The Business of Fashion: Fashion Evolution

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Contents Executive Summary

Chosen Brand

Brand Identity Brand Consumer

Brand Positioning

Communications Mix

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PH O TO FR O M PI N T E R E S T

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Executive summary This report examines the brand “House of Holland”. House of Holland is a well known, modern fashion house founded by British designer Henry Holland in 2008.

The report will examine the whole brand, its consumers, how it was developed, it’s identity, the positioning of the brand in the current UK market, and it’s communications mix, including the way the brand is marketed, how it communicates with its consumers, and any celebrity endorsement that the brand has. The report shows the ways in which the brand uses different ways of marketing to appeal to their consumers on a daily basis and how they manage to stay successful from day to day.

PH O TO FR O M PI N T E R E S T

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M i rum est notare qu am li ttera gothica, qu am nu nc putamus paru m claram, anteposu er it litteraru m for mas hu manitatis per seac ula qu ar ta decima et qu inta decima.

Chosen Brand – House of Holland founder, Henry Holland was originally born in Manchester, he moved to London at the age of just 18 to study at London College of Communication. His work with fashion started in 2006 whist he still worked for popular teen magazine Bliss, he started designing his own range of “Fashion Groupies” Tshirts with slogans on such as “I’ll show you who’s boss, Kate Moss”.

These bold, tongue in cheek designs instantly caught the eye of other designers, with Gareth Pugh ending his own fashion week show wearing one of the t shirts himself. The House of Holland brand is London based, and its products are now stocked in well known stores such as Harrods and Barneys in New York [1], products are also available from well known online retailers such as Net a porter, ASOS, Very Exclusive and Urban Outfitters.

[2] The brand sells a range of products including ready to wear garments, eyewear, footwear, and also stationary and beauty products. In 2015, House of Holland launched its first ever menswear collection, after almost 10 years of focusing solely on women’s fashion.

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Brand Identity Brand identity is how an organization seeks to identify itself from other similar brands and also how it would like to be perceived by its consumers and within its market. The way that brands are able to communicate their identity to their consumers is through different methods of marketing and advertising.

Marketing has a huge impact on how successful brands

PH O TO S FR O M PI N T E R E S T

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become in the market today, especially with the influence of social media. Marketing and advertising is therefore extremely important to every brand, specifically in the fashion industry, as it is important that brands make sure that they are appealing to the right consumer and to make sure that their brand comes across as being unique compared to those of their competitors. Brand identity is also important as it helps to make sure that consumers can familiarise themselves with a brand easily, and means that they don’t have to work to figure out what it is that the brand is trying to communicate to them. Brand identity includes aspects such as what the vision of the brand is, its

personality, and how it presents itself. House of Holland interprets a lot of personality and unique presentation into the brand in order to make it stand out from the crowd, which is what the House of Holland consumer wants.[3] The identity of the House of Holland brand is very much bold, bright colours, and often catchy slogans that immediately catch the eye. The brand aims to target the typical London girl, and in order to do so uses graphic designs that will catch the eye of young people in particular.

Brand Consumer Brand consumers are customers who are interested in/buy from a particular brand. These are the people that brand have to market their poducts to, and focus on catching the attention of on a daily basis. Everything a brand does/ thinks is worked around how they think their target consumer will interpret it. This is because, if a brand were to do something and their customers didn’t like it, they woudnt buy their products and therefore the brand would be unsuccessful. Some fashion brands use just one fictional person to base their products on. In the case of House of Holland, this is the ‘House of Holland girl’ this is one person who the designer has designed themselves to represent the needs of their target market. The House of Holland girl is what the brand base their marketing and advertising strategy’s on. The brand use this as a way to make them think about what their consumers need and what they want from the brand. The House of Holland girl is also then interpreted into the models who showcase collections on the catwalk to present to everyone their consumer and how they want their products to look.

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Brand positioning Brand positioning refers to where in the current market the brand is situated. This is usually in relation to the brands competitors, and how successful they are at a certain point in time compared to others. A brands position in the current market tells them how likely they are to be successful in achieving their goals as a brand. In the fashion industry a brands positioning tells them how much more likely they are to be popular compared to other fashion houses/brands. Positioning can also be used by brands to show where they are in their overall journey as a brand.

For example, if a brand’s goal was to become the most successful retailer in the UK, they could use brand positioning to show how close they are to achieving their main goal. House of Holland’s overall positioning in the current UK market is quite successful, they are a well known fashion house which appeals mainly to young people. They use a lot of online and social media advertising to make sure they are constantly reminding their followers about current and upcoming projects. House of Holland are regularly announcing new collections/products etc. keeping them very relevant in the current market.

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Communications mix

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ommunications mix refers to the way that brands use marketing and advertising to make their brand known.

Communications mix includes aspects such as: Advertising, PR, Personal Selling, Sales Promotion, Direct Marketing and Social media.

n relation to general advertising, House of Holland doesn’t use traditional ways of advertising. TV ads, radio, print and billboard are all advertising techniques which are now quite out of date, and for brands today to stay relevant, they need to be much more unique and creative in their marketing techniques.

House of Holland’s target consumer is aged early 20’s, and therefore is more likely to be up to date with technology, using social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep in touch with the world, rather than watching TV ads. This is why House of Holland would be wasting their time and money by making TV ads and print ones, as they are much less likely to reach their consumers, and even if they did, they would less likely to appeal to them. These traditional ways of marketing are still used by many mainstream fashion retailers, however due to House of Holland being a much more bespoke fashion brand, they have a more precise target consumer, and need to work harder to ensure that they appeal to them by using more innovative ways of advertising. One link to TV advertisement that House of Holland does have, is that designer Henry Holland created his own TV show ‘The Changing Room’ on Channel 4 in 2015, [4] which could be considered as a way of him using TV to advertise his name, and therefore his brand by making himself known to the general public through national television, this could then widen the brands market and give them possibly more business opportunities by gaining new types of consumers.

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R is the different ways in which brands can communicate with the public. Fashion brands do this often in order to communicate with all types of consumers to see what they want from the brand. PR is also how brands interact with the media, this could be to promote a new collection, product etc. Examples of types of PR are: Press release, newsletters, public appearances. Fashion brands use many of these techniques to promote their brand and to try and make sure it is successful. A popular use of PR is in the form of newsletters. Today, newsletters are mainly sent electronically by email. Many fashion brands and retailers use this as a way of keeping in touch with current/previous customers, or just people who are interested in the brand. House of Holland offer this on their website, encouraging people who visit the site to keep in touch with the brand, so that potential customers are more likely to be persuaded into buying one of their products or just taking more interest in the brand. The newsletters that are sent out to House of Holland customers include news about the brand, offers, news about new collections etc, to try and create a buzz around whatever is happening regarding the brand at that moment in time. Another form of PR that House of Holland use is public appearances. Henry Holland attends a lot of highly publicized events each year, including the main fashion events and award shows. This is a good form of PR for the brand as it is making Henry Holland’s name known, and therefore the brand’s. by appearing at highly publicized events it means that the the brand is in the media’s eye, and therefore is being talked about on a regular basis. Henry Holland also has many famous friends who also put him in the lime light. He originally started working with model Agyness Dean, and got a lot of attention from being seen with her. Since then he has gained friends such as Alexa Chung, Daisy Lowe and Nick Grimshaw, who are often seen front row at his events. This gains a lot more publicity for the brand, as It means that if there are celebrities and House of Holland shows, the media will also be there.

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cial media is a huge influence on many brands today. It has grown excessively within the past decade and has meant that traditional ways of advertising have been pushed out. This is good news for many brands, as it is a free, easy way of advertising, and means that brands can keep in touch with their consumers and see what they are asking for. A disadvantage however of the impact of social media on brands today is that it is easier for bad publicity to spread. If brands make mistakes or customers have any complaints, it is easy for people to post on social media and word to spread. Brands therefore have to be quick to fix problems like this to prevent current or potential customers from looking down on the brand. The most popular social networking sites used by brands today are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and also Tumblr. These are used to post news about the brand, competitions, offers, and also sometimes to help solve customer complaints/problems. Some of these can also be used to show a brands creative side, showing their aesthetic in their social media sites, such as House of Holland carefully choose which pictures they post on their Instagram in order to make it reflect the brands identity. House of Holland has a twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr account all posting similar information but in different ways, these are all to try and intrigue their customers and make them feel like they are a part of the brand by letting them interact whenever they like. Henry Holland also has accounts himself, which document his personal life, and bring out his own personality, which is already showcased within the brand, this also lets him reach a wider audience, as it might mean that people who follow him on a particular social media platform are intrigued by his own life, and then leads to them becoming more interested in his brand and also his products. Overall, social media plays a big part in influencing House of Holland’s customers, as they are the main age range that people use social media platforms, therefore more likely to keep in touch with the brand and want to follow them.

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