Male Fashion Report

DES 08100 Design & Business Chris Wilson Annie Espie Niel Pitman Michael Runciman Mikaela Ekebom Diana Makejeva

Male Fashion Report

GROUP B MEMBERS Chris Wilson – Interior & Spatial Design Annie Espie - Interior & Spatial Design Neil Pitman – Graphic Design Michael Runciman – Product Design Mikaela Ekebom – Graphic Design Diana Makejeva – Graphic Design

Before progressing any further we began by looking over the brief that we had been given for this project.

DES08100 Design and Business 2013 Brief 1 : Market exploration Market exploration For the design and business module you are asked to submit two pieces of coursework. This is the first, and is worth 40% of the total marks.

The second course work brief will be given later to coincide with the work undertaken in the other concurrent modules.

MARKET SEGMENTATION "Involves breaking down the total market into sub groups, each of which may have its own special product or service requirements and each of which is likely to exhibit different habits and characteristics." (Wendell Smith 1956) Brief : The cohort will be divided into approximately 15 groups of 5 or 6, depending on overall numbers. Each group will negotiate and establish individual roles and duties for its own members. Groups will be allocated a specific market from the list below and asked to investigate its current demographic characteristics.

o Sportswear o Holidays o Magazines o Books o Male Grooming products o Female Grooming products o Toys and Games

o Groceries o Eating out o Male Fashion o Female Fashion o Furniture o Cars o Music o Confectionery

You should define the sectors and sub-sectors within the market and describe the segmentation variables as fully as possible within the time scale allowed. Information may be distilled and collated from the lectures provided and your own investigations. Tutorials will be scheduled to develop and support the work in progress.

In your conclusions please highlight any possible design opportunities apparent within the sectors identified.

Deliverables : o You are asked to give a short and informative presentation of your investigations (Max 10 minutes) to your tutorial group. o Supportive material and evidence of project management approaches will be submitted for scrutiny after the presentation i.e. Evidence of scheduling tasks and team members roles. o Material should be gathered in the form of an A4 binder.

Meeting One Present: Chris, Annie, Neil, Mikaela Absent: Michael. Diana This initial meeting was an introduction and a time to get to know everyone in the group and how we could work together as a well-functioning team.

We discussed randomly selected our topic which was men’s fashion. We then drew out some diagrams to illustrate how broad male fashion was in relation to the briefing.

We decided to wait until our next meeting to delegate certain roles and steps that we can take to efficiently work together to develop a successful analysis and presentation of men’s fashion and to obtain some sort of conclusion.

Our main objective to complete for the next again week was to create a link between us all that we can all access and remain in contact whilst all doing our own thing during the course of the week.

Meeting Two Present: Chris, Annie, Neil, Mikaela, Michael, Diana Absent: N/A At the beginning of this meeting we all had a secondary introduction as this was the first meeting of the whole group being together. We had managed to open communication between each other online through Facebook by creating a page where we could post and discuss information that we will collect over the course of the next few weeks running up to the deadline.

Our main task for this week we concluded was to devise a plan of our research that will be effective and that would include all of our work and findings efficiently and to a high standard.

Meeting Three: Present: Chris, Annie, Neil, Michael, Diana Absent: Mikaela This meeting was a successful one as we had begun to delegate tasks as a team to ensure that the final result was a success. We were pre-warned that Mikaela would be away so this meant we could prepare our roles in advance from this meeting but clarified them on this date. We decided to categorise men’s fashion in relation to their socio economic categories.

Demographic Scale:

Each research:

A: Neil

C2: Michael

Size and growth potential, Nature of the competition, political, social and environmental trends and factors.

B: Chris

D: Diana

Look at your section:

C1: Annie

E: Mikaela

•

UK v's Middle East (Did we decide where?)

•

Urban v's rural

•

Brands and how important they are.

Try and find an example of Smart/work and an example of casual.

Meeting Four: Present: Annie, Neil, Michael, Diana, Mikaela Absent: Chris Reviewed the direction that we were heading in over the last week, because the way we were going before was too complicated and we couldn't gather the relevant information needed in the time we had due to the need of contacting external companies and the possibility of payment for this information.

We then decided instead to research areas of male fashion in both the Demographic and Pyshographic sections. These are, Income/social status, purchase location, brand loyalty and purchase behaviour.

We then produced a graph to illustrate our direction over the next week.

Further detail of the sub-topics.

- brand loyalty --it seems men are more loyal to brands than women... due to different factors (ex. when they find what they like they stick with it, that way saving time that could be better spent) - online shopping--seems to be where the opportunity lies in male fashion... again many different factors contributing to this and some interesting directions that shops are taking to reach the male population.

- social status and shopping behaviour related to the recession - ex.. the suit market is effected by the recession due to people losing their jobs.

- ignored age group... it seems that there is an age group (about 45 - 55) that feels ignored because so much male fashion is targeted towards a younger audience.

Meeting Five: Present: Chris, Annie, Michael, Diana, Mikaela, Neil Absent: N/A We met at the beginning of the week to go over our findings over the last week. further delegation of the final presentation of this week to link all of our findings together which was highly successful what we are going to talk about over the course if the presentation.

We worked out how our information will be easily understood on the slides of the presentation and verbally to our other groups. We also decided who will present what part from our research which will enable us to get our information best across to our peers.

We also gave ourselves provisional dates for practicing the presentation and going over any rough patches that we may find during these practice times.

Meeting Six. Present: Chris, Annie, Neil, Mikaela Absent: Michael, Diana This was a quick meeting over lunch to try and gather all of our resources for the finalising of the report, as well as finalising and delegating the items up for discussion for the presentation. We also finalised our layouts and worked on making it a simple but effective presentation to get the main points across to our listeners.

Meeting Seven.

Present: Chris, Annia, Neil, Mikaela, Michael, Diana Absent: N/A This was our final meeting before heading to the final presentation. We went over the report and finalised any errors or corrections that were needed before the submission date. The presentation was our main focus to ensure that we had a script in place so that everyone knew what they were saying during the duration of the presentation. We rehearsed a full run through to smooth over any concerns that the team may have with anything said, but after time we were happy to give it our best shot on the day.

We decided that it would be a good idea to print off our used resources to supply a readable link to our information said in our presentation so this would be a main priority to ensure that we had many real sourses and provide back-up on our own research.

Meetings

Meetings Attendance (7Meetings) 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Annie

Group Roles & Responsibilities

Neil

Mikaela

Chris

Michael

Diana

Group Member

Chris Wilson : Report Manager – Obtaining the relevant information to create the report and ensuring the team provide this information for the report to be of a substantial standard.

Annie Espie: Researcher & Organiser – Working to obtain relevant research and ensure that the group meets when they have agreed to meet.

Neil Pitman: Researcher & Conversationalist – Ensuring that meetings are successful and keeping the group functioning to ensure that the final outcome is reached as well as assisting in the research and presentation process.

Mikaela Ekebom: Presentation Manager – Processing all the research received and researched herself to produce a visually pleasing presentation with the information and instructions from the team.

Diana Makejeva: Researcher & Debater – As well as providing research, the role also includes discussing specific points of the information gathered and getting the group to think more in depth about certain points to allow the team to stay on time and still have high quality information.

Michael Runciman: Researcher & Resource Admin – As well as keeping heads on any research gathered, also noting the place of origin to ensure that all information gathered can be backed up and justified.

Collective Research Effects of Recession: High End: Still appeals to their customers Mid-range: Struggling to appeal to customers Low End: Using different marketing techniques to appeal to their customers Parts of the clothing market have suffered greatly in men’s fashion because of the recession. This is due to customers cutting back on low essential items. It has also caused a lot of retailers to change who they are aiming their products at and the way they communicate with their customers. The customer has become more important, rather than the shareholders.

Our research has discovered that despite the credit crunch, high end brands don't seem to be too effected. It seems that the customers of high end male clothing consider how they look and what brands they are seen in as important. These customers are happy to pay more for the brands they are comfortable with even when times are tough.

However, high end brands that have tried to branch down and appeal to different classes have struggled greatly and have returned to their original market.

Shops and brands at the low end of the market have also adapted to survive the recession. The way that cheap brands are marketing are appealing to a higher class than before. These shops and brands now refer to themselves as "good value" rather than using the words "cheap" or "discount". This makes them more attractive to buyers so people are more likely to be seen wearing them.

This leaves the mid-range market struggling the most. Their customers are now happier to shop at cheaper places and so these are now struggling to keep the same number of customers.

"Older customers are taking advantage of online shopping, according to a 2011 study by Forrester, and will be a more significant factor in e-commerce success in 2012" "Products that you cannot see and touch before buying is what is holding many customers back from participating in online shopping. One way for the user to get closer to the "look and feel" is product videos."

"Personalised and interactive: with the spread of smartphones, there is increasing integration of high street and online trading. This opens the door to a personalised shopping experience: location based deals, price comparison, reviews and sharing on social media"

Online Shopping Behaviour • With its enviable growth forecast to continue through 2012 and beyond, men’s fashion looks more and more like a bountiful land of opportunity just waiting to be conquered. Ultimately, however, victory may well be determined by men at the online checkout. (New York Times) • Fashion executives and industry experts say e-commerce is an especially important factor for men’s wear because affluent men appear to be somewhat predisposed to buying in an online environment. Leveraging this untapped purchase power, they say, is as much a matter of

understanding men’s online consumer behaviour as it is about investing in new product development, fine-tuning the male marketing voice or getting the merchandise mix just right. (New York Times) • “Men aren’t necessarily driven to the Internet because of its value proposition, but rather because it’s more suited to their shopping habits. For them, the shopping experience is less about exploration and more about being informed about what they should be buying. The internet allows them to access this information and advice with relative ease and peace, without being hassled by shop assistants” (Ashma Kunde, global apparel research analyst for the market research company Euro monitor International. (New York Times) • “Men don’t shop; they buy. Men spend 30 % less time browsing online than women, viewing fewer pages before purchasing, which shows why online shopping is the perfect solution for them.”

(Federico Marchetti,Chief executive at a high-end men’s fashion company online) He also states that a heightened sense of brand loyalty is a particular characteristic of men shopping fashion online. He cites typical brand loyalty rates that are twice as high among the company’s male clientele as those of its female clients. “Men are more likely to create a fixed and invariable personal style, sticking with a limited range of labels.”

• “While women usually search online by designer and use e-commerce like an online catalogue, men do it more by product and are inspired by ultimate trends. It is true that men can be very utilitarian in the way they use the Internet, going straight to the point and leaving little time for discovering new things or ideas. But on certain occasions they can actually spend more time searching than women do because they are looking for more reassurance and want to make sure that what they pick will be appropriate and make them feel at ease.” (Raffaello Napoleone, Chief executive of the Italian men’s wear stride show Pitti Immagine Uomo) • “Men’s wear “performs as strongly as women’s wear on a sales-per-item level, which is amazing given that we have a wider women’s offer and that a lot of our communication is directed at our female customer. My gut feeling is that high-end, directional men’s wear is very well suited for the online channel because men are less impulsive, more crowd-averse, brand loyal, and when they know the exact item they want to buy from the right brand, they don’t mind paying shipping and tolerate having to wait a few days for that special item.” (Jose Neves,Chief executive at Farfetch.com) • “Most men are seeking straightforward shopping experiences to help achieve certain looks.

They prefer to shop online and in offline men’s-only stores that speak directly to them – those that curate these looks and provide content to guide their purchasing decisions” (Andrea Derricks, an associate at L2, a research organization based in New York) (new York times)

The Impact of Recession on Male Fashion – high and low-end • Demand for mens suits if largely affected by economic activity. Employment falls = demand for suits declined. Many potential consumers no longer need suits and other office wear as they are now unemployed and have a lower/low level of disposable income. (report linker) • Companies are looking at mergers and acquisitions to grow their market share and diversify product lines . Even in times of economic recession, suits represent close to 35% of the overall men’s clothing market (report linker) • Fashion companies of every size are vying for a slice of the luxury market that is still underserved and underexploited but that is being carved up fast: men’s wear (new york times) • Squeezed middle classes

Brand Loyalty Companies will be obliged to step-up marketing efforts to foster and maintain consumer loyalty.

Product differentiation will also remain a key element moving forward. Inflation will push prices higher, which may well have shoppers straying from their favourite brands to look for discount alternatives. (report linker Notes: In a world where children are born as much into a digital as a real surrounding, shopping online seems to naturally become a more and more obvious option for people.

Men are more interested in the Qualities and Benefits of products.

Group Communications Our group heavily relighed on communication through social media for a variety of reasons and this method was especially useful for storing information that we found along the way, discussing action plans that we had talked about in our meetings and also supplying eachother with help to achieve our final result.

Overall this method helped us all to provide the final solution and made us all link together and allow for us to relate faces in different courses for future projects together.

Bibliography: EG Retail Feb 2009 EG Retail Nov 2009 EG Retail Spring 2010 EG Retail Spring 2012 Focus Retail Winter 2010 http://www.experian.co.uk/assets/businessstrategies/brochures/fashion_segments_handbook_males_small[1].pdf http://www.visitmanchester.com/articles/sport/strike-a-pose-50-years-of-football-and-fashion/ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/fashion/online-helps-increase-mens-wearsales.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2& http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.practicalecommerce.com%2Farticles%2F3 222-Behavioral-Differences-Between-Men-and-Women-Influence-Shopping&h=8AQFFAw4 http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cactuscommerce.com%2Fblog%2Fshoppi ng-less-spending-more-targeting-the-male-online-shopper.aspx&h=KAQGGgkmh http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theage.com.au%2Fexecutivestyle%2Fmale-order-men-shopping-madly-online-20110920-1kjku.html&h=yAQEe3FRx