Chapter 15 Retail Fashion Marketing

Fashion From Concept to Consumer, 8/e© 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Gini Frings Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Marketing Marketing is the responsibility of everyone in the organization from management to sales associates. Market research is crucial to understanding the shopper and their needs. Target market is the group of consumers the store wishes to attract.

Fashion From Concept to Consumer, 8/e© 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Gini Frings Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Marketing Specialty stores aim at one particular group while department stores appeal to several categories of target customers. Fashion leadership also plays a role in a store’s target customer, and can be divided loosely into three categories: –Fashion forward –Mainstream –Mass merchants

Fashion From Concept to Consumer, 8/e© 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Gini Frings Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Planning and Direction While small stores may have a single person heading all marketing, large stores and chains usually involve a marketing director coordinating efforts in the following areas: –Advertising –Special events –Visual merchandising –Public relations –Fashion office

Fashion From Concept to Consumer, 8/e© 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Gini Frings Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Visual Merchandising Visual merchandising communicates a store’s fashion, value and quality It is a team effort involving: –Fashion director –Marketing director –Store planner –Merchandise managers and buyers –Visual merchandise director –Designers

Fashion From Concept to Consumer, 8/e© 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Gini Frings Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Visual Merchandising Store planning helps establish the stores image and must consider the following: –Store location –Store design –Renovations –Interior environment Seasonal calendars indicating dates on which specific merchandise is featured, and the windows and interior displays where it will be displayed.

Fashion From Concept to Consumer, 8/e© 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Gini Frings Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Visual Merchandising Window displays are designed as separate statements, telling what is going on inside a store, while interior displays have more localized interest for the shopper. Multi unit stores use corporate visual manuals to ensure consistent presentations throughout the division. In store designers or brand boutiques often supply fixtures to ensure a consistent look for their particular merchandise throughout the division. Departments are arranged to drive foot traffic to the back merchandise walls of stores.

Fashion From Concept to Consumer, 8/e© 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Gini Frings Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Visual Merchandising Main selling areas usually have cosmetics, jewelry and accessories, while destination departments, such as swim, lingerie or coats, are in secondary locations Fixturing comes in a variety of forms: –Wall racks –Rounders –Four way –T stands –I beams –Collection fixtures

Fashion From Concept to Consumer, 8/e© 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Gini Frings Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Fashion Advertising Advertising involves planning, writing, designing and scheduling of paid announcement designed to attract customer attention. Four basic types of advertising are used: –Image –Special event –Item –Promotional Cooperative advertising between fiber producers, fabric producers and manufacturers and retailers helps spread the costs of advertising related to featured merchandise.

Fashion From Concept to Consumer, 8/e© 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Gini Frings Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Fashion Advertising Media used to transmit a sales message includes: –Newspaper and magazines –Television and radio –E-Commerce –Direct response and direct mail –Outdoor signing The advertising department, in turn, is responsible for: –Art –Copy –Traffic flow –Advertising agencies for outsourcing

Fashion From Concept to Consumer, 8/e© 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Gini Frings Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Publicity and Special Events Publicity is the spreading of information about people, events, or noteworthy topics through various media. Special events give customers a specific time and reason to come to the store or create goodwill. Fashion shows are special events aimed at communicating a fashion story. They take four forms at the store level: –Formal fashion shows –Designer trunk shows –Department fashion shows –Informal fashion shows

Fashion From Concept to Consumer, 8/e© 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Gini Frings Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Marketing Evaluation All the people involved in the marketing effort, directors, managers, coordinators, artists, writers, designers and buyers evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign. Advertising can be evaluated using sales data. Evaluating the effect of visual merchandising or special events on easily measurable items such as overall sales or less easily measured goals such as store image presents a challenge for management.