Fashion is a multifaceted concept that contains too many aspects liable to contemplation, but whichever option within the term you choose, it can always bring you enormous profit—if you know how to work with it. The thing is that fashion is a treasure trove: you can start making money right here and right now, and we’re here with insider information, pro-tips, and instructions for your successful fashion ad campaign!
What is Fashion Marketing
Fashion can be divided into various categories, but we will primarily focus on its commercial part: marketing, customer behavior, factors that influence said behavior, and shticks you might want to use to elevate your business and inspire yourself.
Let’s start with the definition to eliminate even a remote possibility of misunderstanding.
Fashion marketing is the process of advertising and selling clothing, accessories, jewelry, and other fashion items, simultaneously building awareness about a particular brand or company.
Factors That Influence Customer Behavior in Fashion Market
Not to be a nuisance, but if you’re an absolute novice, a total beginner, a real newbie, you should refresh Maslow’s theory because it can explain practically everything you need to know about consumers’ needs: they are based on this old widely known but utterly important pyramid. We will skip that step and switch to further conclusions, trying to keep them short.
- Gender disparities. According to a recent study by Stuart (2019), men and women do not have the same purchasing patterns. For example, women are reported to be more engaged in buying apparel than men. Other findings that may be important for your future campaign:
- “Price” as a factor is more important to women (70%) than to men (55%);
- Only 47% of men consider the criteria “looks good” significant enough, while 60% of female shoppers pick it as a factor;
- The notion of “fitting well” elicits a response in 67% of women and only in 56% of men.
- Social identity. As stated above, women are more involved in shopping than men, but this is not a full stop. Who are these women? Answer this question because it matters: for example, if the women buying from you are a mother and a daughter, this fact alone may make them purchase clothes not only for themselves, but for their children as well.
- Fast Fashion. The idea behind the concept is simple: designers replicate recent catwalk trends and mass-produce them at a low cost to bring them to retail as quickly as possible while demand is at its peak. As someone around starts wearing a certain garment, other people are inclined to buy the same or similar fashion items.
- Anchoring effect. To put it simply, the anchoring effect implies that people make decisions or judge something based on the initial reference point, also known as an anchor (hence the name). In this particular case, the initial price may serve as such an anchor as it pushes customers to irrational choices: people compare the current price to the price they already know and pick a more satisfying option to avoid splurging money.
- Halo effect. Essentially, the halo effect means that an impression can be formed from one single trait or characteristic. In the fashion market, it works seamlessly: if customers are satisfied with the price and quality of one particular garment they have bought, they are more likely to explore other products provided by the previously unknown brand they decided to test out. For example, a woman buys a decent skirt at an online store, and if she is contented with the quality and the price, she is likely to purchase a pair of shoes or a blouse in the same place, even though she was totally unfamiliar with it earlier.
- Media. Whether you want it or not, the new era struck hard and turned the newly developed phenomenon of influencer marketing into a dominant force that can easily sway consumer behavioral patterns. Customers often see influencers as an authentic source of recommendations and reviews, so your collaboration with a popular vlogger may significantly impact consumer behavior and help your brand gain credibility.
- Customer experience. Digital marketing introduced a more refined version of customer experience: the more elaborate approach you choose, the better the customer experience, and the brighter the emotions your customer experiences. A few touchstones to illustrate the situation: a well-designed website with clear redirections, blocks of texts, comprehensible fonts, and pictures in high resolution; user-friendly interfaces in both desktop and mobile versions – and, of course, the mobile optimization itself. If users like the site or the landing page you’ve built to describe your product, the more likely they will spend time there and engage with your brand, increasing the chances of conversion.
Brand Loyalty
Fashion is a highly competitive niche with quirks that might easily be overlooked at first sight. One of these key peculiarities you should keep your eye on is brand loyalty, which induces customers to buy products from your store over and over again despite the competitors who provide similar items or services.
However, consider one thing before you rush and make mistakes: unlike many other niches, fashion as a concept rests on personal tastes, which may or may not be influenced by modern trends dictated by catwalk collections, celebrities, or vloggers discovering a flattering way to express their preferences. This alone complicates the entire undertaking: not only are you supposed to understand your audience to a fault and explain every sway in their opinion, but you are also expected to reach them in the right place and convey the right message to embolden them to make a purchase.
So, let’s see what you can do to build your brand loyalty.
Convenience
People are different. In the field of fashion, this conclusion is more than obvious. We’ve briefly tackled the question of personal tastes, but not every personal taste actually manifests itself, as people are often struggling to find the right outfit. There are multiple reasons for this: for example, they don’t know what suits them best, what colors better accentuate their features, what currently is on trend, or what makes them look confident. Speaking of confidence, many shoppers lack it in the first place, so they need guidance—or a hint that would let them discover their style.
Style quiz by Stitch Fix
One way to help fight this insecurity and offer a product that might seem appealing to your customers is a style quiz. Don't laugh; it works perfectly well as it takes the difficulty out of the dressing process and supplies an array of clothes and accessories that might hit the spot immediately. First, you don't go against their preferences. Second, you do not order them to snatch a certain bag or a pair of shoes. Instead, people are gently nudged in the right direction. As a result, grateful customers pleased with this convenient option and the quality of your product will feel encouraged to repeat the purchase.
Zalando fashion personality test
Apart from helping you increase brand awareness and showcasing your collection, such personality tests collect user preference data, which may be used in further ad campaigns, or, perhaps, in the same one: after all, not all people who take your test will be ready to buy your product immediately. Luckily, you've got their preference data collected—why not use it for retargeting somewhere on Facebook?..
Price
Ever heard of Shein? Wish? AliExpress, perhaps? We bet you did. Even with the questionable ethics of fast fashion, these marketplaces are popular as ever, and their success doesn’t seem to fade away in the slightest. Endless controversies take a step back when the low price is brought to the fore: some customers are willing to take the risk and buy a dress, a bag, or a skirt they find fantastically appealing.
Influencers go as far as to build their content on brands like Shein, AliExpress, or Wish: they buy dupes of expensive products, already aware of the dubious quality of the clothing they will receive, and arrange the so-called “hauls”: they buy clothes in bulk and review them online, recommending to their followers on social media. Subscribers, driven by the reviews they watch on YouTube, feel encouraged to go and buy their own piece, and if they are convinced that the quality is better than the product, they will repeat their purchase.
Niche Markets
We have sufficiently emphasized the idea that people are different, but we haven’t gone into detail explaining just how different they are. Well, this is the right moment.
Adidas gender-neutral clothing
There are groups of people who cannot purchase clothes from ordinary stores scattered around your city or town: say, disabled, or extra tall, or petite, or portly people tend to be excluded from the majority of brands and are bound to look for the options that would provide decent clothing at an affordable price. And you know what? This majority of brands is missing: body-inclusive fashion is on the rise. According toChitkara University, the industry is now celebrating diversity, while challenging unrealistic ideals. With that in mind, look around and focus on the brands that are gradually introducing curve, adaptive, and gender-neutral changes—you might discover something new and implement it in your marketing campaign, because yes, such details must be reflected in your ads.
Insider Tips
Now you’re more or less prepared to the challenges of the fashion industry, but you may be a little in the dark regarding the essentials. What should you do to maintain your success? What are the fundamentals you must keep your eye on? What are the specifics of the market? We’re here to share.
1. Conduct data analysis. One of the crucial things you face in marketing, fashion or otherwise, is analytics. You should understand what you are dealing with, what your starting points are, and where you want to go. For example, Ted from TGQ Marketing shares the result of an overview of his Shark Tank client and breaks down the key elements, initially conducting the audit to comprehend the situation. You can follow suit to define where your indicators sag and where your strong points are.
2. Readjust your targeting. Audits provide revelations, and some of them may bring in profit if treated correctly. Here we can refer to the case of CCO Menswear. Originally, the brand primarily targeted lookalike audiences, ignoring the results interest-based settings could offer. Eventually, however, the store decided to change the angle: the specialists concentrated on the aspect that CCO Menswear sold unique suits not unlike NBA and NFL player wear and went for it by testing “sports” interest audiences.
3. Mind your search terms. These are the worst: you have to monitor them all the time and respond accordingly. One of the most intriguing cases illustrating the problem is a brand called Ramona La Rue promoting clothes that contain lots of descriptive words in their names. As words alligator, sunflower, parrot, hibiscus, and mariposa can mean other things, not only the name of the models on display, these shopping ads were triggered by irrelevant search triggers, for example, alligator meat – off to negative keywords list they went. Anyways, the company prevented unnecessary clicks and unrelated search queries by using exact match, broad match, and phrase match keywords. It may have narrowed down the audience, but at the same time, the brand started to receive high-quality impressions from people inclined to buy a dress with an exceptional print.
4. Work with influencers. Sports nation, rise up! Well, maybe not that much of a sports nation, but sports enthusiasts will immediately get the gist hearing the name Gymshark. There was a time when all you saw was Gymshark, no matter which platform you scrolled: YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram, and the somewhat aggressive approach that included collaborations with so many influencers worked perfectly well. Brand ambassadors, known as Gymshark Athletes, promoted the products effortlessly: one, they demonstrated their latest hauls, dwelling on the advantages of the clothing and how it fitted during a training session, and second, these athletes provided exclusive discount codes for their viewers.
Sophie Allen’s Black Friday Haul
5. The more, the better. A multi-platform approach is a life-saver, but each social network serves its unique purpose, so you should understand the principle behind each platform you're planning to conquer. So, Pinterest can provide an inspirational lookbook that can affect customers’ purchasing behavioral patterns. Instagram, for its part, is the first platform that helps people discover fashion products; it focuses on a visually attractive narrative and driving real-time engagement. Facebook is a perfect tool for building a community, and TikTok is a trendsetter with dynamic and entertaining content.
Lululemon’s multifaceted approach
Wrapping Up
Fashion encourages the creative. However, sheer talent and the ability to think outside the box won't drag you an inch closer to success if you do not have the proper knowledge of the market or the tools used in this market. This article primarily relied on scientific studies, but at the same time, it provided exclusive data and examples that illustrated the challenges faced by affiliates in this niche. Now you know how to address these challenges. Get inspired and go on!
