TXMI 5220 Exam 1

How socio-cultural differences within a culture may affect aesthetic preferences? Ethnicity

- aesthetic perspective of Asian-American, African-American or Latino-American women vs. that of Caucasian-American women

How socio-cultural differences within a culture may affect aesthetic preferences? Geographic Location

- climatic conditions of location - physical environment - ethnic heritage - industry - historical events of the area

Developing a product line in your company

1. Define product category. 2. Define the customer who shops at your store and for whom you will develop product. 3. Conduct research on market and fashion trends about your product category. 4. Develop theme and inspiration boards representing initial concepts for your product line. 5. Create design boards, including illustrations, fabrication, color/treatment, and sales plan. 6. Choose fabrication, findings and trim and research country of origin, including quotas, availability, and cost. 7. Develop specification sheets. 8. Develop costing sheets. 9. Review the preproduction and production process, including sourcing and quality control. 10. Develop a sales and marketing plan, and include public relations opportunities.

Two Methods of Persona Development

1. Interviews - The first step in defining your personas is to look at your existing audience. Begin with any current customers or prospects in your funnel. Send a series of surveys to these groups, or better yet, hold a series of interviews. A small incentive gets people in the door. However, make sure to hold these interviews one-on-one to ensure the answers aren't influenced by others. - Develop an in-depth series of questions, ranging from demographic information to why they chose your product or service. Conducting three to five interviews is a good start, as this is the point where you'll begin to notice trends or patterns in your persona responses. 2. CRM and Sales Data - Another way to augment the persona interviews you conduct is to look at the existing data in your CRM. Your sales team will be able to provide insights. From their customer interactions, sales teams should be able to offer generalized insights into common answers and interactions they have with customers. - Once you've collected your data, evaluate for insights and commonalities, then generalize into an aggregated view for each client or customer type.

Target Market Strategy Building Process

1. Market segmentation 2. Market targeting 3. Positioning 4. Market strategy

Fashion Industry Development

1789-1890: Mechanization of Production 1890-1950: Growth of the Ready-to-Wear Industry 1950-1980: Diversification and Incorporation 1980-1995: Imports and Quick Response 1995-2005: Supply Chain Management and Globalization 2005-Present: Fast Fashion, E-Commerce, and CSR

NAICS

313 Textile Mills 314 Textile Product Mills 315 Apparel Manufacturing 316 Leather and Allied Product Manufacturing

The elements of a SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis focuses on the four elements included in the acronym, allowing companies to identify the forces influencing a strategy, action, or initiative. Knowing these positive and negative elements can help companies more effectively communication what parts of a plan need to be recognized. When drafting a SWOT analysis, you will need to create a table split up into four columns to list each impacting element side by side for comparison. Strengths and weaknesses won't typically match listed opportunities and threats, though they should correlate somewhat since they're tied together in some way. Pairing external threats with internal weaknesses can highlight the most serious issues faced by a company.

Brand Image

A consumer's set of assumptions about products and/or services provided under the brand name. This can be achieved through advertising, store environment, packaging, customer service, or association with lifestyle, celebrity, or events, and so on. The identity of a good or service as perceived by consumers.

What is a Brand?

A name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services as distinct those of other sellers (AMA) A successful brand has a strong identity, is innovative, consistent, competitively, positioned, and holds a matching positive image in the consumer's mind (Hameide, 2011)

Benefits of Persona Development

A persona can have a great impact on your marketing strategy. For instance, if you're targeting an older demographic, you may want to spend less time and money on social media than if you're targeting millennials A persona can tell you where your demographic spends time online, what resources they trust, what pain points they're facing, what is their motivation to shop, how much they spend, etc. This makes the persona development process crucial to your marketing success. Most companies have a handful of personas due to the different types of customers they have, especially if they offer varied services. Each person is approached differently from a marketing perspective, making it important to understand them individually. While personas can be time-consuming, they're highly effective and straightforward.

Demographic characteristics: Age

Age influence taste or preferences for many aesthetic products in Western and non-Western cultures. Enduring tastes are formed in a critical period in a consumer's life. Taste for certain aesthetic forms is developed early in life and may influence preferences for a lifetime. Evaluation or preference of spandex dress - Teenage girls vs. 70-year old women

What else do we need to consider?

An individual's socio-cultural background, along with personal experiences, affect evaluation of or preference for a product or environment's aesthetic qualities. Socio-cultural differences as well as individual differences may make for every different points of view among individuals.

The spectrum of brands: classy to sport

Brand A: More classy less sporty Brand B: More sporty less classy Brand C: Conservative Sporty Brand D: More practical Less conservative Brand E: More practice Less classy Brand F: More conservative Less practical Brand G: More classy Less practical

Brand...

Brand Identity Brand Positioning Brand Differentiation Brand Image

How to develop useful and valid persona?

Carefully created during a discovery process Consistent and lifelike Represents the most useful class of YOUR merchandise shoppers/customers

Price Point Categories

Couture Designer Bridge Better Moderate Mass merchant

How to define your brand: Step 7

Critical to effective brand management is - The clear definition of the brand's audience - The objective that the brand needs to achieve With a strong brand, - you build credibility - have more influence on your market - motivate customers and clients to purchase from you

Organizational structure of a typical fashion brand company

Design and product development Research and Merchandise Sales and marketing Operations Finance and information technology Advertising and sales promotion

Marketing Channels

Direct Marketing Channel Limited Marketing Channel Extended Marketing Channel

Sample Persona Questions

Do you always shop for clothing at the stores or malls closest to where you live? Are you a fashion leader or a fashion follower? What and who influences your purchases? How has your lifestyle affected how you dress?

Brand Concept/Identity

Every brand attempts to establish set of associations that are linked to the brand, product, or the company in consumers' minds Brand concept is the holistic view of the brand and combines brand name, brand identity, and personality associations This set of associations exist in the customer memory, serves to provide the customer with the reason to prefer one brand to the other. these associations collectively represent the brand concept. Deciding on a brand concept is the foremost exercise in brand. This selection is guided by consumer wants and needs. Brand concept selection then guides you towards positioning decisions.

External Factors

External forces influence and affect every company, organization, and individual. Whether these factors are connected directly or indirectly to an opportunity or threat, it is important to take note of and document each one. ____ typically reference things you or your company do not control, such as: - Market Trends (new products and technology, shifts in audience needs) - Economic Trends (local, national, and international financial trends) - Funding (donations, legislature, and other sources) - Demographics - Relationships with suppliers and partners - Political, environmental, and economic regulations

Summary

Fashion = evolutionary; based on changing technology and consumer demand Ready made apparel: 1920s Easy-care fibers hit American Market after WWII In the 1960s as labor costs in the US and consumer demand for low cost clothing increased, companies move production out of US Development of Quick Response system to shorten production time from fiber to finished product Supply chain management strategies to improve efficiency and effectiveness of industry Consumers demand high-quality, fashionable, reasonably priced goods T&A industry integral for globalization and economic growth

What is Fashion?

Fashion is a broad term and is a style of consumer product that is perceived to be socially appropriate for time and situation Fashion is evolutionary and not revolutionary in its development, understanding the history of fashion enables researchers to predict the prevailing style

Ready-to-wear: What does it mean?

Fashion merchandise that is completely made and ready to be worn (except for finishing details, such as pants hemming in tailored clothes) at the time it is purchased

2005-Present: Fast Fashion, E-Commerce, and CSR

Fast fashion E-commerce Corporate Social Responsibility

Fast Fashion

Fast-fashion companies continuously introduce new products in small quantities with little or no replenishment and depended on these factors: - vertical integration (controlling many stages of the supply chain) - designers working alongside production and marketing - making design and production decisions based on consumer demand - offering consumers limited quantities of multiple styles - the ability to produce merchandise in weeks instead of months

Demographic characteristics: Gender

Female consumers may prefer particular aesthetic products that do not appeal to male consumers, and vice versa.

Classifications and categories of fashion brand companies

Gender/age, size range, product category/end use Price Zones North American Industry Classification System

Chapter 1

Historical Perspective of the Fashion Industry

1890-1950: Growth of the Ready-to-Wear Industry

Immigrant workers spurred the growth of the mass production of apparel often working in poor conditions or "sweatshops" Fashion magazines, such as Vogue (1892), provided consumers with up-to-date fashion information and helped spur the desire for new fashions First shopping mall opens in 1922

Fashion Industry

In fashion history, we usually relate the prevailing style in our era to a prominent ruler and not to a specific designer or company Not until the rise of the middle class during the industrial revolution do we see the influence of technology and need for ready-to-wear (RTW) fashion

Children's wear categories

Infants Toddlers Boys Girls Girls Plus Preteen (girls) Young Junior

Fashion Brand Classifications

International Designer or Luxury Brands National/Local Designer or Luxury Brands International Name Brands Private Label Brands - Department Store Private Label Brands - Exclusive Licensing Brands - SPA Retail Brands - Fast Fashion Retail Brands - Lifestyle Brands

Demographic characteristics: Level of training

Level of training influence esthetic evaluation because training affects analytical abilities. Training in textiles and apparel enhances perception and preferences of formal qualities of the product.

Price Zones

Luxury or Designer Bridge Better Moderate Budget or Mass

Direct Marketing Channel

Manufacturer ---> Consumers

Limited Marketing Channel

Manufacturer ---> Retailer ---> Consumers

Extended Marketing Channels

Manufacturer ---> Wholesaler ---> Retailer ---> Consumer Manufacturer ---> Wholesaler ---> Jobber ---> Retailer ---> Consumer

What do we consider to define target customers?

Market segmentation - demographics - psychographics - merchandise assortment - distribution channels Targeting - market size and measurability - market accessibility - market differentiation - market potential Positioning - a process to position a company's product and marketing mix strategies in the minds of target consumers

Marketing Channels

Marketing Channel Integration - Conventional Marketing Channels - Vertical Marketing Channels - Dual Distribution - Multi-channel/Omin-channel Distribution Marketing Channel Flows - Physical Flow - Ownership Flow or Title Flow - Information Flow - Payment Flow - Promotion Flow

1950-1980: Diversification and Incorporation

Mass fashion, casual clothing, and sportswear were expanding segments of the fashion industry Textile industry grew as new synthetic fibers were introduced and influenced fashion

Gender/Age, Size Range, Product Category/End Use

Men's, women's children's Product categories and subcategories Size categories Each has unique requirements for - Machinery - Sizing standards - Number of seasonal lines/year (production cycle)

Research and Merchandising

Merchandising generally refers to the process of synthesizing information to make decisions about the characteristics of merchandise manufactured and/or sold by a company

E-Commerce

Mid-1990, start of online presence Omni-channel retailing that seamlessly integrates brick-and-mortar and online operations Many companies have become internet retailers only (Amazon, Zappos)

Women's Wear categories

Misses Women's (large size, queen, plus, custom) Petite (under 5'4) Women's Petite Tall (over 5'9) Junior Junior Petite

Chp 3 Summary

Most of the fashion merchandise sold today is RTW or home fashions RTA is possible due to standardized sizing and mass production techniques Fast fashion companies can produce more than 12 lines per year In couture, garments are made to an individual's specific body measurements RTW fashion brand companies fall into the following categories: manufacturers, licensors, and retailers. Also classified by type of merchandise, price zone, and NAICS. Many trade associations in the fashion industry promote, conduct market research, sponsor trade shows, and develop/distribute educational materials

VALS Main Variables

Motivation Personality traits Buying behavior Market segments

What do you want to know?

Name, age, education Socioeconomic class and desires Life or career goals, fears, hopes, and attitudes Reasons for shopping Needs and expectations of the merchandise Aesthetical sense and life style

The Power of Personas

Once you have a persona in place, what do you do with it? Everything! A persona should be the major guiding force in all your endeavors. - Redesigning your website? Consult your personas. Depending on your demographic, your website might benefit from certain features to enhance usability. - Launching a new brand or rebrand? Consult your personas for insights into what your audience will identify with and what will capture their interest. Your personas are vital to the strategy decisions you make. In taking the time to meet with your existing customers and prospects, and looking at existing market data for your contacts, you've identified how your customers think, react and respond. From there, you are able to draw conclusions - - how they'll react to specific marketing campaigns - where your information will reach them best - what type of content is most valuable to them in solving their problems A PERSONA TAKES AWAY THE GUESSWORK

Personality and Mood

Personality and mood have been shown to affect preference of aesthetic stimuli. Personality refers to the stable disposition or temperament of an individual, affecting behavior patterns. Mood is a more temporary disposition, also affecting behavior.

VALS Dimensions (Drivers)

Primary Motivation: Suppose you live 20 miles away from workplace - What do you need? - Is that what you want?

Trade Associations

Promote their Industry Segments Conduct Market Research Sponsor Trade Shows Develop and Distribute Educational Materials

Consumer Psychographic Characteristics

Psychographics explores the primary motivations for an individual's purchasing behaviors. Why do we buy certain products and not others? Why the customer makes the choices ? An individual's energy, self-confidence, intellectualism, novelty seeking tendency, innovativeness, impulsiveness, leadership and vanity play a critical role in consumption. Psychographics include: reference groups, life stage, activities (life styles), personality, attitudes, values, motivations, social orientations (class consciousness), shopping tendency (orientation)/buying habits, interest in fashion, price zone preferences for product (color, fabric, silhouette, details), retail store environment (display, service, etc.), advertising media, browsing & purchasing behaviors, etc.

The difference between RTW and Couture

Ready-to-wear: made in large quantities using mass-manufacturing processes that require little or no hand sewing Couture: produced in smaller quantities, uses considerable hand-sewing techniques, and sized to fit an individual's body measurements

1980-1995: Imports and Quick Response

Rising labor costs in the US causes companies to begin seeking cheaper labor particularly Southeast Asia Increase in vertical integration among manufacturing and retailers influenced the development of Store brands Quick Response (QR) introduced a pull system of demand based on consumer demand as opposed to the push system when manufacturers pushed products to consumers

Segmenting Consumer Markets

Select customers to serve - segmentation - targeting Decide on a value proposition - differentiation - positioning = Create value for targeted customers

How socio-cultural differences within a culture may affect aesthetic preferences?

Socio-cultural differences within a culture affecting aesthetic preference include - geographic location - ethnicity - religion - sexual orientation

SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats

Summary

Success of fashion companies depends on effectiveness of supply chain networks, effective and efficient logistics and supply chain management Supply chain networks include marketing channels (direct, limited, and extended) that products follow in getting to consumers Fashion brand companies strive to create a unique brand identity through the process of brand positioning Fashion brands can be classified by type of brand (designer, luxury, international name brand, private label, lifestyle)

The Material-Brand-Retail Supply/Value Chain

Supply Chain Networks Logistics Supply Chain Management

Why socio-cultural background?

Surrounding socio-cultural context shapes the individual's thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. The culture's definition of aesthetic experience influences aesthetic preferences. The formal structure of the aesthetic object or experience reflects the structure of society. Development of the product reflects the socio-cultural context by communicating ideas central to the context.

Menswear categories

Tailored clothing Sportswear Furnishings Active sportswear, swimwear, athletic wear, windbreakers Uniforms and workwear

Internal Factors

The first two factors in the acronym, strengths (S) and weaknesses (W), refer to Internal factors, which means the resources and experience readily available to you. Examples of areas typically considered include: - Financial resources (funding, sources of income, investment opportunities) - Physical resources (location, facilities, equipment) - Human Resources (employees, volunteers, target audience) - Access to natural resources, trademarks, patents, and copyrights - Current Processes (employee programs, department hierarchies, software systems)

Conduct your informal market analysis?

The following questions will help you assess your market analysis. Try to narrow down your target by interest, demographic, and common trends - Who is your target audience? - Where is your target audience located? - What do you think and your current brand? - What would you like them to think about your brand? - How will you attract them to your products or services? - Who else is competing for their loyalty and devotion? - Are you targeting business or consumer sectors?

What is a persona?

The key to any successful marketing or branding campaign starts with understanding your audience. And any well-defined audience starts with a buyer persona. Persona is defined as semi-fictional characters that personify your ideal customer, buyer personas are imperative to having accurate audience insights. However, many companies choose to skip this step, insisting they already know their audience. While most businesses can be expected to have some idea of their audience, mistakes can be made.

Marketing and Sales

The marketing and sales division includes those who conduct marketing research for the company as well as regional sales managers and sales representatives

1789-1890: Mechanization of Production

The need for plenty of fabric that could be produced quickly and the means to sew it quickly was achieved by the following inventions: - spinning machine (1764) - power loom (1785-87) - cotton gin (1794) - sewing machine (1832, 1845, 1846) The demand for mass-produced apparel was achieved by an expanding number of middle-class consumers who wanted good-quality apparel at reasonable prices

Operations

The operations area includes the preproduction, material management, quality assurance, sourcing, production, distribution, and logistics function

Focusing on Your Target Audience

The power of your brand relies on the ability to focus Your value proposition must be relevant to your target market Defining your target market will help to strengthen your brand's effectiveness It's common for a business to have to refocus and revisit their targeting, especially if it was not clearly identified in the beginning stages of business Two steps in developing "brand" 1. conduct market analysis of your target market 2. write a target audience definition for your company

Brand Positioning Map

The way how your brand is positioned as compared to your competitors. The perceptual mapping that gives you an insight into the current position of your product and its potential in the face of competition. The way to communicate the relationship between competitors and the criteria used by your consumers while making purchase decisions. The map can be described on the basis of selected attributes.

Design and Product Development

Those in design and product development area, who interpret the trend forecasts and create designs to be manufactured by the company

Advertising and Sales Promotion

Those in the advertising and sales promotion area focus on creating promotional, advertising, and social media strategies and tools to sell the merchandise to the retail buyers and/or to the ultimate consumer

Finance and Information Technology

Those in the finance area of an apparel company are responsible for the overall financial health of companies and work closely with all other areas Information technology (IT) areas of companies play important roles in overseeing companies' computer operations

Why do we have to define target customers?

To develop a market profile in development and promotion of products. Underlying similarities of the characteristics are identified to create a consumer profile of the "typical" customer for the product or brand.

Examples of Categorizing Brand Concept

Tommy Hilfiger - classic style Jaeger - contemporary

Trade Publications

Trade publications focus on the fashion industries and are of use to professionals in these industries

How to define your brand: Step 6

Use the personality that you created in the previous step and build a relationship with your target market that you defined in Step 5 - How does that personality react to target audience? - What characteristics stand out? - Which characteristics and qualities get the attention of your prospects? Review the answers to the questions above and create a profile of your brand. Describe the personality or character with words just as if you were writing a biography or personal ad. Be creative.

How to define your brand: step 5

Using the information from the previous steps, create a personality or character for your company that represents your products or services. - What is the character like? - What qualities stand out? - Is the personality of your company innovative, creative, energetic, or sophisticated?

Write your target market description

Using the questions and answers in previous slides, write a target market description. Be as specific as you like. The more specific the better. Second draft a statement on the type of relationship you would like to have with your clients.

The VALS Typology

VALS is a marketing tool that helps businesses develop and execute more effective strategies VALS identifies current and future opportunities by segmenting the consumer marketplace on the personality traits and the resources

Determining your brand's objective

What are the objectives that you hope to achieve with your brand? To determine your brand objectives ask yourself the following question: - What is it that you want your brand to do for your company? - What do you want others to know and say about your products and services? Sample Objectives: - Being recognized by receiving a specific award - Picking up a certain number of choice projects - Gaining a specific number of new clients in the next year - Positioning your company as an industry leader in the next five months

Strengths (internal factor, positive influence)

What are we best at? What intellectual property do we own that can help us with this objective? What specific skills does the current workforce have that can contribute to this objective? What financial resources do we have for reaching this objective? What connections and alliances do we have? What is our bargaining power with both suppliers and intermediaries?

Weaknesses (internal factor, negative influence)

What are we worst at doing? Is our intellectual property outdated? What training does our workforce lack? What is our financial position? What connections and alliances should we have, but don't?

Opportunities (external factor, positive influence)

What changes in the external environment can we exploit? What weaknesses in our competitors can we use to our advantage? What new technology might become available to us? What new markets might be opening to us?

Fashion Brand Strategies

What is a Brand? Brand Identity, Brand Positioning, Brand Image Fashion Brand Classifications

Threats (external factors, negative influence)

What might our competitors be able to do to hurt us? What new legislation might damage our interests? What social changes might threaten us? How will the economic cycle affect us?

How to define your brand

What products and services do you offer? Define the qualities of these services and/or products What are the core values of your products and services? What are the core values of your company? What is the mission of your company? What do your company specialize in? Who is your target market? Who do your products and services attract? What is the tagline of your company? What message does your tagline send to your prospects?

Be Careful!

When defining customer attitude and lifestyle, you should be careful not to stereotype e.g.) Income does not always reflect buying patterns. Psychographics should be addressed at this time.

Corporate Social Responsibility

With globalization comes the integration of CSR throughout the textile and apparel supply chain, including socially responsible design, production, marketing, and distribution CSR refers to business practices that contribute positively to society

1995-2005 Supply Chain Management and Globalization

Within this context of globalization and supply chain management, international companies expanded their capabilities of vertical integration across countries To manage trade, the World Trade Organization (1995) was established and various trade agreements

Mass Merchant Price Point

a variety of brands that appeal to many different market segments, all at affordable prices

Bridge Price Point

focusing on career wear and weekend wear; a price point between better and designer

Moderate Price Point

large, price-conscious market; styling appeals to more mature customers

Product Development Process

look at graphic on page 5

Consumer market segmentation examples

look at slide 11 chapter 4 notes

Couture Price Point

made to order; much of the construction done by hand

Better Price Point

products with wide market appeal, often the highest price point available in department stores

Designer Price Point

ready-to-made suits made from fine fabrics at retail prices (up to $1000); but not made-to-measure