NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY BA (HONS) FASHION MANAGEMENT FASH30076 DISSERTATION MODULE
Emerging Brands in E-commerce The online resources available to growing fashion businesses THIS DISSERTATION IS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BA (HONOURS) FASHION MANAGEMENT.
CAITLIN COLDER N0378859 TUTOR: KATIE HOLBROOK DATE SUBMITTED: 15TH APRIL 2015
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank all who contributed to this research – the interviewees who provided fantastic insights and advice, participants of the focus group and particularly Holly Booth, Euri Nacher Solves and Amy He for the in depth information of their businesses and professional lives. I would also like to thank my amazing family for supporting me throughout university, Katie Holbrook who was an excellent and highly reliable tutor throughout this dissertation and finally Jake Greener for always providing me with copious amounts of tea.
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ABSTRACT
This research is based upon the continuing exposure of emerging online brands via social channels and various other evolving digital methods. Online resources have paved the way for the creation of new, unique brands often selling handmade or locally made goods and services. Social media has exposed these brands to international consumers, erasing the need to appeal to local markets. Therefore, this research focuses on the ways online resources can be used effectively, considering how emerging brands must be original and only use digital marketing methods suitable to their individual ethos. Literature analysed in this research exposes the need to develop business models and theories that may be outdated due to the constant development of technology, along with the importance of the brand-consumer relationship and how changing consumer behaviour is shaping the future of online retailing. Primary research has mainly focused on the knowledge of industry experts from a mixture of E-commerce and Digital Marketing teams for major brands to emerging online business owners, providing insights into the current positioning and potential development of growing online brands. This has highlighted the strengths of communities within small businesses and the need to have a personal approach as a selling strategy and for the brand’s voice. The analysis of information has generated conclusions and recommendations from the research themes highlighted, formulating the potential future directions that emerging brands should reflect on.
WORD COUNT: 10,952 NUMBER OF REFERENCES: 160 from 122 sources KEYWORDS: E-commerce, emerging brands, online resources
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CONTENTS (i)
List of Figures ..................................................................................................... vi
(ii)
List of Tables ....................................................................................................... xi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ....................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Rationale ........................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Beneficiaries ..................................................................................................... 4 1.4 Research Aim and Objectives ......................................................................... 4 1.5 Research Scope ................................................................................................ 5 1.6 Limitations ........................................................................................................ 5
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..................................................................... 6 2.1 Secondary Research Sources .......................................................................... 7 2.1.1 Books .................................................................................................. 7 2.1.2 Journals and Reports ........................................................................ 8 2.1.3 Articles ................................................................................................ 9 2.2 Primary Research Sources ............................................................................. 10 2.2.1 Industry Interviews ........................................................................... 10 2.2.2 Case Studies .................................................................................... 12 2.2.3 Focus group ..................................................................................... 13 2.2.4 Observations ................................................................................... 13
CHAPTER 3: THE MERGING OF DIGITAL CONTENT AND E-COMMERCE ............. 14 3.1 Preface ............................................................................................................ 15 3.2 Digital promotion tools ................................................................................. 16 3.3 Consumer fuelled content ............................................................................ 23 3.4 Summary ........................................................................................................ 32
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CHAPTER 4: THE PRESENT STATE OF GROWING ONLINE BUSINESSES ............... 34 4.1 Preface ............................................................................................................ 35 4.2 The personalization of online shopping ...................................................... 36 4.3 Brands, people and lifestyles ........................................................................ 44 4.4 Summary ......................................................................................................... 53
CHAPTER 5: ONLINE TOOLS FOR BRAND EXPANSION ............................................ 54 5.1 Preface ............................................................................................................ 55 5.2 Modernization of branding ........................................................................... 56 5.3 Online brand communities ........................................................................... 60 5.4 Summary ........................................................................................................ 72
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS .......................................................................................... 73 6.1 Reaching a halfway point .............................................................................. 76
CHAPTER 7: RECOMMENDATIONS .............................................................................. 78 7.1 The next steps for growing online brands ................................................... 79 7.2 Suggestions for a brand app community .................................................... 80
8.0 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 85
9.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 98 9.1 Books .............................................................................................................. 98 9.2 Online sources ............................................................................................. 100 9.3 Reports and Journals ................................................................................... 113 9.4 Primary contacts ........................................................................................... 114
10.0 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................... 115
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 3.1 Graph to show reasons for consumer social media interaction Source: - (Mintel, 2014) .................................................................................................... 16
Figure 3.2 – Model of E-commerce Relations, adapted by the author Source: (Colder, 2015) ....................................................................................................... 18
Figure 3.3 – Topshop app screenshots Source: (Colder, 2015) ...................................................................................................... 19
Figure 3.4: Blue Ocean strategy model Source: (Assen, et al., 2009). ............................................................................................ 19
Figure 3.5: Olive Clothing Instagram flat lay screenshots Source: (Colder, 2016) ....................................................................................................... 20
Figure 3.6: Focus group responses concerning participant’s interaction with social media Source: (Colder, 2016) ....................................................................................................... 21
Figure 3.7: Road-mapping model Source: (Assen, et al., 2009) ............................................................................................. 22
Figure 3.8 – Topshop & Mod Dolly on Instagram Source: (Instagram, 2015) ................................................................................................. 23
Figure 3.9 – Nasty Gal app screenshots Source: (Colder, 2015) ...................................................................................................... 24
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Figure 3.10: ‘The Experience Realms’ A Brand Experience model. Source: (Assen, et al., 2009) ............................................................................................ 25
Figure 3.11– Public Desire shoe box Source: (Colder, 2016) ...................................................................................................... 26
Figure 3.12– Screenshot of Public Desire’s consumer generated gallery Source: (Colder, 2016) ....................................................................................................... 26
Figure 3.13: Screenshot of Mod Dolly reposting a customer image of their outfit Source: (Colder, 2016) ....................................................................................................... 28
Figure 3.14: Screenshots of Gamma Folk’s Instagram feed Source: (Colder, 2016) ....................................................................................................... 29
Figure 3.15: Screenshot of the Holly Booth Photography studio Instagram feed Source: (Colder, 2016) ....................................................................................................... 30
Figure 3.16: Diffusions of Innovation Theory (Rogers, 1962), edited by author Source: (Colder, 2016) ....................................................................................................... 33
Figure 4.1: The Customer Pyramid model Source: (Assen, et al., 2009) ............................................................................................. 36
Figure 4.2: Greiner’s growth phases. Source: (Assen, et al., 2009) ............................................................................................ 38
Figure 4.3: Screenshots of Nobody’s Child blog entries Source: (Colder, 2016) ....................................................................................................... 38
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Figure 4.4: Screenshots of Frank Body skincare’s brand voice Source: (Colder, 2016) ....................................................................................................... 40
Figure 4.5: Screenshot of Eight Slate’s personal styling event promoted via their Instagram feed Source: (Colder, 2016) ....................................................................................................... 41
Figure 4.6: Screenshots of The London Fashion Agency’s ‘About’ and Twitter pages Source: (Colder, 2016) ....................................................................................................... 42
Figure 4.7: Amy He Source: (ASOS, 2013) ....................................................................................................... 45
Figure 4.8: Screenshot of Mod Dolly’s Instagram post featuring the ‘#shopindependent’ hashtag Source: (Colder, 2016) ....................................................................................................... 47
Figure 4.9: Holly Booth Source: (2016) .................................................................................................................... 48
Figure 4.10: Screenshots of the Creative Business retreat 2016 Holly Booth hosted Source: (Colder, 2016) ....................................................................................................... 50
Figure 4.11: Euri Solves Source: (2015) ..................................................................................................................... 51
Figure 4.12: Screenshot of Solves’ communicating with Kipling consumers via Facebook Source: (Colder, 2016) ....................................................................................................... 52
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Figure 5.1: Infographic showing how small businesses use social media Source: (Gissane, 2013) ................................................................................................... 56
Figure 5.2: ‘The Four P’s of Marketing’ model Source: (Bickle, 2011) ....................................................................................................... 57
Figure 5.3: ‘The Model of Buyer Behaviour’ Source: (Kotler, 2015) ...................................................................................................... 57
Figure 5.4: Infographic for social media driven sales. Source: (Macdonald, 2014) ............................................................................................. 58 Figure 5.5: Screenshot of Lisa Says Gah About webpage Source: (Colder, 2016). ..................................................................................................... 60
Figure 5.6: Screenshots of Snupps app features Source: (Colder, 2015) ...................................................................................................... 61
Figure 5.7: Screenshots of Snupps app user instructions Source: (Colder, 2015) ...................................................................................................... 62
Figure 5.8: Grabble app screenshots Source: (Colder, 2015) ....................................................................................................... 63 Figure 5.9: Screenshots of Grabble interview with Charlotte Simone Source: (Colder, 2015) ....................................................................................................... 64
Figure 5.10: Screenshots of Farfetch app pages and features Source: (Colder, 2016). ..................................................................................................... 64
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Figure 5.11: Focus group responses of participant’s experience of Grabble and Farfetch apps (1) Source: (Colder, 2016) ...................................................................................................... 66
Figure 5.12: Focus group responses of participant’s experience of Grabble and Farfetch apps (2) Source: (Colder, 2016) ...................................................................................................... 67
Figure 5.13: Focus group responses of participant’s experience of Grabble and Farfetch apps (3) Source: (Colder, 2016) ...................................................................................................... 67
Figure 5.14: Scenario planning model. Source: (Heijden, 2002) ................................................................................................... 69
Figure 5.15: Model of customer marketing and relationship management by revenue and consumer base Source: (Assen, et al., 2009) ............................................................................................ 70
Figure 7.1: Mock-up of potential emerging brand app interface Source: (Colder, 2016) ...................................................................................................... 80
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LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Key Texts Source: (Colder, 2015) ........................................................................................................ 7
Table 2.2: Key Journals and Reports Source: (Colder, 2015) ........................................................................................................ 8
Table 2.3: Key Industry Interviews Source: (Colder, 2016) ...................................................................................................... 10
Table 2.4: Primary Focus group proceedings Source: (Colder, 2016) ...................................................................................................... 13
Table 4.1: Case study based on Amy He and Mod Dolly Source: (Colder, 2016) ...................................................................................................... 45
Table 4.2: Case study based on Holly Booth and her business Source: (Colder, 2016) ...................................................................................................... 48
Table 4.3: Case study based on Euri Solves and Kosturas Source: (Colder, 2016) ...................................................................................................... 51
Table 7.1: Recommended app features Source: (Colder, 2016) ...................................................................................................... 82
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Chapter 1: Introduction
“The way brands share their passions and tell stories is only going to get more interesting and exciting as emerging platforms and technologies make new ideas possible.� (Ahmed, 2012).
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1.1 BACKGROUND
E-commerce business has transformed the fashion industry over the past ten years with terms such as SEO becoming widely known concepts and expanding job opportunities in the digital sphere (Gallagher, 2014). Consumers are starting to turn away from traditional media and tune in to online outlets of media, such as social networks and blogs for entertainment and inspiration that can often influence purchasing decisions (Harden, 2009). Large online brands are constantly investing in their digital marketing resources to increase brand awareness but with the goal of retaining the consumers that they attract (FRPT, 2014). Fayyoumi (2014) suggests this is due to the fact that communicating directly to the consumer can provide crucial knowledge of their opinions relating to a brand or product, that a growing E-commerce business could utilise to gain competitive advantage. “There will be new entrants into marketplaces and reorganisation of existing players to cope with changing consumer behaviour” (Nicholas, 2008). Harnessing online social tools aids the development of E-commerce business and its impact on future communication technologies in retail (Damani, 2007). Consumers now expect to have a more personalised experience, so it is important for online brands to explore innovation such as the use of ‘agent’ software that can create tailored content to promote relevant products when the individual consumer browses their E-commerce store (Mintel, 2015). It is evident that some brands are founded by creative and visionary business people who successfully empower their brand and employees to become spokespeople – all these strategies point to the rising trend of personification in selling (Ziv, 2013). Considering all of these factors, it is apparent that growing e-commerce businesses have many avenues to discover through digital selling in terms of building consumer relationships, creating brand awareness and the sharing of digital content as a promotive tool. The theory of ‘Hedonic consumption’ relates to consumption developing into an almost theatrical experience where product cannot simply be Page | 2
displayed for purchase anymore, the consumer must enjoy engaging with a brand and retailers must avoid joining the autonomy of the high street (Kozinets, 2002). The internet generated a new way for small businesses to be created and reach a wide audience, but it is now deemed as essential for brands to have not only a transactional website but a fully social web presence to connect with consumers and keep up with the ever competitive fashion industry (Nicolay, 2016). “It is not about who will grow the quickest, it will be about who moves the quickest that will build our retail future, without smaller and more agile businesses this will never happen” (Small, 2016).
1.2 RATIONALE The focus of this research is due to placement experience gained as part of an Ecommerce team for the Kipling handbag brand, alongside an interest in independent online retailers. Plenty of large brands are still relatively new to E-commerce, therefore having an in depth knowledge of running an online store can already set apart the competition no matter what the brand’s size is (Anwyn, 2013). E-commerce is constantly adapting to new technologies, pressuring businesses to change tactics where even successful brands are refreshing their business strategies to blend technology and fashion selling (Reynolds, 2015). Researching this topic will provide essential information as to how independent online retailers can grow their business, particularly as they are the future of tomorrow’s successful brands (Martin, 2012). Although there are plenty of guides available to growing online businesses, it is hoped that combining testimonies of successful growing and large online businesses with the assessment of business strategies, models and theories and reviewing of existing literature will develop unique conclusions and recommendations for growing online businesses, in terms of possible direction and what the future of digital retail space could hold.
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1.3 BENEFICIARIES E-commerce businesses wishing to grow their online presence would benefit from the research conducted. Exploration of online resources and suitable channels will help to increase engagement and the quality of the brands relationship with their consumers, focusing on brand loyalty and personal promotive techniques.
1.4 RESEARCH AIM AND OBJECTIVES Aim: To investigate the existing online resources available to emerging E-commerce businesses, making recommendations for additional digital tools that could be used to increase brand and product awareness. Objectives: To determine how online businesses interact with their consumers via social platforms and websites. To explore the relationships between growing online stores and social media personalities to create brand awareness. To analyse a range of existing E-commerce stores as to understand how they utilise online resources to grow their brand. To understand which online tools are the most effective for emerging online businesses. To explore the future of online selling and how this will affect growing online stores, basing recommendations from research findings.
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1.5 RESEARCH SCOPE The research is based on a niche group of small online business owners and industry professionals, mainly selling fashion apparel and accessories. Innovators in online technology and small business owners also tend to be young, but with a considerable amount of experience in the fashion and e-commerce industry (Howard, 2014) so the research will focus on participants aged between 25-40 years old.
1.6 LIMITATIONS The research is limited by the technologies available to growing brands at the time period of writing – there may be an immediate development of online tools and enhanced capabilities after this research is conducted, particularly due to the fast paced nature of online and mobile retailing (Ahmed, 2012).
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Chapter 2: Research Methodology
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2.1 SECONDARY RESEARCH SOURCES Various modes of secondary reading were undertaken to provide a further understanding of the aims and objectives, investigating relevant theories, tactics and business models to provide a substantial background for the dissertation research (Saunders, 2009).
2.1.1 BOOKS The following table highlights the texts that were particularly helpful when researching the dissertation aim and which objectives they helped to explore further: Title & Author
‘Principles of Marketing’ By Philip Kotler (2015) ‘Digital Engagement’ By Leland Harden (2009)
Value to research
Objectives covered
Provided recent models outlining buying behaviour relevant to technological/social factors. Helped to explore up to date Digital Marketing theories,
1, 3, 4
promotive techniques and technology in marketing. Gave further insights into customer loyalty and engagement online, digital content and how brands
1, 2
can utilise various online tools. Explored the influence of online connectivity between brands, the consumer and online resources. Offered
‘Velocity’ By Ajaz
suggestions for app technology that existing brands
Ahmed (2012)
use, websites for leveraging a brand’s social presence
1, 2, 5
and how website traffic correlates with consistency of digital content. Demonstrated the need for up to date models and ‘E-commerce 2.0’
theories within Digital Marketing as the online world
By Ravi Damani
continues to develop, outlined the importance of
(2007)
social networking for brands online.
2, 3
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‘Handbook on
Outlined web applications and the blending of these
cultural web user
online tools for communication and E-commerce
interaction’ By
usage. Highlights the consumer as a web ‘user’ and
Minerva EC (2008)
the importance of usability in web technology.
4, 5
Provided an understanding of social media strategies ‘Pimp My Site’ By Paula Wynne (2012)
within brands, the use of industry experts and knowledge for penetrating the digital market and
1, 2, 3
various methods of producing digital content for a brand.
Table 2.1: Key Texts (Colder, 2015)
2.1.2 JOURNALS AND REPORTS Listed in this table are the journals and reports that contributed significantly to the research undertaken so far:
Title and Author ‘Knowing Customers Better: An Experimentation of Twit Marketing in the e-Commerce Industry’ By A. Fayyoumi (2014)
Value to Research
Objectives covered
Helped to provide a further understanding of social platforms as effective marketing tools. Insightful for how large online brands combat a
1, 2
wide scale influx of communication with their consumer, particularly on Twitter.
‘E-commerce giants significantly increase marketing spends to
Explored the expansion of a brands reach since
retain customers, build
retailing online. Useful for analysing other
brand awareness as they
perspectives of online consumer services such
venture to smaller towns
as delivery that need to work alongside digital
to lure next wave of
marketing strategies.
1, 3
online shoppers.’ By FRPT (2014).
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Mintel: ‘Youth Fashion UK - December 2014.’
Provided insights to the use of social media to
(2014).
promote fashion products, statistical evidence from surveys undertaken to understand what
‘Social Media: BPC – UK –
aspects of social media influence the consumer
June 2015’ (2015)
to make an online purchase.
WGSN: ‘Social Media Case Study – Herschel Supply Co’ By Samantha Aldenton (2015)
‘Influence of adoption factors and risks on E-commerce and online marketing’ By Ciprian Adam (2011)
2, 3, 4
Displayed a possible outline for primary research (case studies), explored a brand in a case study layout to discover the various online
3, 4
marketing technologies the brand (Hershel) utilises. Explored the interaction between marketing and technology online and the opportunities they create within E-commerce. Highlighted an ‘influence model’ displaying several factors
2, 4
within E-commerce and online innovation and how they cooperate.
Table 2.2: Key Journals and Reports (Colder, 2015)
2.1.3 ARTICLES ‘How to start a successful fashion business’ (Dann, 2014) was particularly useful for collating a list of industry experts for further research and providing advice for utilising online tools. ‘The rise of digital roles’ (Gallagher, 2014) helped to understand how job roles in the fashion industry have adapted to new online marketing strategies and merging PR with social media and digital marketing.
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2.2 PRIMARY RESEARCH SOURCES A combination of primary research methods has been used to gain insights from a mixture of industry professionals experienced in E-commerce and Digital Marketing fields, along with general online consumers.
2.2.1 INDUSTRY INTERVIEWS The following table outlines the list of interviewees whose feedback was the most beneficial for their contributions to the analysis of the research, validating or discrediting the various points made from the themes discovered in the subsequent chapters. Interviews were conducted in person at their studios and workplaces or on the phone/via email due to locations overseas. For the full list of contacts interviewed for this research, see appendix 10.1. Name of
Job role/Company
interviewee
Chris Delahunty
Chapter(s)
Comments
mentioned
Digital Marketing
3,5&6
Manager for Eastpak
Delhunty’s feedback gave insights into online
communities,
online
social
channels and with his vast experience in Digital
Marketing
provided
reliable
advice for online marketing strategies. For his most valuable responses, see appendix 10.1.1. Hannah Small
Senior E-commerce
1&4
Small gave visions as to the present
Manager for Kipling &
state of growing online businesses and
Eastpak
what they may face in terms of development of online technologies and brand competition. For her most valuable
responses,
see
appendix
10.1.2. JĂźrgen Derycke
Digital Marketing Manager for Kipling
3&4
JĂźrgen provided valuable advice and analysis for growing online brands,
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identifying the consumer’s relationship with digital and social media. For his most valuable responses, see appendix 10.1.3. Euri Nacher
Interactive Marketing
4&5
Solves’ experience in both her co-
Solves
Coordinator at Kipling/
ownership of a growing online business
Kosturas co-owner
and Digital Marketing role for a larger brand provided the research with a broad scope as to the strategies and technologies available to growing online brands. For her most valuable responses, see appendix 10.1.4.
Holly Booth
Owner of Holly Booth
3, 4 & 5
Photography
Booth’s ownership of a growing digital based business selling services rather than
products
gave
insights
into
customer service care and personalised selling
techniques.
valuable
For
responses,
her
see
most
appendix
10.1.5. Amy He
Owner of Mod Dolly
4&5
He’s ownership of a growing online brand
provided
key
information
regarding social promotive strategies, personalising the brand’s voice and marketing message. For her most valuable
responses,
see
appendix
10.1.6. Celine Nicolay
Online Merchandiser for Kipling
1&5
Nicolay’s experience in E-commerce business gave strategic insights and information
regarding
marketing
for
contextual
online
brand
communities. For her most valuable responses, see appendix 10.1.7.
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Michele Doni
Junior Operations
4, 5 & 7
Doni’s role in E-commerce business
E-commerce Manager
provided context for online customer
for Vans
service and the need for innovation in developing businesses. For his most valuable
responses,
see
appendix
10.1.8.
Table 2.3: Key Industry Interviews (Colder, 2016)
2.2.2 CASE STUDIES Three case study profiles were developed from a combination of primary research and secondary reading. Amy He who owns ‘Mod Dolly’ based in London, Holly Booth who owns ‘Holly Booth Photography’ studio based in Derby and Euri Nacher Solves who co-owns ‘Kosturas’ and works full time in Kipling’s Digital Marketing department in Belgium. All three were chosen due to their ownership of growing online businesses and the useful insights provided from their interviews with the author. A combination of evaluating their business and marketing strategies along with their expertise in online business has been used throughout the research to support the investigation. See chapter 4.3 for the full case studies.
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2.2.3 FOCUS GROUP An anonymous focus group was conducted to support themes of the research found through secondary sources. Pilot focus group
Originally, 3 anonymous participants were presented with E-commerce websites from two growing online brands and were questioned based on their opinions of the professionalism, technology and digital content of these sites. See appendix 10.2 for the full description and participant’s feedback. The websites were chosen based on their position as growing digital brands, presence on social channels and fashion based product ranges. Revisions: Due to the responses offering little in terms of suggestions and critical commentary, the finalised focus group plan was for the participants to provide feedback on transactional mobile apps discovered through observations at a later point of the research. Focus group
The finalised focus group held 5 anonymous participants, an increase from the pilot conducted as to provide the conversations with a broader range of opinions. The mobile apps ‘Grabble’ and ‘Farfetch’ were used as the basis of conversation and questioning due to their social digital content, technology features and access of multiple brands from one platform as analysed throughout the research. Questioning was based on the participant’s opinion of features, layouts and content along with their individual usage of mobile apps and social platforms. See appendix 10.2.1 for the full procedure and participant’s feedback.
Table 2.4: Primary Focus group proceedings (Colder, 2016)
2.2.4 OBSERVATIONS Throughout the research observations of websites, mobile apps and online social content of emergent and established brands were conducted to observe the online Ecommerce fashion industry. Digital capabilities and content were assessed regularly throughout research – see list of figures for screenshots of online observational imagery recorded by the author.
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Chapter 3: The merging of Digital content and E-commerce
“As our connection to technology gets more organic and our devices more sophisticated, there are two advantages: low barrier to entry and passion that people can only have when fulfilling their own missions.� (Ziv, 2013).
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3.1 PREFACE This chapter will explore how consumers scan for brands when shopping online and how online businesses attract consumers via digital marketing, such as the way they engage through social channels. Relating to the theory of ‘Social-Cultural Perspective’ (Sherry, 2001) in terms of consumer behaviour – seeking relevance of products to their lifestyles that go beyond simply making a purchase, reasons that manipulate their choice of brand also known as ‘Brandscaping’. As consumers have more touch points to check on brand offerings online, relationships and social engagement are more important than ever for brands to generate purchase behaviour (Derycke, 2016). Larger online fashion brands will be analysed initially, funnelling to growing online brands in terms of their digital marketing strategies and how these are used to engage with their consumers. Digital promotion tools that have been researched will follow onto how consumers not only engage with brands but in some instances provide their own digital content for brands, exploring the changing expectations between online brands and consumers.
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3.2 DIGITAL PROMOTION TOOLS Social media is being used for style inspiration alongside promotional content, for example discount codes through online platforms such as Instagram, inferring that brand imagery can be just as important as sales messages to generate revenue for online brands (see figure 3.1). Even luxury brands are branching towards E-commerce and utilising social media personalities to increase their engagement with their consumers (Iredale, 2015).
Figure 3.1 Graph to show reasons for consumer social media interaction - (Mintel, 2014) In order to maintain engagement with the online consumer, brands must portray aspirational imagery linked to their brand ethos alongside promotional content for variation but also to establish a significant relationship with the consumer so that they can fully endorse the brand (Taylor, 2012). The lines between marketing and technology are becoming increasingly blurred, so it is essential for industry professionals to engage in new technologies online whilst still considering relevance of its role in their consumer’s lifestyles (Williams, 2015).
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Omni-channel brands find it difficult to align their marketing and digital media with more flexibility in digital content, whereas online-only brands can easily direct clear messages towards their consumer (Green, 2014). Brands are increasingly eager to engage with consumers digitally with products even being exchanged for tweets (McNeal, 2014) however these events tend to be more associated with PR strategies and luxury brands. Editorial style content is becoming more commonplace in fashion E-commerce, with the likes of Topshop utilising this style of digital media (Jenkins, 2014) a technique that growing E-commerce businesses could take as a way of balancing the lack of sensory shopping for the online consumer. Diverse and regular content is not only essential for broadening brand presence, but maintaining consumer interest and remaining at the forefront of their mind when it comes to deciding where to shop (Hiscox, 2015). Interactive digital engagement with brands is also growing, even using gaming tools such as the ‘Oculus Rift’ for virtual fashion shows (O'loughlin, 2015), nevertheless growing brands shouldn’t be intimidated by the cost as these technologies become cheaper.
Despite possessing a smaller team size than the larger brands, it is clear that small ecommerce businesses already utilise the feedback tools on social media and also have the flexibility to take suggestions and opinions directly rather than through several departments (Minks, 2013). Digital innovation means that content and commerce has become cyclical (see figure 3.2) between brands, content, online influencers and platforms creating a diverse range of choices not only for the consumer but for brands to grow (Fisher, 2015). Bloggers are creating their own online brands (Grigsby, 2015), brands are creating editorial digital content and platforms are using content to generate sales for themselves and partnering brands (Angeles, 2014).
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Figure 3.2 – Model of E-commerce Relations, adapted by the author (Colder, 2015) Some of the biggest opportunities for online retail lie in how social technologies empower individual consumers in a seamless process, where retailers can monetise revenue from their multiple social platforms in one place for the consumer (Ziv, 2013). The roles of fresh online tools cover almost every aspect of running an online business, from digital workspaces such as ‘Evernote’ and CRM databases to automated social media posting (Simas, 2015). It is apparent that through these tools content and selling come packaged as one, something that online business itself has influenced the development of (Sudweeks, 2012). However small online businesses seem to already engage actively with performance tools and websites, instead it is within content and brand presence that the potential for growth lies (Trimble, 2015). Mobile retail apps are becoming increasingly commonplace for purchasing (see figure 3.3), acting as both editorial content promoting the brand as an e-commerce service, with 37% of apparel and accessories bought through apps in a 2011 survey (Donovan, 2011).
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Figure 3.3 – Topshop app screenshots (Colder, 2015) In terms of strategy for growing online brands, the ‘Blue Ocean strategy model’ is useful for businesses to look beyond existing market boundaries to seek new, different ways to appeal to consumers (Kim & Mauborgne, 2015).
Figure 3.4: Blue Ocean strategy model (Assen, et al., 2009). This model also considers how a business should combine differentiation with low cost, or at least good value for the consumer. This is important as consumer’s expectations are ever increasing especially when they risk ordering from an online only store that does not enable the consumer to try before they buy (Force, 2015).
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Particularly for the ‘creation and capture of new demand’ it is straight forward for growing online brands to capture the attention of their consumer through imagery creation on their social channels. ‘Olive Clothing’ are a London based growing online brand that from observing their Instagram feed, have made the technique of flat laying their garments a signature of their business, featuring these images on their website and garnering hundreds of ‘likes’ and feedback (see figure 3.5).
Figure 3.5: Olive Clothing Instagram flat lay screenshots (Colder, 2016) In this way, the brand has not only thought about the lifestyle elements that their consumer engages with such as the magazine, they’ve considered colour and even flowers to add realism into their apparel, helping the consumer see how the garment Page | 20
would fit into their personal style (Scanga, 2014). To better understand how consumers may interact with brands on social media, focus group participants were asked by the author how they individually interact to brands on social channels (see figure 3.6). “I follow mainly fashion blogs, although most of them do loads of things like recipes and DIY’s which I guess keeps their readers interested.” (C, 2016).
“I always find new brands through people I follow on Twitter or Instagram, they often tag what brands they’re
“Sometimes I like to use Instagram to find new brands, when you go onto
wearing in the picture and if I like it I’ll click through to their social feed.” (D, 2016).
the ‘explore’ section it always suggests cool brands I haven’t heard
of.” (C, 2016)
“It would be nice if brands could find you if they know I’d be the right customer, but that’s too invasive for me. Maybe a half way point would be better, I’m willing to meet brands halfway if they get themselves out there such as partnering with bloggers, using Instagram etc. and I’m prepared to follow them and browse their products if I like their social media.” (A, 2016)
Figure 3.6: Focus group responses concerning participant’s interaction with social media (Colder, 2016) These responses show that consumers are spending their valuable free time finding things that may interest them on social media visually, often following brands whose Page | 21
products or imagery have been presented to them in some way. Instagram has become a key driver of advertising products online (Instagram, 2016) and has developed into a blend of individuals simply posting personal photos, with creative and business minded brands showcasing their products/blogs/recipes etc. to gain a following and promote themselves online (Cleary, 2014). With so many to browse through, it is no wonder consumers are only finding what is presented to them on social media as Participant D points out, they may follow a brand if an Instagram user has tagged an item they are wearing. Is positive online exposure enough? Even if a brand’s Instagram account has plenty of followers and good commentary, they might be missing out on having an even broader audience when depending on their consumer to discover them through other social feeds. The ‘Road-mapping’ model looks at how a brand can research the possibilities through technology for reaching potential consumers whilst still considering if the product and current market are aligned (Farrukh, et al., 2003). For a growing online brand, this is essential as to not build too large of a social following before having a large enough product offering or reaching out to unsuitable consumers (see figure 3.7).
Figure 3.7: Road-mapping model (Assen, et al., 2009)
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3.3 CONSUMER FUELLED CONTENT One of the key components to social resources is the interactive nature, bringing others into the brand conversation rather than simply informing the consumer and keeps the brand message in flow (Meadows, 2012). With the changes digital marketing has brought to the fashion industry, brands and marketers are in a new age of engagement, participation and co-creation with their consumers (Blackshaw & Kaplan, 2008). Alongside relevant brand media, digital content allows for important commentary between the brand and consumer where small online businesses have the advantage – the ability to reply personally rather than relying on ‘agents’ and customer service teams (see figure 3.8).
Figure 3.8 – Topshop & Mod Dolly on Instagram (Instagram, 2015) Technology online is adapting for allowing the consumer to provide digital content for the brand, ranging from the hashtag on Instagram and Twitter (Mayer, 2015) to app cameras and frames on Snapchat. Nasty Gal is an online only brand that has seen huge growth over recent years with unique ways of promotion, such as their creative director writing her own book ‘#GirlBoss’ – the inclusion of the hashtag as a reference to the business’s success on social media (Lewis, 2014).
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The brand’s app features a camera tool which places a frame around the image taken by the user as a way of engaging their consumer in an interactive and entertaining way (see figure 3.9).
Figure 3.9 – Nasty Gal app screenshots (Colder, 2015) Relating to the ‘Brand Experience model’ brands can achieve an ‘escapist’ shopping experience for their consumer through active participation and immersive marketing tools (Pine & Gilmore, 2009). Both of which require a personal approach to selling as consumers will only engage with brands that they trust (Derycke, 2016) which would be beneficial for a growing online business for establishing a long term relationship with their consumer (see figure 3.10).
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Figure 3.10: ‘The Experience Realms’ A Brand Experience model (Assen, et al., 2009). It’s very difficult for consumers to enjoy an ‘escapist’ shopping experience when there isn’t a physical store, but growing online brands can provide this through other measures of how they interact with their consumer, such as featuring consumer images of how they’ve styled their products. For example, Public Desire are an online footwear brand that have grown vastly over the past couple of years, based in the UK and are now looking to expand to the US (Geoghegan, 2016). A large part of their success is how they’ve incorporated consumer generated content onto their transactional website: having a live feed of consumer images from Instagram who have used the hashtag ‘#PDBAE’ featured on their packaging (see figure 3.11 and figure 3.12).
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Figure 3.11– Public Desire shoe box (Colder, 2016)
Figure 3.12– Screenshot of Public Desire’s consumer generated gallery (Colder, 2016) The Third space concept theorises that a brand should be the place aside from their home and workplace for their consumer to enjoy (Dollinger, 2008), referring back to the Brand Experience model this is how escapism is necessary in the lives of the consumer. However, with consumer generated content it could be argued that this blurs the lines between how the consumer is able to communicate with a brand
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whether they are at home or on a lunch break – they still get to enjoy an escapist experience thanks to the brand’s digital presence (Fraser, 2012). Public Desire’s use of a hashtag on their packaging is not only an effective method of receiving digital imagery for promoting their products and advertising themselves on consumer feeds, it also bridges the gap between the tangible and intangible presence of the brand, something online brands have difficulty overcoming in order to remain in their consumer’s mind (Delahunty, 2016). From observing a selection of growing online brands, they often include consumer based imagery along with professional look book and product images but not many fully utilise the hashtag feature, which if implemented would be a useful social marketing tool as well as help to analyse engagement (Cox, 2015). The use of the hashtag has extended to various other social channels, such as Facebook and YouTube recently adding the feature so it could be a straightforward yet cost effective tool to utilise for an online brand, especially as smaller brands often develop an idea overtime of who their consumer really is (Delahunty, 2016). Consumer imagery can also be a positive visual testimonial for a new consumer – if they are happy enough with the product to photograph and feature it on their social feed, it can count as a good review for the brand (Fugere, 2013).
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Figure 3.13: Screenshot of Mod Dolly reposting a customer image of their outfit (Colder, 2016) As seen in figure 3.13, the consumer’s image provides digital content for a brand’s social feed along with the opportunity for the brand to mention the featured product and its availability on their website, personalising their audience’s perception of their products. It also ensures a regular stream of content is being created, meaning that during times where a small brand may struggle to produce visuals during a quiet point of their business (for example before a look book is due to be shot) they can still produce a flow of content to their social channels as to remain in their consumer’s mind (Templeman, 2016). As content marketing is important for building trust with the consumer, a growing online brand can’t just rely on their own produced digital content, since consumers may be more reluctant to make an online transaction on a website they haven’t used before (Laudon & Traver, 2012). A consumer generated image shows that the brand has satisfied consumers, therefore could even increase not only traffic to the online store but also improve the brand’s conversion rate (DeMers, 2013). But consumer opinion isn’t always positive. Being part of the online conversation is not only a method of promotion but sometimes defending brand reputation (McNicholas,
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2011) and small online brands often have assets to their business that they don’t promote enough of. As highlighted by Derycke (2016) “Personalisation and segmentation are key. No single consumer is the same so if your brand is able to connect with the right answer in the right place you will succeed”. For example, the growing online jewellery brand ‘Gamma Folk’ sells handmade products in a studio based in New York, which is one of their USPs. Despite including this into their social bios, it is observed that they include minimal imagery of the studio on their social feed resorting to third party images of culture (see figure 3.14).
Figure 3.14: Screenshots of Gamma Folk’s Instagram feed (Colder, 2016)
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Although this seems to be the brands strategy in order to appeal to their consumer’s personal interests, Gamma Folk could build a stronger relationship with their consumer by sharing studio and ‘behind the scenes’ type imagery (Booth, 2016). Holly Booth Photography business has a separate Instagram account for studio imagery that she says is a “memento of the things she gets up to” in regards to how she invites the consumer to see more of how the brand operates (see figure 3.15).
Figure 3.15: Screenshot of the Holly Booth Photography studio Instagram feed (Colder, 2016) Relating back to the focus group findings, Participant A mentions that brands should meet consumers halfway in terms of building a relationship (A, 2016) therefore Booth’s method of bringing personal, yet still product led imagery to her follower base is a good technique other growing online brands could adopt in order to receive the same
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thing from their consumers, along with maintaining the importance of being seen as a human behind the brand rather than an automated agent as mentioned previously.
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3.4 SUMMARY To summarise, this chapter has established the ever increasing importance of consumer opinion and changing behaviours for growing online brands to adapt to and consider for their business and marketing strategies. The relationship between brands and consumers has developed from depending on consumer behaviour simply for product value and quality perception, to consumers directly creating and influencing digital content for brands. The approachability of growing digital brands due to direct interaction with consumers has given these brands the edge over larger businesses, although in terms of ability to invest in innovative technology growing brands fall short compared to the giants of online fashion business (Donovan, 2011). Innovation comes with risks and growing online businesses have proven to take them in their consistent inclusion of their consumer and vigilance for providing on-brand digital content, working with the resources at hand such as the open market of social media. If a brand can invest in online technologies, whether as apps or website features, it is evident this is worthwhile for the brand and consumer relationship (Delahunty, 2016). The ‘Diffusion of Innovation Theory’ as shown in figure 3.16 can be used to explain the positioning of brand types and how they rank in terms of innovative strategies. Online social influencers particularly generate innovation of branding whether in fashion products, styling or imagery, with luxury brands and emerging brands reacting to cultural and technological changes quickly. High street brands react to these changes eventually and discount brands react when the strategy is no longer seen as innovative (Harden, 2009).
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High Street brands
Luxury/high end brands Social Influencers
Emerging brands
Discount brands
Figure 3.16: Diffusions of Innovation Theory (Rogers, 1962), edited by author (Colder, 2016)
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Chapter 4: The present state of growing online businesses
“Traditional methods will lose pace and consumers are overwhelmed with contacts from brands, so it is how they do it differently that will build a brand� (Small, 2016).
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4.1 PREFACE This chapter will focus on how online businesses incorporate personal selling techniques through their retailing strategies, understanding how digital business has innovated the way that brands approach their consumer, particularly through digital marketing techniques (Wegert, 2014). This will then channel towards how small online brands have utilised their unique skills in terms of speed in adapting for their consumer and creativity to constantly innovate digital business (Derycke, 2016). Case studies from three unique business women with different business backgrounds and locations will be used to analyse the current presence growing online businesses currently possess.
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4.2 THE PERSONALIZATION OF ONLINE SHOPPING Large brands are becoming aware that they lack the advantage of personal relationships with the consumer, being perceived as intimidating large corporations and seek to become more than solutions to a specific need (Hollis, 2012). The Belongingness theory explains the need for a personalised shopping experience with the consumer’s basic human need to belong to social groups within their lifestyles, particularly as shopping is often a social experience (Halpern, 2007). Because of a desire to belong but also find things relevant to their lifestyles, consumers are more responsive to inbound marketing techniques as opposed to invasive outbound advertising. Brands supply their consumers with content of interest to their lives such as recipe ideas and styling videos, with relevance to their brand ethos and their consumer’s interests (Strauss & Frost, 2012).
Platinum
Gold Iron Lead Figure 4.1: The Customer Pyramid model (Assen, et al., 2009) To achieve the most loyal, profitable consumer base (ranking as platinum, see figure 4.1) personalisation can help brands with retention of their consumers as it establishes a relationship that goes further than simply selling and purchasing (Levy & Weitz, 2014). With the increase of brands sponsoring social media personalities and bloggers, they have managed to capitalise on a third party’s audience in order to promote their
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product (Ireton, 2014), the most successful brands enlisting influencers that fit their ethos. Amy He (2016) has seen her sales increase from the use of her ‘blogging platform’ for her growing online brand ‘Mod Dolly’ – as mentioned in chapter three of this research, her brand directly responds to comments on their social channels and feature consumer generated content. Her strategy is to include bloggers that fit the brand’s ethos and her target consumer, promoting the brand most effectively. In terms of the bloggers themselves, they have evolved to operate like a brand would, considering who their readers are and if the brands they collaborate with will be suitable for their readership (Philipkoski, 2016) and the brand/blogger relationship has developed to be equally beneficial for both parties. Growing online business like Mod Dolly were some of the first to collaborate with bloggers, particularly as being based online meant working with digital content creators was a straight forward move for these brands (He, 2016). The larger brands were reluctant as they didn’t want poor quality imagery associated with their products, but overtime bloggers have invested in professional photography equipment and produce images equal to the quality of bigger businesses (Hill, 2015). Bloggers and growing brands share many things in common – mainly that both are often run by very few people and work with other bloggers/brands that operate on a small scale. The difference is that it is much easier for a blogger to profit from having a personality than a brand, which is how working with bloggers can give brands that edge of having a voice and image based around people rather than nameless models (Philipkoski, 2016). Relating to Greiner’s growth phases (Greiner, 1998) growing online businesses can progress to ‘Growth through collaboration’ after the first four phases that build their business as their organization size increases over time (see figure 4.2).
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Figure 4.2: Greiner’s growth phases (Assen, et al., 2009). In criticism of this model however, it is outdated in terms of digital businesses where online you can collaborate with social influencers that didn’t exist before this model was created, rather than collaborating with other businesses as this model implies. Growing online businesses have achieved both of these methods of growth without needing to be as big or with as much time as organisations in the past, with Mod Dolly in particular stocking other growing brands such as ‘Crown and Glory’ (He, 2016) and therefore growing together in terms of online exposure and concession based relationships. Growing online brands have used their skill of establishing relationships with social influencers to create a community based around these brand/blogger promotion techniques, with a lot of them creating blogger platforms like Mod Dolly’s. ‘Nobody’s Child’, a brand similar in scale and location to Mod Dolly also regularly host blogger events and interview influencers to create content for their blog (see fig).
Figure 4.3: Screenshots of Nobody’s Child brand blogger articles (Colder, 2016)
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This is an excellent way for growing brands to promote themselves and more importantly retain consumers once they access their websites – whereas ASOS and other larger brands produce their own editorial style content to enhance the online shopping experience, utilising bloggers for content is a more cost effective and yet a personalised method for smaller brands (Pozin, 2012). Bloggers are arguably more personal than regular brand led editorial content, since they write directly to their reader and their tone of conversation is often an approachable and less intimidating approach than professional writers (Lee, 2014). More importantly, this type of collaboration enhances the community aspect of the brand, something that a growing brand can use to obtain the most loyal customers relating back to the customer pyramid model of achieving a platinum consumer base – a secure brand is one with a loyal consumer base (Khosrow-Pour, 2008). What else can growing brands gain from social influencers? The days of brands letting consumers talk amongst themselves are over and the communication flow needs to be cyclical, which means that brands can’t just rely on collaborations with social media personalities to have a voice – they must establish one themselves. Solves (2015) aligns the importance of communicating a brand’s story with providing a good user experience and product displays for the consumer’s engagement. She also validates the notion that technology has enhanced the ability for businesses to personalise their consumer’s experience, something that past theories have discredited the opportunity of – such as the ‘Diffusion Theory’, where there was once a distance between innovators in technology and resources (Surry & Farquhar, 1997).
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‘Frank Body’ is an online skin care brand that has recently grown rapidly to shipping worldwide and having multiple store views on their site. It is observed that the business has given their brand a voice and personality through all forms of communication with their consumer, whether on their website or social media (see figure 4.4).
Figure 4.4: Screenshots of Frank Body skincare’s brand voice (Colder, 2016).
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28% of the average adult’s day (from a global sample) is spent on social media and typically pay attention to each post for 8 seconds depending on content (Cummings, 2015). Therefore, it should be a brands objective not just to hold their consumer’s attention but follow through with a positive reception. In this case, Frank Body addresses their consumer personally in a conversation style, keeping their marketing messages direct and approachable which often develops to interaction in the form of consumer generated imagery, relating back to chapter three of this research. Personal selling techniques are often presented via tangible services from brands, a complication for online only brands to implement without possessing any physical stores. However emerging brands have found ways to combat this via their personal studios, which if decorated and presented well can double as an effective selling and service space.
Figure 4.5: Screenshot of Eight Slate’s personal styling event promoted via their Instagram feed (Colder, 2016) Page | 41
In the case of figure 4.5, the growing brand ‘Eight Slate’ have utilised their studio space and limited boutique space for scheduled appointments with their stylist, providing the consumer with a personal brand experience if they desire it. Personal selling approaches are often adopted by the luxury market and high end retailers so as to justify highly priced product ranges, but this method of selling also works well for growing brands with a narrow breadth of product range and smaller audience outreach. PR businesses have even developed due to the number of emerging online retailers growing in quantity, such as the London based PR firm ‘The London Fashion Agency’ (see figure 4.6).
Figure 4.6: Screenshots of The London Fashion Agency’s ‘About’ and Twitter pages (Colder, 2016)
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Businesses like these who work specially for emerging brands act as a supporting tool particularly as growing brands may struggle with establishing their voice and marketing strategies. Outsourcing help is a great way for brands to grow with smaller budgets but also establish the need for PR and personal selling roles such as having a stylist in house. Even when a brand is only available online, tangible elements of personal selling should be considered where possible (Doni, 2016) and having a store is evidently not always necessary to possess for this purpose.
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4.3 BRANDS, PEOPLE AND LIFESTYLES To properly understand the current situation for emerging online brands, the following three case studies have been created based on business women who offer varying aspects of online selling.
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CASE STUDY PROFILE – Amy He Occupation: Owner of Mod Dolly Location: Studio based in London/ Shop based in Wigan Experience: Created her own brand with sister in 2010. Works with bloggers and social media regularly, hosts events at her studio and runs a ‘blogger program’ to promote the brand.
Figure 4.7: Amy He (ASOS, 2013)
Amy has experience previously interning for Dahlia fashion, another growing online fashion brand. After completing her studies at University and various fashion internships she created Mod Dolly with the help of her sister, utilizing her business knowledge with her design and garment making skills (He, 2016). Mod Dolly is based in London and is inspired by vintage styles from mainly the 60’s era, with Amy and her employee seamstresses tailoring vintage patterns to their products and carefully selecting printed fabrics from local suppliers within London (ASOS, 2013). On her blogging platform: “I’d say it’s not only helped us link with bloggers who fit perfectly to the brand but also has provided us with regularly digital content. We held an event back in 2015 where selected bloggers came to a small party at our studio, which was very successful for our online promotion and we saw a spike in sales after the event where the bloggers had posted their experiences online and people were directed to our site.” (He, 2016). On working with other brands: “We currently stock independent brands such as Crown and Glory, who not only have products that compliment our garments (in Crown and Glory’s case headbands) but I know the owners personally and built a relationship with them initially through blogging. I think it’s that ability to collaborate and offer your consumers variety in one place rather than competing for space that will maybe one-day end the saturated market within the UK.” (He, 2016). On personal selling: “I was originally a blogger whilst being a fashion student before Mod Dolly and I think that bringing my personality across online (but still maintaining privacy of course) has been massively beneficial to the online reach of Mod Dolly and we always make sure we reply to comments on social media promptly. I think it’s just making sure that you add a personal touch to the customer’s experience wherever you can, such as thank you notes in packages and responding promptly to comments online.” (He, 2016).
Table 4.1: Case study based on Amy He and Mod Dolly (Colder, 2016)
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He’s method of building her brand through her knowledge of blogging and building online social relationships is a large part of her success story, a surprisingly common background for a lot of growing online businesses. Whereas apparel brands typically build a consumer based audience from promotion of their brand and product range, He generated an audience primarily from her blog’s content, later introducing her blog followers to her brand and some of them remain loyal consumers to this day (He, 2016). Her method validates the theory of the ‘Contingency Approach’, in which marketing relationships are stemmed from a system of structural and dynamic relationships (Zeithaml, et al., 1988), in this case He’s relationships have developed from dynamic relationships with blog readers interested in her personal style advice to structured relationships with consumers who engage with her online store as purchasers. However, this theory is outdated in the way that digital businesses have combined the two types of relationship – Amy He also has a dynamic relationship with her consumer base due to her interaction on social channels and sponsorship of bloggers. The lines have become blurred in this way, when there is no longer a distinction between personality and product, as successful bloggers will only feature brands that they actually would purchase from. Aspiring online business owners can learn many things from the Mod Dolly business, however it seems that part of her success is being at the right place at the right time. The studio being based in London has meant the brand has had access to an abundance of fabric suppliers, skilled seamstresses and bloggers based in and around the city, giving a handmade clothing brand all the resources required. Along with this, being an online brand means the local postal service has to be efficient especially as Mod Dolly has international consumers and stockists (He, 2016). The rapid growth of internet access in the UK particularly has meant that digital businesses can be formed almost everywhere (ITU, 2016) but considering He’s success in London it would be wise for growing digital businesses to be based in metropolitan areas where other needs and resources (such as employment of staff) can be met.
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Figure 4.8: Screenshot of Mod Dolly’s Instagram post featuring the ‘#shopindependent’ hashtag (Colder, 2016)
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CASE STUDY PROFILE– Holly Booth Occupation: Owner of Holly Booth Photography Location: Studio based in Derby Experience: Works regularly with small business owners photographing their products, has various online contacts overseas. Runs business blog with examples of work for clientele, has been running her business for 3+ years.
Figure 4.9: Holly Booth (2016) Holly runs her own photography business in Derby, processing nearly everything via online tools and connects with clients through social media and her website. Starting up her business in 2010, she gradually worked to having her own private studio and business name after working alongside other freelance photographers (Taylor, 2015). Since then Holly’s clients have included Wrap magazine, Rose & Co and many other businesses of both small and large sizes. She offers a remote photography service where clients can send their products to be photographed and the end result is sent via Dropbox (Booth, 2016). On personal selling – “I just try and show that I am a human being despite running most of my business digitally: showing that there is someone behind the screen with the odd pic of my studio, along with replying to my social media messages as soon as I can and in a friendly, approachable way that they know isn’t just a bot.” (Booth, 2016). On small businesses – “Small independents are always doing exciting things, sometimes taking elements from what the bigger brands are doing and incorporating them into their selling strategies, I think actually some of the smaller businesses have encouraged trends like with pop up stores, personal selling and reach to the consumer is becoming more valuable and often something larger businesses struggle to achieve being part of large, faceless corporations.” (Booth, 2016). On social media – “Incredibly important as I don’t currently do any paid marketing, social media has always been amazing for me to showcase my work and get my brand promoted to a wide audience. Some contacts have even followed my work since Myspace was popularly used and have gone on to use my service, so I think it’s really good for not only creating relationships but also maintaining and really establishing them into potential working relationships.” (Booth, 2016).
Table 4.2: Case study based on Holly Booth and her business (Colder, 2016)
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Booth’s photography business sells a service rather than physical products, giving an alternative perspective to this type of business. Unlike Mod Dolly’s beginning, Booth discovered branding herself through social media alongside the start up of her business and gained a divided audience – some as surveyors of her work, others interested in her photography services (Booth, 2016). Her technique is to give potential clients tasters of her work in various ways, either through digital means such as social channels and her brand led blog or by personal contacts such as emails to discuss pricing, number of shots etc. In this way, she says it helps to develop working relationships even if they do not hire her, often because she is overscheduled. When this is the case, she refers them to another photographer that the client could hire, an act of professionalism and courtesy to a rejected client but also her way of distributing work to other freelance photographers she knows personally. This could be seen as giving work away and a product led business would want to avoid this method, however Booth’s work ethos has established her place in a community of freelance business owners who all help each other to grow, similar to Mod Dolly’s stocking of other growing apparel and accessory brands. As mentioned in chapter three, Booth has a personal approach to potential clients through her Instagram account of her studio, letting the public see behind the scenes images and aspects of her business such as her photography equipment. As a business woman she is keen to share ideas and similarly to Mod Dolly’s blogger events, attends meetings with other small business owners as often they are her clients, selling products that require professional look book imagery which she supplies (see figure 4.10).
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Figure 4.10: Screenshots of the Creative Business retreat 2016 Holly Booth hosted (Colder, 2016)
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CASE STUDY PROFILE – Euri Nacher Solves Occupation: Interactive Marketing Coordinator at Kipling/ Kosturas co-owner Location: VF Corporation in Belgium Experience: Digital Marketing for Kipling handbags, brand led social media, running a small online business bringing Spanish brands to the rest of the European market.
Figure 4.11: Euri Solves (2015) Euri has experience working for large scale brands along with her own independent fashion brand ‘Kosturas’ (Nacher, 2016), extending her knowledge working within a corporation to enhance her business’s prospects. Kosturas is a growing online business that sells a mixture of Spanish brands, acting as both a physical and online concession holder as they currently don’t have any Kosturas original products. The idea is to act as the middle man for Spanish brands to reach international markets, particularly Belgium and surrounding countries. (Kosturas, 2016). In 2014 Kosturas opened their first pop up shop in Antwerp, Belgium selling
11 brands from Spain (Weekend, 2014) and was a successful event for the business not only in terms of sales but also brand awareness. About strategy “When working with bloggers and influencers, is always hard to get the approach that works better for your brand. Therefore, you have to be always willing to test new things, change strategy and approach till you set up the right one for your brand.” (Solves, 2015).
On social media – “I think is very important, especially to inspire your consumers and drive them to the website. Also it can be a great customer service tool. Social media is like the online version of the offline store windows, people are browsing around and if they feel engaged with your brand they will be more likely to step in, which in digital means going to your site.” (Solves, 2015). Future perspective – “I think consumers will start looking for more multi-brand stores online that "curate" the brands that they like. Which is good for some people, but I also appreciate finding places online where maybe I have less choice, but more matching my style and taste so I don't have to spend time browsing and filtering like crazy. So I think that multi-brand stores are an interesting channel for small businesses and smaller fashion brands that are looking for a place to start.” (Solves, 2015).
Table 4.3: Case study based on Euri Solves and Kosturas (Colder, 2016)
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Solves’ experience in business gives valuable insights into working within a large brand along with establishing a growing online/pop up store. Her move from Spain to Belgium to work within the digital marketing department for Kipling uncovered a business idea for her – bringing Spanish fashion brands to Belgium, the market not only being Belgians but also the many expats like herself that have moved there (Solves, 2015). International expansion is something often attributed to large corporations, but the Kosturas business model enables growing Spanish brands to expand via pop up concessions and eventually the business will have a transactional website. In the way that Mod Dolly sell growing brands alongside their own, Kosturas diversifies their product range by hosting multiple brands in one place for their consumer. The brand still has a long way to go, but they successfully hosted pop up events in the past and have sparked interest via social media and shopping events. Solves is experienced in fashion marketing and through her work regularly responds to consumer queries online directly or at least redirects them to the brand’s customer service team, as Kipling works to address consumers individually despite being an international brand. Compared with Mod Dolly, Kipling has a large audience to cater to and it isn’t possible to directly respond to everyone. Solves notes this as a challenge within her full time profession, but works to communicate with consumers in various ways such as the ‘Kipling community’ page on Facebook where fans of the brand regularly send her inquiries (see figure 4.12).
Figure 4.12: Screenshot of Solves’ communicating with Kipling consumers via Facebook (Colder, 2016) Page | 52
4.4 SUMMARY To summarize, this chapter has uncovered the reoccurring theme of community within small businesses – including bloggers, other growing brands and consumers supporting each other to fulfil their needs and wants. Social media personalities gain promotion and sponsorship, brands gain promotion, extended consumer base and marketing resources, the consumer gains products/services in a personal, meaningful way throughout all of the touch points with the brand. This mutually beneficial cycle is something growing businesses seem to strive for in order to achieve growth, whether it is the way they market their products on their website, social channels or through external online personalities to enhance their consumer’s shopping experience and ensure that they return. The way these brands manage to connect and mutually benefit each other is very different to the competitive atmosphere that the larger brands have created. The theory of Corporate Social Responsibility expresses the need for corporations to be helpful internally to their business for stakeholders and staff members, but doesn’t extend to potential competitors (Kotler & Lee, 2005). Admittedly larger corporations often have mutually exclusive relationships with any concessions they stock, but in terms of sponsorship of affiliates small businesses offer a level playing field and even though they don’t have the budgets of the bigger brands, have shown to invest wisely with who is a part of their business communities.
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Chapter 5: Online tools for brand expansion
“Search Marketing, Social media and offline media all influence your online reputation� (Wynne, 2012).
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5.1 PREFACE After the previous chapters have established the present position of growing online brands in terms of their strategies and use of digital promotion tools, this chapter will analyse what the future holds in terms of promotion, communication and outreach of brand message. Small online brands compete with larger businesses not just for their share of the market, but in many other ways thanks to the evolution of desktop and mobile technology (Ahmed, 2012), such as the development of consumers now able to gain a broad scope of what products are available to them and multiple factors can affect their buying decisions. Thanks to smartphones and tablets, portable technology means a consumer can look at product reviews even when browsing in store, and may leave or purchase depending on price, value and the product offerings of competitors (Zuckerman, 2015). The innovations of e-commerce to store selling such as click and collect delivery options creates a bigger challenge for online only businesses. This chapter will examine digital avenues for emerging online brands in terms brand communities that can help to build upon gaining further exposure.
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5.2 MODERNIZATION OF BRANDING Along with the communication tools it comes with, social media and other online resources are important for showcasing brand reputation (Gissane, 2013) and small online businesses must measure the quality of their online content with large brands whilst remaining authentic to their consumer (see figure 5.1).
Figure 5.1: Infographic showing how small businesses use social media (Gissane, 2013) Understanding the consumer cannot be solely through communication channels, as traditional methods of customer insight such as word of mouth are perhaps even more vital to a small brand’s reputation (Anderson, 2013). However traditional business models are outdated when applied to digital marketing strategies and provide little understanding for how to exploit new technologies for success (Damani, 2007).
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Figure 5.2: ‘The Four P’s of Marketing’ model (Bickle, 2011) The environment
Buyer’s black box
Buyer’s responses
Marketing stimuli
Buyer’s characteristics.
Buying attitudes and
Other
Buyer’s decision process.
preferences.
Product
Technological
Place
Social
Price
Economic
Promotion
Cultural
Purchase behaviour: what the buyer buys, when, where and how much. Brand engagements and relationships
Figure 5.3: ‘The Model of Buyer Behaviour’ (Kotler, 2015)
The Model of Buyer Behaviour includes the 4 p’s of marketing analysis (see figure 5.2) but also considers the important social and technological environments (see figure 5.3) that online businesses need to consider to develop positive consumer responses (Kotler, 2015). As technology increases the accessibility of products, the consumer’s decision processes become more complex (Borovsky, 2015) therefore online business owners may have to adapt even the most up to date models or in this case ‘look outside the box’. Nevertheless this could be an advantage to small online businesses, as this
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means that adaptation to the consumer’s ever changing modern lifestyle is more achievable (Faulkner, 2013). Consumers are using fashion apps alongside social platforms for style inspiration, as a result fashion apps have a higher average order value compared to general online platforms due to specialising in apparel, accessories and branded products such as ‘Polyvore’ (see figure 5.4).
Figure 5.4: Infographic for social media driven sales (Macdonald, 2014).
The fashion consumer is more in tune with technology than ever, utilising multiple online resources that help them to find the best deals before seeking products in store (Zuckerman, 2015). It was once a large jump for brands to invest in e-commerce with the new risks they engaged in such as fraudulent purchasing online and understanding new technologies (Srinivasan, 2015) however it’s no longer enough to have an online presence. With consumer opinion constantly affecting brand reputation growing online brands must use positive customer satisfaction to their strengths (Friedlein, 2014). The blur between e-commerce and content has formed the adoption of websites and apps that serve as the middle man between the two, with sites such as ‘liketoknow.it’ that allow Instagram users to add affiliate links to their outfit photos and therefore earn commission (Fotopulos, 2014). Page | 58
Despite their preference for large scale brands to attract bloggers, affiliate websites are eager to work with emerging brands so as to offer their users a diverse range of brands to earn commission from (Beesley, 2015). Small brands may be hesitant when approaching affiliate marketing as it often increases the investment needed to grow their brand image, however they have the ability to directly target bloggers and build relationships faster therefore having a more effective approach to working with affiliates (Heathcote, 2013).
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5.3 ONLINE BRAND COMMUNITIES Known as the ‘Media multiplier effect’, media are more effective and efficient when working together when there is an integrated marketing communication that small online brands could push as a united community (Thomas & Housden, 2011). ‘Lisa Says Gah’ is an online apparel business similar to Solves’ (2015) Kosturas concept – stocking multiple growing brands on their transactional website and in their pop up stores. They regularly interview their brand partners on their website and aim to create a community based around personal style and their product offering (Williams, 2016). Their concept revolves around the idea of combatting a saturated market, offering their consumer something original compared to the high street with their collection of brands.
Figure 5.5: Screenshot of Lisa Says Gah About webpage (Colder, 2016).
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“Social Marketing experts attribute brand loyalty to the effort that a company puts into engaging its audience” (Taylor, 2012). This idea of hosting many brands in one accessible place for the consumer has been adopted by mobile apps due to the convenience of the concept. Larger brands have already seen the benefits of using websites such as ASOS and Amazon to increase the online exposure of their products, along with small businesses using ASOS marketplace (He, 2016). The progressive development of technologies surrounding online and mobile communities such as camera features for consumer content creation outlined in chapter three, mean communities can be formed in innovative and unlikely ways. Snupps is an app which combines consumer generated images of products and brands into one fashion community, allowing the user to photograph and share virtual shelves of products in their wardrobes along with their personal style inspirations (Lomas, 2014). Similar to Pinterest in terms of layout and style posts, but with original content from it’s users and serves to organise the user’s items as a virtual list of what they already possess.
Figure 5.6: Screenshots of Snupps app features (Colder, 2015) Page | 61
The app’s user created content basis means that unlike the Lisa Says Gah business, it doesn’t host transactional products and actually contains products and garments that have already been purchased by the user. However, it is similar to the Lookbook.nu website in that it has created a community based around brands and fashion and still acts as a promotion tool for brands if their item has been photographed and featured by a user (Pul, 2013).
Figure 5.7: Screenshots of Snupps app user instructions (Colder, 2015) Despite app creation still requiring a substantial knowledge of web development, small online brands could utilise the existing apps that support multiple brands and mix content and commerce such as ‘Grabble’ (see figure 5.8), allowing the consumer to browse multiple brands and make purchases in one place (Burn-Callander, 2015).
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Figure 5.8: Grabble app screenshots (Colder, 2015)
As a small online brand benchmarking can be an excellent method of seeking additional platforms that could grow their brand presence, these platforms need brands to grow their content and emerging brands shouldn’t have concerns of exclusivity (Sfetcu, 2014). Benchmarking other brands can also introduce emerging businesses to bloggers and other online influencers to discover who may be the right fit for promoting the brand and evaluating the quality of their content and reputation before initiating contact (Campos, 2014). Fashion apps are eager for small brands to provide content for them in return for growing brand awareness, with interviews and features to enhance their consumer engagement (see figure 5.9).
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Figure 5.9: Screenshots of Grabble interview with Charlotte Simone (Colder, 2015) ‘Farfetch’ is another app which has accumulated multiple brands and their products into one place for their users, however unlike Grabble which holds a mixture of high street and department store products it gives access to multiple luxury boutiques in varying scales (see figure 5.10).
Figure 5.10: Screenshots of Farfetch app pages and features (Colder, 2016).
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Brands large and small have realised the benefits of a shared virtual shopping space – unlike physical department stores where brands have to compete within the space visually for the consumer to notice them, apps like Farfetch which provide the consumer with the brand’s bio, product range and pricing structures quickly create a collaborative rather than competitive atmosphere. Both Grabble and Farfetch work on a personal level for the user, with Grabble making direct product suggestions based on the user’s preferences whereas Farfetch supply the user with filters for location of boutique, name etc. Both of this apps more importantly host transactional products, a development of ecommerce transitioning from a singular website to many online avenues for the consumer to purchase from. Part of personalised shopping is the convenience it creates for the consumer (Ahmed, 2012) – creating a virtual, communicative high street that a user can browse wherever they are.
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To gain an understanding of user opinion for these apps, focus group participants were asked the following questions:
Q: What features did you like about these two apps?
“It’s really good for adding to your wish list like that, I liked swiping the products depending on whether I wanted to save them or not.” (B, 2016)
“I thought it was really good
“I liked that you could only view what was presented to you, Far Fetch was better for defining what you viewed better with filters but I think Grabble is really good if
that you could buy products direct from each app! It’s like a middle man wish list, letting you buy from multiple brands like that in one go.” (D, 2016)
you’re bored and browsing.” (A, 2016)
Figure 5.11: Focus group responses of participant’s experience of Grabble and Farfetch apps (1) (Colder, 2016)
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Q: Would you seek those brands or would you like them to find you?
“It would be nice if brands could find you if they know I’d be the right consumer, but that’s too invasive for me. Maybe a half way point would be better, I’m willing to meet brands halfway if they get themselves out there such as partnering with bloggers, using Instagram etc. and I’m prepared to follow them and browse their products if I like their social media.” (A, 2016)
Figure 5.12: Focus group responses of participant’s experience of Grabble and Farfetch apps (2) (Colder, 2016) Q: If there was a way you could browse through multiple small businesses for apparel and jewellery e.g. an app or social page, would you use it?
“I think it would be a good way for small businesses to promote themselves too, although I would only download the app if I was familiar with a few of the brands before, like if I’d shopped there or follow their Instagram accounts.” (D, 2016)
“It would be a really good idea to have an app like Grabble but with less well known brands featured. They really should since they had an article on the app featuring a small business owner, it’s a bit odd that they don’t feature the business’s products but they feature the business owners.” (C, 2016) Figure 5.13: Focus group responses of participant’s experience of Grabble and Farfetch apps (3) (Colder, 2016)
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These responses indicate overall positive experiences, participants appreciated the layouts and features from each of these apps and enjoyed discovering brands, outlining their personal terms of how they interact with brands. Participant A makes a valid reason for the need to have a ‘halfway point’ as brands who are too direct may seem invasive, highlighting the general opinion of needing a balance in marketing techniques – directing messages to a relevant audience without using intrusive means to reach them. These two apps are communities of brands in their own right, however Grabble was noted for containing already established brands despite their digital content containing interviews with up and coming designers and brands. Etsy is an example of a website/app that like ASOS marketplace is built up of many small businesses, however there is a lack of consistency with the scale of each business – some having an account selling a handful of products, others having an Etsy page with many products alongside their own transactional website. There is also a risk that since Etsy aren’t very selective with the businesses they host, bad customer experience with featured brands means consumers may avoid any other brand on the site altogether (Kimble, 2013). What can emerging brands learn from this? In relation to the ‘Scenario planning’ model, brands can use this to strategically decide how their short term, specific goals align with long term projects that forecast the growth of their business (Assen, et al., 2009).
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Figure 5.14: Scenario planning model (Heijden, 2002).
In this case, it is important for growing brands to evaluate the environment of options such as technologies available to e-commerce businesses and assess their strengths, weaknesses and effectiveness in selling and promotion, such as comparing Grabble to Etsy. In some circumstances, despite Etsy’s weak points it may be more suitable to a business only just setting up compared with a more established business whose reputation may be effected by a less professional platform. Delahunty (2016) argues that in terms of digital marketing it is not enough to understand one channel, but acknowledging all the places where a consumer may be looking for your brand. Nicolay (2016) supports this statement, adding that online channels give opportunity for contextualised marketing – in other words personalisation of a brand’s marketing approach. A consistent topic approached by most interviewees was the need for brands to analyse online social, marketing and e-commerce channels so that an appropriate strategy can be discovered. Page | 69
Developing from the Customer Pyramid model analysed in chapter 4 (see figure 4.1), Curry’s pyramid of customer marketing and relationship management (Curry & Curry, 2000) segments consumers in terms of revenue generation which may become more essential as growing brands approach new channels of communication (see figure 5.15).
Figure 5.15: Model of customer marketing and relationship management by revenue and consumer base (Assen, et al., 2009) Inactive and prospective consumers can become small and medium revenue creators for a growing online business through general exposure of the brand on social channels etc., however the push towards contributing medium to large amounts of revenue comes from the way a brand communicates their marketing directly to the consumer in order to build relationships. But do they properly support each other within these communities or is it still too competitive? Delahunty (2016) and Small (2016) both support the notion that despite virtual space being available in abundance for growing online businesses, they need to find an area which will allow them to grow effectively and equally within the communities they create or join.
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There are currently plenty of websites, forums and events which host discussions and tips between growing businesses but most of these do not act as a tool for direct growth, such as an additional marketing or transactional space. ASOS marketplace and Etsy are examples of communities for growing brands, but are large businesses in themselves and host a vast amount of brands with a highly competitive atmosphere. In relation to the idea of finding an ideal community with a level platform for growing brands, each of the three case studies from chapter four have utilised or created a community of brands – Booth (2016) hosting events for the exchange and advice of business and creative skills as part of her ‘creative business retreat’ (see figure 4.10), Solves (2015) and her business built up of Spanish brands seeking international consumers and He (2016) with her blogging platform. All three encourage interaction with other businesses in their strategies, taking independent paths in terms of communication, personalisation and technologies so naturally, an independent community created by growing brands could be formed. “Most small businesses will fail because they do not find a gap in the market, or they try too hard to be big. A supportive environment of resources, consumers and even other businesses can help to ensure success” (Delahunty, 2016).
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5.4 SUMMARY To summarize, this chapter has evaluated the development of traditional retail business models that have had to adapt overtime thanks to the impact of e-commerce and the options now available to online brands, along with the ongoing creations of online communities with brands selling and advertising products in the same virtual spaces. Focus group and interview based feedback has aided research direction in terms of assessing the effectiveness of current apps and websites that host a community of brands, with ideas put forward for the potential development of such technologies. The mobile apps assessed throughout this research have shown various strengths and weaknesses in how useful they could be to a growing online brand, how they would service the consumer and how it compares to the way successful emerging online businesses approach their consumer. Previous chapters have focused on marketing strategies and communication flow between digital brands, platforms and consumers – apps are individual platforms in their own right, all offering unique tools and uses (Ahmed, 2012). The technology available to emerging brands developed as the main topic of this chapter, with the scenario planning model used as a guideline for a brand to assess its current situation and available options, such as technology investment as online brands must ensure the steps they take to growth are unique or else their marketing, communication and position within communities will not be as effective. “The possibility of creating a customised experience is becoming equally important, as “being there” is no longer enough. It’s a very competitive environment, but a good idea might still make the difference, if sustained by a solid project and an adequate skillset” (Doni, 2016).
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Chapter 6: Conclusions
“More efficient (and effective) media choices and mixes as well as better deployment of communication and disciplines is needed from brands� (Thomas & Housden, 2011).
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It Is increasingly evident that investment into web based technology, such as social feeds featured on E-commerce websites act as a strategic tool for growth, as brands who have taken steps towards this strategy have seen increases in brand awareness and revenue (Angeles, 2014). As digital innovations become increasingly accessible, smaller brands will not have to invest as heavily as their predecessors of online fashion selling. App creation and coding knowledge are becoming more available assets for growing businesses – as long as these brands increase their resources gradually overtime, growth via digital marketing methods and social channels can help to increase revenue for investment naturally, as long as digital content is regularly supplied by the brand and the consumer is actively considered during present and future business developments (Bickle, 2011). Along with digital innovations benefiting the growth of online brands, consumer generated content is also seeing the benefits of development in technology – phone cameras are increasing in quality, smart phones are generally affordable and are globally increasing in sales, even professional cameras are becoming more accessible (Greiner, 1998). As highlighted throughout chapter 3, brands are regularly promoting, engaging with and featuring consumer based product imagery and testimonials which double as a positive review of the brand and their products/garments. The secondary benefit comes from the quality of candid photography increasing which retains a brand’s professional image – particularly important as the current online climate of brands, bloggers and editorial content websites have generated an expectation of high quality imagery (Delahunty, 2016). There is a substantial amount of literature from approximately 2010 and older containing criticisms of bloggers and amateur social accounts creating digital content. Fashion journalists, high street and luxury brands were hesitant and highly critical of this new breed of critic, with many even initially reluctant to engage with online social
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channels and the first innovators of social driven digital content pressured other brands to comply (England, 2007). However, it is concluded in this research that emergent brands are early adopters of many areas of online business being highly accepting of bloggers and the online consumer voice, even actively encouraging the communication flow to develop (Esch, 2006). It is evident that this change of approach towards products and consumer contributions to brand imagery and product reviews has been partially motivated by the presence of emergent online brands at this time who were persistent in their usage of social channels and digital media, leaving the general fashion consumer wanting and expecting more from brands. Now, bloggers are held in high esteem and are featured by brands of all sizes on their social accounts and websites, also utilising consumer generated content (Indvik, 2015). It is interesting to note that throughout the research, emerging brands have been shown to be highly impactful through their innovative strategies in many aspects of online business, showing that ideas and approaches are made possible with the advancement of resources available (Khosrow-Pour, 2008). Relating back to the scenario planning model discussed in chapter 5, growing online brands are seemingly open minded and willing to take risks when developing their business strategies, and it’s the ability to adapt to the ever changing online landscape that has seen the success of these brands. The three case studies outlined in chapter 4 (Booth, 2016) (He, 2016) (Solves, 2015) support this statement, with all businesses outlined running brand led digital content on multiple social platforms, hosting business meet ups with other growing brands and creating communities based around bloggers and consumers.
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6.1 REACHING A HALFWAY POINT “Don’t be something for everyone, be everything for someone” (Medine, 2016). Along with the case studies analysed in this research, focus group feedback of transactional mobile apps showed that communities of brands via this method of online technology held a positive reception, with the grounding opinion that all participants were willing to engage with an online brand if they were to be as equally available and communicative (Focus Group, 2016). Delahunty (2016) supports this, emphasising the importance of understanding all the digital places where consumers will be looking for your brand. From the research conducted, it is evident that whilst growing online brands have established brand and blogger communities effectively, many are yet to create that type of platform separately for consumers other than via social accounts. Focus group feedback suggested that branded apps from the likes of Topshop and Zara are commonly downloaded by consumers but rarely used, with an appreciation of Grabble and FarFetch apps featuring multiple brands in one platform (Focus Group, 2016). It was concluded in the discussion that an app that featured multiple emerging online brands and their products would be a useful way for the consumer to engage with the businesses they’re already aware of, combined with the opportunity to discover other similar brands. This development would transcend into a method of further personalising the consumer experience – it is no longer enough to merely have a web presence, it must be engaging (Kotler & Lee, 2005). Following this theory, it can be assumed that it will no longer be enough for emerging brands to engage with their consumer via social media which will soon be seen as a traditional marketing method. They will have to adapt to the evolving platforms and continue to remain as early adopters of online retailing technology (Ahmed, 2012).
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It is recommended that emerging online brands work with their established strengths and ensure that the exchange of skills and connections is maintained through the networks of their consumers, brand partners and affiliates. The internet is constantly growing as an available tool globally and with this in mind, the technology that made having an online business possible has meant the breadth of resources is ever increasing, so that the short and long term goals of growing businesses are achievable. Growth shouldn’t be centred around revenue alone – increasing the quality of branded digital content, the consumer’s access to transactional online products and general brand presence online are all tools that can lead to the organic growth of revenue for an emerging brand.
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Chapter 7: Recommendations
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7.1 THE NEXT STEPS FOR GROWING ONLINE BRANDS Following the conclusions based on this research, a situational analysis has been generated (appendix 10.3 & 10.4) to assess the recommended directions for growing online brands to consider matching their individual capabilities. Internal and situational factors considered, beneficiaries of this dissertation may have already considered multiple aspects of this research into their business – implementing brand ethos into their social voice and imagery, encouraging the use of consumer made digital content to promote their product ranges and utilising the resources currently at their disposal with consideration of budgets. It is difficult to determine a ‘one size fits all’ direction for emerging brands as it is in a business’s best interests to avoid this to ensure originality, however this research has evaluated multiple existing directions of online selling with consideration that innovating the current online resources is a likely next step that many brands and consumers will engage with (Doni, 2016). Mobile apps and branded communities were prevalent themes particularly towards the end of this dissertation, with the conclusion that growing brands aren’t currently linking their ability to create communities via social media and personal contacts with mobile technology. Therefore, the overall recommendation of this research determines that an app collating numerous emerging brands would be a unique and effective tool that research beneficiaries could consider as a future strategy of their business.
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7.2 SUGGESTIONS FOR A BRAND APP COMMUNITY Figure 7.1 is a mock-up of the main research recommendation as a template – brands included are simply for display purposes, however it is hoped that this idea if implemented would develop similarly as the FarFetch app, with hosted brands based worldwide.
OLIVE
Figure 7.1: Mock-up of potential emerging brand app interface (Colder, 2016) Emerging online stores would find having a branded app to be a costly and potentially ineffective selling base. If these brands were to work together to create a community of brands on one app (or propose a collaboration with outsourced coders), this would not only benefit the brands involved in terms of cost of investment but also the consumers of these brands, who would be able to make mobile purchases that were
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potentially unavailable to them before unless the brand has already invested in a mobile version of their site. That being said, an additional platform to be featured on is an increase of brand exposure – features of the app should include digital content as well as transactional products to keep the consumer entertained and immersed in the shopping experience. This is where the lines become blurred between brand and shopping experiences, relating to the theory of Hedonic consumption discussed in chapter one, brands ideally want the consumer to be fully endorsed in their brand experience alone, but in reality the consumer’s shopping experience is that of multiple brands that change overtime (Kozinets, 2002). It is potentially unnerving for brands to be featured on one platform side by side when they are each others competition, however this technique of selling has consumer convenience at the forefront of it’s strategy and whereas online businesses used to be located via social channels, word of mouth and google suggestions only, it is an inevitable development of online retail platforms thanks to the emergence of apps mentioned in chapter five of this research. This shouldn’t deter growing online brands, as their relationships with concession brands and fellow business owners has been shown to be strong through this research and like their relationships with online social personalities, it is sometimes beneficial to work together to a certain degree rather than be dismissive of innovation (Esch, 2006). Another benefit of implementing a community platform for the brands involved is the way this technology is able to adapt. For example, mobile apps develop in quality and number of features over time as websites do. In the same way that brands become concessions of department stores as well as having their own stores, website and app, this app would be able to feature new digital content, editorial content and product ranges the same way stores change their visual merchandising – with the advantage of features such as camera technology seen in branded apps closing the gap between separate social channels, consumer generated content and the transactional site.
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Why an app and not a community website? This research doesn’t rule out the direction of brands creating a website for collating growing online brands and being featured together, but this would dismiss the capabilities of consumer’s smartphones and the convenience of a portable shopping tool. Mobile apps now account for 52% of all time spent on digital media globally, with smartphone users spending 88% of their mobile media time using apps (Rudolph, 2015). More importantly, many emerging businesses have already established relationships with bloggers along with forming a large online social audience for themselves, so promoting their presence on an app would be beneficial for growing their existing social audiences and fully utilising their relationships with bloggers who are experts for promoting and reviewing apps and brands to their following. This recommendation aims to incorporate as many of the themes discovered throughout the research as possible, with considerations of the feasibility of individual strategies for emerging brands. The following table outlines the possible features the concept for this app could possess, analysing the uses of each feature with both brands and consumers in mind. Features
Comments
Transactional
Expense: High. Necessity: High. Impact: High.
products
Hosting transactional products introduces a host of requirements and procedures for creating the app – creating a checkout, delivery options, coding transactional capabilities etc. However, it is a highly beneficial tool and would be an expected feature from the consumer – the hosted brands do not have to display every product from their stores, but the consumer will see little use in an app that allows them to browse products without the option to buy directly. The primary functions and investment procedures should be absorbed by hosting transactional products and as an E-commerce platform, not just for brand led digital content.
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Digital
Expense: Low-medium. Necessity: High. Impact: High.
content e.g.
Apps are highly visual and digital content will be required and
look books
replenished on a regular basis to keep the user engaged. Look book imagery, product shots and consumer fuelled content are all elements of digital media that could be incorporated by individual brands. In terms of the visual structure of the app such as button links and navigation menus, the design should be kept as minimalistic and coordinated with any type of visual onscreen due to the app’s nature of hosting multiple brands, and therefore different themes of imagery.
In-app camera
Expense: Medium-high. Necessity: Low-medium. Impact: Lowmedium. An in-app camera has become commonplace as an app feature, with apps such as Snapchat hosting brand collaborations and branded apps such as Nasty Gal’s generating consumer images that garner attention online (see chapter 3.3), the app could benefit from having this feature. However, this feature could be used loosely for the consumer to use the app camera with frames designed by the brands involved, or it could directly allow the user to upload images to the app e.g. outfit images of the brand’s products. This would elevate the expense of the feature but would certainly be innovative, especially as this proposed use of an in-app camera hasn’t been used by the existing apps explored in this study (apart from Snupps – see chapter 5.3).
Editorial
Expense: Low-medium. Necessity: Medium. Impact: Medium-high.
content e.g.
Editorial content can be a multitude of interviews with the featured
interviews
brands business owners (similar to Grabble’s editorial content – see chapter 5.3, figure 5.9) along with promotional event details, blogger interviews etc. Depending on how editorial content is sourced, some brands may like to produce their own via staff members, others may even ask bloggers and other social influencers to create editorial content on behalf of their brand. Utilising the existing sources of
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communities and contacts within these individual brands will help to establish the app as a community in it’s own right. Consumer
Expense: Medium-high. Necessity: Low-medium. Impact: Low-
commentary
medium. With the potentially high expense of implementing commentary boxes beneath app content and its potentially low impact for consumers and brands alike, this feature is deemed as less necessary and possibly an avoidable tool for this app to possess. Not to be confused with online reviews, there are benefits to this feature as a tool of communication flow for it’s users, feedback for brands and has been implemented by community-led apps (see appendix 10.5 for the Snupps app commentary features). However, the involvement of this tool could create a backlash for brands involved if users complain and leave a bad review in the commentary section or create spam messages. It is recommended that this feature is implemented in the long term rather than as a short term addition.
Table 7.1: Recommended app features (Colder, 2016) Finally, it is recommended that more research in the future is conducted in terms of how consumer generated content can be properly monetised and measured as an effective tool for growing online businesses. Analytics software and website software that track many aspects of product performance could be improved in accuracy if growing online brands were able to properly link their digital marketing messages associated with individual products, such as if the product has been photographed by a consumer and put on social media or if the brand itself has posted a styled image of a product onto their social channels. This is incredibly difficult to do with the number of social channels online, consumer generated images hosted by users with varying audience sizes etc. Facebook and other social channels are attempting to streamline this process more effectively (Brown, 2011), but this issue can only be resolved with more research and possibly a new way of measuring online sales vs online influence.
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8.0 REFERENCES Adcock, C., 2015. How rewardStyle Is Disrupting the Fashion and Blogging Worlds See more at: http://www.success.com/article/how-rewardstyle-is-disrupting-thefashion-and-blogging-worlds#sthash.Y6sqZxF2.dpuf. [Online] Available at: http://www.success.com/article/how-rewardstyle-is-disrupting-thefashion-and-blogging-worlds Ahmed, A., 2012. Velocity: The seven new laws for a world gone digital. London: Vermilion. Aldenton, S., 2015. Social Media Case Study – Herschel Supply Co, WGSN. Aldenton, S., 2015. WGSN Digital Highlights - S/S 16 Fashion Weeks. [Online] Available at: http://www.wgsn.com.ezproxy.ntu.ac.uk/content/board_viewer/#/62589/page/1 [Accessed 2015 October 26th]. Amichai-Hamburger, Y., 2009. The Social Net. 1st ed. Oxford University Press. Anderson, C., 2013. 8 Things You Need To Know About Starting A Fashion Business. [Online] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/24/starting-a-fashionbusiness_n_2534518.html Angeles, S., 2014. 11 Social Media Selling Solutions for Small Businesses. [Online] Available at: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6321-social-media-sellingsolutions.html Anwyn, T., 2013. Five reasons eCommerce should be important to your business. [Online] Available at: http://www.businessreviewusa.com/marketing/4356/Five-reasonseCommerce-should-be-important-to-your-business A, P., 2016. Source: Focus Group to analyse social media, Grabble and Far Fetch apps [Interview] (16th January 2016). ASOS, 2013. Seller Visits: Mod Dolly. [Online] Available at: https://marketplace.asos.com/community/blog/2013/04/seller-visitsmod-dolly [Accessed 5th January 2016]. Assen, M. v., Berg, G. v. d. & Pietersma, P., 2009. Key Management Models. Second ed. Prentice Hall. Baldwin, C., 2015. How Zalando wants to reimagine fashion by selling eCommerce infrastructure. [Online] Available at: http://www.essentialretail.com/essentialecommerce/article/56534381638ff-how-zalando-wants-to-reimagine-fashion-byselling-ecommerce-infrastructure [Accessed 30th November 2015].
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9.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY
9.1 BOOKS
Ahmed, A., 2012. Velocity: The seven new laws for a world gone digital. London: Vermilion. Amichai-Hamburger, Y., 2009. The Social Net. 1st ed. Oxford University Press. Assen, M. v., Berg, G. v. d. & Pietersma, P., 2009. Key Management Models. Second ed. Prentice Hall. Bickle, M. C., 2011. Fashion Marketing Theories, Principle and Practise. New York: Fairchild Books. Damani, R., 2007. Ecommerce 2.0. London: Imano. Day, G. S., 2012. The Market Driven Organization: Attracting and Keeping Valuable Customers. Simon and Schuster. EC, M., 2008. Handbook on cultural web user interaction. 1st ed. Minerva EC Project. England, E., 2007. Managing Interactive Media. 4th ed. Essex: Henry Ling Ltd. Friedlein, A., 2014. Digital Marketing and Ecommerce Trends and Predictions for 2014, London: Econsultancy Ltd. Goworek, H., 2006. Careers in Fashion & Textiles. 1st ed. Blackwell Publishing. Greiner, L. E., 1998. Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow, Harvard Business Review. Halpern, J., 2007. Fame Junkies: The Hidden Truths Behind America's Favorite Addiction. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. Harden, L., 2009. Digital engagement. New York: Amacom. Kaushik, A., 2007. Web Analytics - An hour a day. 1st ed. Wiley Publishing Inc. Khosrow-Pour, M., 2008. Web Technologies for Commerce and Services Online. New York: IGI Global. Kim, W. C. & Mauborgne, R., 2015. Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press. Kotler, P., 2015. Principles of Marketing. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Kotler, P. & Lee, N., 2005. Corporate Social Responsibility Doing the Most Good for Your Company and Your Cause. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. Laudon, K. C. & Traver, C. G., 2012. E-commerce 2012. Essex: Pearson Education Ltd. Page | 98
Levy, M. & Weitz, B. A., 2014. Retailing Management. Ninth ed. New York: McGrawHill Education. McMillan, K., 2011. How to write Dissertations & Project Reports. 2nd ed. Essex: Pearson Education Ltd. Meadows, T., 2012. How to set up and run a fashion label. Second ed. London: Laurence King Publishing. Nicholas, D., 2008. Digital Consumers - reshaping the information profession. 1st ed. London: Facet Publishing. Pine, J. & Gilmore, J., 2009. Brand-experience model of Pine and Gilmore, European Institute for Brand Management. Reilly, A., 2014. Key Concepts for the Fashion Industry. 1st ed. Bloomsbury Publishing. Roberts, K., 2005. Lovemarks: the future beyond brands. 1st ed. Powerhouse Books. Rogers, E. M., 1962. Communication of Innovations; A Cross-Cultural Approach. New York: The Free Press. Saunders, M., 2009. Research Methods for Business Students. Pearson Education Limited. Seely, J., 2002. Social Life of Information. London: McGraw-Hill. Sfetcu, N., 2014. Professions for online reputation. Nicolae Sfetcu. Strauss, J. & Frost, R., 2012. E-Marketing. Sixth ed. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc. Sudweeks, F., 2012. Doing Business on the Internet: Opportunities and Pitfalls. Springer Science & Business Media. Taylor, G., 2012. Tumblr for business. Global & Digital. Thomas, B. & Housden, M., 2011. Direct and Digital Marketing in Practice. Second ed. London: A&C Black Publishers Ltd. Wynne, P., 2012. Pimp My Site. Sussex: Capstone Publishing Ltd.. Ziv, Y., 2013. Season of Change. Yuli Ziv.
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9.2 ONLINE SOURCES
Adcock, C., 2015. How rewardStyle Is Disrupting the Fashion and Blogging Worlds See more at: http://www.success.com/article/how-rewardstyle-is-disrupting-thefashion-and-blogging-worlds#sthash.Y6sqZxF2.dpuf. [Online] Available at: http://www.success.com/article/how-rewardstyle-is-disrupting-thefashion-and-blogging-worlds Aldenton, S., 2015. WGSN Digital Highlights - S/S 16 Fashion Weeks. [Online] Available at: http://www.wgsn.com.ezproxy.ntu.ac.uk/content/board_viewer/#/62589/page/1 [Accessed 2015 October 26th]. Anderson, C., 2013. 8 Things You Need To Know About Starting A Fashion Business. [Online] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/24/starting-a-fashionbusiness_n_2534518.html Angeles, S., 2014. 11 Social Media Selling Solutions for Small Businesses. [Online] Available at: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6321-social-media-sellingsolutions.html Anwyn, T., 2013. Five reasons e-commerce should be important to your business. [Online] Available at: http://www.businessreviewusa.com/marketing/4356/Five-reasonseCommerce-should-be-important-to-your-business ASOS, 2013. Seller Visits: Mod Dolly. [Online] Available at: https://marketplace.asos.com/community/blog/2013/04/seller-visitsmod-dolly [Accessed 5th January 2016]. Baldwin, C., 2015. How Zalando wants to reimagine fashion by selling e-commerce infrastructure. [Online] Available at: http://www.essentialretail.com/essentialecommerce/article/56534381638ff-how-zalando-wants-to-reimagine-fashion-byselling-ecommerce-infrastructure [Accessed 30th November 2015]. Baldwin, C., 2015. How Zalando wants to reimagine fashion by selling e-commerce infrastructure. [Online]
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Available at: http://www.essentialretail.com/essentialecommerce/article/56534381638ff-how-zalando-wants-to-reimagine-fashion-byselling-ecommerce-infrastructure [Accessed 2nd December 2015]. Barford, V., 2013. Google, Amazon, Starbucks: The rise of 'tax shaming'. [Online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20560359 Beesley, L., 2015. 6 Ways for Small Brands to See Big Success in the Affiliate Channel. [Online] Available at: http://blog.marketing.rakuten.com/6-ways-for-small-brands-to-see-bigsuccess-in-the-affiliate-channel Borovsky, F., 2015. The Future of Accessibility Innovation. [Online] Available at: http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/12/01/the-future-of-accessibilityinnovation/ Bort, J., 2014. People Browse E-Commerce Sites On Their Phones, But Buy On Their PCs. [Online] Available at: http://uk.businessinsider.com/mobile-is-dominating-online-shopping2014-12?r=US&IR=T [Accessed 2nd November 2015]. Bort, J., 2014. People Browse E-Commerce Sites On Their Phones, But Buy On Their PCs. [Online] Available at: http://uk.businessinsider.com/mobile-is-dominating-online-shopping2014-12?r=US&IR=T [Accessed 5th December 2015]. Brown, C. M., 2011. How to Monetize Social Media. [Online] Available at: http://www.inc.com/guides/201104/how-to-monetize-social-media.html [Accessed 21st March 2016]. Brown, T., 2015. Content overload?. [Online] Available at: http://exchange.cim.co.uk/editorial/contentoverload/?utm_source=Exchange%20newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_medium =email&utm_campaign=Exchange%20newsletter&utm_campaign=6309137_2610%2 0Exchange%20newsletter&dm_i=269X,3R85T,HET5X4,DIWZL,1 [Accessed 16th December 2015]. Burn-Callander, R., 2015. Grabble app raises ÂŁ1.2m from high profile e-commerce angels. [Online]
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Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/festival-ofbusiness/11423613/Grabble-app-raises-1.2m-from-high-profile-e-commerceangels.html Campos, I., 2014. How to build a monitoring plan for your Benchmark. [Online] Available at: http://www.augure.com/blog/benchmarking-online-monitoring20140605 Cestone, V., 2016. Tech Trends: Backlash continues over possible Instagram news feed changes. [Online] Available at: http://wric.com/2016/04/02/tech-trends-backlash-continues-overpossible-instagram-news-feed-changes/ [Accessed 3rd April 2016]. Cleary, I., 2014. 5 Instagram Tools to Better Manage Your Marketing. [Online] Available at: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-instagram-tools/ [Accessed 11th January 2016]. Cox, S., 2015. Top 6 Tools for Instagram. [Online] Available at: http://www.freshegg.co.uk/blog/social-media/social-mediaplatforms/top-6-tools-instagram [Accessed 20th March 2016]. Cummings, A., 2015. Email marketing in the era of 8-second attention spans. [Online] Available at: https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/emailmarketing/2015/09/email-marketing-in-the-era-of-8-second-attention-spans/ [Accessed 28th March 2016]. Curry, A. & Curry, J., 2000. Customer Marketing Method: How to implement and profit from customer relationship management. The Free Press, a Division of Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group. Dann, K., 2014. How to start a successful fashion business. [Online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/small-businessnetwork/2014/may/27/roundup-grow-fashion-business-experts DeMers, J., 2013. The Top 7 Content Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2014. [Online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2013/10/08/the-top-7content-marketing-trends-that-will-dominate-2014/#1fbdc0ad68d4 [Accessed 25th March 2016]. Denning, S., 2011. Women are The Rocket Fuel of eCommerce. [Online]
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Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/03/21/women-are-therocket-fuel-of-ecommerce/ [Accessed 2nd November 2015]. Dollinger, M., 2008. Starbucks, "The Third Place", and Creating the Ultimate Customer Experience. [Online] Available at: http://www.fastcompany.com/887990/starbucks-third-place-andcreating-ultimate-customer-experience [Accessed 2nd December 2015]. Donovan, M., 2011. Mobile Shopping Goes Mainstream: Majority of U.S. Smartphone Owners Performed Shopping Activities on Their Phone in September. [Online] Available at: http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press-Releases/2011/12/MobileShopping-Goes-Mainstream Eberhart, Z., 2015. 10 of the Best Ecommerce Tools to Help You Win this Holiday Season. [Online] Available at: https://blog.compete.com/2013/12/04/best-ecommerce-tools/ Eniang, S. B., 2015. Collective Style & Beauty Haul. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO0eNhfiKsU [Accessed 3rd December 2015]. Esch, F., 2006. Are brands forever? How brand knowledge and relationships affect current and future purchases. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 15(2), pp. 98105. Farrukh, C., Phaal, R. & Probert, D., 2003. Technology road-mapping: linking technology resources into business planning. International Journal of Technology Management, pp. 2-19. Faulkner, R., 2013. 10 Benefits of Digital Marketing v. Traditional Marketing. [Online] Available at: http://www.businesszone.co.uk/community-voice/blogs/robbo75/10benefits-of-digital-marketing-v-traditional-marketing Fisher, L. A., 2015. 12 Fashion apps to download now. [Online] Available at: http://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/trends/a2713/best-fashion-apps/ Force, M., 2015. Uk Fashion Retail Study. [Online] Available at: http://www.marketforce.com/sites/default/files/Infographic-FashionRetail-1501uk.pdf [Accessed 5th February 2016]. Fotopulos, D., 2014. Like to Know.IT Can Make You A Fortune. [Online]
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Available at: http://hiddenprofitprophet.com/2014/07/how-to-monetize-intagramlike-to-know-it/ Fraser, A., 2012. Dr Adam Fraser explains The Third Space. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpk_dssZXqs [Accessed 10th March 2016]. Fugere, L., 2013. 4 Ways Social Media Can Boost Your Customer Reviews. [Online] Available at: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/smallbusiness/openforum/articles/4-ways-social-media-can-boost-your-customer-reviews/ [Accessed 21st March 2016]. Gallagher, V., 2014. The rise of digital roles. [Online] Available at: http://www.drapersjobs.com/article/changingroles/?cm_ven=ExactTarget&cm_cat=DRJobs_RegUser_EM3_20151113&cm_pla=Dr apers+Jobs&cm_lm=liz.watson@ntu.ac.uk&WT.tsrc=email&utm_source=RegUsers&u tm_medium=Drapersemail&utm_campaign=Automatedregusers&& Gissane, D., 2013. How Social Media Can Help Small Businesses Grow Infographic. [Online] Available at: http://huxo.co.uk/how-social-media-can-help-small-businesses-growinfographic/ Green, J., 2014. Why And How Brands Must Go Omni-Channel in 2014. [Online] Available at: http://marketingland.com/why-brands-should-go-omni-channel-in-201470970 Grigsby, S. M., 2015. VLOG | WORKING @ BOX PARK. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiZkE7CvSf0 Heathcote, C., 2013. How Affiliate Marketing Can Drive Sales for Fashion Brands. [Online] Available at: http://startupfashion.com/affiliate-marketing Hill, K., 2015. The Ultimate Resource Guide to Improve Your Blog Pictures. [Online] Available at: http://blogambitions.com/improve-blog-photography/ [Accessed 26th March 2016]. Hiscox, 2015. Small Business Marketing– 4 Champions of Digital Engagement and why they get it right. [Online] Available at: http://www.hiscox.com/small-business-insurance/blog/small-businessmarketing-4-champions-of-digital-engagement-and-why-they-get-it-right/ [Accessed 4th December 2015]. Page | 104
Hiscox, 2015. Small Business Marketing– 4 Champions of Digital Engagement and why they get it right. [Online] Available at: http://www.hiscox.com/small-business-insurance/blog/small-businessmarketing-4-champions-of-digital-engagement-and-why-they-get-it-right/ [Accessed 11th December 2015]. Hiscox, 2015. Top 4 Tips for Promoting Your Small Business On Social Media. [Online] Available at: http://www.hiscox.com/small-business-insurance/blog/top-4-tips-forpromoting-your-small-business-on-social-media/ Hollis, N., 2012. Are Brand Relationships Like Human Relationships?. [Online] Available at: http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2012/05/are-brandrelationships-like-human-relationships.html#.VmHa0vnhCUk Howard, C., 2014. 30 Under 30 Who Are Changing The World 2014. [Online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2014/01/06/30-under-30who-are-changing-the-world-2014/ Indvik, L., 2015. Rewardstyle Raises $15 Million At $290 Million Valuation. [Online] Available at: http://fashionista.com/2015/06/rewardstyle-15-million-series-a [Accessed 20th November 2015]. Indvik, L., 2015. RewardStyle raises $15 million at $290 million valuation. [Online] Available at: http://fashionista.com/2015/06/rewardstyle-15-million-series-a [Accessed 6th November 2015]. Instagram, 2015. Instagram. [Online] Available at: http://www.instagram.com Instagram, 2016. Advertising on Instagram. [Online] Available at: https://business.instagram.com/advertising/ [Accessed 10th February 2016]. Iredale, J., 2015. Dior Breaks Its E-commerce Ban. [Online] Available at: http://wwd.com/retail-news/direct-internet-catalogue/dior-breaks-its-ecommerce-ban-10278994/ Ireton, J. S., 2014. Social Media Marketing Influences Consumer Behavior. [Online] Available at: http://www.blastmedia.com/2014/07/30/3-ways-social-media-marketinginfluences-consumer-behavior/ [Accessed 26th March 2016]. Page | 105
ITU, 2016. SuperPower: Visualising the internet. [Online] Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8552410.stm [Accessed 28th March 2016]. Jenkins, T., 2014. Blurred Lines: Retailers Pioneering Online Editorial Content. [Online] Available at: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/digital-marketingcontent/blurred-llines-retailers-pioneering-online-editorial-content/458 Khan, U., 2015. Why Fashion Retailers Can’t Afford to Ignore Mobile. [Online] Available at: http://buildfire.com/fashion-retailers-mobile-apps/ [Accessed 16th November 2015]. Khan, U., 2015. Why Fashion Retailers Can’t Afford to Ignore Mobile. [Online] Available at: http://buildfire.com/fashion-retailers-mobile-apps/ [Accessed 5th November 2015]. Kimble, D., 2013. Is Etsy Dying?. [Online] Available at: http://skinnyartist.com/is-etsy-dying/ [Accessed 31st March 2016]. Kosturas, 2016. Kosturas Homepage. [Online] Available at: http://www.kosturas.com/ [Accessed 2nd February 2016]. Lake, L., 2015. Content Marketing - Understanding the Why and How. [Online] Available at: http://marketing.about.com/od/strategytutorials/a/contentmarketing.htm?utm_term =content%20marketing%20strategy&utm_content=p1-main-1picture&utm_medium=sem&utm_source=msn&utm_campaign=adid-dbc982f78e88-4d84-9185-8de9d94d5a89-0-ab_msb_ocode4604&ad=semD&an=msn_s&am=broad&q=content%20marketing%20strategy&dqi =&o=4604&l=sem&qsrc=999&askid=dbc982f7-8e88-4d84-9185-8de9d94d5a89-0ab_msb [Accessed 3rd October 2015]. Lattimore, P., 2015. South-east Asia: smartphone boom. [Online] Available at: http://exchange.cim.co.uk/editorial/2015/october/22/south-east-asiasmartphoneboom/?utm_source=Exchange%20newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_medium=e mail&utm_campaign=Exchange%20newsletter&utm_campaign=6309137_2610%20E xchange%20newsletter&dm_i=269X,3R85T,HE Page | 106
[Accessed 25th October 2015]. Lattimore, P., 2015. South-East Asia: smartphone boom. [Online] Available at: http://exchange.cim.co.uk/editorial/south-east-asia-smartphoneboom/?utm_source=Exchange%20newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_medium=e mail&utm_campaign=Exchange%20newsletter&utm_campaign=6309137_2610%20E xchange%20newsletter&dm_i=269X,3R85T,HET5X4,DIWZL,1 [Accessed 16th December 2015]. Lee, K., 2014. How to find your social media marketing voice: The best examples, questions and guides. [Online] Available at: https://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-marketing-voice-and-tone [Accessed 27th March 2016]. Lewis, H., 2014. #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso – review. [Online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/04/girlboss-sophiaamoruso-review [Accessed 16th February 2016]. Lines, D., 2013. How Women Are Influencing the Future of eCommerce. [Online] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/davina-lines/how-women-areinfluencing_b_3843858.html Lomas, N., 2014. Snupps Wants You To Organise And Share Your Real-Life Stuff On Its Virtual Shelves. [Online] Available at: http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/10/snupps/ [Accessed 1st April 2016]. Macdonald, M., 2014. Which Social Media Platforms Drive the Most Sales? [Infographic]. [Online] Available at: https://www.shopify.com/blog/12731545-which-social-media-platformsdrive-the-most-sales-infographic Martin, D., 2012. Why small businesses have an advantage over big competitors. [Online] Available at: http://www.businesszone.co.uk/do/customers/why-small-businesseshave-an-advantage-over-big-competitors Mayer, H., 2015. The ultimate summer hashtag list for Instagram is here: top 10 fashion hashtags. [Online] Available at: https://mimagazine.net/news/style/instagram/the-ultimate-summerhashtags-list-for-instagram-is-here-top-10-fashion-hashtags/ McDermott, J., 2014. How Vogue is making (a little) money on Instagram. [Online] Page | 107
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Montesa, M., 2014. Creating a DIY Digital Marketing Plan for Your Small Business. [Online] Available at: https://blog.aweber.com/digital-marketing-2/creating-a-diy-digitalmarketing-plan-for-your-small-business.htm [Accessed 12th October 2015]. Montesa, M., 2014. Creating a DIY Digital Marketing Plan for Your Small Business. [Online] Available at: https://blog.aweber.com/digital-marketing-2/creating-a-diy-digitalmarketing-plan-for-your-small-business.htm [Accessed 15th November 2015]. Nacher, E., 2016. Linkedin. [Online] Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eurinacher?authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=vm HH&locale=en_US&trk=tyah&trkInfo=clickedVertical%3Amynetwork%2CclickedEntit yId%3A214450369%2CauthType%3ANAME_SEARCH%2Cidx%3A1-11%2CtarId%3A1457973853973%2Ctas%3Aeuri%20 [Accessed 2nd March 2016]. O'loughlin, N., 2015. Content marketing trends to be aware of for next year. [Online] Available at: http://www.smallbusiness.co.uk/running-a-business/digitalmarketing/2496786/content-marketing-trends-to-be-aware-of-for-next-year.thtml Philipkoski, K., 2016. How Fashion Bloggers Really Make Money. [Online] Available at: http://heartifb.com/2016/03/23/fashion-bloggers-really-make-money/ [Accessed 26th March 2016]. Pinson, N., 2015. How to make your small business a big hit online – A Digital marketing guide for startups small business owners. [Online] Available at: http://www.bytestart.co.uk/digital-marketing-small-business-owner.html [Accessed 30th November 2015]. Pozin, I., 2012. 7 Tips for Online Marketing on a Tight Budget. [Online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ilyapozin/2012/06/29/7-tips-for-onlinemarketing-on-a-tight-budget/#1726f00e102e [Accessed 27th March 2016]. Pul, P., 2013. How to promote your company on Lookbook.nu. [Online] Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/PaulaPul/lookbook-29109357 [Accessed 21st March 2016]. Page | 109
Ratcliff, C., 2014. How Vans uses social media: Instagram, Vine, Google+ and Twitter. [Online] Available at: https://econsultancy.com/blog/64624-how-vans-uses-social-mediainstagram-vine-google-and-twitter/ [Accessed 10th November 2015]. Ratcliff, C., 2014. How Vans uses social media: Instagram, Vine, Google+ and Twitter. [Online] Available at: https://econsultancy.com/blog/64624-how-vans-uses-social-mediainstagram-vine-google-and-twitter/ [Accessed 6th December 2015]. RewardStyle, I., 2015. Reward Style. [Online] Available at: https://www.rewardstyle.com/ Reynolds, E., 2015. 'Radical change' needed in ecommerce, says Robert Gentz. [Online] Available at: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-11/23/robert-gentz-zalandowired-retail-2015 Rudolph, S., 2015. Mobile Apps Usafe - Statistics and Trends. [Online] Available at: http://www.business2community.com/infographics/mobile-apps-usagestatistics-trends-infographic-01248837#KXd1id07aZkcPpYS.97 [Accessed 3rd April 2016]. Scanga, M., 2014. How To Master The Flat Lay Instagram. [Online] Available at: http://www.whowhatwear.co.uk/instagram-photos [Accessed 21st January 2016]. Sherman, L., 2015. Why Is Fashion, Of All Places, Still a Man’s World?. [Online] Available at: http://www.manrepeller.com/2015/03/female-ceos-in-fashion.html Simas, J., 2015. 6 Free Online Tools Every Business Owner Should Know About. [Online] Available at: https://www.shopify.co.uk/blog/34283525-6-free-online-tools-everybusiness-owner-should-know-about Slack, A., 2013. Affiliate marketing? It's time for brands to learn the facts. [Online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-networkblog/2013/sep/25/affiliate-marketing-brands-learn-facts [Accessed 16th November 2015]. Slack, A., 2013. Affiliate marketing? It's time for brands to learn the facts. [Online] Page | 110
Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-networkblog/2013/sep/25/affiliate-marketing-brands-learn-facts [Accessed 23rd October 2015]. Srinivasan, K., 2015. Ecommerce is a risky business. [Online] Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ecommerce-risky-business-karthiksrinivasan Steimle, J., 2014. What Is Content Marketing? [Online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/2014/09/19/what-is-contentmarketing/#3bc986441d70 [Accessed 21st November 2015]. Taylor, R., 2015. Holly Booth Photography. [Online] Available at: http://makeitindesign.com/blog/2015/03/16/holly-booth-photography/ Templeman, M., 2016. How Small Businesses Can Tackle Content Marketing. [Online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/miketempleman/2016/03/23/how-smallbusinesses-can-tackle-content-marketing/#574cc3135d5b [Accessed 25th March 2016]. Trimble, C., 2015. Why online video is the future of content marketing. [Online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/small-businessnetwork/2014/jan/14/video-content-marketing-media-online Vander-Ploeg, K., 2015. Boost performance through competitive benchmarking. [Online] Available at: http://www.experian.com/blogs/marketing-forward/2015/05/27/boostperformance-competitive-benchmarking/ [Accessed 11th November 2015]. Vander-Ploeg, K., 2015. Boost performance through competitive benchmarking. [Online] Available at: http://www.experian.com/blogs/marketing-forward/2015/05/27/boostperformance-competitive-benchmarking/ [Accessed 11th December 2015]. Weekend, K., 2014. Pop-up shop Kosturas brings Spanish brands in Belgium. [Online] Available at: http://weekend.knack.be/lifestyle/mode/pop-up-shop-kosturas-brengtspaanse-merken-naar-belgie/article-normal-474383.html [Accessed 5th January 2016]. Wegert, T., 2014. The Importance of Personalization. [Online] Page | 111
Available at: https://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2374653/the-importance-ofpersonalization [Accessed 20th January 2016]. Williams, C., 2015. Guest comment: The blurred lines of digital marketing and tech. [Online] Available at: http://www.netimperative.com/2015/10/guest-comment-the-blurredlines-of-digital-marketing-and-tech/ Williams, L., 2016. Lisa Says Gah - About. [Online] Available at: http://www.lisasaysgah.com/about/ [Accessed 21st March 2016]. Woolley, S., 2015. Better instincts. [Online] Available at: http://exchange.cim.co.uk/blog/2015/october/26/betterinstincts/?utm_source=Exchange%20newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_medium =email&utm_campaign=Exchange%20newsletter&utm_campaign=6309137_2610%2 0Exchange%20newsletter&dm_i=269X,3R85T,HET5X4,DIWZL,1 [Accessed 30th October 2015]. Woolley, S., 2015. Relationship marketing and social marketing compared – how well do they work together?. [Online] Available at: http://exchange.cim.co.uk/blog/betterinstincts/?utm_source=Exchange%20newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_medium =email&utm_campaign=Exchange%20newsletter&utm_campaign=6309137_2610%2 0Exchange%20newsletter&dm_i=269X,3R85T,HET5X4,DIWZL,1 [Accessed 16th December 2015]. Zeithaml, V. A., Varadarajan, R. & Zeithaml, C. P., 1988. The Contingency Approach: Its Foundations and Relevance to Theory Building and Research in Marketing. European Journal of Marketing, 22(7), pp. 37-64. Zorzini, C., 2015. Top 10 Best Ways to Sell Digital Goods Online. [Online] Available at: http://ecommerce-platforms.com/ecommerce-selling-advice/top-10best-ways-sell-digital-goods-online [Accessed 11th November 2015]. Zorzini, C., 2016. Top 10 Best Ways to Sell Digital Goods Online. [Online] Available at: http://ecommerce-platforms.com/ecommerce-selling-advice/top-10best-ways-sell-digital-goods-online [Accessed 6th April 2016].
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Zuckerman, D., 2015. Even with Black Friday sales, online shopping dominates. [Online] Available at: http://www.inquisitr.com/2612280/even-with-black-friday-sales-onlineshopping-still-dominates/
9.3 REPORTS AND JOURNALS
Aldenton, S., 2015. Social Media Case Study – Herschel Supply Co, WGSN. Aldenton, S., 2015. WGSN Digital Highlights - S/S 16 Fashion Weeks. [Online] Available at: http://www.wgsn.com.ezproxy.ntu.ac.uk/content/board_viewer/#/62589/page/1 [Accessed 2015 October 26th]. Blackshaw, P. & Kaplan, D., 2008. Super Buzz or Super Blues? Nielsen Online. Crewson, A. L., 2015. Building a Business for the UK womenswear market. Nottingham Trent University. Esch, F., 2006. Are brands forever? How brand knowledge and relationships affect current and future purchases. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 15(2), pp. 98105. Farrukh, C., Phaal, R. & Probert, D., 2003. Technology road-mapping: linking technology resources into business planning. International Journal of Technology Management, pp. 2-19. FRPT, 2014. Ecommerce giants significantly increase marketing spends to retain customers, build brand awareness as they venture to smaller towns to lure next wave of online shoppers, FRPT Research. Geoghegan, J., 2016. Public Desire targets US following sales surge, Drapers. Knight, R., 2015. Fashion Public Relations: A Digital Revolution. Nottingham Trent University. Kozinets, R. V., 2002. Can Consumers Escape the Market? Emancipatory Illuminations from Burning Man. Journal of Consumer Research, June, Volume 29, p. 11. Mintel, 2014. Youth Fashion, Mintel. Mintel, 2015. Online retailing - Personalised stores, Mintel. Sherry, J. F., 2001. A Sociocultural Analysis of a Midwestern American Flea Market. Journal of Consumer Research, Volume 17, pp. 13-14. Page | 113
Surry, D. W. & Farquhar, J. D., 1997. Diffusion Theory and Instructional Technology. Journal of Instructional Science and Technology, Volume 2. Zeithaml, V. A., Varadarajan, R. & Zeithaml, C. P., 1988. The Contingency Approach: Its Foundations and Relevance to Theory Building and Research in Marketing. European Journal of Marketing, 22(7), pp. 37-64.
9.4 PRIMARY CONTACTS
A, P., 2016. Source: Focus Group to analyse social media, Grabble and Far Fetch apps [Interview] (16th January 2016). Booth, H., 2016. An Interview with Holly Booth at her studio [Interview] (19th February 2016). B, P., 2016. Focus Group to analyse social media, Grabble and Far Fetch apps [Interview] (16th January 2016). C, P., 2016. Focus Group to analyse social media, Grabble and Far Fetch apps [Interview] (16th January 2016). Delahunty, C., 2016. Interview with Chris Delahunty, Digital Marketing Manager of Eastpak [Interview] (16th January 2016). Derycke, J., 2016. An Interview with Jurgen Derycke, Digital Marketing Manager of Kipling [Interview] (10th January 2016). Doni, M., 2016. An Interview with Michele Doni from Vans [Interview] (11th January 2016). D, P., 2016. Focus Group to analyse social media, Grabble and Far Fetch apps [Interview] (16th January 2016). He, A., 2016. Interview with Amy He from Mod Dolly at her studio in London [Interview] (10th January 2016). Nicolay, C., 2016. An Interview with Celine Nicolay, Online Merchandiser at Kipling [Interview] (10th January 2016). Participants, F. G., 2016. Focus Group [Interview] (16th January 2016). Small, H., 2016. Interview with Hannah Small, Senior Ecommerce Manager from Kipling [Interview] (10th January 2016). Solves, E. N., 2015. Interview with Euri Solves [Interview] (19th December 2015).
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10.0 APPENDICES Appendix 10.1 Full List of Interviewees ........................................................................ 116 Appendix 10.1.1 Interview with Chris Delahunty ............................................. 117 Appendix 10.1.2 Interview with Hannah Small ................................................ 119 Appendix 10.1.3 Interview with JĂźrgen Derycke ............................................. 121 Appendix 10.1.4 Interview with Euri Nacher Solves ........................................ 122 Appendix 10.1.5 Interview with Holly Booth .................................................... 124 Appendix 10.1.6 Interview with Amy He .......................................................... 127 Appendix 10.1.7 Interview with Celine Nicolay ............................................... 129 Appendix 10.1.8 Interview with Michele Doni ................................................. 130
Appendix 10.2 Pilot Focus Group .................................................................................. 132 Appendix 10.2.1 Focus Group ........................................................................... 135
Appendix 10.3 Internal factors for emerging online brands to consider during growth ........................................................................................................................................... 139
Appendix 10.4 External micro environmental factors for emerging online brands to consider during growth .................................................................................................. 141
Appendix 10.5 Snupps commentary box screenshots by author ................................ 143
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10.1 Full list of interviewees
Name of interviewee
Job role/Company
Chris Delahunty
Digital Marketing Manager for Eastpak
Hannah Small JĂźrgen Derycke Euri Nacher Solves
Senior E-commerce Manager for Kipling & Eastpak Digital Marketing Manager for Kipling Interactive Marketing Coordinator at Kipling/ Kosturas co-owner
Holly Booth
Owner of Holly Booth Photography
Amy He
Owner of Mod Dolly
Celine Nicolay
Online Merchandiser for Kipling
Michele Doni
Junior Operations E-commerce Manager for Vans
Contact method used
Email Email Email Phone Face to face studio visit Face to face studio visit Phone Phone
Hanne De Clerck
Junior Online Merchandiser for Kipling
Phone
Dorien Swerts
E-marketing co-ordinator at Kipling
Tracey Mitchell
Co-owner of Dahlia Fashion
Zoe Jade
Co-owner of Ladybird Likes
Kate Gabrielle
Owner of KateGabrielle.com
Carlo Alberto Tinelli
Digital Marketer at Eastpak
Jamie Mitchell
Owner of Ohh Deer
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APPENDIX 10.1.1 INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS DELAHUNTY 1. What is your role within online fashion business and how would you say this has changed overtime?
I am a digital marketing manager, promoting the brand to audiences in advertising and social media. There are three main changes and challenges. Firstly, the influence of blogs, Instagram, and opinion pieces online. It is easy for people to find an opinion about a brand and be influenced by it, so brands need to make sure that they are getting their message in the right places rather than simply advertising. The second challenge is the growth of different media channels. As a marketer is it no longer possible to understand one channel, but you have to understand all the places where consumers will be looking for your brand. A digital marketer needs to be a specialist in digital, but also an expert in all digital channels (search, SEO, affiliates, social, display, email) The third challenge is quality of images. With fast broadband in most homes, consumers demand high quality imagery from fashion brands. At the same time, mobile traffic is increasing, and we need to make sure that the images are fast to load and easy to view on mobile devices. 2. What is your opinion of small online businesses – do you know of many or have worked for some in the past?
I used to run a small business: a digital creative agency. The problem small businesses face is that they need to find a niche in their marketplace and focus on it. In retail there is no point trying to compete with Amazon - you need to find an area which will allow you to compete in a different area. Etsy is a good example of what was a small business, and has since grown because it has a specific business strategy. And ‘Notonthehighstreet’ is positioned as a standard retailer, but with a unique difference. Most small businesses online will fail because they don't find a gap in the market, or they try to hard to be big. Some businesses need to be happy with being small. 3. How would you suggest increasing a brand’s online visibility in today’s digital climate?
Find one thing you excel at, and be excellent at it. People will always find good companies. Page | 117
Promoting your brand through PR and social media is essential. Not spamming on Twitter or Facebook, but a cohesive strategy which reaches out to relevant sites, blogs, people on social media. Businesses need to make sure they are talking about themselves in order to get heard. Many brand immediately start with Google AdWords to boost visibility, but the reality is that this is a crowded marketplace and very expensive. It makes more sense to invest money in Facebook advertising and display marketing to get the message across to a relevant audience.
6. How do you think the online retail environment is becoming more personalised for the consumer?
Extra data allows for the website experience to be personalised, so that you get personal recommendations based on your shopping and browsing habits. Amazon is a great example of being able to recommend products after just one visit. However, sometimes the recommendations can feel a bit wrong. If you've been buying presents for others, your recommendations are based on those purchases. Brands are starting to use social data in their website to give it more of a community feel. If you know that 10 of your Facebook friends already own an item, you feel more attached to it. 7. Name a strength and a weakness of retailing online only.
Strength: lower overheads, easier to change focus of the business Weakness: customer cannot see your products, no physical presence means sometimes consumers forget about you
9. How often do you have to adapt to changes within the digital sphere?
On one hand it's a constant change. You need to know new technology that is coming up, new methods of design and marketing, and new competitors. If you don't adapt to the digital world, it will have changed before you have a chance to make an impact. Look at the example of the music world who never thought people would stop buying CDs, or the movie world which never anticipated the rise of Netflix. On the other hand, you should have a clear strategy and stick to it without changing all the time. You don't have to adopt every single social media channel, you don't have to rebuild your website every two years.
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APPENDIX 10.1.2 INTERVIEW WITH HANNAH SMALL
1. What is your role within online fashion business and how would you say this has changed overtime?
I am now Senior Manager Digital Sales, covering all digital aspects of the business from our owned and operated Ecommerce to our Amazon and other digital wholesale channels. I started in fashion studying design, I then fell into retail and again into Ecommerce when it was in it's infancy, a long long time ago. The rest as they say is history! 2. What is your opinion of small online businesses – do you know of many or have worked for some in the past?
They are critical to show growth in the digital space, it is not about who will grow the quickest, it will be about who moves the quickest that will build our retail future, without smaller more agile businesses this will never happen. Coggles where I started was a small independent store which entered Ecommerce when it was not common practice. The online business is now owned by The Hut Group. 3. How would you suggest increasing a brand’s online visibility in today’s digital climate?
Disruptive marketing, being different and valid in a fast moving space. Traditional methods will lose pace and consumers are overwhelmed with contacts from brands, so it is how they do it differently that will build a brand. That being said it needs to happen alongside traditional digital tactics. 4. Which factors of online business would you identify as being the most important working within Ecommerce?
Communication and storytelling, engagement and a reason for a consumer to buy directly with the brand. 5. What were the biggest successes/failures of online business that surprised you the most?
Amazon head in towards bricks and mortar. But both worlds need each other. Uber large travel company not owning any methods of transport. Airbnb accommodation business without owning any property and Facebook, biggest content creator without creating any content.
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6. How do you think the online retail environment is becoming more personalised for the consumer?
Consumers are shopping so fast we need to give them what they want quicker, personalisation allows us to see their purchase behaviour and adapt to their needs. 9. How often do you have to adapt to changes within the digital sphere?
Daily, whether or not you can do it in large companies is the question, therefore the importance of small companies being more agile.
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APPENDIX 10.1.3 INTERVIEW WITH JÜRGEN DERYCKE
1. What is your role within online fashion business and how would you say this has changed overtime?
I am media PR and Digital marketing manager. Consumers have more touch points to check information. Peers and social engagement is becoming more important. In the past brand could promote what they wanted to promote. Now they need to listen more carefully to the consumers and give an answer to their demands at the right moment on the right place (device). 2. What is your opinion of small online businesses – do you know of many or have worked for some in the past?
I strongly believe in small online businesses. You only need to make sure you are different than the big brands or platforms. Some big brands are very slow to adapt or to react. In terms of speed and creativity (engagement and experience) smaller brands and smaller businesses are much stronger.
3. How would you suggest increasing a brand’s online visibility in today’s digital climate?
This is not that difficult. Digital gives all opportunities. You can select your target audience better; you can only show content where you want to show it. OS you only pay for quality traffic and not for spamming people who are not interested in your brand or product. So with smaller budgets you can already do something.
4. What were the biggest successes/failures of online business that surprised you the most?
Successes: everything you do with limited edition, limited offer or only available here works. People want exclusivity. Failures; our last action was so successful in terms of traffic that the site crashed which is a nightmare for an ecommerce guy.
5. How do you think the online retail environment is becoming more personalised for the consumer?
Personalisation and segmentation are key. No single consumer is the same so if you as a brand- are able to connect at the right moment with the right answer at the right place you win
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APPENDIX 10.1.4 INTERVIEW WITH EURI NACHER SOLVES
3. How would you suggest increasing a brand’s online visibility in today’s digital climate? I think you have to tell a relevant story for the consumer, provide a good experience and have great content.
4. Which factors of online business would you identify as being the most important working within Digital Marketing? I think is very important to provide a good user experience, communicate the brand story and make sure your products are shown at their best.
5. Can you name a time when you’ve had to change a technique or strategy in a fashion campaign? When working with bloggers and influencers, is always hard to get the approach that works better for your brand. Therefore, you have to be always willing to test new things, change strategy and approach till you set up the right one for your brand.
6. How do you think the online retail environment is becoming more personalised for the consumer? I think consumers know what they want so being able to provide a personal experience is key. I think with the technology we have today we will be able to personalise our consumer approach more and more.
7. How do you think customer service is different for online stores compared to physical stores? In online, people don't have a person in front of them so it's true that some consumers are ruder. They also expect answers to come as soon as possible. Therefore, it is important to be able to answer to anything, anytime and as fast as possible, and being able to deal with very mad consumers.
8. Are there any traditional methods of retailing that you think are/are not suitable for online selling? I think on a retail store you can't go to the level of personalisation you can go online.
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10. What is your experience of the relationship between social media and online retailing?
I think is very important, especially to inspire your consumers and drive them to the website. Also it can be a great customer service tool. Social media is like the online version of the offline store windows, people are browsing around and if they feel engaged with your brand they will be more likely to step in, which in digital means going to your site.
11. Have you had any recent insights via meetings, conferences etc. into the future of Digital Marketing?
Yes, especially about how to drive traffic from online to the physical stores, which is an interesting challenge
12. What makes you passionate about Digital Marketing, social media and online business?
I like that you can play to be some kind of fashion editor but with a clear business purpose. I am passionate about communication and stories, and digital allows you to reach lot of people.
13. Do you have any other experience (apart from Kipling) in fashion business e.g. Kosturas? And can you tell me a bit about them?
Yes, we launched this platform to bring Spanish brands to Belgium and after doing a pop up event, we decided to create an online store. This was a very big challenge because we had to take care also of the logistics and it was very difficult to combine the setup of this project with our current jobs, which are very demanding. We realised that an online store takes lot of effort and it's very difficult to stand out from the crowd when your resources are limited.
14. Do you think pop up stores and multi brand boutiques are progressive for a small online business to grow?
I think consumers will start looking for more multi-brand stores online that "curate" the brands that they like. If you go to places like Asos or Zalando, there it too much. Which is good for some people, but I also appreciate finding places online where maybe I have less choice, but more matching my style and taste so I don't have to spend time browsing and filtering like crazy. So I think that multi-brand stores are an interesting channel for small businesses and smaller fashion brands that are looking for a place to start.
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APPENDIX 10.1.5 INTERVIEW WITH HOLLY BOOTH
1. Q: As a business that provides a service, how do you build your customer relationships?
A: Most of my work comes from recommendations so I don’t have to do any direct marketing, such as chasing clients with discounts. If I client works with me they often recommend my business to their friends who also have small businesses as it’s a close knit community of clients that I work with aside from some clients that I have overseas. I keep my personality very friendly and genuine when I work with people, personal selling acts as my USP in my business. My social media also works to promote the brands that I work with. I: That must work really well, as the end product of the photographs also doubles as social content for you and your client. A: Exactly, as my clients are often small businesses we support each other equally.
2. Q: How as a growing business do you handle customer service care?
A: That’s a good question, I’m always trying to improve my service whether its how they receive they products such as my remote service where I deliver printed photographs with a personal note or postcard, I’m always trying to do little things like that. Also even if a client doesn’t go with my service or I’m too busy to book them I still try to be as helpful as possible such as recommending other photographers that I’ve worked with before.
3. Q: How important is social media for you as a communication tool?
A: Incredibly important as I don’t currently do any paid marketing, social medias always been amazing for me to showcase my work and get my brand promoted to a wide audience. I’ve actually used it really early on with my general photography work at University, Flickr is a great social tool for people to see my work and share high res images. Some contacts have even followed my work since Myspace was popularly used and have gone on to use my service, so I think it’s really good for for not only creating relationships but also maintaining and really establishing them into potentially working relationships. I: I think the ability to communicate through it is also great.
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A: Especially as Instagram for example uses imagery which of course is imperative to not only my business but a lot of product led businesses I’ve worked with also.
4. Q: What would you say is the most important aspect of social media to your business for example promotion?
A: I like to use it as a professional work display but also a way of showcasing my personality to clients so that if they choose to come to my studio and work with me we can already establish some common ground and they feel at ease as we’re not quite strangers.
6. Q: Do you see a merging of skills needed in business e.g. fashion styling when flat laying for your product shots?
A: Definitely, you end up being every part of your business. People have even started to refer to me as a photographer and a stylist, which I would class as part of the service I deliver anyway. Especially with my remote service where the client isn’t present, being skilled in both areas means they are more satisfied with the end results.
7. Q: As someone who works regularly with growing retailers, what have you seen them do to become interesting to the public in a saturated market?
A: Small independents are always doing exciting things, sometimes taking elements from what the bigger brands are doing and incorporating into their selling strategies, I think actually some of the smaller businesses have encouraged trends like with pop up stores, personal selling and reach to the consumer is becoming more valuable and often something larger businesses struggle to achieve being part of large, faceless corporations.
8. Q: Larger retailers/business are becoming more focused on creating the best shopping experience. When you’re shooting for clients, are there any techniques you use to ensure they have the best possible experience?
A: I’m conscious of what their surroundings are like, I have props for my photography that I make sure are suitable for their brand and message they want to get across, just tailoring their experience so that they are fully happy with the finished photos and communicating with them as much as possible to ensure the end result meets their brand’s but also personal requirements from a marketing perspective. Page | 125
I: If you were to become a bigger company in say the next 5 years, how would you keep that consistent personality through your business?
A: It’s a good question as I feel like right now my business is at a tipping point, as I’m getting booked in advance which is amazing but I’m also having to turn work away as I don’t have time. I’m grateful as it gives me secure work throughout my business schedule but I have the option right now of maybe hiring more people, training people up however it would take some time and investment.
10. Q: I’ve noticed your communication of lifestyle & personal posts of your studio mixed with your client based photography. How do you find personalising your business has helped you build relationships with your clients and social following?
A: I just try and show that I am a human being despite running most of my business digitally: showing that there is someone behind the screen with the odd pic of my studio, along with replying to my social media messages as soon as I can and in a friendly, approachable way that they know isn’t just a bot.
11.Q: Before digital businesses it was deemed essential to be in the capital/larger cities, how has the internet helped you create your business in the midlands?
A: To be honest I find it better in terms of costs of my studio versus rental prices in London, small businesses have grown quite a lot in Derby lately and of course my online reach means I have a broader audience, who don’t really care about where you are based. When your audience is online you can be based pretty much anywhere.
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APPENDIX 10.1.6 INTERVIEW WITH AMY HE
2. Q: You also sell on ASOS marketplace alongside your own ecommerce store for Mod Dolly?
A: ASOS Marketplace has been great for selling within a community of other independent sellers and the ASOS website is generally great for multi brand browsing, so it’s given us extra exposure along with the sales from having an additional transactional website.
3. Q: How has running a blogging platform enhanced your business?
A: I’d say it’s not only helped us link with bloggers who fit perfectly to the brand but also has provided us with regularly digital content. We had an event back in 2015 where selected bloggers came to a small party at our studio, which was very successful for our online promotion and we saw a spike in sales after the event where the bloggers had posted their experience online and people were directed to our site.
4. Q: What would you say is the most important aspect of social media to your business for example promotion?
A: Blogging in particular is a huge part of the brand and amounts to around half of our customer base. I’m constantly inspired by bloggers and I genuinely create pieces inspired by the style of our affiliate bloggers, such as my good friend Olivia Purvis (from ‘What Olivia Did’).
5. Q: As someone who works regularly with growing retailers, what have you seen them do to become interesting to the public in a saturated market?
A: We currently stock independent brands such as Crown and Glory, who not only have products that compliment our garments (in Crown and Glory’s case headbands) but I know the owners personally and built a relationship with them initially through blogging. I think it’s that ability to collaborate and offer your consumers variety in one place rather than competing for space that will maybe one-day end the saturated market within the UK.
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6. Q: Running your business from your studio & maintaining communication with blogging/social media, what advice can you give growing businesses for maintaining a consistent message from their brand?
A: We always want to maintain that approachability that I think small businesses have over the larger fashion brands – even our studio is decorated to be home like and a lot of the ornaments in our lounge area (as you can see) are personal items I’ve collected over the years, just to maintain our brand image of vintage but also give meaning to our business that we like to share on our social media and with customers often.
7. Q: I’ve noticed your communication of lifestyle & personal posts of your studio. How do you find personalising your business has helped you build relationships with your clients and social following?
A: I was originally a blogger whilst being a fashion student before Mod Dolly and I think that bringing my personality across online (but still maintaining privacy of course) has been massively beneficial to the online reach of Mod Dolly and we always make sure we reply to comments on social media promptly. I think it’s just making sure that you add a personal touch to the customer’s experience wherever you can, such as thank you notes in packages and responding promptly to comments online.
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APPENDIX 10.1.7 INTERVIEW WITH CELINE NICOLAY
1. What is your role within online fashion business and how would you say this has changed overtime?
I am an online merchandiser. This role was not existing few years ago and is still something very new, especially in Belgium. A role to discover, which takes its roots from offline but where all the rules still have to be defined, and if they are, they are moving super-fast. 2. What is your opinion of small online businesses – do you know of many or have worked for some in the past?
I think online has given the opportunity for small businesses to have a door, an exposure, much easier than before. I have worked in a very small online business before and I liked it a lot. Not known in the offline world but so present in the online world. 3. How would you suggest increasing a brand’s online visibility in today’s digital climate?
There are so many ways to do it, depending what you sell and if you sell something. But if you sell, you have got the affiliates, the price portals, the blogs, YouTube, .... 4. Which factors of online business would you identify as being the most important working within Ecommerce?
Being authentic 5. What were the biggest successes/failures of online business that surprised you the most?
I know a lot of successes but tend to forget failures, in general. Basically the ones which are surprising me the most are the ones called the "sharing economy". 6. How do you think the online retail environment is becoming more personalised for the consumer?
that's probably the only way of differentiation right now. Contextual marketing ==> personalisation, so if a brand is not yet in it, it will have to go into it
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APPENDIX 10.1.8 INTERVIEW WITH MICHELE DONI 2. What is your opinion of small online businesses – do you know of many or have worked for some in the past?
Small businesses are the real fuel of online development. It's in small realities that we can spot the fastest improvements, the most intrepid innovations and the most surprising ideas. Small companies work without all the severe procedures which often slow down the big players, and due to their limited budgets, innovation is the only key to survive in the market. I personally worked in an online start-up (tourism) for more than 3 years and I consider this as a very beneficial experience, which allows to understand the whole business from A to Z.
3. How would you suggest increasing a brand’s online visibility in today’s digital climate?
Competition in the online market is now brought to extreme, and in order to increase a brand's visibility a mix of technical skills, creativity, appropriate tools and, needless to say, an adequate budget is crucial, as well as a good mix of online and offline initiatives.
4. Which factors of online business would you identify as being the most important working within Ecommerce?
Online business can potentially reach everybody, everywhere and in every moment, this being, in my opinion, the strongest feature of e-commerce compared to traditional trade. Recently, the possibility of creating customised experiences is becoming equally important, as "being there" is no longer enough.
5. What were the biggest successes/failures of online business that surprised you the most?
The online business history, despite being quite recent, is full of cases of brilliant successes and heavy falls. I do remember stories of big players being darkened out from Google results for cheating SEO rules or small realities growing from zero to the top in few years (most impressive cases might be AirBnB, Uber, Booking.com). It's a very competitive environment, but a good idea might still make the difference, if sustained by a solid project and an adequate skillset. Page | 130
8. Are there any traditional methods of retailing that you think are suitable for online selling?
It might sound like a non-sense, but I'm strongly convinced that the care towards the customer, even just by calling him by name or offering him a "human", personalized and unique experience, is the key to finally bypass the lack of trust that many potential customers still have in regards to online business
9. How often do you have to adapt to changes within the digital sphere?
Constantly, and they might be internal or external changes. The digital world can adapt faster than any other channel to requests coming from the Business side, or to inputs and challenges coming from the competitors. Being up to speed, updating, searching for trends and keeping the eyes wide open is a crucial requirement in the online business.
10. Finally, do you have any general advice you can give to emerging Ecommerce stores?
I would personally suggest to try to find the ideal balance between a brilliant, innovative idea and the right skills which became mandatory to sustain and maintain an online business. It's no longer just a matter of "what", but more and more a matter of "how", and even online businesses can't survive without putting the customer back in the spotlight. An original project, low prices and lots of creativity might not be enough anymore, as the market developed quickly and new roles, competencies and skills are nowadays mandatory.
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APPENDIX 10.2 PILOT FOCUS GROUP
3 participants, A, B and C (for anonymity) Task: Presented with two websites, ‘Mod Dolly’ and ‘Gamma Folk’ on one laptop. All three asked to browse through the website, briefed on questions beforehand so they knew what themes to look for. Participant A was asked to control the laptop, participant’s B and C were asked to contribute instructions to Participant A as to where the should click next. They were given approx. 7 minutes (timed by the moderator) to browse each website, starting with http://www.moddolly.com/, then repeated the task with http://gammafolk.com/. After looking at both websites for an equal amount of time, the participants were presented with the questions again and given 20 minutes to share their thoughts, with their answers being recorded electronically.
Transcript (with questions): Throughout these questions, feel free to compare the two websites you have briefly analysed along with other websites you personally like to browse.
1. What level of professionalism do these websites lack or possess?
P/A: I think already you can see loads more content on Mod Dolly’s site P/C: Yes, if you look at Gamma Folk though they have less products, I’m guessing they’re a slightly smaller brand? P/A: Maybe, I think Mod Dolly’s website just has more content with their products but I like how Gamma Folk has lots of imagery. Mod: So do you think content equals professionalism?
P/A: I think these websites are both equal in terms of how professional they look; they are both definitely well made websites. P/B: I think that compared with bigger brands with loads of content, like ASOS with their little articles on their homepage its hard for smaller brands to meet that level of content. P/C: Then again you could say that less is more, I find ASOS too confusing sometimes. 2. In terms of technology, what do you like or dislike about these sites?
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P/C: I noticed straight away on both sites that they have the sliding banner at the top, and the imagery on both sites is really high quality. P/B: Also they both combine images with models and also basic product photos which I like when I’m shopping online. P/A: I don’t think they have a stupid amount of technology like some websites have 360-degree view of products, but I really like the simplicity of their sites. P/B: For me as long as the imagery is clear and the site is straight forward to use I’d be happy to shop on it P/C: Also we used the search on both sites, which worked really well, sometimes it’s the simple functions on a site that mean the most I guess. 3. Have you ever heard of these brands before? If yes state how and if no, state how you think you may discover them or how you’ve discovered other small scale brands/companies before e.g. friend’s recommendation.
P/C: None of use have heard of these brands but I really like the Mod Dolly one, their prices don’t look to expensive compared to Topshop and ASOS and it says that they’re handmade in a London studio. Mod: Yes, they are, I interned there for a short while.
P/A: The Gamma Folk website was handmade products too P/C: Yeah weren’t they based in L.A? Both are really cool cities to be based in. P/B: I don’t think I’d have heard of these brands without this focus group, however I follow loads of small businesses through Instagram. P/A: Me too, I often find brands to follow on that explore section where it recommends things I might like. P/C: I follow lots of Australian brands but their shipping to the UK is so expensive, but their feeds are really nice so I still follow them. P/B: I think there needs to be more ways of finding brands, there’s so many on Instagram that I’ve found through concessions and collaborations with bigger brands. 4. Are there any features you’d like to see on these websites that may be missing, or features you’ve never seen before?
P/B: Mod Dolly had a blogger’s programme? I don’t really know what that is though. P/A: I think it’s where bloggers can get free stuff? You see it all the time on Instagram. P/B: Oh I see, that’s god that even though they’re only small they can still do those things. Page | 133
P/C: I think Gamma Folk’s site could have had more imagery on their actual product pages, like maybe model shots? They have a nice look book but not much on the product pages. 5. Would you know these are small businesses if you weren’t told so?
P/A: I wouldn’t actually, I think as you browse the store more and you can see they have less products than big brands you can tell, but the sites look really professional. P/B: I think it’s easier to tell a physical store is a small business, with online you can have the same amount of social links and good quality imagery to make the business look as professional as bigger brands.
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APPENDIX 10.2.1 FOCUS GROUP
Focus Group to analyse social media, Grabble and Far Fetch apps
5 participants, A, B, C, D and E (for anonymity). Total time: 1 hour Task: Presented with two mobile apps, ‘Grabble’ and ‘Farfetch’ on their individual smartphones (a mixture of iOS and Android devices). All five asked to browse through the apps, briefed on questions beforehand so they knew what themes to look for. They were given approx. 10 minutes (timed by the moderator) to browse each app, starting with Grabble, then repeated the task with Farfetch. After looking at both apps for an equal amount of time, the participants were presented with the questions again and given 30-40 minutes to share their thoughts, with their answers being recorded electronically.
Transcript (with questions): Throughout these questions, feel free to compare the apps you have briefly analysed along with other websites or apps you personally like to browse. 1. Before we begin to discuss these two apps, discuss how you all use social media such as which apps, platforms or websites.
P/B: I personally use Instagram and Facebook the most, sometimes Twitter but I don’t check it that often. P/D: Me too, Instagram’s my favourite but I prefer Twitter over Facebook, Facebook’s only good for news nowadays. P/C: I’m on everything pretty much, I like Pinterest and Tumblr which I also have on my phone and I have an app called ‘Bloglovin’’ which is basically a feed of all these blogs I follow. What kind of blogs do you like to follow?
P/C: I follow mainly fashion blogs, although most of them do loads of things like recipes and DIY’s which I guess keeps their readers interested. P/A: I like Twitter and Facebook, I have an Instagram but I don’t upload that often. P/E: I also use Tumblr and Bloglovin’, I had a blog myself on Blogger but I deleted it because I wasn’t posting very often.
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2. Do you have any branded apps on your phone, for example Urban Outfitters or the Topshop app? P/B: I have the Topshop app, the Zara app and the Ebay app (shows phone screen to moderator) but I use practically none of them, I think I only downloaded them because their mobile website has an annoying pop up for you to download it. P/D: I don’t have any of those, if I buy something I tend to use my laptop because it has a bigger screen. P/C: I have quite a lot, I really like the Zara app and the ASOS app for browsing but I mainly just save things to my wish list for later when I’m on my phone. P/E: Yeah me too, when I’m in public I just browse on my phone for something to do 3. What features did you like about these two apps? P/A: I really like the Grabble one, it’s like Tinder for clothes! P/B: Yeah it’s really good for adding to your wish list like that, I liked swiping the products depending on whether I wanted to save them or not. P/E: The Farfetch one was cool for browsing shops I hadn’t really heard of, although I didn’t look too hard through the products as they were all quite pricey. P/B: I think the Grabble app had some pricey products too – P/C: It did, I had a mixture of Topshop and Zara stuff and then suddenly something for around £300 from Net A Porter I think? Mod: The Grabble app suggests things based on what’s similar in your wish list already, random picks from their database of products and on look book pages whatever’s on that page. It also uses your google search preferences if you have these stored on your mobile browser to understand which brands you might prefer.
P/B: Ah so I clicked on a denim look book and that one only featured 20 or so products, that makes sense. P/C: I liked how the Far fetch one had a little bio of each boutique it featured, it had nice imagery too. P/D: I thought it was really good that you could buy products direct from each app! It’s like a middle man wish list, letting you buy from multiple brands like that in one go. P/B: Kind of like ASOS without getting stressed from the amount of choice.
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P/A: Yeah I liked that you could only view what was presented to you, Far Fetch was better for defining what you viewed better with filters but I think Grabble is really good if you’re bored and browsing. P/B: It seemed like it’s cleverly coded too on the Grabble app, I liked most of the things it suggested to me
4. In terms of layout and imagery, what are your thoughts?
P/E: I really like the layout of both, but personally I preferred the Far Fetch app for its layout as it’s the most similar to a normal mobile website, so I found it better to navigate around as I like to be particular even when I’m just browsing. P/B: I actually prefer the Grabble layout, it had nice imagery on it’s articles too and the products were always nicely clear, I liked the ease of swiping through products. (All in agreement). 5. Did you discover any brands you hadn’t heard of? P/A: I discovered loads I’d never heard of on Far Fetch, I guess that’s kind of
the point of it. P/C: All the ones on the Grabble app were ones I’d heard of and shopped at before, except for some on the look book pages. P/B: Yeah and even then I think they were all quite big scale brands, none of them were boutiques like on the Far Fetch app. P/E: Even on far Fetch though they were limited to luxury brands, which I guess is great for people who can afford that but it would be nice to have a middle ground available.
6. In terms of pricing, what were your thoughts on this from the products featured in these apps?
P/B: Like I said before, they weren’t in my price range on Far Fetch but Grabble suggested a lot of reasonably priced high street brands to me. P/D: Yes, same, I guess after what you’ve told us about how the app works that’s why I had so many familiar brands suggested to me.
7. Would you seek those brands or would you like them to find you?
P/C: Sometimes I like to use Instagram to find new brands, when you go onto the ‘explore’ section it always suggests cool brands I haven’t heard of. Page | 137
P/D: I always find new brands through people I follow on Twitter or Instagram, they often tag what brands they’re wearing in the picture and if I like it I’ll click through to their social feed. P/A: It would be nice if brands could find you if they know I’d be the right consumer, but that’s too invasive for me. Maybe a half way point would be better, I’m willing to meet brands halfway if they get themselves out there such as partnering with bloggers, using Instagram etc. and I’m prepared to follow them and browse their products if I like their social media. (All in agreement). 8. If there was a way you could browse through multiple small businesses for apparel and jewellery e.g. an app or social page, would you use it?
P/A: Definitely! I really like these apps but they’re all for big brands, I do tend to shop in a mixture of places both online and in store. P/C: Me too, it would be a really good idea to have an app like Grabble but with less well known brands featured. They really should since they had an article on the app featuring a small business owner, it’s a bit odd that they don’t feature the business’s products but they feature the business owners. P/D: I think it would be a good way for small businesses to promote themselves too, although I would only download the app if I was familiar with a few of the brands before, like if I’d shopped there or follow their Instagram accounts.
9. Any other comments?
P/B: I think if Grabble combined with how on Far Fetch you can search brands individually, it would be a really good idea. I would use it if it displayed generally affordable products.
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APPENDIX 10.3 – INTERNAL FACTORS FOR EMERGING ONLINE BRANDS TO CONSIDER DURING GROWTH Internal factors
Issues involved
Combatting the issue
Growing brands often
Investing in new staff members along
capabilities
begin with a small team.
with allocating individual roles and
e.g. staffing
As growth increases
creating new departments even if it
brands must adapt
means having one person per
efficiently and ensure
department. This is necessary for the
they invest in people as
business to maintain an organised
well as technology as
structure of working and generate
their business moves
expertise per resource rather than
forward.
staff having a general knowledge for
Internal
•
many tasks. Investment
•
access
Emerging online retailers
Utilise the current resources available
must grow their revenue
e.g. social media fully until a larger
either as direct
audience becomes involved with the
investments for online
brand. There is no use in putting
resources or to become
money into multiple interesting
attractive to external
technical capabilities if the brand has
investors.
a small audience and consumer base. Push digital marketing strategies with regular digital content to increase the brand’s consumer base and justify further investments.
Brand strategy
•
With multiple brands
All brands and businesses develop
creating interesting
overtime, but growing online brands
visuals and brand
must try to stick with clear, construct
messages, it’s tempting
messages and original brand ethos.
to try a variety of
Benchmarking is a useful tool for
methods and implement
brands to analyse their market,
competitor strategies
audience and competitors, but the
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into a growing online
goal must always be to remain
business.
original. Following the scenario planning model (Heijden, 2002) growing brands must analyse their options broadly or even generate their own as to not become part of the saturated fashion market.
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APPENDIX 10.4 – EXTERNAL MICRO ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS FOR EMERGING ONLINE BRANDS TO CONSIDER DURING GROWTH External micro environmental
Issues involved
Combatting the issue
factor
Consumer
•
behaviour
Consumer behaviour is
Consumers becoming more savvy
constantly changing as online
with how they spend is actually
retail spaces introduce new
beneficial in some ways to growing
innovations in ways to shop
online businesses – if brands ensure
and access brands (Williams,
they clearly define their USP in
2015).
marketing content e.g. ‘handmade’, ‘made in London’ etc. these brands must ensure they keep looking at how and where their consumers shop and be prepared to adapt for these future changes, but not to be intimidated as online retail space is a naturally adaptive environment for selling.
Changes to social channels
•
Social channels and platforms
Growing businesses must remember
regularly change their features
that they possess two voices: a
to enhance consumer
brand led voice and as an online
experience, but sometimes
user. These kind of threats to their
with disappointments. For
business have already been widely
example, Instagram recently
discussed online and supported by
tried to impose algorithms on
other small brands and consumers
their user’s social feeds rather
alike to the point where social
than the original chronological
channels often respond to
order of posts. This could
complaints and in some cases cancel
potentially threaten the
their planned changes. Instagram in
exposure of accounts with a
this case recognised that growing
small following (Cestone,
businesses and social personalities
2016).
will potentially suffer a lack of
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exposure and are working to ensure their algorithm doesn’t create this problem (Cestone, 2016). Competitor strategies
•
Competitor online brands
Emerging brands must assess their
often implement desirable,
own growth and necessities of
costly new features to their
investments against their own
websites and shopping
situation rather than that of their
channels.
competitors. Developments must always align with the direction of a business, particularly at it’s early stages to ensure success (Delahunty, 2016)
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APPENDIX 10.5 SNUPPS COMMENTARY BOX SCREENSHOTS BY AUTHOR
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