The Economic Slump pushes Brands towards New Media

Brands have always focused on allocating large budget for their advertising and marketing efforts to develop their branding, style and promotions based on their target consumers. What they often oversee is that consumers are becoming more sophisticated in their purchasing behavior, and the effectiveness of the traditional means of marketing within the fashion industry is no longer enough. With a deteriorating economy, brands face the increasing skepticism of consumers towards advertising messages.

A recent research  by Unisfair reported that three-fourths of marketers are planning to increase their outreach to social media in 2010. Lead generation and customer retention/engagement are the most critical objectives for marketers today. According to Crispin Porter and Bogusky, brands need to consider every form of marketing communications, from active and passive store experiences (staff-customer interaction and buying environment) to the style of press releases and internal corporate communications to ensure that new advertising will not just have temporary benefits (Zmuda, 2009).

For example, Gap Inc. has begun focusing on strengthening its brand by shifting to a mix of traditional and non-traditional tactics, including influencer programs and multi-faceted campaigns (Moin, 2007). In celebrating 40 years, Gap’s most recent campaign- ‘Born to Fit’ was featured on Polyvore, a cutting-edge fashion site with 3.7 million unique visitors a month (Hillier, 2009).

To further promote its image, Gap Inc. encouraged fans to declare what they were born to do with an interactive Facebook gallery, style mixer iPhone application, and pop-up shops. Furthermore, the corporation hosted “the nation’s largest simultaneous acoustic concert at more than 700 Gap Stores across the US”, while outfitting the New York Stock Exchange with 1969 jeans, for the first time in history, and ringing the closing bell (Gap Inc., 2009). The campaign also used visual (in-cinema and through their stores), outdoor and print mediums ( New York Times, New York Post, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, US Weekly, People, Interview, Nylon, GQ and Rolling Stone) in major metropolitan areas nationwide, to increase consumer awareness and encourage their key publics to express their personal style.

This type of IMC efforts maybe just the thing that other fashion brands need to consider to keep their multi-variant customers. As the fashion industry’s main source of advertising, the monthly glossy, is experiencing sharp declines in ad sales this year – some down 47% for the September issue, according to Forbes, social media has deconstructed the traditional means of communication between retailers and consumers by adding new channels for discussion (Kavilanz, 2009). Brands need to use all tools available to be able to recreate the customer relationship based on effective two-way communications and trust (Karolefski, 2003).

As I sit here in the middle of the desert, I am wondering if there was no failing economy, would we be so focused on cluttering new media tools? So what happens after that?

References:

Gap Inc. (2009). Media Center. Retrieved November 6, 2009 from http://www.gapinc.com/public/Media/Press_Releases/med_pr_GapPremiumDenim08132009.shtml

Hillier, K. (2009). Six social sites every fashion marketer should know. Retrieved November 6, 2009 from http://adage.com/digitalnext/article?article_id=138893

Karolefski. J. (2003). PR stirs it up. Retrieved November 6, 2009 from http://www.brandchannel.com/features_effect.asp?pf_id=166

Kavilanz, P.B. (2009). Merchants get punished in July. Retrieved November 6, 2009 from CNN Money website: http://money.com/2009/08/06/news/economy/retailsales_july/index.htm

Moin, D. (2007). Latest blow for GAP: Group plots new tack as sales slide goes on. Retrieved November 6, 2009 from HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-157109868.html

Zmuda, N. (2009). Crispin picks up all ad work for Gap brand. Retrieved November 6, 2009 from http://adage.com