and self confidence throughout this interview. She made an interesting statement when she was aked about how her purchases were influenced by fashion blogs, she said with confidence and a sense of disinterest : “I am not influenced by what the blogger wears. It has become really teenagy to me. I have my own style”. This example illustrates perfectly how Daria feels about blogs as a source of inspiration and indentity, unlike Caitlin who said that she was blogs would “inspire” her. This is not the case for Daria. c) Emotional vs. Intellectual Caitlin had a very “emotional” approach to the topic, meaning that she seeked visual support such as photographs and states that she is not looking for anything “too brainy”. For some reason, photos carry emotional feelings, whereas words are more cognitive. Unlike Caitlin, Daria showed a real interest in fashion but on the contrary for its intellectual and cognitive aspect. In order to follow a blog regularly, Caitlin enjoy the artistic aspect of photographs and doesn’t mind a little text too. On the other hand, Daria says that good writing skills and originality and “weirdness” are crucial criteria to make her follow a blog. Even though she mentions that sometimes the “content is pathetic”, she is interested in the cultural aspect as well. Overall, we’ve seen that these two different young women show different interests and motivations and it is interesting to note that in terms of persuasiveness, that none of them pay attention to the ad banners on blogs. In this frame of this paper, this research was releavant and helped us determine the underlying assumptions and motivations of the reader. In the future, it would have been more representative and interesting to have a larger public to interview, with different interests and see whether the motivations differ. Also, filming the interviewees would have been a smart initiative in order to decrypt more details from the tone, and the body language, video and audio support would have been helpful. 2.3 Surveys As a part of our survey, we also conducted a survey of a sample of 50 people. The survey was conducted by giving them questionnaires that would give us an insight into what they thought of fashion blogs. Following is a synopsis of what we learned. Frequency of visiting a fashion blog What consumers look for in a blog Influencing factor of a fashion blog Conclusion To sum up, this research project is a proof that fashion blogging has a very good future. It will definitely be more commercial in the coming years and become a much stronger tool. With the investigation we have done along this paper, we can confirm our initial hypothesis: Fashion Blogs are indeed viable marketing tools, in many different manners. These blogs have become more of a marketing tool giving a platform to reach to the audience that they are unable to communicate with through traditional forms of advertising. The beauty of fashion blogs mostly lies in the honesty with which the bloggers review the products. Sponsored articles may be somewhat taking over the honesty aspect but the online fashion journalists know the flipside of sponsored articles. They may make some immediate money, but end up losing customers in the long run. Customers who are not satisfied with the writing as the don’t believe it to be true. I write my own blog and I consider fashion blogging as an adventure that has provided me with tremendous opportunities to enhance my professional career in several ways. Fashion bloggers like Bryan and Tavi have proved that you do not need any education or any rich background in fashion journalism to be a successful fashion blogger. All you need is the motivation to tell the world your opinion on what you believe looks good and what doesn’t. Fashion blogs have definitely taken over traditional means of advertising and in near future it is expected that their scope and services will widen. 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