FASHION GOES SOCIAL

I am interested in studying the significance of customer insights in the fashion industry. The main topic of the paper will be the effect of social media on the fashion industry. I didn’t pull out my crop-tops until I saw an album on Facebook where my secret girl-crush Stacy was wearing a crop-top with shorts at Shakespeare’s Pub. The American Apparel ads which pop up on the side of my FB screen, actually intrigued me so much that I went into the store, even though before that I had walked past it on my way to class almost every day. And when I saw my friend’s blog post which featured the comeback of long socks, I went to Ross and bought them in almost every color. The paper will start off by demonstrating how significant social media has become in our apparel decisions. I would like to organize my paper in one of two ways. The first way would break up the report into different modes of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and blogs and how each one of those has affected the industry. The other way of organization would be to break up the paper into groups of people such as the designers, the customers, magazine editors, and retailers and research how the social media giant has changed their outlook on the industry.

Some of the questions I’m hoping to explore are: 1) How do brands/stores retain customers in this oversaturated industry? 2) Do designers rely on customer insights to create their garments or does it come from an individual/personal inspiration? 3) How much to fashion buyers focus on trends on the street? 4) Are customers dictating what’s being sold in the stores or are stores dictating what customers are wearing? 5) As customers are becoming more picky, which stores are more successful, the ones that provide a wide array of products/styles for all different kinds of customers or the stores that provide a very specific, niche product? 6) How has the shift to environmentally friendly materials and animal-rights protesting affected the apparel industry?

This topic is extremely interesting to me because I am addicted to the fashion industry but I am also very different from most fans of the industry. I can look at fashion blogs all day and praise one designer or another for their contribution to the arts but I will never spend more than 20 bucks on a garment. I think this gives me an interesting perspective on the industry because not only am I a customer but I am also a critic. Also, I have many friends that are involved in the industry, designers, models, photographers and it would be interesting to study how social media has helped or affected them. Currently, I am the Art Director of UFG, University Fashion Group, a student organization at UT, and I rely on social media quite often in my position. I use Facebook to post flyers and attract new members, UFG relies on Twitter to post important updates and quick messages, and our website (universityfashiongroup.com) gives a description of our organization and our goals. It would be interesting to see how social media has impacted the industry and perhaps link it back to how it has affected UFG in terms of meeting turn out and ease of decision making and communication.

In terms of gathering and identifying customer insights, I believe that the fashion industry is one that relies heavily on the gathering of this kind of data. With other products such as equipment or cars, I feel like consumers often times go out on their own and do research to make decisions. With apparel, I believe that often times it is the job of those in the industry to influence the public and shape the trends for the next season and so forth. Simultaneously designers and stores are constantly getting inspiration and feedback from customers through this data to then alter their image, expand their lines or fix their marketing campaign. The relationship between customers and stores/designers is in the shape of a big circle. They influence each other and feed off the cumulative mix of ideas and perspectives. I am interested in studying how social media guides and stimulates this exchange.

The article “How the Fashion Industry is Embracing Social Media” found at the following link: http://mashable.com/2010/02/13/fashion-industry-social-media/ is written by Hitha Prabhakar, a retail industry expert. She focuses on the fact that recently fashion designers are embracing social media into their marketing plans by utilizing Twitter and Facebook to comment on their recent endeavors. For example, von Furstenberg is one of the most beloved and popular designers on Twitter, which has given her lots of authority in the fashion industry and has allowed her to shape the public’s opinions on several topics. The article states that some designers are apprehensive about turning to the web while others are embracing the communication with their fans through blogs and other sources of social media. The article also comments on the importance for magazines to upload material quickly, as it happens, on their blogs, websites, Twitter and Facebook pages.