Portfolio Caitlin McCann
the charity market
O V E R V I E W
The aim of this project is to introduce a look book for the charity brand British Red Cross. Re styling donated vintage clothing in a way that seeks to make them contemporary, the aim is to attract a fresh market of consumers, something that BRC is quite limited in. The report covers areas such as the market situation, competitor analysis, and consumer profiles. This will help identify the viability that project X would have if it were to be pitched to the charity.
Researching the industry situation is identifying where the brand sits in the industry as a whole and what it offers to it. The charity industry is very different from regular fashion brands, as they operate in a completely different manner, relying on 2nd hand donations and volunteers. Charity shops sit at the bottom of the fashion cycle. In the UK, there is estimated to be 9,000 charity shops who in total turn over around £970m annually. Donations vary, but clothing is the most high demand and most donated. In recent years, the market for charity brands has become more competitive due to the recession that affected high street brands and a change in consumer buying behaviour. Charity’s such as Oxfam and Cancer Research UK have realised this and re branded themselves to trigger growth and behaving in more of a high street brand manner, produced platforms such as look books, publications, visual merchandising and a strong social media presence to engage their target markets. Although some donors have mixed feelings about charity’s spending their money on marketing strategies, as it defeats the concept of charity in some sense, the general high street shopper is more likely to donate and shop at those who have a strong identity, a factor which is vital for a brand to secure a position on the high street.
b r a n d h I S T O R Y
British Red Cross are a registered charity who provide humanitarian work, helping victims in crisis both in the UK and overseas. A few from the broad list of services they offer include international disaster relief, crisis intervention, international family tracing, first aid training, medical equipment loan, and HIV awareness. They have 4 values which guide the way they work which are: Compassionate, inclusive, dynamic, courageous. Their charity tagline is “Refusing to ignore people in crisis” In the UK, BRC have around 320 charity stores, selling donations from clothing, accessories and household items. They have a few specialist shops, including book shops, vintage wear and bridal wear.
British Red Cross have launched fundraising events such as fashion shows to bring awareness to their brand, however as it currently stands, they have not produced any other fashion related marketing platforms to advertise their stores. Their window displays are simplistic and they have a recurring colour blocking techniques with how they represent clothes. This visual merchandising technique is the only thing that delivers the charity a brand identity in terms of fashion but other than that, it is very lacking. Many of their campaigns, online and on social media are focused on the charity’s work itself - Causing an emotional impact to it’s target market is effective in bringing them awareness and what they stand for, however producing more fashion related content alongside this would encourage more people to shop and donate in their stores.
The micro environment for british red cross
p e s t l e a n a l y s i s
Political Brexit.
Economic
Refugee and migrant crisis
Employment rates in UK
Wars overseas
High street prices rising
Sociological Rise of ethic conscious shoppers The rise of consumers searching for bargains
Proposed plans for it to be mandatory job seekers work in charity to claim benefits.
Technical The rise of digital platforms and internet shopping
Legal Taxes on sales.
Environment Where abouts the stores are based – i.e. those that are situated in more wealthy areas of the UK receive more sought after donations.
A lot of charity stores including BRC don’t have a very appealing aesthetic as they have one objective and are limited on where profits are spent. Data research from previous online surveys has proved that the young generation are the least likely to donate or purchase from charity shops, this resulting from a combination of stigma associated with wearing 2nd hand clothes and the way they are heavily targeted by mainstream high street brands and influenced to stay on trend. Introducing a styled look book for BRC that could also be featured in window displays would alter how charity brands are perceived and influence buying behaviour amongst this demographic. Recruiting a new segment market of consumers would ultimately increase sales and reaching out to young people is vital for charity brands to grow in the market
Addressing the market situation is a vital to make project X more viable as it gives insight in to how much of a gap it would fill. Data driven marketing is finding out the consumers perception of something, primarily through surveys and using the information in a beneficial way. Based on an already existing survey published online, results show that
m a r k e t r e s e a r c h
- Women and over 65’s are the most likely people to donate to charity - The amount given by those 60+ continue to rise, whilst the amount donated by those under 30 continue to decline, creating a wider gap. From a recent small scaled survey conducted on Survey Monkey between 18-24 year olds, results showed that 72.72% of those in the 18-24 age bracket answered “Never” or “Once or twice a year” when asked how often they shop in charity. 66.66% chose clothing not being on trend, or the idea of wearing 2nd hand clothes unappealing as factors that deter them from charity shopping. 72.73% think charity brands in general have an unappealing aesthetic
Traid
C o m p e t i t o r s
Looking at competitors in the charity market is important to research as it gives awareness on what what has made them successful so it can be adapted to project X. Traid is the strongest competitor as their USP is their collaborative projects with photographers, stylists and creatives, something which sets them aside from other high street charity’s. “TRAID has committed over £1,505,802 to projects improving social and environmental conditions in the textile industry including improving the working conditions of over 650,000 garment workers, removing children from bonded and forced labour; supporting cotton farmers to reduce and eliminate pesticide use; establishing co-operative textile businesses and developing eco-friendly textile production processes. clothes and cast offs of fabrics are then transformed into high quality stock for their shops” - TRAID website.
Strengths Operates in a way that involves young creatives to be involved in projects Has a more contemporary aesthetic than BRC Has strong window display in stores
Weaknesses
Produces publications with some strong styling and photography
Lack of stores across the UK - All of them are in London
Has a strong online prescense and interactive marketing campaigns that gets consumers involved
Oppurtinuty’s More celebrity endorsement
Threats The rise of other charitys proposing the same marketing strategies/interacting with consumers on a creative level Oxfam’s link with high end industry photographers
Oxfam
Oxfam is another competitor as they also produce a lot of styling and photography in their visuals. In their most recent photo shoot this month, they hired fashion photographer Tim Walker to product conceptual, suite of images of models wearing Oxfam clothes to be presented in the Sunday times style magazine. The campaign was based on the concept of “being something for everyone”. Like Traid, they launch a lot of fashion based campaigns and projects for young creatives to produce, often styling and photography based, all documented on their online blog. They also did an advertising campaign for their online shop, which was shot by well known photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten who “transformed the warehouse into a magical wonderland to create images with the incredible lighting and sense of mystery she is known for. The aim for the shoot was to tell stories and create mini fantasy worlds. The models were Oxfam customers.
British Heart Foundation
British Heart Foundation are another well established charity that could be seen as a competitor. They have adapted a brand identity describing it as “An emotive and urgent tone of voice for the BHF along with a bold approach to brand identity around the four principles of Simplify, Intensify, Amplify and Red-ify. The result is an arresting style and tone for the brand, which has so far been rolled out across communications, digital and the retail space” They used celebrity endorsement to create a series of images in their fundraising campaign “Rock Up In Red. “Whether it’s wearing a red hot dress, holding a red bake sale or painting your nails a racy shade of red, it’s the taking part and showing your heart that matters. Every pound raised will help make a difference to millions.” BHF website. This fundraising campaign raises a lot of awareness to the brand as it attracts celebrities to participate and document it on social media such as Twitter and Instagram. This photoshoot is playful, fun, and although the charity has a serious cause it turns the campaign into something light hearted. The charity’s main consumer is women ages 50+ however they realised that the Rock up in the red campaign had increased the number of 35-49 year old consumers.
The brc c o n s u m e r
Cc Oo Nn Cc Ee Pp Tt d e v e l o p m e n t
These key words are the concepts that came to mind when thinking about charity and re cycling, narrowing it down to the concept of crisis and recovery - this being the work that British Red Cross produce. The narrative for the look book was derived from BRC’S origins and heritage, which began in the Victorian era. Following on from this, Victorian methods of curing ailments, trauma and disease such as homepathy, inspired the consistent floral visuals throughout my work.
Makeup s t y l i n g
I am the fire that leaves you homeless The prescription you cannot collect The motorway pile up which leaves you traumatised. I’m the reason you need a wheelchair. The flood that leaves you stranded The empty house when you return from hospital I am a crisis and i don’t care who you are.
The make up for the shoot was based on the monologue shown to the left, words taken from the most recent video campaign that BRC produced. Using red lipstick represents the idea of crisis, whilst keeping in line with the BRC logo.
Clothing Inspiration
Aiming to make Victorian influenced clothing contemporary again keeps in line with the Victorian concept the shoot is inspired by whilst keeping in line with the RECOVERY narrative.
Project X Consumer profiling
Producing a pen portrait and defining the consumer that project X aims to reach is a way of ensuring that the content is relevant. The model used for the look book is representative of the consumer it tries to target in terms of age and overall aesthetic, likewise with the styling, makeup and outfit choices. Taking in to consideration age bracket, hobbies, behaviour and lifestyle choices, this describes the new consumer that the project aims to target.
Brand onion The brand onion is a visual way or representing the layers of a brands traits in terms of personality, essence, and values. It is a useful tool for grounding and direction to a project and to ensure that the new look look book relates to the the essence British Red Cross
F I N A L V I S U A L S
I feel that the visuals I have produced for the look book relate to the essence of British Red Cross as the concept was based on crisis and recovery. Although British by heritage, the charity also do a lot of international work and include in their fundamental principles that they do not discriminate against race, religion or political beliefs because every life is valuable and every crisis is personal. This led me to use asian models within my look book to communicate this. Researching in to the ideas that other charities have pitched has given me a lot of direction if I were to project this further. Introducing window displays, store layout and a lot more of an online presence would be beneficial to the brand. From my research, they are lacking in identity and advertising compared to its competitors. Promoting the look book online on platforms such as Instragram and Facebook, as well as a hard copy in store would relate stronger to the target market it aims to reach - being 19-30 year olds. From researching in to the different campaigns, styling and marketing strategies of the main competitor charity’s, it appears that the way forward for awareness is target market participation. This project could adapt this method by launching a campaign on social media to encourage members of the public to style themselves up in their favourite clothing from the BRC vintage stores and have the opportunity to be featured in the next look book.
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