Fashion, Retail and Advertising - Essay Example

Fashion, Retail and Advertising by Fashion, Retail and Advertising Introduction Fashion and social trends, all through time, have had major impacts on the way that the market operates. The world of advertising is constantly evolving in order to keep up with whatever is new in the market, socially or fashion wise. In the period spanning the year 2000 to the year 2013, the rapid evolution of advertisement following the constantly changing world trends has held true. More than ever, retail services and advertising are dependent on the ability of retailers to keep up with, and even pre-empt the next big thing in the market. This paper is a study into the cultural and social changes that have taken place in the decade running from the year 2000 to date. The paper will study the intersect between these social and cultural trends, and the world of fashion retail and advertising in this period. Social Trends 2000 – 2013 Social trends matter in retail trade (Anderson and Duncan, 2008). As such, it is important to look into some of the trends in terms of social media, communication and culture that stood out the most in the last decade. It is worth noting that in recent times, the advertising industry is more incorporative of the trends, though this is not by choice. The modern day consumer has to be wooed into purchasing certain products by certain companies (Norton, 2006). This section examines what has been deemed trendy and fashionable in the 2000s. The Clothing Industry The 2000 has been perhaps the fastest evolving decade in terms of what was popular in this period. The years in this decade as pertains to clothing fashion, saw to the emergence of attributes such as markets flooded with numerous brand names (Kaldor, 2008). For example, brands such as Nike are no longer the only ones that are recognized in the retail industry, as there has been widespread infiltration of other brands into the market over the past decade (Kaldor, 2008). A good example of such is the emergence of names such as Forever 21. This has left consumers spoilt for choice, with the knowledge that quality is guaranteed, even though one opts to not stick to traditional brand names while acquiring different clothing. In addition to this, the fashion industry has witnessed the evolution of clothing, from conservative wear to clothing that leaves little to the imagination of onlookers (Khidekel, 2008). The 2000s saw to the infiltration of attires such as $300 denim jeans, especially among the youth. Additionally, the decade brought with it a new wave of people working to look just right in whatever clothing they adorned, while at the same time keeping up with the trend. The trend, in the 2000s is largely a factor of what celebrities are wearing (Schlecht, 2010). This is such that, among teenagers for example, there was a drastic shift from looking chic and young, to adopting a chic and mature look, as has been the case among teenage celebrities in this century (Schlecht, 2010). For women, the aim in the 2000s has been to look sexy, just like prominent personalities, while men in the 2000s have leaned towards the masculine, with quite a good number taking deliberate measures to buff up in order to look the same as certain celebrities look in their clothing (Norton, 2006). Social Media and Other Internet Platforms One of the first words that comes to mind when one mentions social media is Facebook. This is a platform whereby users can share photos, videos, and all other aspects of their lives with friends. This is just one of the examples of social media that the 2000s has brought with it. Since its inception in the mid-2000s, the facebook platform has witnessed a growth in the number of users in the world over (The Advertising Archives, 2014). This is such that it is unconventional for one to announce that they do have a Facebook account. From Facebook, other numerous social networking sites have emerged, for example, twitter, which has also gained quite some traction in the 2000s (Abraham and Lodish, 2009). An example of a more professional social site that has emerged following Facebook’s success is LinkedIn. Apart from social sites, there has been increased use of other sites on the internets that emerged and developed in the course of the 2000s. A good example is Google. The use of this site has become such an important function of daily living, its name is now used as a verb. Google, which came into existence in the 2000s, managed to replace search engine monopolies like MSN (Leiner et al., 2009). Another site that has become an important part of the internet is YouTube, conceived in the year 2005 (Leiner et al., 2009). Over the decade, the site has become an important platform for sharing videos, with the agenda videos ranging from political to goofy. These websites are very easily irreplaceable in the life of an internet user. Chances are their significance will most probably span several decades. Fashion, Retail and Advertising Trends in Advertising in the 2000s Bagwell (2008) gives advertising as one of the first steps towards retailing. This is because it is through advertising that one raises awareness of their products among potential customers and attracts a market base for the company (Ippolito and Mathios, 2007). Thus, advertising is an infinitely important part of the fashion retail industry. This section analyses some of the trends in advertising in the 2000s, highlighting those that are most widely used to date. Television and Magazines Advertising through television is one of the most traditional and effective forms of advertisement. In the early years of 2000, this was one of the most widely used means to reach a large audience, given the widespread accessibility to these media (Kaldor, 2008). In addition, in the early 2000s, retailers were not as spoilt for choice as pertains to advertisement media as retailers were. As such, retailers reached out to potential consumers through the television as it was considered effective (Anderson and Duncan, 2008). Another commonly used medium of advertisement used in the early 2000s is the magazine (Abraham and Lodish, 2009). As fashion evolved, so did the nature of advertisements put up by magazines. Below are exhibits displaying examples of advertisements that are found in the different issues of different magazines. One can see the difference between fashion from the 1990s and that of the 2000s, which is when Channel began to gain prominence as a brand of choice, among the ladies especially. Jeans are still in fashion, but the particular brand in displayed on the 90s poster is not as chic as it may have been back then. Figure 1: Advert from the 90s Figure 2: Advert from the 2000s Source: The Advertising Archives Internet Advertising The mid 2000s saw to a tremendous evolution in the advertising industry. With the inception of widespread use of search engines such as Google, it became trendy for retailers to buy advertising space for their products on the internet (Leiner et al., 2009). At the onset of this, many failed to take advantage of the endless opportunities presented by advertising through the internet. However, as more entities adopted the use of the internet as a medium of advertisement, the intricate connection between the evolution of clothing fashion and the evolution of the social media and other internet pages was born (Anderson and Duncan, 2008). Increasingly, consumers are growing to appreciate the vast consumer base at their disposal. This is especially apparent in the evolvement of an age of advertising through social media. On Facebook, for example, users hardly go a click without coming across an advertisement such as the one on figure 3, picked directly from Facebook. Apart from using social media, many retailers have opened entire websites in a bid to attract a larger client base, advertise their products, and in some cases, provide a forum for clients to shop online for these goods (Ippolito and Mathios, 2007). Another means of online advertisement is through blogging. Many retailers opt to reach out to consumers by writing about the product, especially to reach consumers in forums where communication via writing is most effective on the internet. The opportunities presented by online advertising are endless. In the contemporary society, all retailers have to do it pick one means of advertising that is guaranteed to reach a wide audience. Figure 3: Advertisement from Facebook Source: Consumer Focus Group, Facebook Brand Collaboration Brand loyalty is important to both producers and consumers in the fashion retail industry. Because of brand loyalty, one finds that there is collaboration between various companies seeking to share clients. This is whereby; one company identifies its products with a company known to have a large client base in order to attract these clients (Ippolito and Mathios, 2007). For example, in figure 4, the Italian blogger Chiara Ferragni collaborates with Yves Saint Laurent Beauty. Hence, both their client bases are available to purchase the product they are promoting. Figure 4: Example of Brand Collaboration Source: The Advertising Archives Fashion and Challenges to Retailers Fashion trends influence retail services tremendously. It is worth noting that despite the inception of fashion trends that will probably live on for a long time to come, many fashion trends die off after only a short time period (Norton, 2006). Based on this, it is essential for retailers to prioritize on what is important in their endeavours to attract more clients. One of the major challenges that fashion retail and advertisement faces is the pressure to keep up with what is hot today (Norton, 2006). For example, fashion retailers may very easily find themselves having to frequently carry out a profitless destocking of ‘yesterday’s hot news’ should they find themselves unable to predict the market trends of their times. For example, one of the biggest fads of the 2000s was the crocs(The Advertising Archives). This fad, even though it seemed like it would last for quite a while died down after only a short period. Retailers that failed to predict this could have faced big losses as they had to dispose of these shoes for something more fashionable at the time. Given the rapidly evolving fashion preferences of consumers, it is up to retailers to be cognizant of how much stock to keep of certain products. This is so because, when dealing with fashion, too much or too little could spell losses for one’s business (Norton, 2006). Too little becomes an issue when potential customers walk into one’s shop to find that the items they are looking for are out of stock. Another challenge that retailers have to contend with as pertains to fashion is having the capacity to be the first to retail whatever is in fashion at the moment (Anderson and Duncan, 2008). A good example is, again, in the fashion industry. Being the first to give in to the demands of the consumers means that one attracts a large client base before other retailers do. It could also means extra profits to one’s business, since as the first retailer of any commodity, one can set a monopoly price as the rest prepare to enter the market and force the business to adopt competitive pricing (Bagwell, 2008). Conclusion As the fashion industry in the 2000s experienced its own revolutions, the advertising sector evolved right along with it. As such, there are endless opportunities for retailers in the markets for their products. They can advertise their goods by numerous means, for example, through television, which has remained a timeless means of advertising. In addition to this is the use of magazines, also guaranteed to reach a wide client base, depending how widely the target audience reads. The inception of internet advertising is one of the best happenings in the fashion retail industry. The opportunities presented by the internet are as numerous as they are effective due to the wide usage of the internet as a means of communication, business, and social interaction in contemporary times. The opportunities available to retailers include blogging as a means of advertising, creating entire web pages for their stores, and advertising their goods on social media. The 2000s presented retailers with the best and most evolved means of advertising. The future, seemingly, holds even greater prospects for this industry. References Abraham, M. and Lodish. L. 2009. Getting the Most out of Advertising and Promotion. Harvard Business Review, 68(3), pp.50-60. Anderson, E. and Duncan, S., 2008. Dynamics of Retail Advertising: Evidence from a Field Experiment. Forthcoming, Economic Inquiry, 47 (3) pp. 482–499. Bagwell, K. 2008. The Economic Analysis of Advertising. Handbook of Industrial Organization, vol. 3, Mark Armstrong and Robert Porter, eds. Amsterdam: Elsevier B.V., 1701-1844. Customer Focus Group. 2014. Facebook. Available at: [Accessed 28 Jan 2014]. Ippolito, P.M., and Mathios, D. 2007. Information, Advertising and Health Choices: A Study of the Cereal Market. RAND Journal of Economics, 21(3), pp.459–80. Kaldor, N. 2008. The Economic Aspect of Advertising. Review of Economic Studies, 18(50), pp. 1–27. Khidekel, M. (2008, March). Cosmo Girl: What is Sexy, 154-155 Leiner, B., Cerf, V., Clark, D. et al. 2009. A Brief History of the Internet. ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, 39(5), pp. 22-31 Norton, L.P., (2006, 09, 04). Whats Cool At School. Available at: the ProQuest database Schlecht, C. 2010. Celebrities’ impact on branding. Available at http://www.globalbrands.org/academic/working/Celebrity_Branding.pdf [Accessed 28 Jan 2014] The Advertising Archives. (n.d.) Available at http://www.advertisingarchives.co.uk/?service=category&action=show content_page&language=en&category=12 [Accessed 28 Jan 2014] Read More