In-Store Tech, Sales Driver or Hype?

Interesting article by Suzanne Bearne  Business of fashion article

Fashion retailers are increasingly integrating slick interactive technology into their physical flagships. But is all this in-store technology actually making the tills ring or merely providing opportunities for short-term PR?

Cool marketing draw and the beginning of an omni-channel era. Unquestionably, brands such as Burberry and Kate Spade are leaders in the matter, but we must shine the spotlight on  the financials to confirm if these efforts are worthy and with generate  sales.

A lot of the technical kicks will need to be ironed out as this innovative display concept is still in its infancy. The only hiccup – comes to where to test, they’ll need to conduct trials in the  store or online. Everyone likes free PR and the media can be good at hyping up the next best thing. There is also an awful lot of VC monies invested so they want to see and hear progress.

I work for marketing, and I have worked on projects with extensive research about the omni-channel in fashion and luxury business (http://fsh.by/kkRwLw), and clearly you can see that these kind of efforts are generating customers for the brick mortar and online markets, innovation is catchy and striking. The key take-away is consumers are interested in an amazing shopping experiences, if you have  happy customers, you have secure sales plus growth.

Marketing Tips for Fashion Designers

Anna Pitchouguina  and Claire McElduff are just two of the budding fashion designers that have been making headlines around the world in 2014. Many people dream of designing clothes for a living, and they may have new, innovative ideas that could change the fashion world. However, with such a competitive industry it can be hard for a new designer to get their voice heard or to get their latest designs in front of the people that matter the most: the retailers.

However, the Internet has helped to change that for many budding designers as people can now sell online themselves and carve out a niche selling their own style of clothing, and while this model might work well for some people, for most it is not a way to earn a living.

Here are some tips on how the budding fashion designer can get their name out there.

Branding

Before a product can be sold it needs to be branded. Branding is what makes a product different to everyone else's and helps it to stand out from the crowd. Without proper branding, it is not possible to effectively market your designs. So take some time to consider what the Unique Selling Point of your designs is.

Start Small

Try small, independent retailers and think outside of the box. For instance, don’t just focus on clothing and fashion stores, see if your designs would be a fit somewhere else. Once a designer has built a steady list of outlets, they’ll have some idea of the units they can sell and the profits that can be made; this is all useful information when trying to get the designs into larger stores and retail chains.

Teel your Story

Everyone has a story and sharing the story behind your designs is one way of making your product memorable. Using the story of your brand is also useful for marketing and PR to gain further publicity; find blogs in your niche and target local newspapers that might be interested in sharing the story behind your brand.

Offer Freebies and Discounts

Offering freebies and discounts is a great way of gaining publicity. However, don’t expect all of the people that have signed up for a freebie to become regular customers. Perhaps offer discounts on the first purchase to get buyers interested.

Get Social

Getting a name out there has been made much easier with social media. It is free to use, has the potential to reach millions, and can help to build a solid following of people all keen to buy your designs.

Use Technology

Take advantage of the latest technology and use it to sell your products. A specialized shopping app can be useful for sending out special offers, discounts and details of the latest designs and products to potential buyers.

YouTube advertising Insights

Turing fanship into $$$!

A high fan base on YouTube equals a high level of brand recognition. Consumer engagement is synonymous to brand building and growth in the market.  Building a brand on YouTube allows the customer to collaborate + building fanship of the brand adds to the probability of consumer purchase regularity.

The key is to align insightful content that both engages the customer and resonates with the brand; provide a choice to the consumer in how they engage with the brand which adds a sense of control and thus building brand awareness.

Consumers engage with brands for which they resonate with or share a passions for, and when that passion combines with interest on YouTube engagement ensues and the consumer becomes a fans. The key is to align your brand/product with consumer passions/interest and your advertising is born.

See below two top Nature Hair YouTube channels. Both provide detailed product endorsements. In only one YouTube post a brand can start in absolute obscurity and move (very quickly) into a house-whole name-- just from a mention on a highly viewed channel on YouTube.

  Quest for the Perfect Curl (Elle)
 https://www.youtube.com/user/denimpixie

 

    Taren Guy
https://www.youtube.com/user/taren916

Lexury brands coming out of the red

"The auto industry has gradually recovered from the wipeout that occurred in 2009". While it is the sales of non-luxury items that stems the economy which are the best indicators of  economy growth. The idea of luxury items selling like hot cakes is an indicator that the non-lux marketing is also gaining speed.

Yahoo! Finance

Is there a secret shopping code at Costco?

This is no "holy grail" secret except to Costco and how they do their inventories. Every retailer has a system --red tags, slashes, Green dots, SKUs that all begin with 3,4....6 zeroes. UPCs that end in different digits (which usually coincides with shipment receive dates), all result in inventory coding which is not really a "secret".
You can ask although the answer(s) you get might be all over the map if you get one at all, but you may get a friendly manager or store owner that has a fun streak  who makes their store "codes" into a  treasure hunt or possibly certain codes go with in-store or online ONLY promotions.
Bottom line the coding is no giant secret, but well known to anyone that does any sort of inventory, warehousing, purchasing or merchandising.

Yahoo! Finance

Matthew Weiner”s MadMen is back for its final season. Things are bit up-side-down with Don Draper on the outs with the agency. It appears that Roger, Peggy and Pete are all adrift as well. It's time to call in superman, Bert, and bring Don back into the fold! With new faces like Neve Campbell joining the cast as a love interest for Don season 7 is sure to be must see TV event.

AMC's MadMen

Amazon’s Dash Wand

Amazon.com

 

reveals a new approach to shopping for the

 

tech savvy customer

 

 

A new way of shopping the online retailer Amazon.com, the “Dash Wand” promises to upgrade your shopping experience. Just by scanning a barcode or speaking the name of a product into the “Dash Wand”, consumers will have the contents of their vertical shopping cart at their within 24 hours.

 

Rag & Bone 10 years and growing

 

Rag & Bone the eclectic and modern fashion brand is on the road to becoming the next big American Brand. Key to build the Rag & Bone brand is balancing art and commerce.  

Childhood friends, David Neville and Marcus Wainwright founding partners of the fab British clothing house Rag & Bone’s is expanding their brand. Adding

The duo will beef-up their digital initiatives. Fans of the modern clothing brand will cheer as can plans to add to their fleet of 12 retail stores ventures into the Brooklyn, NY, Miami, FL and San Francisco, CA markets.

http://www.wwd.com/menswear-news/designer-luxury/david-neville-and-marcus-wainwright-talk-10-years-of-rag-bone-7628395?module=The Markets-Designer and Luxury-second

Digital marketing of YOU

 

 

Question: Should your Linked-In header say who you are?

How is a Digital Art Director viewed when listed as Consultant-e-mail Marketing on Linked-In?

Smart marketing insights do and should apply directly when marketing YOU.  It stands to reason that your effort to build/grow your online persona—is about hitting the mark. Being concise about what you do is the foundation in lining up the target. Being concise about what you do yields results and firmly grounds YOU in digital and social media marketing of yourself. Linked-In and the like is a channel set to provide a digital extension of YOU.  

Answer: Yes and No. This question is depended on how you want people to Link-in with you.

I myself believe that you want to position your profile in what/where you in turn want to go. In the aforementioned example I view it as too broad + just on first glance I have no idea if that person is a designer, a coder, a strategist or any of the many functions that fall under the email marketing umbrella.