Customer buying clothing at fashion retail store. (detail)
Once your clothes are designed and manufactured, you need to sell them. But how do clothes get from manufacturers to customers?The business of buying clothes from manufacturers and selling them to customers is called retailing. Retailers make initial purchases for resale three to six months before customers can purchase clothing in stores.
Customers shopping and purchasing clothing at a fashion retail store. (detail)
Fashion marketing is the process of managing the flow of goods, from the initial selection of designs for manufacture to the presentation of products to retail customers, with the aim of maximizing sales and profits for a company. Successful fashion marketing depends on understanding consumer desires and meeting them with the right products. Marketers use sales tracking data, attention to media coverage, focus groups, and other means of ascertaining consumer preferences to provide feedback to designers and manufacturers about the types and quantities of products produced. I will. Therefore, marketers are responsible for identifying and defining the fashion producers’ target customers and responding to the preferences of those customers.
Marketing occurs at both wholesale and retail levels. Businesses that do not sell their products in retail stores must offer those products at wholesale prices to retailers such as boutiques, department stores, and online retailers. They leverage sales forces with fashion shows, catalogs, and sample products to find a fit between the manufacturer’s products and the retailer’s customers. Marketers at companies that sell their products in retail stores are primarily concerned with adapting their products to their customer base. At both wholesale and retail levels, marketing also includes promotional activities such as print and other media advertising aimed at establishing brand recognition and brand reputation through various characteristics such as quality, low price, and fashionability. Included.
Merchandising is closely related to marketing. Merchandising seeks to maximize sales and profits by inducing consumers to purchase a company’s products. In the standard definition of the term, merchandising involves selling the right product, at the right price, at the right time and place, to the right customer. Therefore, fashion merchandisers use the marketer’s information about customer preferences to stock the right products in the right amount, but not in excess, to offer the products for sale at attractive but profitable prices, to overstock should be used as the basis for decisions about things like discounting products. Merchandising also includes the use of shop windows, in-store displays, and special promotional events to present products in an attractive and accessible manner. Merchandising specialists must be able to meet spikes in demand by quickly acquiring new inventory of popular products. For example, an inventory-tracking computer program in a London department store can trigger an automated order to a production facility in Shanghai for a certain amount of clothing of a specified type and size to be delivered within a few days.
By the early 21st century, the Internet had become an increasingly important retailer, creating new challenges (e.g., the inability of customers to try on clothing before purchase, the need for facilities designed to handle clothing returns and exchanges) etc.) and opened up new opportunities. For merchandisers (e.g., the ability to offer customers 24-hour shopping opportunities and access to rural customers). In an era of increasingly diverse shopping choices for retail customers and intense price competition among retailers, merchandising has emerged as one of the cornerstones of the modern fashion industry.
Fashion designers and manufacturers promote their clothing directly to retailers (such as fashion buyers) as well as to the media (fashion journalists) and customers. Already in the late 19th century, Parisian haute couture houses began offering their customers private viewings of the latest fashions. By the beginning of the 20th century, fashion shows with professional models were regularly held not only in haute couture houses but also in department stores. Following the example of Parisian couturiers, ready-to-wear designers in other countries began holding fashion shows for a combined audience of private clients, journalists, and buyers. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, fashion shows became more elaborate and theatrical, held in large venues with elevated runways (“catwalks”) built especially for the models. It has come to play an increasingly important role in the presentation of new fashions.
Zac Posen Fashion Show A model walks the runway at the Zac Posen Fashion Show during Fashion Week in New York City, September 2010. (detail)
By the early 21st century, fashion shows were an established part of the fashion calendar. The haute couture shows, held twice a year (January and July) in Paris by the official syndicate of haute couture designers (consisting of the most exclusive and expensive fashion houses), give potential customers a chance to order. Certain costumes are displayed, often for a larger audience. Introducing designers’ ideas regarding fashion trends and brand image. Ready-to-wear fashion shows, which present women’s and men’s clothing separately, are held during the spring and autumn “fashion weeks”, the most important of which are in Paris, Milan, New York and London. But there are literally dozens of fashion weeks taking place all over the world, from Tokyo to São Paulo. These shows have much greater commercial importance than haute couture shows and are primarily aimed at fashion journalists and buyers in department stores, wholesalers, and other major markets. Fashion shows, which are widely covered in the media, both reflect and advance the direction of change in fashion. Photos and videos from fashion shows are instantly sent to mass-market producers who imitate or take inspiration from runway designs to produce inexpensive clothing.
media and marketing
All types of media are essential for fashion marketing. The first fashion magazines were published in England and France in the late 18th century. In the 19th century, fashion magazines such as France’s La Mode Illustree, England’s Lady’s Realm, and America’s Godey’s Lady’s Book proliferated and flourished. Fashion magazines featured articles, hand-colored illustrations (known as fashion plates), and advertisements, and played an important role, along with other developments such as sewing machines, department stores, and ready-to-wear clothing produced in standard sizes. Promoting the democratization of modern fashion. In the early 20th century, the development of effective and inexpensive ways to reproduce photographs in print media led to the rise of fashion photography and heavily illustrated fashion magazines such as Vogue. Magazine advertising has quickly become the fashion industry’s primary marketing tool.
The production of motion picture newsreels (short films showing current events) and the rise of television made it possible for people around the world to watch fashion shows and copy the fashionable outfits worn by celebrities. It has become. Visual media continues to dominate in the Internet era, and fashion blogs have become increasingly important as a means of disseminating fashion information. Red carpet events such as award ceremonies provide valuable publicity for designers as celebrities are photographed wearing designer fashion.
