Hanes and H&M - Essay Example

Fashion Marketing Big fashion brands such as Hanes and H&M are going social in their marketing strategies. Hanes went social with the medium Facebook while H&M used mobile marketing. These companies understand the importance of using social media to connect with their customers and have succeeded in using these tools. Hanes has been around for over one hundred years ago. John Wesley Hanes changed the clothes market with his two piece underwear for men. His company became the US market leader for men’s, women’s and children’s wear in the following years. With a success story that continues even today, Hanes has defined the clothing industry like no other company ever has. Hanes, in 2012 used the social medium Facebook to help grow their relationship with their consumers. Underwear isn’t the first thing you would think of when listing your passions, but Hanes thought it can build an “emotional connection” with underwear shoppers and get them talking. This type of marketing succeeded. Social media, like Facebook, is at the center of this strategy. On Facebook, where it has 2.5 million likes asked open-ended questions on what your favorite underwear type is or posts that ask you to share your first experience wearing a bra. The brand is trying to get consumers talking. “Hanes wants to be able to connect with consumers beyond just the transaction,” said David Robertson, director of marketing at Hanes. “We want to communicate what the brand stands for. We want to hear from them and we want to establish more of an emotional connection. That ongoing relationship will lead to increased loyalty and advocacy.” H&M opened its first store in Sweden. Hennes, the name at the time specialized in women’s fashion. The franchise slowly grew opening its first store outside of Sweden in 1963. Today the company has over 2,800 locations worldwide and they specialize in clothing for women, men, and kids, and now underwear. In 2013, H&M incorporated location-based campaigns into their marketing mix in order to engage with customers and H&M also created an innovative location-based marketing campaign in order to drive foot traffic into their stores. They focused on mobile in order to connect with potential customers locally. They developed a location-based mobile strategy that targeted users within a specific range of H&M retail locations to help expand. They also placed statues of David Beckham, while including his likeness on mobile banner ads around New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Mobile users who clicked through on the banner ads were directed to a mobile site with a few options. Mobile users could locate a nearby H&M location. If they were feeling adventurous, they could also participate in a scavenger hunt of sorts for the chance to win an H&M gift card. The campaign was very creative and highly successful, a marketing win for H&M. Not only did it help draw more foot traffic, it raised the company’s visibility on social media. It was also an effective tool for engaging customers and potential customers. Both companies also incorporated famous sports starts to market their new product line. Hanes used basketball star Michael Jordan for their tag less under shirt and recently H&M bragged soccer star David Beckham for their new underwear line. Both Hanes and H&M will go a long way if they keep up with what they have been successfully doing; getting the customers involved, using name brand athletes/stars and going along with what the general public want and using the fastest growing marketing tool: social media. The recent changes in technology continue to revolutionize the marketing industry at a first rate such that if your company cannot keep up with the pace most company will eventually make losses. First it was about e-commerce where everybody rushed to their phones and computers to connect and purchase goods online. This is now shifting to t-commerce where consumers will be having a chance to purchase the goods they want immediately from the television without changing the channel. This is the idea of H&M and David Beckham Companies. In conjunction with Samsung Smart Televisions it will be easy to click and purchase a product directly from the television. This new technology is expected to be introduced at the Super Bowl XLVIII for only 30 seconds. Viewers will then be expected to click onto the ad and then make their purchases directly through the TV. This completely revolutionizes the marketing industry. According to Mike Fitxsimmons, “we are collectively redefining the power and the effectiveness of television advertising; H&M in an industry first will now realize the potential by making their Super Bowl XLVIII ad actionable and directly measurable” (Heller). Embracing celebrities when it comes to marketing has proved to be profitable trend. Most of the people would always like to find out the success story of celebrities and this offers a good chance to attach a good or a service to the celebrity. A good example is David Beckham and Michael Jackson not excluding Jay-Z and Kanye West. Being a celebrity in sports and now offering a chance to your funs to put on how you do is quite thrilling and an attractive way that H& M Company uses. For example in one of the ads Beckham says, “I am really excited about my new Body wear collection. It has a heritage sportswear feel, with a focus function and, a great fit. As with everything in my collection, quality pieces with masculine edge are key. I hope everyone will love them as much as I do” (Beckham). Everybody is anxious about these clothing especially those who are great funs of the celebrities. The big question is whether t-commerce is going to have a big impact in the current marketing trend. For most people who are optimistic there will be a big change and besides marketing the Samsung smart televisions there will be a big impact in the current trends of marketing. Currently seeing an ad in the television can inspire people to go online and shop for it. Now H&M is giving people a chance to purchase it without going online but on the television directly (Zaitz). In conclusion fashion marketing is taking a sharp twist in terms of technology. Fashion marketing is shifting from e-commerce to t-commerce something that is expected to take the world in a sharp twist. It is going to be a reliable and more efficient means of marketing and selling of goods and services. Works Cited Beckham, David. Bodywear. 13 January 2014. 2014 . Heller, Laura. David Beckham and H&Ms Super Bowl Ad Could Change Advertising Forever. 31 January 2014. 2014 . Zaitz, Jennifer. Hanesbrands Inc. 16 February 2014. 2014 . Read More