VERY EXCLUSIVE
VERY.ME.VERY.YOU
Eva-Joy Sargent 14046637 Marketing Analytics International Fashion Promotion Manchester Metropolitan University
Introduction The aim of the concept is to engage the next purchase consumer, where they are valued by the brand but are lacking in recent purchase and engagement. The other aim is to retain the loyal consumer who has engaged at a high rate, shopped very recently and are within a high valued group. Research found that if retention numbers increase by 5% this leads to profits increasing to 25% and in some circumstances up to 95% (Bain & co). Looking at all aspects such as the digital age within retail, consumer behaviour and relationships with brands and measuring the progress finding a strong platform to move forward. The objectives are to create an online platform where women can engage and essentially communicate through VE, creating a community of strong and empowered women. Luxury holds a sense of power and strength and this is what we aim to encourage to the consumer and for them to essentially encourage to others. Moving forward the rationale will discuss the concept in great detail and what we aim to achieve from the consumer. It will then proceed to how retailing in the digital age and linking to the concept, consumer behaviour and brand relationships and how we aim to build on that platform, how VE can manage this relationship and lastly how we aim to measure the progress of the concept, evaluate and move forward.
Concept The overall concept is for women to form a sense of empowerment and introducing the brand to form a sustainable front. The campaign VERY.ME.VERY.YOU. is to embrace women all over the UK and encourage the sense of a silent community building each other up and moving forward. A fresh start. Online zines are a platform that we have chosen to push for this campaign. With the opportunity of VE to move as a brand and be part of an “underground” world can have a strong encouragement to the consumer. Zines have become increasingly popular within the fashion industry Chloe Lamb quoted “It's time to separate snobbery from the creative world and embrace everybody” (i.D, 2017). This quote reaches that towards the luxury end, there is a line and it needs to be crossed. The idea behind the distribution is to choose a trend that is popular at that time, that we can see a shift in the way consumers are purchasing. Through research we found constant feeds through social media regarding minimalism and leading a minimalistic lifestyle. The way we see it is we can ignore it or we can engage with it encouraging our consumers to engage therefore leading to a strong connection that we are paying attention and we are willing to offer them this lifestyle within the VE. With the ethos to buy less but buy better, we are asking the consumer to take care in what they purchase and own a wardrobe they adore, instead of the mass consumption. We found some credible women that are pushing this lifestyle and are trending at a strong pace. @ORACLEFOXBLOG, @COULDIHAVETHAT, @ALLTHATISSHE (Team and Team, 2017), these are just a few. The zine contains articles on five chosen designers that follow this movement in the luxury world, and a photo shoot of a minimalist nature. This will be sent via email to loyal consumers after a six month period and so forth every month as engagement
continues. After a month passes with no engagement the zine will cease and the six month period will resume.
The minimalistic approach originates from the consumer interaction section of the concept whereby upon the next purchase after the zine is received the item will arrive in a draw string bag, it is the consumer that then removes their purchase and encases a disregarded item of their own and return is to the pre-paid address. The donation is then collected by the organization REFUGE a charity that helps over 4,000 men, women and children fight against domestic violence everyday (http://www.codecomputerlove.com/, 2017). In 1971 the organisation opened their doors in West London to end societies look into domestic violence being something â€œâ€Śhandled behind closed doorsâ€? (http://www.codecomputerlove.com/, 2017). Using the minimal lifestyle as a starting point and allowing the consumer to engage in a positive way and to use their old items as a way to empower women who need it. There is
no point system no “fluff� it is the acknowledgement that there are people in need and a small token of a consumer empathy can make a vast difference to a life. The concept is to inspire and serve.
Part of the research to see how consumers would react to the campaign, a focus group was put together of individuals or age, occupation, marital status and sexual orientation, this enabled us to gain a varied response and be able to take on board feedback and evaluate. Here are the participants and the results;
Name
Age
Occupation
Marital status
Sexual orientation
Joshua
26
Chappell Rebecca Cloke
Nursery
Single
Homosexual
Single
Heterosexual
Teacher 22
Social Care Worker
Andrea Mckay
54
Office Clerk
Married
Heterosexual
Beverley Cloke
48
Retired
Married
Heterosexual
Thomas
28
RAF
Engaged
Homosexual
50
Assistant
Married
Heterosexual
Andy Cloke
50
Retired
Married
Heterosexual
Eve Johnson
28
Sales Assistant
Engaged
Heterosexual
Jessica Jones
21
Student
Single
Heterosexual
Hayleigh
21
Student
Single
Heterosexual
Brookes Stephanie Hannan
Longman
The results found that the majority thought the concept overall was positive especially regarding the consumer engagement. Comments follow; “…allows the customers to network and engage with one another by the follow up of the online zine allowing people to visually engage with the topic” “The reasoning for the customer using Very exclusive in the first place was revolved around fashion, so why not give something back.” “…in response to this scheme is that it’s a great way to engage existing customers into being encouraged to donate and be a part of something they may or may not normally involved themselves with.” “I think that this is a fantastic idea. Many people don't have the time to travel to charity shops/ or just find it easier to dispose of it.” “…doing it this way with a prepaid address makes it accessible for everyone. I think it will open people's eyes to the issues surrounding the fast fashion insisted and make them more aware." “if it's prepaid people see it as easy and beneficial them and the donation company. It's good press for the company.” “Most companies that work in fashion and food are companies are more successful when the customer is part of the brand so this is a big idea cos I would feel involved by helping the charity and appreciated by the magazine by getting deals and exclusive tips” “I like the charity side and the involvement that is accessible to the customer”
Retailing in a digital age Over the years we have watched luxury brands slowly engage in the online world. The reluctance to do this came from the exclusivity of the product and the online creating a mass expectancy but now as online is a way of life luxury brands are appearing with force. “…traditional luxury companies have recognised the tremendous creative and commercial opportunities of online and mobile channels” (Wharton University of Pennsylvania and Baker Retailing Center, n.d.). The benefits to online retailing offer a consumer to brand relationship. Reports show that there is a way for luxury brands to stay exclusive and only 10% are recorded to actually sell online but over half of overall purchasing comes from online interaction and influence (Wharton University of Pennsylvania and Baker Retailing Center, n.d.). Luxury brands offer their consumer a lifestyle, with this the brand must hold a strong and valued ethos. Being in touch with what is important right now gives the brand value and also allows the consumer to feel valued when engaging with them. Luxury’s main selling point is the exclusivity and the reasoning behind their high price point. But, they must stay visible to the consumer eye. To stay too far under the radar can essentially lead to lack of engagement and irrelevance. The consumer wants to be assured that the brand is growing with the modern world as they are. This will ensure a bond between the consumer behavior and the brand relationship with them. “It’s critical that brands don’t get stuck in a zero sum game between exclusivity and visibility. One at the expense of another is useless.” (Forbes.com, 2017).
Consumer Behaviour & Brand Relationships The social media platform is taking control of instant sales and the engagement with the brand online inspires influence to purchase CRM is crucial within a business that is willing to succeed. Brands can only formulate relationships with their consumer at a high level once they get to know them. By knowing their spending habits, times, places, online presence knowledge gives the brand edge to promote, market and inspire at the right time for the consumer. Once this is achieved reports show that revenue will increase and loyalty will grow. This is due to better customer service being acquired and consumer knowledge (Retail Software Solutions - Cegid UK, 2017). Within bricks and mortar sales assistants being technically engaging can therefore increase sales by 40% due to assistants accessing products via other stores or even reserving an item (Retail Software Solutions - Cegid UK, 2017). Staying focused on consumer behavior luxury brands engaging online can cause issues within how responsive the brand is, to queries of stock checking to a faulty item, on many occasion consumers feel the brand have failed them when not addressed promptly or appropriately for the situation. Zappos addressed this problem and was able to see a significant progress rate for issues occurring. They decided it was in the best interest of the staff and customer that the staff were all trained to deal with the issues at hand and were able to merit a free pair of shoes if the situation deemed necessary. This reduced calls to managerial staff and enabled the customer to be interacted with from the beginning to the end without waiting or being passed around (perpetto and magento, n.d.).
Metric and Measurements With VE showing high rates of organic searches and engaging in high cost traffic we feel fairly confident there is a strong loyal consumer base which we plan to build and essentially increase. The evidence shows a strong engagement and search energy throughout the keywords used. We used Semrush to collect vital information to move forward with.
The above articles have been collected using Semrush software (Semrush.com, 2017).
To ensure the activity is measured accurately and due to the nature of the concept using soft measures will be the most beneficial at this time. To gain an accurate reading is to calculate on a regular basis how many donations were made via the campaign bag. This will give accurate numbers of engagement on the consumer side and will allow VE to evaluate strategies moving forward. In the future using output measures to show results of engagement with the zine with web traffic could prove whether it is deemed relevant and how the consumer is responding to the information and inspiration provided. Having vast topics and a large range could benefit the engagement level and even participate in VE acquiring a new consumer. Evaluation Moving forward with the concept we hope to persue other markets and engage across the board with not just luxury items but crossing that line from luxury to mid-market. VE is a brand that makes themselves and their product accessible and it deems only sense to enable this across both sides of the brand. Considering the metrics increase throughout time we feel that using an underground platform in a luxury market could enable new consumers to apply. This will then move the brand forward but within their brand ethos.
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