Fashion marketing strategy

Fashion marketing strategy: everything you need to know

Fashion is one of the hyper-connected sectors. The increasing competition and the originality shown by brands to distinguish themselves are forcing companies to build a strong digital presence if they want to succeed in capturing consumers.

In the field of fashion, purchasing behavior is specific. Customers are most often multi-brands and generally do not know which brand they are going to choose at the start of the purchasing process. Consumers of fashion items most often buy on impulse, which means improving brand visibility throughout the buying process through impactful marketing actions.

5 things to consider in fashion marketing

1 - The omnichannel experience

More and more consumers are shopping online while checking customer reviews on social media or visiting stores, and at the same time comparing prices on their mobile. Their objective is simple: to have access to information quickly in order to make the best choice. To do this, they switch from one channel to another.

For brands, this means, among other things:

• Consistency across all online and offline channels, including price or promotional offers.
• Harmonization of payment, refund or exchange conditions.
• Sellers equipped with tablets to facilitate interactions with customers and personalize their buying journey.
• The possibility of making an online purchase and picking it up in store.

2- Buyer loyalty

The fashion sector is different from the high-tech sector. While an Apple brand customer will in no way want to swap their iPhone for a phone from another brand, the fashion buyer will be more inclined to make impulse purchases, guided by the trend, price or advertising exposure. Ready-to-wear companies must compete in inventiveness to differentiate themselves and succeed in seducing the consumer.

3- Changes in behavior

Today, consumers expect much more from a brand than a product. New selection criteria other than quality or price have recently appeared, greatly disrupting fashion marketing. For example, some customers say they are willing to buy a brand's items online only if it opens a physical store in their area. Others wouldn't mind paying more for a one- to three-hour delivery service.

4- The importance of the customer experience

Fashion shoppers are experienced e-commerce consumers with high expectations of the stores they visit. It is therefore essential for brands to provide their future buyers with a quality customer experience, similar to that which they could have in a physical store, such as receiving personalized advice or having an idea of the effect the item will have on them before making the purchase.

5- The need for differentiation

In an ultra-competitive market like that of ready-to-wear, brands must build a strong identity in order to remain sustainable and build up their own clientele. This requires the implementation of a differentiation strategy, by creating a specific atmosphere at the points of sale for example, or by targeting a very specific category of consumers.

6 Fashion Marketing Channels

1- Social networks

Social networks, and in particular Instagram, are essential to the strategy of a ready-to-wear brand if it wishes to remain in the race. True showcase of the sign, they represent a real sales support.

The main advantage of these platforms lies in the interaction they create with the brand, which allows it to achieve different objectives such as:

Customer loyalty.

• Access to a larger target.
• The increase in notoriety.
• The increase in turnover.

The fashion industry is one of the fastest growing on Instagram. No wonder, because this platform is all about the visual. Almost half of its users follow a fashion brand and are very active and more influential since they post three times more than the rest of Instagram users.

Additionally, the tool, through its shopping tab, allows brands to add clickable links to their products on Instagram, an intuitive way for the consumer to access product information without even leaving the app.

2- Content marketing

Content marketing is a key point for success in digital. Through a blog section on their site, ready-to-wear specialists publish content that generates additional traffic and constitutes an opportunity to gain notoriety and legitimacy.

Of course, the articles must be relevant to the target and optimized for natural referencing (SEO) in order to increase the chances for the online store to be present in the first results of Google. This involves, among other things, using the keywords typed in by Internet users and including links to other pages on the site.

3- Influencer marketing

Relying on the notoriety of public figures to broadcast an informative or promotional message has become very trendy in recent years. Indeed, these influencers have created an engaged and connected community that has complete confidence in their opinions. The principle is simple: the brand offers clothing or accessories to the influencer and expects him to promote them to his subscribers, in particular by sharing photographs or videos.

Using influencer marketing to promote your products brings certain advantages, such as quickly accessing a large, targeted and qualified audience, creating engagement and developing sales.

4- Paid referencing

Paid referencing is another marketing lever to make your site known on search engines and considerably increase its visibility. It makes it possible to arrive at the top of the list of the first results thanks to paid advertisements. Here again, it is essential to choose the right keywords to position yourself on.

5 - Street marketing

Street marketing is a strategy that uses the everyday environment to create buzz around a brand. It could be :

• To create an ephemeral store, also called a "pop-up store".
• To use street furniture such as a bus shelter, a taxi, or even a pedestrian crossing to broadcast an advertising message.
• To share an augmented reality experience.
• The main strength of street marketing lies in its originality and its ability to surprise consumers when they least expect it and thus reach them more.

6- Collaboration between brands

Co-branding aims to promote two distinct brands through joint action. It makes it possible to combine the image and reputation of the two brands and thus strengthen their visibility with their respective audiences.