Fashion marketing is the vital link between fashion trends and potential consumers.
Getting fashion apparel from designer runways to fashion retailers, and directly to the personal wardrobes of consumers, requires a certain set of skills to successfully sell each piece. Fashion marketing, therefore, is an important profession that incorporates the latest fashion designs and communicates them in various ways to different target markets in order to create consumer awareness, which may ultimately lead shoppers to buy the product.
Nature of Fashion
Fashion adds a sense of beauty, color and overall interest to society. It allows not only different sets of cultures but also individuals to express themselves physically. And just as society and cultures can change rapidly into other various forms, fashion trends and style can change perhaps even faster. Those with an interest in fashion seek to keep up with such changes. Also, fashion is used not only as a way of clothing the physical form, but also as a means of helping to articulate a person's individualism, a group's ideals and/or people's view on the world. The nature of fashion therefore plays a vital role in highlighting the public's overall consciousness and expressive state of mind.
Role of Fashion Marketing
Since fashion is constantly changing, it may seem difficult to keep updated with the latest trends. Just as you may like to be informed with the latest news in the world via various forms of media, fashion also has a set of media in helping to communicate the latest changes; this is where fashion marketing comes into play. The role of fashion marketing is to grab the attention of potential consumers into its ever-changing world using communication techniques such as advertising, public relations and journalism. Those who are interested to know the recent happenings in the world of fashion seek different ways in gaining access to such information. It is the important role of the fashion marketer to derive various methods in making the information easily accessible.
Communicating and Influencing Consumers
Fashion marketing is not only a means of informing people on the current changes but also a way of creating consumer awareness and essentially getting those to buy the fashion product in the end. In order to influence consumers to follow the latest trends and advancements in fashion, fashion marketers take time in creating plausible messages and news angles in order to create awareness and gain effective results.
Linking Designers to the Public
Fashion marketers play an essential role in the fashion industry by helping to effectively connect designers to fashion consumers. The success of a designer's collection does not rest solely on his special eye to detail or his unique approach to design, but on the fashion marketing techniques used to bring attention of his creations to the masses. Marketing therefore is the crucial tool through which the designer can identify and connect with his potential consumers. It helps determine the best way to promote the characteristics that make a designer's collection stand out from the rest and ultimately gain a loyal consumer following.
Types of Fashion Marketers
The role of a fashion marketer is multifaceted and can take the form of different professions. For instance, an experienced retail buyer and merchandiser can watch a designer's show and decipher which looks would sell successfully in her retail boutique or department store. She also has to derive clever techniques in making the clothing stand out in the store, grabbing the attention of shoppers, and essentially persuading them to buy the items.
An editor for a fashion magazine can style and coordinate the designs on a model effectively through editorial spreads, write a convincing article that may influence readers to want to buy the designs and ultimately create consumer awareness of the latest "must-have" trends.
A publicist may use influential celebrities to wear a designer's latest creations to social events where it would be seen by a large mass of people in the best light, i.e. during an awards show or large charity event. This in turn may heighten the desires of consumers to want to invest in a certain fashion item.
An copy-writing editor and graphic designer can create eye-catching fashion advertisements that draw a potential consumer into wanting to search further about the fashion item and perhaps buying it.
Tags: role fashion, consumer awareness, potential consumers, create consumer, create consumer awareness