CONTENTS: Executive Summary History/Future The Brand, it’s DNA & identity Mission / Vision Statement/ Alternative slogan The Customer Profiling/Interview Attributes & External Factors Competition & Market Position PESTLE SWOT The future (brand repositioning)
“Founded in 2001, Lazy Oaf is a London-based fashion label designing streetwear for women and men, with a range of accessories that feature bold colours and graphic prints.” “Lazy Oaf drives irreverence into everything it does creating pieces that play on a weird and warped sense of humour. The brand's eclectic style of London clothing is inspired by youth nostalgia, 90s fashion, rebellion and a sense of not conforming to the norm.”
LAZY OAF
BRAND HISTORY
Gemma Shiel, 37, founded Lazy Oaf straight after leaving university in 2001. Gemma began selling Lazy Oaf from a stall in Spitalfields and hand printing t-shirts in her Dad’s garage, to a flagship boutique in London’s Soho. “Lazy Oaf focuses on driving irreverence into everything it does creating pieces that play on the brand’s warped sense of humour” – Gemma wanted to flaunt her trait of not taking everything too seriously, and expressed this within her design ethos of quirky patterns and alternative, trendy styles. Her inspirations behind her work was “youth nostalgia, teenage rebellion and a sense of apathy towards conforming to the norm”. Gemma studied Fashion Textiles at Nottingham Trent University and therefore puts her skills within design into her ideas and sketches. “I went to see quite a few different agencies after I finished my course, and most of them said they loved what I was doing – that it was really funny – but they didn’t know what to do with me,”, however she carried on printing on t-shirts and selling them. The name of the brand stemmed from the theme of the design being trash culture, junk food and TV.
BRAND FUTURE GOALS
From research, I gathered that Gemma Shiel will be carrying on challenging her creative techniques by collaborating with other brands and companies that excite her. In the future, from a consumer perspective believe Lazy Oaf could really look into their competitors that are similar to them and maybe reduce their price to invite a wider audience.
Sincerity traits: • Honest • Sincere • Wholesome • Real • Collaborative • Inviting
Excitement: Competence: • Trendy • Technical • Exiting • Secure • Quirky • Unique • Corporate • Imaginative• Successful • Independen t
Physique
High quality, long lasting materials. Relationship Great quality, slightly expensive but worth the quality.
Reflection
Alternative look for individuals wanting to stand out.
Sophistication: • Attractive • Edgy • Respectful • Modern
Ruggedness: • Rugged • Textured • Thick
BRAND DNA, ESSENCE, PERSONALITY AND . MANAGEMENT Personality Trendy, unique, chilled and
edgy
Culture 90’s, London alternative casual day / street wear
Self-image
Unique, stylish, individuality, exclusive.
Vision To adapt designs to fit older consumers
Positioning Personality On the next page I Values “warped personality”, have provided an elements of clothing overview of the Main concern is the provide sense of humour. different customers and competitors Lazy From a consumer ensuring their needs Oaf faces and perspective, Lazy Oaf are fulfilled through where about’s they fast replies, purchase clothing allows them to stand on the scale. express a whacky and deals on deliveries and fast exchanges. unique personality.
TANGABLE ELEMENTS:
INTANGABLE ELEMENTS: • Printed brand mark shows it is their own • Competent sort of style makes them unique • Brand name is shown. • Distinctive features such as colour, iconic patterns and animations.
B R A ND I D E NT I T Y
• Trustworthy • Reliable • Good value and quality of items • Aesthetically pleasing to look at • Colours and patterns – unique • Good customer service making it friendly, trustworthy. •
Mission/vision statements and slogans…
Mission statement: “Lazy Oaf drives irreverence into everything it does - creating pieces that play on a weird and warped sense of humour. The brand's eclectic style of London clothing is inspired by youth nostalgia, 90s fashion, rebellion and a sense of not conforming to the norm.” A vision statement I would create for Lazy Oaf based on what I believe can be improved would be based on enticing an older audience to consume. “Lazy Oaf aims for a wider range of designs in the future to fit the older, unique individuals who still wish to stand out.”
Slogan: “Keep it weird” – Lazy Oaf keeping it weird since 2001.
VISION STATEMENT
Maybe another slogan idea could be more professional and high profile as the brand is high quality and should be taken as seriously as possible. An idea I came up with was “preserve your creativity.”
• To find an accurate representation of customer identity, I am researching what factors Lazy Oaf practice in order to keep their target audience involved in the brand. This is going to help me find a detailed, precise idea of Lazy Oafs target audience as information gathered will insight me on customers interests that the brand try to entail, their personality, lifestyle etc. • Lazy Oaf shows the different strategies they use through either sources on social media or workshops to fixate consumers attention. • SOCIAL MEDIA & STRATEGY MANAGEMENT -Lazy Oaf state that a strong social media account can foster long-term loyalty in the ages of people of age 14-30. “We utilize a combination of real-time social listening and proprietary analytics to deliver the full potential of social media for brands”. • CREATIVE CAMPAIGNS: Lazy Oaf’s campaigns reflect the age group they are targeting, as Lazy Oaf use 90’s style theme a lot in their brand, a particular collaboration where I recognized an effective way of targeting their target audience was Mr. Men Little Miss X Lazy Oaf. As it is an iconic 90’s series of books, the brand gained much attention from 18-25-year old. • E-COMMERCE AND BI ANALYTICS: Creating impactful shopping experiences with in-depth knowledge of the target audience is vital for a successful brand. Knowing your consumers interests and personalities and presenting similar themes in the shop will ensure a pleasant experience for customers. When I visited the Lazy Oaf store myself, there was alternative music being played which consumers with an edgy style wanting to shop at Lazy Oaf are likely to listen to. The appearance of the shop was aesthetic, artistic and unique. From following Lazy Oaf on Instagram I found that a lot of their tags were customers taking photos within the store, as the stores decorations are pleasing for the target audience, edgy and exciting.
INFLUENCERS: The idea for Lazy Oaf to use
their own influencers is so that when they grow, the brand will grow with it too. As we all know, influencers are progressively becoming a bigger role in the fashion industry, working with many different brands. Influencers have become a very influencing part of young peoples lives on social media, targeting their teen/young adult target audience the most. Lazy Oaf use influencers in their ‘Instashop’ section online and throughout their blogs, using their bloggers as models.
The graph on the right shows how young people respond to social media platforms. Statistics state that 24% of females follow a fashion blogger, and 28% of ages 15-24 follow fashion brands online, which together, is a good mix for the brand and gives popular brands like Lazy Oaf a good platform to hook their consumers in. By Lazy Oaf being socially available and active, this shows consumers who connect chose Lazy Oaf not just as fashion but as their day to day lifestyle.
YOUNGER GENERATION & SOCIAL MEDIA: As social media becomes more advanced with generation Z, both social media and generation grow together meaning this age group of people tend to have most power over the success in social media and are more involved with keeping up to latest trends over Instagram, the ‘click to shop’ button and ‘What’s New’. WHY IS LAZY OAF MOSTLY ONLINE? Research found that the reason for this is due to the growth of social media and the lack of consumers within magazines etc. Global data Womenswear Market Report for 2017 to 2022 states that continued investment in online shopping will make the brand even more successful due to the population with mobile first approaches to brands.
An example for influencers having an effect of marketing is pop star Charlixcx working with and promoting ‘Nasty Cherry’ – a band that collaborated with Lazy Oaf.
HOW TO GAIN NEW CONSUMERS? As stated, Lazy Oaf tends to successfully reach out to the ages of 14-30. However there is a gap in the market for older men and women to become involved, as statistic show that “the largest increase in the number of internet users is women of age 55+”. Therefore, Lazy Oaf could adjust their brand by adding a category for older consumers. Maybe this could be applied in their sister brand ‘Gem’.
Interview with loyal lazy oaf consumer – Bethany Ibbotson. • I put together a questionnaire to interview my friend Beth, a huge fan of Lazy Oaf, to gain an insight on consumers traits which will help me gather whether the brands interaction with consumers is effective based on their interests, hobbies etc.
• How does Lazy Oaf clothing represent you as an individual? “I feel that Lazy Oaf represents my confidence. I’m a performer, I love being out there and showcasing myself and my talent. Lazy Oaf’s unique ranges allow me to do this and allows me to stand out.” • Are there any particular collaborations that interest you and why? “A particular collab that interested me was the Nasty Cherry x Lazy Oaf, as I’m very into the music industry and heard of this band, it made me want to look at the collection… and I ended up buying 3 garments from there!!” • How did you discover Lazy Oaf? “Influencers on Instagram had tagged their clothing in their posts, I clicked on their Instagram page and the bright colour schemes and quirky clothing really struck me. I visited their website and became obsessed with the blogs and found myself looking at the updated blogs or ‘New In’ pages every week.”
A Lazy Oaf customer needs the average hours of Lazy Oaf consumers tend to be from a creative employment background or either business/ self sleep a night to fulfil the performance within employment as they are quite independent people. his/her employment and aesthetic food at cafes and restaurants.
Self actualisation/needs: The Lazy Oaf consumers are men and women ages 14-30 who are interested in art and/or illustration. They enjoy being original and dressing unique.
Trait of a Lazy Oaf customer tends to be outgoing, good sense of humour. Family are a key element of life and activities with close friends are valued.
FINAL, GENERAL CONSUMER PROFILE
Lazy Oaf consumers tend to be creative and excel in subjects based on performance and presentation, enjoy to shop at independent brands.
Passion: fighting against animal cruelty. Found to be supporting Veganism or is Vegan themselves. Against real fur/leather.
For example, Bethany who I interviewed has been a performer since a young age. Her job is a music teacher assistant and she also has A Levels in Fine Art and Media.
ATTRIBUTES • Great customer service – speedy returns. • Updates on emails. • Fast replies on emails to query's and complaints. • ‘Instashop’ is good for social media consumers. • Presentation and aesthetic of the shop. • Sister store – G.E.M V • Online blogging connected to website, introducing members making a friendly feel to the audience.
DISTINCITVENESS • 6 unique collections • Collaboration with a band, promoting them (G.E.M V) • Contains interviews with women’s football team the Vixens and men’s football team The Gun FC. • ‘Coming Soon’ section – keeping customers updated.
NOVELTY: • “Rainbow clothing” collection • “The world of pink” collection • “Out of Oaffice” • “Dr.Martens x Lazy Oaf”
MARKET REPOSITIONING
I think in the future Lazy Oaf could decrease their prices as this is a downfall for the brand after reviewing the competitors. For example, ASOS has clothing similar styles yet is at a cheaper price, therefore consumers of the ages 14-25, mostly with a limited budget and most likely being students, will shop at ASOS more. An alternative idea could be to have more sales, as Lazy Oaf doesn’t tend to have many sales which is what the younger generation tend to look for. Other than this, Lazy Oaf could introduce more deals too. An idea that would allow Lazy Oaf as a brand to gain more attention and consumers would be to open an app like ASOS did, which will secure the basket meaning it is more likely for purchases to be made. Lazy Oaf could also introduce more stores in the U.K has not every individual uses online shopping and may not be able to travel to their stores.
Logo: The logo is simple yet effective as it stands out and is memorable which helps consumers get to the brand. Product and Services: After reading through reviews, I found that there are mixed experiences due to lack of response or more helpful returns. Visual Merchandising: Lazy Oaf has a unique use of visual merchandising, as their products are quirky they flaunt this in the shop window and make it very full and decorative – hard to miss.
Lazy Oaf’s website is vibrant with harmonious colour schemes and a large range of editorials, background information and also contains an ‘Instashop’. Their website is visually pleasing and for consumers it is the main contact of the brand due to a lack of stores.
SOCIAL:
ENVIRONMENTAL:
Seasonal behaviours
Location of storestransport to the stores
Changing societal views on clothing Employee expectations Higher expectations for online shopping
POLITICAL: Leaving the EU -HSBC Holdings has predicted that the value of the pound could drop by as much as 20 percent if a Brexit is voted through, which could pose a very significant effect on British fashion businesses that outsource their production or source fabrics aboard. A Brexit would also make it increasingly difficult for British fashion businesses to expand abroad and build a name for themselves. The G7 leaders recently issued a joint declaration, in which they stated that a Brexit would pose a "further serious risk to growth.
Climate change may affect consumers coming to the stores especially if there are not any nearby.
LEGAL: Health and safety in stores Pricing for overseas delivery Overall products can become more expensive to supply due to the description of the product
• TECHNOLOGICAL:
• Impact of the new media will help Lazy Oaf as they are a very media based brand. • New Media could cause more competition as more brands are expanding to different apps/websites to hook the consumers
Economical: Interest rates can be added on top f price f product and effect the amount of consumers.
• Trendy, good reputation • Variety of ages for consumers • Strong brand image representing an individual style • Consistency of collaborations, style and new designs.
SWOT ANALYSIS
• Quite a few online complaints about lack of response by email • Lack of retail stores • Everything is all based on media and social platforms… this can be a weakness for not considering older consumers who may not be up to date
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESS
OPPORTUNITY
THREAT
• Opening up new stores • Collaborating with larger luxury brands with similar styles • Could introduce an app
• Many strong competitors with similar styles at a cheaper price