Fashion brands and their recipe to success
Fashion tells words and narrates stories. fashion encompasses people’s lives in a way that portrays the spirit of the era expressing historical background. Before the 18 century, textile was being sewed precisely for individuals sketching almost anachronistic designs. Thereafter, with the development of sewing machines, textile has become a regular mass-produced item in stores, and fashion designers initiated producing more practical garments.
Day after day, brands started to provide outstanding pieces Giving more consideration to potential customers in everyday life in trying to understand consumers’ behavior and how it triggers brands’ net selling.
In fact, brands manage to analyze human motives and thoughts to gain profits, this process is known as the psychology behind consumer behaviour. According to science, a good brand image can enhance people's self-esteem because People are willing to buy products, that they believe talk about their language and express their spirit, to affirm their belonging to a particular social rank which helps them to be accepted socially.
Putting in a nutshell, brands talk a large part in consumers’ lives. They create an image that the consumer can be aligned with so that the consumer and the brand are unified to become one thing, but the question is what else triggers in making brands outlives while others diminish?
Brands outlive
Fashion is a way of life. Fashion brand owners seek to create a contemporary image for the target audience that they can preserve each time they hear the brand name. According to brain science, most purchase decisions are made subconsciously when the brain figures out that the brand appeals to their inner beliefs and needs; customers enter the loyalty schemes willingly.
However, the brands manage to do so by applying their branding strategy promising to deliver value to their customer. Branding goes beyond being just a logo with selected colors, branding creates a deep bond between the brand and the potential customers that lead to brand segmentation expansion and if this happens, the brand ages.
Due to Gail Melanne, co-founder of the stylish box, “Having a strong brand with compelling messaging helps customers connect to the clothing and accessories they wear. If a consumer relates to the brand, it creates a connection; the wearer feels as though the brand is an extension of themselves or at the least what the wearer would like others to perceive in them”. Branding helps people to have self-belonging. For example, Nike consumers feel that they can come a long way only with wearing Nike items for the reason that Nike promised to create groundbreaking innovations, “do it”, and they fulfilled.
Noteworthy to mention, the evolution of the digital age paved the way for clothing stores to skyrocket their business by selling both locally and globally. undoubtedly, the internet helped the centurial stores undergo their way up till the current hour through changing their brand strategy to cope up with the modern motives of the consumers. Understanding the most prominent features in the branding strategy for different brand stores will help to know why some brands survive much longer.
Brand names
1- Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton is an icon for superiority and creating premium designs in the fashion industry. It is classified as one of the primaeval fashion brands in the world that launched in France in 1854. Louis Vuitton specializes in producing luxurious items such as glasses, watches, jewellery, sneakers, etc. What is worth mentioning about Louis Vuitton is the capacity of producing handmade lines.
Though we are living in the 21 century, Louis Vuitton hires specialized workers to produce luggage and luxurious items without using machines which makes it hard to find two typical copies of the same product, and it is said that it takes 7 days to create one item. With the attempts to go viral,, Louis Vuitton launched an official website in 2005 serve 5 continents with around 446 bricks and mortar stores around the world
2- Burberry
It is a family business that was launched in 1865 by Thomas Burberry. Progressively, Burberry started to produce more different lines to align with the generation mindset change. Unlike most luxurious brands outstand with their fixed high prices to deliver a sense of superiority to their customer.
Burberry provides another great value to their customer which is the authentic and premium quality that makes consumers insensitive to the high prices. Burberry aims to spread their luxurious items in different countries by launching many branches, moreover; the online expansion through their official website and social platforms.
3- Chanel
It is one of the heritage brands that receive preeminence. Gabrielle Chanel launched the Coco brand in 1904 for the first time producing opulent hats and some embroidered clothes. Thereafter, coco revolutionized over the restricted and impractical designs, at that time, producing supreme practical designs that give women ultra-flexibility to move by using more comfy fabrics and get rid of the regular corset. However, this is what fashion lacked then.
Channel now has around 487 store branches in different countries maintaining their previous glamorous image when it first came to the light. Throughout this period, Chanel managed to trigger people's purchase decisions till the current moment.
4- Prada
Prada is an Italian luxury brand that was founded by Mario Prada in 1913 with a clear slogan “think fashion”. It is globally known as one of the very old brands that promise its consumers fashionable and elite designs. Throughout their business experience, Prada kept introducing new lines to their business targeting more people.
When it comes to Prada's online transformation, one can see that Prada comes out with unique marketing and advertising ideas. Also, Prada started to redo their brand strategy by going digital launching its official website in 2013 after 5 years of profits decline. Prada owns more than 641 around the world.
5- Gucci
Back in 1921, Guccio founded the classy benchmark of Gucci because of his admiration for the visitor’s luggage during his work as a hotel portal. People refer to Gucci as the aristocracy for the reason that Gucci offers supreme designs that intrigue the high-social ranks. however, Gucci seeks to offer their clients the possibility to purchase their most loved items through opening many branches in different countries, and it reached nearly 450 stores.
“Branded value aligns customer’s needs with a brand deliverable, declared Shelly E. Kohan, a business strategist. This means that loyal customers are more likely to be willing to pay for pricey brands.
Undeniably, Gucci styles are very unique, and they can be truly noticed while browsing Gucci websites. As one is most likely to be amazed by the touch of antiquity offered through their peculiar designs.
6- Dior
Dior is one of the global trademarks that perceive applause from all the consumers and even from people who didn’t try Dior yet. Dior was founded by Christian Dior who already owns other brands that aren't specialized in the fashion industry only.
Noticeably, Dior endeavours to distribute their items, particularly those that don’t need changing room such as fragrance products and watches, in different stores so people obtain Dior easily. In addition to creating a fruitful experience for the consumer through their website for development purposes. Most interestingly, Dior kept its selling performance recording revenue up to 44.7 billion euros despite the coronavirus consequences.
7- H&M
H&M is not considered a player of the aforementioned competitors, as H&M's pricing strategy targets the middle social ranks. It is one of the oldest stores that was launched by Erling Persson in 1947 giving the name to the store “Hemm” which means hers in the Swedish language as Erling specialized in women's clothing then.
Unlike other brands, H&M initiates the lead in producing sustainable products that outlive overuse to reduce the chemical pollution caused by clothing production. Conspicuously, this is an outstanding step that stands to pay off very handsomely aligning with the audience’s common thoughts. For the reason that almost of H&M consumers are millennials or youth in general,
H&M offers continuous promotion on their media platforms using social influencers to spread the word.
8- Primark
Irish fast fashion was established in 1969 by Arthur Ryan. It is one of the fashion brands that uniquely target its audience. Primark brand builds strategic plans to get recognized by the public as a leading fashion brand with reasonable prices. Therefore, they offer new products lines or particularly they produce what most appeals to their customer, straighten up with different distribution channels having almost 372 stores in different countries.
Surprisingly, though Primark has a dynamic website that offers its products, however, they don’t sell their products on the website just giving hints for the consumers to see the available collections in stores. Even after the pandemic, Primark refuses to initiate the step.
9- Armani
Contemporary iconic fashion brands were founded officially in 1975 By George Armani who was considered later as a patron saint of fashion. Armani still preserves its impression among the competitive fashion world with its branding strategy.
Armani provides supreme quality with elegant designs for its prominent customer, in addition to offering different lines at affordable prices for sake of brand line expansion. Armani did not believe in the obligation of creating fast-paced fashion, though he gave what his audience wanted from him producing huge and different collections regularly.
Semicentennial brands managed to skyrocket online!
1- ZARA
Zara first came to notice in 1975 by Amancio Ortega. Zara is classified globally as a premium fashion brand because of its consistently updated collection consistently reserving its fashion themes that usually amaze customers.
do understand the power of customer’s alignment with the brand, they produce fast-fashion with proper quantities and the right time.
It is crystal clear that they don't spend huge amounts of money on their advertising, instead, they concentrate on their stores' ornament and decoration. Zara based-Spain provides experience with augmentation reality experience.
2- MANGO
Isac Andic exerted efforts to make mango one of the leading fashion groups in 1984. The brand managed to find its way between the other reputable fashion brands generating a huge fame base. Similar to h&m, mango is making its way toward a sustainable world by using recyclable fabrics in 2018. The effective initiative that mango takes is apparent to the world.
Creating Creative advertising ideas is an essential key to triggering people’s purchase decisions and convincing them to buy from your brand getting into a loyalty scheme. Getting along with the digital transformation, Mango launched its e-commerce website late in 2013.
3- LC WAIKIKI 1988
Georges Amouyal and his partner launched Lc Waikiki which later went viral in 35 countries around the world as a notable fashion brand. Sometimes Fighting the tide can be remarkably advantageous and beneficial, and this can be applied to Lc Waikiki strategies... Lc Waikiki adopted a completely different approach, it did not compete with the other brands upon a high pricing strategy to appeal a sense of sophistication to a narrow segmentation of people.
Instead, they offer different designs that perfectly fit hijabi and non-hijabi girls at affordable prices. impressing, Lc Waikiki is close to the public, they believe in people's right to obtain stylish clothing that can accommodate anyone chanting a slogan “Everyone deserves to dress well",
4- BERSHKA
Inditex Group owns the Bershka brand in addition to other fashion brands like Zara. since Breshka’s inception in 1998, they have launched more than 1000 Bershka stores in different countries targeting more customers. Undoubtedly, Bershka styles own their lovers particularly the young generations as Breshka styles express their daily lifestyle. Noteworthy to mention that Breshka do consider the potential of customer’s satisfaction; therefore, they offer promotion occasionally on the whole collection or selected items
5- Misguided
Misguided is one of the prominent quick-fashion that was launched by Nitin Passi in 2008. Since then, misguided went into many trial phases to test different strategies to find what their potential customers expect from them, Nitin Passi said in an interview.
Misguided started their business by buying wholesale, thereafter, they start to design almost everything offered on the website, they track what inspires customers then they sketch. Accordingly, misguided fashion designers produce new collections daily to beat other fashion brands with fast-paced collections.
6- ASOS
Asos was launched by the contribution of three founders: Quentin Griffith, Deborah Thorpe, and Nick Robertson in 1999. The short period that took ASOS to boom imposed a real question: HOW is that?
They believe in the significance of social influencers to affect the public, so they substantially focus their marketing campaigns on influencers and celebrities wearing adorable pieces of their lines.
Thereafter, they started to dig deep into the everyday wear to address people’s regular day with different product lines that increased now to reach 3000 lines. Most interestingly, ASOS contributes to reviving people’s desire to retry reading magazines through publishing good fashion content.
7- Revolve 2003
It is one of the millennials brands that was built by two friends Mike Karanikolas and Michele Mente who managed to turn their small brand with almost zero-fashion experience into one of the most prominent fast-fashion f
However, it took them time to understand the young generation behaviours to produce what they need. accordingly, they thrived to have a strong influencer base who is considered as a mirror or spokespersons to the brand image. For the reason that they target millennials and youth, they offer affordable collections with lavish designs. Since revolve inception, they achieved big net sales that reached $580.6 million in 2020
8- Boohoo
Leading the fashion industry globally is a clear vision to Boohoo, as it is one of the outstanding fashions that managed to boost profits in the last decade.
Boho was established in 2006 with the contribution of Carole Kane and Mahmed Kumanni family. Boho approached fashion-street acquisition as a way of expansion, as they bought Karen Millen and Coast online operation in 2019.
Unlike brick-and-mortar stores that enlarge their existence by the use of digital power, boohoo depends mainly on the internet to sell and promote their products and they don’t have offline locations. In consequence of their low budget, they managed to offer a low-priced collection that gets modified almost every day to cope up with the fast pace of fashion.
The emergence of B2B fashion marketplaces
During the digital era, the expansion of fashion retailing is hugely supported by the emergence of b2b fashion marketplaces that helps both suppliers and buyers initiate and thrive their business globally. B2b marketplaces are an advantageous feature in the fashion world, it provides the customers with accessibility and the extreme ease of using the websites. B2b marketplaces can be divided into two categories (I) vertical marketplace that specialize only in one industry and (I) horizontal marketplaces that provide to their user’s different categories. Favourably, Suppliers and purchasers who use online Marketplaces don’t have to choose time over price, as b2b marketplaces do help in both reducing the timeline of the procurement process and providing wholesale with low cost and finest quality.
1- Tradegala
Tradegala came to the light in 2019 with the contribution of commercial brand Goddiva and brand city goodness. Tradegala is one of the fashion marketplaces that aim to conduct an industrial revolution in the b2b fashion occupation by connecting retailers with supreme fashion brands to facilitate communication; moreover, b2b application to ensure ease of using. They offer suppliers three account options with different features: basic, premium, and exclusive.
2- FashionGo
fashion Go got off the ground by Daniel Lee in 2002. During the last two decades, Tradegala offered their customers different services related to wholesale and retail business. FashionGo is a vertical marketplace that helps more than 1200 suppliers to sell their products online. Tradegala's Official website covers 32 countries to encourage more retailers to join with a free membership.
3- Amazon b2b fashion
Amazon launched horizontally Amazon b2b in 2015 addressing different categories including fashion. During the past years, Amazon managed to contribute to changing the public perception of online shopping. Amazon offers paid membership for sellers to enable them to spread their products worldwide.
4- Alibaba
Alibaba was first introduced to the public in 1999 under the supervision of Jack Ma and the contribution of other 19 group members. Alibaba managed to pay off covering all business areas for the sake of procurement facilitation in china. Talking about the fashion b2b marketplace, more sellers from outside china are joining Alibaba due to the excessive promotion. Alibaba provides endless numbers of suppliers to give the purchasers different options, moreover, offering the ability to ask for customized designs.
5- Exemore
Talking about the new pioneers who are reaching new heights in the wholesale fashion industry, Exemore efforts in the fashion industry is greatly noticed. Exemore is a new cutting-edge b2b marketplace that empowers the Egyptian Manufacturers by giving them the chance to sell globally, as Exemore believes in the potential of the Egyptian market. Exemore aims to create linkage between the global wholesalers and the Egyptian manufacturers by providing them with a great online experience through a dynamic website offering accessibility and ease of use.
The recurrent use of the digital world affects online industries’ profits to be rapidly increased without breaking a sweat. However, a strategy based on error and trial is the best because it grants privileges to the brand to dig deep into the potential customers' journey and understand what perfectly appeals to them and what doesn't.
