Fashion Industry Shaping Up With Inputs From Social Media - Dissertation Example

? Senior Overview I. Introduction: Thesis ment: Fashion Industry shaping up with inputs from Social Media. II. Background.­­­­ A. Stating the emergence and dominance of Social Media in the present times. B. The changes in fashion over the years and its present form. III. E-Commerce. A. Integration of E-commerce with social media and its benefits for the fashion industry. B. Fashion, marketing and mobility. IV. Social Media Boom in fashion industry. A. Blogs. B. Metro blogging C. YouTube D. Trade Shows IV. Conclusion A. Concluding the effects social media innovation has had over fashion industry. Abstract ? Fashion has its history for as long as is the existence of man. The modern type of fashion is strongly influenced by the digitization of everything in the human society. Social Media is the most prominent and widely adapted firm of information technology that is spreading within the human community like fuel to fire. Undoubtedly, the most active trend of the present times, social media continues to evolve with each passing minute as the number of human beings adapting it increases manifolds. Not only does the number of human beings getting connected via social media increase but there are also extremely rapid advancements in the technologies upon which all the advancements are pioneered. After the advent of Internet a few decades ago it is now that all the activity is majorly focused on Social web and via it on the Social Media. This research is attempted to evaluate what social media is, what are the core concepts of fashion and how the internet has promoted and affected the fashion scenario. The integral position of social media and is its importance in terms of its structure, functioning and the challenges associated with it. The components of the web 2.0 are discussed along with the social media tools emphasizing particularly upon their influence with respect to the fashion industry. The growing and changing world of Social Media also immensely affects the marketing arena and proportionately the fashion scenario. Specifically the concept of e-business with respect to its integration with the social web and the fashion industry is discussed. Marketing and advertising are also developing new meanings in line with the development of social media across the globe. Social media is the most trending wonder of the present and the future. It has highly widespread boundaries and should be adopted in order to pace up in line with the developments of the modernized human society. Introduction: Thesis Statement: Fashion Industry shaping up with inputs from Social Media. The human society has turned upside down from what it was just a few decades ago. The advancements in information technology leading to the advent of the internet have completely transformed the way human beings live and what their priorities and preferences are. Terminologies like Web. 2.0, Virtual Socialization, Social Networking and Social Media are such common terms now that the thought of life without them cannot be imagined anymore. None of the forefathers of present day human beings could have ever anticipated that the world would transform so rapidly and to such a vast extent in the times to come. The inclusion and embedding of the social web platform has made the modern life of human beings devoid of in-person personalization. Much of the physical efforts done by man have been taken over by the machines and the internet has made life very flexible, up-to-date and highly technologized. Computing devices even as small as those the size of a human palm are an integral companion of each and every human being via which he stays connected to the rest of his friends without any hassle and restriction. The social networking arena posed by the internet is the most major attraction of the present day individuals. The real time connectivity that they offer and the ease of their use and maintainability have become the basis for the flourishing of Social Media world over. The tools of social media or the platforms that support it are quite a few in numbers. Examples of platforms supporting social web profiles are Facebook, Twitter, Orkut LinkdIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, A Small World etc. It is via the Social Media and the Social web only that individuals get a chance to not only stay up-to-date with the most latest information but also the most latest trends in fashion as well. The fashion industry, having realized the potential of the social media arena has started promoting their products on the Internet as well. People connected to the Internet have the privilege of accessing all other sorts of information on it. Via the Internet anyone connected to it can stay up-to-date with the very latest information, can telecommute, check stock prices, compare prices of different fashion products and shop online, communicate with others in chat rooms or on bulletin boards, take different online learning courses, learn how to cook food, book airline, train tickets and even earn an accredited degree. Background: The emergence of Social Media. Communication of information is very important for fashion change; the more information is shared among individuals, the more powerful the impact of fashion on human psyche. The widespread impact of fashion on our lives today is due to several rapid modes of communication available to us today. Importance of clothing as a fashion item started in cities of Italy in 1400s, moved to Spain and finally to France, with French fashion dominating during the eighteenth century societies became more affluent, they were better able to afford fashionable products, which also could be manufactured more easily after industrialization. The popularity of fashionable products began initially from the word of mouth gradually become the center of attention in printable pamphlets and newspapers. Fashion shows began to be organized for leisure. Their trade importance was soon realized by the corporate sector. Gradually the international trade of trending fashionable products began. In the late eighteenth century London’s position as a commercial city created new forms of fashion process, by the mid-nineteenth century London came to be understood as a site of both innovation and of fashion authority, in the Britich Empire and beyond. (Bruzzi, Gibson, 16) TV and print publication played an important role in dissemination of information about fashion. This got accelerated several folds after the internet and social media sites opened. Internet has had the advantage of disseminating information with quick response time, global access and has excellent imaging capabilities. Today you can observe the latest fashion trends anywhere in the world, by going on the internet, without travelling to another city or country. Surfing the internet exposes us to different cultural ideas of world. Use of fashion to express a person’s mood, values or cultural identity, has been greatly intensified with the advent of World Wide Web and social media. Fashion changes from season to season and has short and long term cycles of change, which may last from months to years. All fashion cycles follow a typical bell shape. Slope of bell depends on how fast consumer’s accepted style to finally dropping it. Social Media and Fashion: Using social media by fashion Industry Company allows it to collect ideas and concepts about a product from a variety of sources. Social media sites provide a large pool of customers for a company to assess its innovative ideas. These customers provide an almost immediate feedback, which helps fashion companies to avoid costly mistakes in product design or marketing, such as too pricey or deficient in key elements. Such real time feedback from social media site has become crucial in today’s world. A Fashion Company can introduce a new product idea and invite its online community to further suggest improvements on the idea. A fashion company can use social media to better understand the demographics using its products. This is very important in the fashion industry, which changes rapidly due to peer interactions. Fashion companies say selling t shirts can use social media as a means for people to submit new design ideas and vote on them. This way a fashion business can avoid substantial risk in product development. Its products would already have a following online. Fashion companies using social media have the advantage of acquiring real time feedback about their products, which they can use to assess and correct any issues immediately, before they become a full blown problem. The Internet and Fashion: Thanks to the internet, Fashion labels of the modern and technology oriented world of today have a wealth of portals available online to show their work. The world is going digital more and more every day and a fashion artist should take advantage of it by showing their work at all the digital forums possible. Creation of a digital portfolio can then be shown to client’s friends and galleries all over the world by making use of the most of web 2.0 and its affiliates. A fashion label can create a website or blog showing the latest work. According to the Internet Measurement Research Group (IMRG) sales of clothes online rose considerably in May 2010, with a 32% increase compared to last year. Even better, Facebook and Twitter users spend 1.5x more online than the average user - which is why fashion retailers need to be aware of the fast paced digital revolution drawing upon them. (Brandmovers)(MLA in text referencing) Social media is a great way for a fashion brand to connect to people. A site like twitter can be used to provide moment-by-moment description of a fashion labels works, social media sites have millions of members, and a fashion label can pick up fans very quickly. You can share your new designs, sketches you have made or any design inspirations with people on social media. A fashion label can use Facebook to promote their work. Facebook is a huge portal today an artist can upload their latest fashion designs and create a photo album for clients and members to view. Different folders can be created to categorize fashion illustrations by type. Being on Facebook site allows the label to network with other fashion designers and the industries experts. Social networking sites also allow access to what forecasters and fashion designers are predicting about the next big thing in the fashion world. Facebook also provide fashion related fan pages for brands, stores and designers, which can be followed to receive updates, event listing and invitations. However, showcasing fashion creativity and designs on social networking sites may come with a few consequences, as someone can see and copy the work. One way to avoid this is to watermark on the image of the work. Watermark is a faint digital marking placed on an image to prevent it from being copied. Another great site for a fashion artist to display their work and attract an extensive audience is YouTube. An artist or a brand representative can make a little fashion video about their label, showcasing their work and the innovative creativity. This way the exposure of the label can be broadened and clients can be grabbed comparatively easily. Social Media Marketing: Social media marketing is very important for the fashion industry. Social media can enhance the awareness of the fashion product; compare its characteristics compared to other products, helping prospective clients to establish a preference for their fashion product to ultimately become loyal customers. Social media with its millions of users is a great place for a fashion industry company to introduce its products and enhance awareness of its characteristics and encourage prospective consumers to remember the fashion product. Social media can be used to sponsor online product introduction events and conduct promotions. Display advertising and e-mail marketing can be used on social media sites. A fashion company with a loyal customer base can encourage them to talk to their friends and family about their brand product. Social media bloggers who talk about fashion product online are an important portal for fashion industry. A fashion label should take the time to share samples with them, answer any questions and invite them to product awareness events. A fashion label can set up a social media site fan page. This page devoted to fashion products can be used to educate people regarding a fashion product, share educational and entertaining information about it. This special site can be used to run polls about the product, offer discounts such as coupons and publish games. The members of this page can also be given sneak peeks of the next product line. At a social media site promoting a fashion product it is important to publish honest rating and reviews regarding the product. It is a good idea to answer a bad review as most customers are looking for best information about a product and a company can help them research their product more expertly. Third party reviews from well-known industry experts regarding a product can be put on online sites to promote a product. Using sites like “Share This” can use social media site to encourage people to discuss your product with friends and family. A fashion label can set up discussion forums online where customers discuss the pros and cons of a product. Having a community of satisfied customers online can help visitors to make informed decisions about your product. Monitoring the various responses about your fashion product on social media web is very important. Slander and negativity on the internet can be damaging. A Fashion label should prompt quickly to any questions about their product and help clear up any misrepresentations of their brand. A fashion company should monitor websites, blogs and discussion forums on social media sites. A number of resources like “addictomatic.com”, “steprep.com” and “howsociable.com” can help them monitor what is being said on social media sites about their product. Social media sites are a great way to promote free trials of fashion products and offer incentives like 30-day money back guarantee. Podcasts can be added to the site, explaining the fashion products. A fashion company can also add short video films, addressing their new product on sites such as YouTube or Facebook and TwitterVideo. It is important for a company to utilize its loyal customers to spread good word about their product to their peers on social media sites. By making them rate and review the product they have bought and used the company can spread good word on internet. Email Marketing: Marketing through e-mail is a great idea to help businesses flourish. In fact e-mail marketing is considered as a fully functional tool to assist businesses. There are several companies that offer services in order to lend a hand to businesses in designing and organizing their marketing campaigns through emails. The campaigns can further be optimized through the tools that refine the target market. The focus may be obtained through figuring out the number of people that opened the email. This helps in screening out the interested people. Moreover the time duration i.e. after how long the receiver opened it after its arrival in his/her inbox can also be determined to conclude the level of fascination of target customer. Under the Can-Spam Act of 2003, it is illegal to buy or sell email addresses. However there are certain legitimate ways for businesses to maintain their own info-base regarding the target market e-mail addresses. This can either be done through addition of a registration or sign up option at the business’ official web page or through collection of email addresses from customers at the respective business outlets etc. The collection of e-mail addresses must be a secure process so that the information cannot be hacked or accessed illegally. How does e-mail marketing assist the fashion industry? Particularly for fashion industry, there are multiple strategic steps that can be taken in order to reach the market through e-mail marketing. Few of them are discussed below. • A proper poster for each respective campaign or design must be prepared to send as an e-handout or e-brochure via e-mail. • Correct timings for sending emails are extremely important. Different timings for different types of customers can easily be figured out. For example the working class customers usually check their e-mails in the morning after reaching at their workplaces i.e. around 9:30 am. While housewives usually get time to check their e-mails around 10:30 am etc. The consideration of timings is important to avoid suppression of e-mails due to bulk. • With every new campaign the e-mails should be sent one week in before the event and a day prior to the event as reminder. Paydays or the day next to the pay day are good choices for e-mail marketing. • A fashion based e-mail marketing campaign must comprise of more than one type/design of e-posters for the same event or sales scheme. The creative diversity appeals the customers by convincing them about the creativity of designers. • Ethical and legal considerations must necessarily be taken into account. Marketing via Website: Almost every business is trying to maintain its presence on the web through its website these days. For fashion industry having a website is indispensible. It won’t be wrong if said that the fashion business is not taken seriously without its respective website. Converting the sale online should be the very next focus for fashion sales online, noted ?Cohen, Getting the consumer to go from browsing to purchasing takes new information beyond just product photos and price. It takes convincing the consumer to push the purchase button.(SoialMediaToday) The content management systems like WordPress and Joomla made it really easy to design and upload websites. A dynamic website is always better. There are multiple Artificial Intelligence methods that help businesses in producing intelligent adaptive user interfaces along with capturing the behavioral data for future campaigns and trend analysis. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) must be taken into account by employing professional SEOs. This helps websites remain in the top most links when searched through a search engine. It can be done through the use of clear and proper keywords in the text. Meaningful and invoking tags would also work. Genuine traffic improves the website rating automatically. This helps the website in gaining the ranks. Social Media Optimization (SMO) works side by side with SEO. This enables a website remain in fresh links of different people at different social media websites. Website traffic analysis is also necessary to figure out the response of strategies employed. Fashion Marketing via Blogging: The fashion market is undoubtedly got affected through blogging. It is basically one of the blessings that occur through the content management systems that made creating blogs easiest ever. Even kids and teenagers can create their own blogs. Serious blogs are of great importance and valuable impact on businesses, especially the fashion arena. These blogs are the main source of propagation of new products and discussions about them. The comments and feedback are of high value always. As compared to the official websites, the blogs are of considerable importance due to following reasons. • Frequent updates regarding fashion news make blogs appear higher in searches as compared to the websites. • Blogs are much more responsive to the users in terms of comments as compared to the normal official website. • Blogs usually provide open forums for suggestions and reviews that help maintain the market of the product. • Users/Customers feel easy with the blogs as compared to website due to much focused material in terms of articles regarding different products. For a fashion blog to persist in the market it is necessary to have the following properties. • Frequent blogging along with the news updates regarding fashion industry. • Inculcation of the articles well reputed fashion journalists of current times. • Readership optimization through social media and metro blogging sites. • Use of splendid fashion photographs to enhance the power of fashion blogs. • Incorporation of well linked posts to maintain users’ interest in the whole product line. • Repetition of product details with proper rephrasing. The social media tools that can make a blog a hit are usually twitter, facebook, google+ and StumbleUpon etc. Along with these Pinging, RSS feeds and tagging are also proved to be highly effective. Fashion and Social Media: The most popular of the social media website is Facebook. To date it is the only social networks based website that has the largest number of registered members. This website has shaken the supremacy of Google’s search engine and now enjoys a great share in SMO (Social Media Optimization). The question that arises here is that how does it help the fashion industry to flourish and what is its impact on the industry. Following text highlights the respective answers to these queries. Like having a business website, it is equally necessary for a business especially a fashion business to have its Facebook page either as its official page or fan page. The following on this page is directly proportional to the popularity of a Facebook page and vice versa. It is definitely a great marketing tool due to a huge audience to what to write, portray, market or propagate. For a fashion business it acts like a hub that connects its entire blogging links, website url, metro blogging links and RSS feeds etc. It allows multiple discussion forums to not only discuss a new design or product but to have valuable suggestions and quick market response. This enables a business to rectify its faults immediately in order to curb odd market responses. It is a great advertisement and marketing tool which can easily be done in a natural way through settling down the customer queries. Fashion and Metro blogging: The most popular metro blogging site is twitter. It can be used in the same manner as facebook except that it focuses more on the comments of network users. With a limited length sentence referred to as “Tweet” one can easily advertise and market products by placing respective links. The main theme of twitter encourages its users to create personal accounts along with their business accounts. This actually makes it different from Facebook. The personal reputation of a fashion designer and its accessibility by general public despites being a celebrity is the key to the product promotion. Twitter can be considered as a best fashion-assisting tool as it is really easy to propagate any intellectual idea behind a product along with the enhancement of real theme behind it. Another very important aspect is the automatic formulation of target market as people of same interest are always there to get connected. The effectiveness of social media or social networking can be optimized using some software applications that almost link or integrate different dimensions of social media. These applications enable a user to simultaneously post all the updates or writings on different forums like twitter and Facebook in a go. For example if a fashion update is added to the Facebook page its respective tweet will automatically be added to the business’ twitter page etc. You Tube and Fashion: The YouTube can now be categorized as a different kind of social media. The videos have viral effect. They are the most effective tool in delivering information. YouTube not only offers uploading of videos from different sects of life but it also allows open forums to comment on these videos. It allows registration of separate dedicated business channels that include respective business videos only. The electronic media is using this forum very effectively these days by uploading the most promising of their videos. It has now become a norm for businesses to have an official website, Facebook page, twitter account and a dedicated you tube channel. The YouTube channel is highly effective for the fashion industry for the video updates can be uploaded in due time with a large number of audience and spectators to view and comment instantly. Through following the steps mentioned below the YouTube can be highly productive. Those are, • Proper planning of what a business would need to advertise or propagate. • Figuring out the target audience. • How and where the video is going to be filmed? • The theme of the video must be specific and comprehensive. For example the video must be focused on either one product or on just one of the aspects of that product. For different aspects there should be different products etc. • Proper homework should be done in order to comprehensively analyze the business strategy of the competitors on YouTube. Current Influences of Social Media over Fashion : The influence of the digital media over the Fashion scenario worldwide has been going on right from the advent of the Internet as mentioned above. The increasing dominance of the internet and the digital world is governing the styles of the modern day fashion and it is in line with their trends that the fashion industries are now shaping their products. The CEO of Stylecaster Ari Goldberg in his video interview to Fox News has narrated how much affect actually has been produced. We have seen a lot of influx of capital into the fashion industry, we’ve seen a lot of invasion going on specially because it is all digital, it is like starting a conservation in which changing the ways in which designers are creating their apparel, retailers are buying, advertisers are advertising to the consumer... (Stylecaster) The CEO of Stylecaster emphasizes that it is the power of the conversation over the social media and moreover it is the ability of the consumer to directly get connected to the designer and there do not need to be any wholesalers in between. The customer can just directly order what they would want to have and in their suitable prices without having to give the share of the middleman. The goods get delivered right at their footstep with the facility to return most of the bought goods ids there are found not in line with the order made. Moreover, the package deals and purchase discounts that are promoted over big fashion labels make them an attractive choice for consumers to get hooked onto for buying their most latest pair of shows or even a dress instead of taking the effort to go out and purchase it in person. Replacements of Trade Shows: Can trade shows and fashion weeks be replaced owing to the trending onset of fashion in combination with social media? The major giants in the fashion industry do not believe that the major trade shows and the physical outlets of products would be getting obsolete however there are affirmative of the potential that social media holds. The prospective changes in the fashion industry, they say are an additive advantage to its viewership and also possess monetary benefits since social media lays down the basis for effective marketing. Andre Warren is the founder and the Chief Executive Officer of the marketing firm Warren Creative. In his initial career he has had the opportunity of working on both sides of a trade show. He has been a buyer for various goods, has worked for the marketing of Magic trade shows and has also polished his skills of creative direction for Fred Segal. He gives his expert opinion about people attending fashion shows in the following words: As a buyer, you go to a show to conduct business and write orders, but brick and mortar trade shows are a social event, Warren said. People walk the aisles looking for new brands, they see industry trends, connect with people they work with, go to parties at night. If you can find a brand, make a connection and get a sense of the industry that makes a show worthwhile. (FMM) However he says that it is essential that every fashion brand should represent itself on the digital arena. This should be irrespective of the fact that whether they replace their traditional structure or not. The Social media promoted and structured digital platforms for the modern fashion industry still cannot completely replace their partner physical fashion trends. Even though they cannot replace the live shows, the social media integration with fashion has the potential of connectivity. This helps the basic and novice designers whose emerging skills are directly conveyed to buyers- something that could not have been thought of twenty years back. The flourishing and talented designers can get timely and instant feedbacks from their customers about their designs and can therefore improve them with timeliness and accuracy. This way a lot of finances may be saved, as an amateur up and coming designer would only invest in live shows when customer via digital connectivity has approved all their existing designs. The 24/7/365 access to the fashion digital information boosts the flourishing time for the industry as well. Conclusion The integration of Social Media with fashion industry is getting stronger day by day as it is a never-ending compatibility on both sides. The pace of growth in the fashion industry is equally matched by the improving trends in social media. The variety and dispersion of old and new concepts in social media is opening new horizons for fashion marketing. The future of the fashion industry can be made sound and their market share can be secured only if they keep pace with their integration with the ever evolving social media. WORKS CITED Angella J. Kim (a, 1, & Eunju Ko (b, ? n.d., 'Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? An empirical study of luxury fashion brand', Journal Of Business Research, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, viewed 26 April 2012. Brandmovers. Fashion and Social Media. 2012/ Web. 26 April 2012. < http://www.brandmovers.co.uk/blog/2010/06/30/the-evolution-of-social-media-for-the-fa> Bruzzi, Stella, and Pamela C. 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