Saturday, June 20, 2009

The future of 21st century fashion marketing?

When I think fashion, there are several things that come to my mind - Clothes, shoes, bags, watches, exotic holidays, automobiles, jewellery, and other such things. When I think fashion brands, what comes to my mind is Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Armani, Chanel, Burberry, BMW, Tiffany, etc. But if I were to zoom out and look at all these brands, am I not thinking only about luxury brands? I thought that maybe, I was confused. Hence, I asked my friends and colleagues about what came to their minds and surprisingly, I got very similar responses. This led me to believe more strongly that there exists a captivating confusion between fashion and luxury. Going by the sheer meaning of the two words, they are vastly different. When we look for the synonyms of ‘fashion’, they are style, trend and craze. When we look up for ‘luxury’, the synonyms are lavishness, comfort, opulence and extravagance. Both, vastly different from each other and yet, when we think of fashion, we think of luxury.
Perhaps, this is because luxury is something which is attractive, extremely desirable but not attainable. The fact that luxury brands can be purchased by only a few at the top of the socio-economic classification ladder, makes it all the more aspirational and sought-after. Hence, the want and craving for the brand becomes high and it becomes fashionable to own that particular brand. On the other hand, if we look at all the designer fashion brands like Gucci, Armani and Versace, what makes them so special and desirable, is the fact that each of their pieces are a creation of an artist, in this case a designer, who spends days, weeks and months crafting together the perfect amalgamation of the best cut, colour, design, fabric and silhouette, only to produce very few pieces of the ideal dress, bag or shoe. The fact that it is exclusive and exquisite makes it highly desirable and unattainable which makes it a luxury only few can have. In fact, if a fashion brand makes its products easily available and becomes mass, it no longer remains a fashion brand but is simply referred to as an ‘apparel’ brand. Hence, for a fashion brand to remain fashionable it has be exclusive and exclusive, is luxury.
One simple underlying commonality between both, fashion and luxury is that if either of them becomes easily available and finds mass acceptance, it becomes common and hence, there arises a need to reinvent and innovate. Hence, their marketing and how it too, needs to be innovative.
Earlier, the characteristics of luxury were based on a hierarchy of wealth and income. People believed that the more expensive your brand, the more refined and better it is. Hence, the fashion brands appeal to this popular belief and cater only to this definition of luxury. Exclusivity, expensive, out-of-reach are the key values that most fashion brands are built on and the symbols of success, grandeur and discernment that match perfectly well with these brand values are played up to reinforce their luxury status. Today, however, attitude of people towards luxury is changing which has led to a complete change in consumer motivations for luxury. Therefore, luxury, which was earlier about hierarchy of wealth and income, is today about experiences and emotions. It is more about attitude, and less about money. It is more about innovation and less about tradition. Earlier, people would buy into a fashion brand if they could afford it. Today, people buy a brand if they can identify with it. Stephen King once said, “Consumers choose brands in much the same way they choose friends…on the basis of whether they connect with them and trust them…and in the case of luxury, whether they aspire to be like them.” Hence, in my opinion, fashion brands will have to start moving towards appealing to mindsets and attitudes of people rather than catering to social classes.
Most fashion brands today, have a huge fan following. That’s because people look up to them and aspire for them. However, like in any other field, competition is increasing rapidly and with all brands playing the exclusivity game, there is soon going to be differences only in the brand names and logos. All else will be at parity. In such a scenario, it is only brands that consumers are able to connect with that will truly acquire a cult status. Brands must stand for a personal belief. They must resonate with an attitude that their consumer is driven by. It is only then that brands acquire followers and not just fans. There’s an example of a great brand that successfully converted a common attitude shared by a ‘special’ few into a cult and branded that attitude – Harley Davidson. Another niche fashion brand that is purely built on attitude is the Spanish brand ‘De Puta Madre’ which was started by a Spanish mafia don while serving his sentence in prison. These aren’t just brands, they are stories. They are stories not just by way of their origin, but also stories, that people share and live by. They stand for attitudes that are not resonated by the mass, but only a niche set of consumers. But the belief of this niche in the values and attitude of the brand is so deep that it proves to be enough to give the brand a cult status.
Hence, I believe that the future of fashion brands and fashion marketing lies in identifying strong consumer beliefs, attitudes and emotions and deeply rooting your brand in that cause so that the consumer feels one with it. Even our history has many such fantastic examples where an attitude became a fashion, that too, without any marketing support. The best example of this would be the early 1960’s, when the hippie culture came into existence and soon also became one of the biggest fashion movements of all time. The hippie culture was nothing but an attitude. It was a common belief of a few individuals in their teens and early twenties, who were tired and saturated by the stringent socio-political environment in the USA at that time, believed in pure freedom of expression, nature and going back to the basics to be able to achieve the simplest and purest forms of happiness. The rejection of traditional societal norms and rebellion against a set pattern of rules and governance by a few, resonated with a million others and soon, through writings and poems by Beatkins like Allen Ginsberg and through songs and music by the likes of The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Jimmy Hendrix this sub-culture and the fashion associated with it, spread across the globe and became one of the biggest fashion revolutions, the world has ever seen. This does not mean that brands must change their core. An Armani will be an Armani only if it maintains its values of success and discernment. However, it can have other brands, which rather than simply targeting a different age group can target a different attitudinal segment altogether.
Even if we look at the luxury consumers and how they have evolved over a period of the last 20years, we’ll notice a stark change in not just their lifestyles but also in their attitude towards life. While a 40year old man, 20years ago, was all about success, power, business and family, a 40year old today is also about partying hard with a close group of friends, standing up for a social cause, traveling and adventure, giving media interviews and going for a secret bike ride on his Ecosse Heretic Titanium. So if an Armani appeals to his work life, can there be other brands from the house of Armani, that appeal to his other sides? According to me, a brand will become a phenomenon only it they starts appealing to the various aspects of an individual’s personality rather than trying to woo only his or her most visible side. Becoming a phenomenon does not mean coming in the reach of people. It only means more and more people falling in love with your brands, wanting your brand and becoming followers of your brand while you still continue to maintain your luxury status.
To conclude, there is a strong need for luxury fashion marketing to breakaway from a set definition of luxury and explore different facets of human behavior, attitudes and beliefs and thereby, appeal to different personality traits in unique ways. Hence, I see fashion brands, in the future, moving from being fashion houses, to a house of fashions.