Fashion is a 2.4 million dollar industry worldwide. So what makes a $50 piece of material worth $400. The answer is both brand awareness and clever marketing. And the two go hand in hand.
So what are some of the most clever marketing tips used marketing in the fashion industry?
First of all, you want to master social media and online generally, That goes without saying. You can apply various online marketing strategies to get ahead of your competition and you not only can but you definitely should. Some of those strategies are outlined in this article.
Rent the Runway
We’ll start with a cleaver fashion company with a fantastic idea. While they sell plenty of dresses, the idea behind Rent the Runway is that you rent a designer inspired dress of other items of clothing.
Wear and item once, or 10 times. It’s up to you. Return it right away or make it a permanent part of your wardrobe.
The idea behind Rent the Runway is that you can look fabulous and stunning at an event wearing something nobody else will be wearing and you don’t have to feel guilty about the time-honored practice of buying a dress, keeping the tags on, and then returning the dress after you no longer need it.
Renta the Runways brilliant marketing ploy? They encourage women to show off how terrific they look in a designer dress on social media. These photos inspire thousands of likes on social media.
Rent a Runway goes even further that provides incentives for women to invite their friends to join the Rent a Runway movement.
Tieks
Tieks makes flat, comfortable, high-end shoes that can be slipped into a handbag. The Tieks army is a legend in the fashion industry.
But during the COVID-19 pandemic they turned thousands of Tieks customers into social activists by not only by stopping production briefly so the Tieks factory could sew masks for frontline health workers, but for every 25 masks customers would sew at home, Tieks offered a $50 gift card, and for every 50 masks shown, customers reaped $100 gift cards.
So far customers have contributed nearly 636,000 masks for frontline workers and incidentally, Tieks sold a lot of shoes.
Tiffany
Everyone knows that Tiffany & Company is all about Diamonds. Since 2015, Tiffany & Co. has gone beyond the normal social media effort at “selling” to providing a unique application, the Tiffany Engagement Finder.
What’s so uniques about the Tiffany Engagement Finder? The answer is while other jewelers offer apps featuring hand models wearing their diamond engagement rings, Tiffany offers the prospective bride an opportunity to take an image of her own hand and virtually try on an engagement ring from the Tiffany stock.
The Tiffany Engagement Finder not only has increased sales by 20 percent, but is an example of what is possible in the virtual world. Imagine in the future that women can try on dresses, tops, bras, jeans, and the like with their very own image so they can get a real feeling for what the item actually looks like.
Louis Vitton
Louis Vitton takes the exclusivity niche to new heights. It’s not easy to even find Louis Vitton in exclusive stores.
When offering a new design such as a custom made handbag, what Louis Vitton will do is offer the handbag as a limited edition.
If the item is truly a limited edition, as Louis Vitton items are, people shuck off their “I’ll do it later attitude,” and buy now or risk never being able to obtain the item again.
Threadless
Threadless, founded in 2000 built its reputation on offering over 1,000 T-shirt designs per month and then letting fans vote on the winners.
Threadless has sponsored many t-shirt design contests and has offered prizes of up to $20,000 for the winners.
By letting people vote on the best designs, Threadless has turned t-shirt lovers into raving activists for their brand, something that other clothes designers may consider emulating.
Om & Ah
New fashion brand from London, UK. Focused on eco-friendly, yoga-inspired clothing and delivering their message. They are very popular and I’d go as far as saying that Om and Ah have become a social media phenomenon.
Tom’s Shoes
Tom’s Shoes is not just a shoe company that started in an apartment and after 9 years, became a $300 million dollar plus company. It is a full social movement.
For every pair of Tom’s Shoes a customer buys, the company donates a pair of shoes to children in places such as Argentina.
In addition, Tom”s has used clever social media ideas such as offering to donate a pair of Tom’s shoes just for taking a photo of your bare feet for social media. Tom’s donated 290, 000 pairs of shoes just for that idea alone.
In addition, Tom’s Shoes encouraged people in 2011 to go an entire day without shoes just to emphasize what it must be like for shoeless children.
Tom’s shoes is an example of how social activism can pay off in the fashion industry. As the founder, Blake Mycoskie said,” People connect with us because buying Toms is like a badge that says, I did something for someone.”
Warby Parker
Warby Parker, the glasses maker, gets tons of free publicity by mastering the art of PR. For example, when New York’s Fashion Week was not into their budget, they invited 40 plus fashion editors to come to a “secret meeting” at New York Public Library, which netted them tons of free publicity.
Warby Parker also likes to have fun, putting information such as what kind of bagels were served in its annual reports.
The bottom line
Being clever and thinking outside of the box is now the primary mantra for the fashion industry. Long gone are the days when the clothes simply had to look good. A good story is essential nowadays for selling fashion in a subtle way. Marketing agencies always come up with new strategies, one of the newest ones being the digital “Gun Marketing” we mentioned in the headline to catch your attention. And, it worked, didn’t it?