In the world of fashion, the marketing department is of utmost importance. Fashion marketing experts can work in companies, showrooms and agencies, assuring a successful business. They can be in charge of several tasks, such as defining marketing plans and communication strategies; dealing with the launch or promotion of a fashion label, a brand, a product or a designer; seeking out the latest trends; acting as the ambassador for a company or brand on the web; managing editorial projects, commenting on fashion shows and trends and explaining fashion phenomena.
Graanmarkt 13
Tatiana Boeckx, student at IED Milano, developed a communication plan for Graanmarkt 13, a restaurant, high-end concept store and apartment in Antwerp, Belgium. This retail project was aimed at communicating the building as a whole, to catch more custumers, taking in consideration 3 main topics: intimacy, durability and sustainability. Tatiana designed a strategy to create the ultimate store of the future, since Graanmarkt 13 has the potential to grow and to lead the way into a new retail form that offers a full menu of experiences, a Graanmarkt 13 universe, where clients can find anything they like and need.
The main goal was creating a deep and 360 degree relation with the consumers. “Escapism” is a keyword for brands and retailers, and Graanmarkt 13 can help clients escaping into a universe made of wonderful objects and bonding activities. Retail needs to entertain their consumers in a way as otherwise the whole online business will take over. Graanmarkt 13 can combine the online experience to the “real” one, encouraging people to take pictures and tag the delicious food as #foodporn, or the beautiful building as #travelgram, or the pieces of sustainable clothing they just bought, #ootd.
WE(A)R IT
“During this three year course in Fashion Marketing and Communication, I had the possibility to learn a lot of information about companies, start-ups, people who work in the industry and many aspects of this world. Today, I am able to try to understand what could be interesting and could work in this business analyzing it with a more critical eye.” – Eleonora Banfi Benaglio, graduated student in the BAH Fashion Marketing and Communication at IED Milano
For her Final Project Eleonora Banfi Baroglio carried out a detailed analysis to create WE(A)R IT, a start-up website for reviews, updated by customers who read and write opinions about fashion brands, products and stores. She collected a wide number of information about fashion market and competitors.
After having analysed how shopping behaviours have changed, and how online shopping is growing, Eleonora outlined that real and authentic reviews are becoming more and more important. People want to get reliable opinions about what to buy, they don’t want to be manipulated by brands to boost their sales, or by “digitally famous” people just to increase their visibility and earnings. WE(A)R IT is a solution to meet both needs and desires of the people who don’t shop by impulse, but want to know more about what they’re about to buy. Moreover, it gives the possibility to follow other usesers and be followed, allowing them to take inspiration from each other, and it helps small and emerging brands gaining visibility, through the unsponsored and authentic reviews of the users. WE(A)R IT gathers a large community sharing positive values, giving the industry the opportunity to combine profits with common sense and altruism.
Pulp Community
Centennials are the newest consumer segment, they are approximately 7-23 years old. They are digital natives since they grew up with the Internet. Therefore, brands need to adopt a different communication and behaviour online and offline, with a wider transparency for brands and online communication strategies showing creativity. They need to enter the online community and get in touch with new consumers by raising their interest. To create a more loyal and stable bond, the interaction between the brand and its customers is crucial.
Basing on this consideration Sam Nyqvist, IED Milano student, designed PULP Community, an app collecting information on fashion events and activities happening in town. Its user generated contents can be useful as much for brands, to promote themselves, as for customers, to exchange experiences and get engaged in something they could find interesting.
DARE TO CARE
The modern era is characterised by technologic revolution and mass distribution, so that fashion industry is constantly moving. Continuous production of garments has also bad consequences on work conditions, with low salaries and exploitation of labour. The Final Project of Sandra Isabelle Lind, Fashion Marketing and Communication at IED Milano, presents a new communication strategy for Gina tricot, a Swedish fast fashion brand that in the last years has undertaken several actions to enhance sustainability. Dare to Care campaign includes online and offline activities, aimed at stimulating awareness on what stays behind garments’ creation, while establishing an emotional connection with customers. The strategy is tailored according to fashion consumer’s preferences and lifestyles as well as the art to catch their attention. To increase the visibility of this campaign, the communication plan includes a partnership between Gina tricot, Fashion Revolution – a global movement calling for greater transparency, sustainability andethics in the fashion industry – and Samsung – that faced many accusations of poor working conditions over the years, but is now attempting to regulate conditions more carefully, in order to become an ethical technical giant.
Re-Generation
Re-Generation is a project developed by Giulia Guazzone, student in Fashion Marketing at IED Milano that reflects on fast fashion phenomenon and its environmental impact. This project aims at showing how recycling brands can attract a younger target understanding its key values, characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses, and learning how they could differentiate themselves from fast fashion brands. This project analyses how brands that are already working with recycling materials could improve their communication skills, becoming appealing for a wider target and more competitive in the fashion market.