ILLUSTRATED CRITICAL JOURNAL
ILLUSTRATED CRITICAL JOURNAL
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ILLUSTRATED CRITICAL JOURNAL
CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: RESEARCH 4 CHAPTER 2: MARKETING CONCEPT 10 CHAPTER 3: CRITICAL REFLECTION 14 IMAGE REFRENCES 15 BIBLIOGRAPHY 16
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chapter 1: Reasearch French Connection was founded in 1972 by Stephen Marks, who is still the chief executive of the company today. On the French Connection website, there is a clear intention of what they want to achieve and it is represented in their mission statement, “To
Figure 1
offer well-designed, excellent quality and affordable clothes that appeal to the broad market”. French Connection is a top end high street brand and the idea behind the company has not significantly changed throughout the years. The structure of the company tries to cover main targets of the market, offering a mix of brands. They offer products for the fashionconscious women in their mid 30’s – 50’s, and mainly offer workwear for people with a disposable income. According to the brand website, French Connection is targeting young consumers of 18 up to 35 years old. However, the marketing director of the company admits that the real consumer is between 25 to 55 years old (Barnett, 2011). The gap is probably a result of the company high-pricing strategy, which keeps
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Figure 2. Brand Identity
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younger consumers away from French Connection. French Connections brand image and identity is presented on their website, and they state that they have developed a brand identity which is sexy, stylish, and has attitude. The company’s website claims that it is bold, witty and intelligent and it demonstrates how French Connection has given personality to its brand. According to French Connection’s company website, they claim that their window displays are one of their main forms of advertising. This is a weakness for the brand as the window displays are plain and boring, monochrome, and have nothing distinctive about it that would make the clothes stand out from other high street brands.
Figure 3 & 4. french connection window display
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The French Connection brand has been repositioned twice in less than 15 years, once in 1997 and then again in 2009, which may have resulted in French Connection losing its core target. The first change was made in 1997 as a result of a new marketing plan, with the replacement of French Connection UK with ‘FCUK’ branding. This campaign involving this acronym was controversial and caught the attention of the public. This was a successful campaign as the brand differentiated itself from other high street brands,
Figure 5. fcuk campaign
gave it an edge that the company didn’t have before, and caught the eye of the customer. The cheeky slogans sent the company’s sales and shares soaring, taking French Connection to a value of £500m at one point (Armstrong, 2018).
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Figure 6. fcuk campaign
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Figure 7. 2009 french connection campaign
The company was then repositioned again in 2009, where a new target was presented within a fresh, premium advertising campaign. It defined the core consumer in both genders, men and women and it compromised of two separate executions
to
aspirational
men
target
young,
and
women
separately (Hudson, 2011). However, this campaign wasn’t very effective or successful for the brand, as it didn’t make the collections stand out from other high street brands. They tried to target a younger audience, but after looking at the 2009 advertisement campaign, it doesn’t seem to appeal to consumers of a younger age, however it would maybe appeal to an older market with a disposable income. The research has proven that when the brand moved from FCUK with the younger consumer, to a more expensive stylish label, it created confusion over the brands positioning and therefore resulted in low sales. The retailer reported a pretax loss of £3.5m in the six months to July 31st, 2009, compared with a loss of £2.5m last time (Financial Times.com).
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Research into some brands that have already launched gender neutral lines, such as Ataraxi and Selfridges, were more successful, stood out, and were more interesting than others. Selfridges have
Figure 8 & 9. selfridges agender collection
made it their ‘Agender’ to create a unique genderless shopping experience across fashion, accessories and beauty with their ‘Agender’ collection. However, brands such as Zara, have launched less successful gender neutral clothing lines, and many criticised the boldly labelled move as simply playing it safe, claiming that the campaign featured what largely resembled men’s loungewear worn on both Figure 10. zara gender neutral collection
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sexes (Attwood, 2017).
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Research into gender neutral clothing lines shows that the collections don’t need to be plain and boring to be gender-neutral, but it can be plain and simple and can be styled in different ways. An example of a brand that has done this is H&M’s gender neutral line. H&M have images of models wearing the same items of clothing but styled in different ways, the woman is wearing her dungarees with a pair of heels and the man is wearing the dungarees wrapped around his waist and with a pair of trainers (Attwood, Figure 11, 12 & 13. H&M gender neutral collection
2017). Having images in store of models styling the clothes in different ways could widen the consumer market to more people from different ages, as you can style the clothes in a feminie or masculine way, or completely gender neutral.
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chapter 2: marketing concept In response to research carried out, the marketing concept for French Connection’s launch of its gender-neutral collection into its stores will be unique and stand out from competitors. The collection will launch alongside the men’s and woman’s clothing lines currently in the French Connection store as a separate line. The target for this gender-neutral collection will be to a younger audience around 15-30, as they potentially will be more open to purchasing items from a gender-neutral line. What needs to be considered is what would attract a young consumer base to this brand that has doesn’t appeal to this target market now, and additionally create brand loyalty with younger consumers. Following up research into the brand and considering the FCUK campaign, this play on words was interesting and attracts a younger generation to the brand as it is controversial and unique. After playing around with idea of relaunching FCUK, and creating a gender-neutral line continuing this play on words, the marketing concept for this brand will instead be to make a separate label within French Connection called FCUK GENDER. This keeps with the theme of the play on words and works well
FCUK GENDER
with the launch of a gender-neutral line as gender doesn’t matter and it should all be fluid and neutral. The products, packaging and in-store design will consist of varying patterns of optical illusions,
Figure 14. fcuk gender logo
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playing into the theme of gender being an illusion.
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The optical illusions are graphic which will make this collection quite urban, creating a very different style to French Connection current collections. This will capture the attention of a different audience and increase French Connections consumer market. The colour palette used is a blend of neutral pastel colours, inspired by research on the gender-neutral products by Basik, which will keep to the gender-neutral theme and give the brand some edge.
Figure 15. colour palette
Figure 16 & 17. optical illusion designs
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The marketing concept will be launched online via a separate Instagram page to French Connections current Instagram, as the branding is different for this gender-neutral line. The products will be featured on the Instagram page as well as the logo, and inspiration behind the branding. The collection will also be launched on the French Connection website on a separate page to the Men’s and Women’s clothing, to show that it is completely gender neutral, and not separate lines for the genders. Although the gender-neutral line will be on the French Connection website, the page that the Figure 18. fcuk gender instagram page WOMEN
MAN
FCUK GENDER
HOME
SALE
products are shown on will be of a completely different
BLOG
theme to the rest of the French Connection website,
FCUK GENDER
giving the customer a sense of the brand identity of the collection, including the optical illusions and the colour palette. As this gender-neutral line is targeted at a younger audience, this section of the website needs
THE JACKETS
THE JUMPERS
THE T-SHIRTS
to keep in theme with this by making it engaging for the consumer and to capture the customer’s loyalty.
Figure 19. fcuk gender website page
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The marketing concept will also be launched in-store alongside the existing Men’s and Women’s collections, but in a different section of stores to differentiate from the other collections. There will also be mannequins wearing clothes from the collection, and they will be styled in different ways which will give the customers an idea of how the garments can be worn, either in a more feminine or masculine way, or completely genderneutral. There will also be wallpaper in this section of the store that will match the optical illusion patterns on the packaging for the gender-neutral line to keep in theme with the collection.
Figure 2o. fcuk gender window display
Figure 19. fcuk gender in-store display
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chapter 3: critical reflection On reflection, I think that this marketing concept would be successful for French Connection as it is unique and attracts a different and younger audience to their products. I have really enjoyed creating this marketing concept as I myself am the target audience that this collection would be aimed at. I think that the development of the collection to an urban clothing line would be successful at attracting a younger audience, and this is essential as this audience would potentially be more open to buying gender neutral clothing. However, I think a critique of this marketing concept is that it is also important to think about French Connections current customer base and make this collection a presentable collection that they may want to purchase and not isolate the original consumers of the brand. Having mannequins displaying how the garments can be worn in different ways to be more feminine or masculine, could attract the consumers that French Connection already have, as well as making some of the designs simpler and less urban. This is something that could be explored so that the collection isn’t completely segmented from the rest of the store and the existing customers could purchase these products, as well as the new customers that French Connection would have gained. I believe that this marketing concept for French Connection would be industry leading as it is exclusive not only to this brand, but also to many other high street brands, as many have yet to release a gender-neutral clothing line. As for the brands that have already released gender-neutral clothing, a clear majority of the high-street brands have created ordinary clothing that doesn’t differentiate from the men’s and women’s collections. Therefore, by creating an urban and current collection for French Connection, it would give the brand a unique selling point above many other brands that have launched gender neutral collections.
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IMAGE REFRENCES
FIGURE 1. Anon (2018) About Us | French Connection [Internet]. Available from: <https://www.frenchconnection.com/content/marketing/fashionis-our-business.htm> [Accessed 8 May 2018].
FIGURE 2. Anon (2018) Brand Identity | French Connection | French Connection [Internet]. Available from: <https://www.frenchconnection.com/ content/marketing/brand-identity.htm> [Accessed 8 May 2018].
FIGURE 3&4. OWN PHOTOS FIGURE 5. Anon (2018) French Connection FCUK Bold T-Shirt at asos.com [Internet]. Available from:<http://www.asos.com/french-connection/ french-connection-fcuk-bold-t-shirt/
FIGURE 6. Ashley Armstrong (2018) How French Connection fell out of fashion [Internet]. Available from: <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ business/2017/01/28/french-connection-fell-fashion/> [Accessed 8 May 2018].
FIGURE 7. Ashley Armstrong (2018) French Connection begins search for new board members in response to activist pressure [Internet]. Available from: <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/01/26/french-connection-begins-search-new-board-members-response-activist/> [Accessed 8 May 2018].
FIGURE 8&9. Anon (2018) Selfridges’ Agender Campaign: Fashion without Definition [Internet]. Available from: <http://www.qwearfashion.com/ home/2015/5/13/selfridges-agender-campaign-fashion-without-definition> [Accessed 9 May 2018].
FIGURE 10. Anon (2018) Gender-fluid fashion - how brands came to embrace ‘ungendered’ clothing [Internet]. Available from:<https://confidentials. com/liverpool/gender-fluid-fashion-how-brands-came-to-embrace-ungendered-clothing> [Accessed 9 May 2018].
FIGURE 11,12&13. Anon (2018) H&M’s New Denim Line Is Completely Unisex [Internet]. Available from: <https://www.cosmopolitan.com/stylebeauty/fashion/g9112273/hm-unisex-denim-line/ [Accessed 8 May 2018].
FIGURE 14. OWN MOCK-UP FIGURE 15. OWN MOCK-UP FIGURE 16&17. OWN MOCK-UP FIGURE 18. OWN MOCK-UP FIGURE 19&20. OWN MOCK-UP
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Anon (2018) About Us | French Connection [Internet]. Available from: <https://www.frenchconnection.com/content/marketing/fashion-is-our-business.htm> [Accessed 9 May 2018]. Anon (2018) Behance [Internet]. Available from: <https://www.behance.net/gallery/18316805/Heist-Roth> [Accessed 5 February 2018]. Anon (2018) French Connection - Monro [Internet]. Available from: <http://monro.co.uk/retail_product/british-designers-collective/> [Accessed 19 February 2018]. Anon (2018) Gatemore urges changes at French Connection [Internet]. Available from: <https://www.ft.com/content/acc5a4ce-5717-11e6-9f70-badea1b336d4> [Accessed 19 February 2018]. Anon (2018) Gender-fluid fashion - how brands came to embrace â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;ungenderedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; clothing [Internet]. Available from: <https://confidentials.com/liverpool/gender-fluid-fashion-how-brands-came-to-embrace-ungendered-clothing> [Accessed 9 May 2018]. Anon (2018) Losses drive more cuts at French Connection [Internet]. Available from: <https://www.ft.com/content/ d24c30d0-a3a2-11de-9fed-00144feabdc0> [Accessed 9 May 2018]. Barnett, M. (2018) French Connection moves upmarket with a Royal connection - Marketing Week [Internet]. Available from: <https://www.marketingweek.com/2011/10/27/french-connection-moves-upmarket-with-a-royal-connection/> [Accessed 9 May 2018]. Sutherland, E. (2018) Analysis: Time up for FCUK? [Internet]. Available from: <https://www.drapersonline.com/ news/analysis-time-up-for-fcuk/7009828.article> [Accessed 9 May 2018].
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