Trendition
A creative online platform informing and promoting ethical fashion and sustainable lifestyle Jessica Ding Creative Strategy DE0931
Contents > 5 Vision > 7
The Brand and Competitors
> 11
> 13
Employees
> 15
Online Presence
> 19
Funding
> 21
Email Subscription
> 23
The Launch
> 25
Promotion
Target Market and Customer Profile
> 27 The Book > 29 The Event > 31 Costing > 33 Timescale > 35 Summary > 37 Picture References
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A TRANSITION INTO THE FUTURE
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Vision
Trendition is a multi-functional online creative platform, for ethical fashion and sustainable lifestyle. The brand aims to inform as well as promote in an innovative, fashion forward way between industry and consumers. Trendition is dedicated to showcasing brands and designers that show strong commitment to a sustainable direction for the future. The online site includes a mixture of journalism, interviews, features, photography, reports and trend prediction around the topic of ethical fashion and sustainable lifestyle. Trendition consists of a variety of different segments. The main segment of the brand is the website, this will be updated regularly on a weekly basis. The website is subscription only allowing the information to be exclusive to subscribers. A book and event are also created as part of the brand. The creative strategy document will show the stages Trendition needs to go through before the official launch; this will also include a budget and timescale.
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The Brand
Trendition aims to bridge the gap between ethical fashion as a subculture and the mainstream of the fashion and lifestyle industry. To do this, the brand needs to be strong, innovative and fresh engaging consumers. After researching into the brand competitors, it is clear that Trendition needs to be more fashion forward; a step ahead of its competitors to become successful and have any impact within the mainstream industry. This will include making the website as minimal and clean cut as possible. (The competitors are mentioned in further detail on page 9). The brand name Trendition is a hybrid word mixing Trend, Rendition, Transition; all the words linked together have the meaning of moving forward, dealing with the consequences of the future and solving these. The name is short and memorable meaning that the logo should be simple to not draw attention away from the name itself. The aim of Trendition is to break into mainstream fashion industry making ethical fashion/sustainable lifestyle less of a subculture. To ensure this happens it is key that Trendition is contemporary and doesn’t use colours already associated with the ethical industry as they bring a negative stigma to the topic. The current colour associated with ethical/sustainable living is green, a calm and earthy colour. The colours for Trendition will need to be bold yet minimal, attracting the attention of both males and females. As colours have many definitions it is key to choose the correct palette to ensure that the correct message is being portrayed.
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Trendition will work to become a successful and established platform for ethical fashion and sustainable lifestyle, providing trusted content for consumers. The website is where consumers look to for information on new, successful fashion and lifestyle brands. The unique selling point for Trendition is that it offers information for ethical sustainability in an innovative and fashion forward way. Focusing on the product or garment as well as the production method. Although ethical and sustainability is the core to Trendition, it will not be forced upon consumers. Through research it was found that consumers want to visit a site because they are interested, and not forced to. All the content will be related to ethical and sustainability, but this will not be overemphasised to the subscribers setting Trendition apart from competitors.
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The Brand Competitors Ethical Fashion Forum - Online ethical and sustainable forum Strengths Weaknesses • Largest platform within the industry • Colours - black, grey, yellow: • Combines global sustainable very dull sourcing data, intelligence site and • Website is boring online network • Limited access on the site unless paying • Events can be attended online or subscriber in person • Rely on membership subscription and • All profits are dedicated to changing advertising for funding lives and putting sustainability • Uses the word ‘Ethical’ in the title into practice discourages consumers Opportunities Threats • Fellowship 500 - room to expand and create further knowledge • Targets a wide variety of people • Online events, saves costs and allows more attendees • Reaching readers in 127 different countries • Free members still receive weekly bulletins
• Uses a lot of unpaid interns - not following through with ethical mission • Not fashion forward - consumers want fashion products not textiles • Website is dull and hard to navigate around • Room for a new fashion forward platform • Focuses too much on the textiles sector
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Eluxe Magazine - Online ethical and sustainable magazine Strengths Weaknesses • Black and white colour theme - minimal • Name doesn’t directly link to ethical • Moving galleries of top stories on site - creates interest • All content on the site is free • Nothing on the site is obvious ethical, doesn’t intimidate consumers
• Front page is quite busy • All content is available on other sites • Does not offer any events • Has a voting poll, doesn’t fit with the theme - looks unprofessional • Covering broad topics - not a direct mission
Opportunities Threats • Digital magazine - saving on environment damage • Eluxe TV an opportunity for videos which link to social networks • Strong social media: Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube Instagram • ‘Elegant, ethical, ecological’
• Targets a lot of different topics • Not a platform ‘online magazine’ • Needs to updated daily to be current • Broad target market targeting both London and Paris - two fashion capitals • Works with a consultancy to give advice about saving money and energy which doesn’t link with magazine
In order for Trendition to be successful, and ahead of the brand competitors the main threats have been identified. Above, are two SWOT analyses for Trenditions main competitors. A SWOT analysis is a strategic method to identify and evaluate strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities involved within a brand. The Ethical Fashion Forum is currently the largest online ethical forum yet after evaluating the brand it is clear that it focuses too heavily on the term ‘ethical’ and therefore can be seen as intimidating and disengaging to consumers. On the other hand, Eluxe is an online digital magazine focusing on ethical and sustainability. The website is clean cut with strong brand identity yet focuses on too many different topics without a clear direction. Trendition will consider all of these points to help become a step ahead of the main competitors and engage consumers within the brand.
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Target Market
Two ideal customer profiles have been created to ensure that Trendition meets their needs and requirements, this information includes; age, occupation, interests, responsibilities and location. All content featured on the site must fit the criteria of the readers; these customer profiles will be updated on a monthly basis to ensure the brand is reaching the correct market. Trendition hopes to reach a broad target market, allocating for both male and female between the ages of 20-35. The brand aims to target conscious consumers who are interested and willing to add sustainability into their lifestyle rather than completely change the direction of their life. Trendition also aims to encourage students to adopt ethical fashion and sustainable lifestyle into their academia.
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Customer Profile: Rebecca Rebecca is a young adult just three years out of university working as a marketing assistant; she lives in London and catches the tube to work on a daily basis. She loves fashion and high street clothing yet doesn’t follow all trends and doesn’t purchase clothing for one occasion and then throw it away. Rebecca is on a tight budget and therefore will only purchase garments she knows enough about/needs within her wardrobe, however with information she is willing to change her opinion. The thought of the end of the world and global warming worries Rebecca yet not enough for her to completely change her way, she recycles her plastic and tins on a weekly basis and encourages her boyfriend to purchase energy efficient light bulbs. As she is young she lives with her boyfriend and has no responsibilities of marriage or children, at least for another 5 years. Rebecca is easy going and reads Grazia magazine, blogs and shops on ASOS as it is convenient and simple. She spends her weekends supporting local bands at clubs and pubs within London. She socialises with friends online through sites such as Facebook and Twitter, she loves discovering new sites that she can read on her daily commute into work and is very snap happy taking photographs at every opportunity and shares these with her friends via Instagram. Rebecca is naturally beautiful and feels confident with or without make up, as she works long hours and starts the day early she regularly leaves her hair natural and wears minimal make up.
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Employees
During the first six months the website will establish itself and begin building the subscribers list, for this period there will be no need for extra employees as this can be run by the founder of Trendition. The dynamic website content can be updated either on a daily or weekly basis depending on the news that week. This can be updated anywhere in the world so the founder can publish the content whilst travelling to discover new information for the site. Once the website has developed and become more established then hiring employees will be considered. If employees are needed before the six-month mark then freelancers will be used and paid on an hourly rate. It is important that Trendition doesn’t expand too quickly and therefore lose its aim of retaining brand strategy. The brand must establish itself before any expansion takes place. The development of the site content will be created and sourced by the founder, however if there are any issues with the site at any time then a freelance web developer will be hired on an hourly rate to manage the technical side, to make sure that the website is live at all times without any error. Within the first year, to keep costs low the website will be run within the office inside the home of the founder and therefore an office building will not be needed keeping overheads of the brand low. Trendition will be run within Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, where all the printing will also be completed keeping everything local and removing carbon footprint. All the content for the site will mainly done over email, face to face and telephone; this also supports the brand thesis of ethical and sustainability within Trendition. The main overhead for Trendition will be the travel costs to collect the vital information, content for the brand and attend relevant events.
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Online Presence To be accessible by all the website must be compatible for all media device formats including: Mac, PC, smartphones, Ipads and Tablets. To enable this HTML5 will be used instead of Flash Player to guarantee that the website will work on all of these separate devices in the same format. Trendition is a subscription only site, working with pyramid style marketing. There are three different levels of paid subscription and one free subscription. The free subscription is there to give readers and consumers a taster of several reports before they commit to purchasing for a subscription. The free subscription provides one free report and all other areas on the site are restricted, yet they will be constantly emailed with newsletters and details of the site to entice them to increase their membership to a paid one and regularly check the site.
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Cost of subscription
Number of subscribers
£250 £345 £485 Total 50 £12,500 £17,250 £24,250 £54,000 100 £25,000 £34,500 £48,500 £108,000 150 £37,500 £51,750 £72,750 £162,000 200 £50,000 £69,000 £97,000 £216,000 500 £125,000 £172,500 £242,500 £540,000
• The first level of paid subscription is Trend, this includes full access to the website – costing £250 per year (£20.84 per month)
• The second level of paid subscription is Rendition, this includes full access to the website and the Trendition book. The book includes interviews, reports, case studies, scenarios and trend prediction. Some of the featured content in the book will be online yet not all of this making it an exclusive incentive when signing up to the site – costing £345 per year (£28.75 per month)
• The final level of paid subscription is Transition, this includes full access to the website, the book and access to two events held by Trendition per year – costing £485 per year (£40.42 per month)
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The different levels of membership have been named after the inspiration behind Trendition the level of commitment is shown within the meaning. The first level is Trend, these consumers are conscious about ethical and sustainability yet not completely dedicated to change. The second level is Rendition; these consumers are in the process of translating and interpreting the meaning behind ethical, sustainability. The final level of subscription is Transition; these consumers are in the process of change, adding ethical/sustainability into their current lifestyles. The names of each subscription level are designed to entice and not threaten consumers. The description behind each subscription level is hypothetical, and may not be apparent for each individual consumer or subscription choice. All paid memberships will also receive report packs twice a year which will include trend prediction cards, one report, two interviews – one fashion, one lifestyle and a newsletter. This will be sent as a digital package to save on costs and environmental damages, although a printed version can be requested which will be posted to the subscriber this would have to be printed on environmental/recycled paper with vegetable based inks. Initially, all of the subscriptions allow only one login account. However, as Trendition increases it’s subscription list and becomes more reputable then the option of several login accounts per subscription will become available. A student and academia login will also become an option at a discounted cost. The student rate is to encourage ethical fashion and lifestyle into the academic modules. However, these plans are long term and therefore will not be available within the first 6-12months of launching.
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To ensure that Trendition promotes a strong message, guidelines have been created on what can and cannot be featured online. The guidelines are set as part of the mission that helps to place Trendition ahead of other competitors. These guidelines cannot be changed at any time and must be followed to ensure that it fulfils its message and vision. They will be displayed in the ‘about us’ section of the site, making it clear to readers and brands hoping to be featured. The website domain will be hosted through Word Press, this is a website which provides simple templates that can be changed and adjusted to fit the brand perfectly. This will be used as a prototype for 6-12months whilst Trendition is becoming established, after this the website will be built from scratch and developed further; both the prototype costing and projected costs are featured within the costing table (page 31).
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Funding
Trendition will be funded by the subscription from members; the subscription funds will cover all costs incurred within Trendition. The event held by the brand (Transition subscription only) will not be held until 6 months after the site has launched. This will give enough time to discover a panel to talk at the conference, as well as to book the event and create enough funds and subscribers to cover the costs to make it all worthwhile for both consumers and industry. There will not be any advertising on the site, Trendition has tight guidelines as to what can and cannot be shown onto the site and must hold full control at all times. To make sure the founder has full control on the site then there will be no advertising online. This is a good way to create funding quickly, however a weakness of current ethical sites is that they are promoting and advertising brands that are not ethical; this is something Trendition does not want to be associated with. Initially, there will not be any subscribers to help fund the start up costs of the business. The founder will donate ÂŁ500 to cover costing of the start up website, promotion and transport in the beginning to help with the development of Trendition. Once the subscribers join the site then all other costs will be covered.
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Email Subscription
Whilst the website is under maintenance before launching there will be a holding page. Consumers can sign up to the site in advance and receive notifications about the site before the official launch. The form on the site will request the name of the consumer, email address, job occupation and date of birth. These details are anonymous yet will be analysed by the company to monitor the subscribers information; this is for internal use only. The first 50 subscribers will receive a month free first level (trend) subscription; this will allow access the entire website for one month. This is an incentive to create further interest around the site and encourage consumers to join a paid membership once they have had a taster for what they would receive.
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The Launch
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As the main aspect of Trendition is the online presence there will not be an official physical launch. However, there will be a lot of publicity around social networking to promote the site, this will include a countdown to encourage members to sign up. As an incentive, consumers who sign up before the site launches will be able to receive a preview of the site 2 hours before the non-subscribers. Bloggers and writers will be invited to view the website on the day of the launch at the same time as the subscribers, 2 hours prior to non-subscribers this will give them time to write a review of the site on their own site and drive further traffic to Trendition on the day of the launch. To guarantee that all runs smoothly at the time of the launch, a variety of different consumers will be hired to pilot test the site three weeks prior to the launch. They will test all aspects of the site and write a review. All issues found during this time will be adjusted before the official launch, ensuring that all works correctly for the media.
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Promotion
There will be a variety of different promotional techniques used to guarantee that Trendition reaches a wide variation of diverse audiences both within industry and regular consumers. Trendition will create social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. These sites will be in action before the site has launched to create hype around Trendition. The social networking platforms are invaluable in allowing the brand to be shown on a variety of different levels, helping it to become more accessible. Once the site has fully launched, the social network platforms will be linked to the site to encourage traffic and vice versa. Alongside social networking Trendition will use Guerilla marketing as another promotional strategy. With the permission of the Apple stores in Newcastle-UponTyne, Trendition will be set as the homepage on all IPads, IPhones, MacBook’s, IMacs and Apple TVs several days before the launch and again on the day of the launch this will create interest and curiosity between customers this will increase traffic and hopefully subscription numbers. Both of the promotional techniques mentioned are free of charge and will help Trendition to reach a wide audience on a digital level. However, Trendition aims to encourage both industry and non-industry to make ethical fashion and sustainable lifestyle mainstream. Other promotional techniques have been taken into consideration to guarantee reaching both audiences.
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Trendition will advertise in print within ASOS magazine, this is a brand that is currently supporting ethical fashion with their Green Room and their target market is similar to that of Trendition. Another source of advertising will be through Drapers magazine; this is aimed to encourage retailers and academics to subscribe to Trendition, the aim eventually is that the site will be the go to digital hub for informing about ethical fashion and sustainable lifestyle. Press packs will be distributed to relevant magazines digitally via email, these will include the mission and vision of Trendition, press release, an invitation to the launch of the website prior to non-subscribers and a direct link to the site. As a way to promote Trendition as a brand and the thesis behind this, the founder will give interviews featuring within magazines as a new business and research idea. This will create interest around the actual meaning of Trendition rather than just the website itself, the whole package will then be advertised. With the founder providing interviews, it will allow consumers to have a personal connection with the brand, as a face has now been associated with Trendition. To ensure that Trendition reaches a wide audience, Foundation PR agency will be hired to help with the promotion of the brand for the first 12 months. Foundation PR have been chosen due to their expertise within the ethical fashion and sustainable lifestyle industry. Their broad range of knowledge and contacts will be invaluable to the success of Trendition.
The Book
The Trendition book runs alongside the website, this acts as a handbook towards ethical fashion and sustainable lifestyle. The book itself includes; photography, designers, journalism, trend predictions, case studies and scenarios and aims to guide consumers and show them a new direction to their current lifestyle. Some of the written content will be featured on the website yet not to the level of detail that it is featured within the book. The book is only available as a gift within subscription levels Rendition and Transition. As the brand becomes more developed, then Trendition will become published and featured within bookstores as a stand alone book. There is space within the market for a fashion forward and innovative ethical fashion and sustainable lifestyle book yet it makes sense for Trendition to develop as a brand before this becomes an option. As the core factor of Trendition is ethical fashion and sustainable lifestyle, the books will be created on recycled and environmentally friendly paper with vegetable based inks, there will be a certified stamp at the back of each book and it is encouraged that if the book is discarded that it is recycled. The book will be printed locally within Newcastle-Upon-Tyne to save on carbon footprint for the first year whilst the brand is still being established and based within the area. If the book was to be published at a later date; it would have to be published by an ethical publisher, which agreed with the guidelines of Trendition, sharing the same morals. Earthscan is the worlds leading publisher for sustainability and environmental technologies, they have published books by leading researcher of sustainable fashion Kate Fletcher. Trendition would benefit from being published by a publisher focusing on ethical and sustainability rather than a regular publisher with environmental techniques in separate areas, as this is still a form of segregation from the mainstream publishing. This would defeat the vision of Trendition as it is aiming to bridge the gap of communication between mainstream and ethical fashion.
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The Book Layout
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Image Text
The Event
As the highest-level subscriber (Transition), consumers have the opportunity to access two events held by Trendition per year. These events are a way to network with researchers, industry experts, consumers who all share the same views with regards to ethical fashion and sustainable lifestyle. It is easier to try and tackle the issue as a community rather than alone. The first event will be held 6 months after the site has launched allowing time to build a large subscription list, the second event will be held near the first birthday of Trendition. As Trendition is being hosted within Newcastle-Upon-Tyne for the first year, the event will be held at The Baltic on the Quayside. The event will be held in the Riverside Terrace allowing space for up to 160 people; subscribers have priority yet a selection of tickets will be put to one side for industry experts and media. There will also be a panel of experts within the ethical fashion and sustainable lifestyle area, who will speak about their recent work within the sector and share their views. Also allowing a Q&A at the end for subscribers to communicate any issues they feel need addressing. If Transition level subscribers do not fill all of the spaces then tickets will go on sale to general subscribers at an added cost yet this is a last resort to ensure all Transition subscribers are priority. Once the website is more developed, there may be an option for the events to be live streamed onto the site to allow the other subscribers to witness the event or at least be able to download a podcast to try and reach as many subscribers as possible. As Trendition becomes more recognised around the UK an option to do a Trendition conference tour could be considered, creating events in all of the major cities throughout the year; London, Newcastle, Manchester and Liverpool. Fashion and lifestyle trends are different within each of these and priorities of the consumers may be different in the cities, it would be interesting to tackle the entire issues consumers find in the different areas.
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Costing Website – First 12 months Domain name – www.trendition.co.uk £7.18 First 2 years Hosting (1&1) – email account included £29.94 Word Press – template site + holding page £0.00 First 6-12months only Total for the first 12 months £37.12 Website – 12months+ (created by White Room Creations) Content management system with blog £595 HTML5 iPhone and iPad compatible slideshow £250 Homepage £195 Further information page £150 Holding page with form £175 Total £1365 Book (created by Photoline, Newcastle) 100pp A4 full colour document on 120gsm £80 One book only matt/silk environmental stock. Hardbound with laminated wrap around cover. Commercial – 10 books x £50 £500 Bulk purchase of (bulk printing/purchase) 10 books Total estimation for 50 books £2,500 Event The Baltic, River Terrace £400 First 6 hours only seating 160 people £150 per hour after PA system £150 WIFI £25 Projection Screen £100 Staging (2mX1m) x8 £20 x 8 = £160 Total per event £835 Per event (x2 a year) Total per year £1670
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Promotion Foundation PR agency £650(p/month) x12 = £7,800 Digital press releases £0.00 ASOS advert (print) £2,500 x3 = £7,500 Drapers advert (print) £3,292 x3 = £9,876 Social networking £0.00 Total per year first year £25,176 Total per year – 1st year+ £28,960
First year only 3 half page adverts 3 half page adverts 3 half page advert per magazine per year 5 half page adverts a year per magazine
Employees Freelancers £10 per/hour On call when required Founder £2,500 per/month Total per year £30,000 Budget Total for the first 12 months Total for 12months+
£59,383.12 £64,495
For the first year, Trendition aims to establish the brand and gain at least 50 subscribers on each level, it is not a priority for Trendition to break even within the first year. After the first year, the brand aims to be established enough to expand further within promotion and creation of a more technical website. For Trendition to break even and make a profit in the second year it must have at least 100 subscribers from each subscription level or fewer subscribers from a mixture of all three levels.
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Timescale 1 Year Finalise concept: Website, book and event 10 Months Brand name Purchase domain name Contact Foundation PR agency 9 Months Purchase hosting/email Transfer domain name 8 Months Create Trendition guidelines Research contributors/brands 7 Months Contact brands and designers 6 Months Plan book layout Create logo and brand identity Starting creating work with Foundation PR 5 Months Interview brands and consumers Type up content for the site Contact printer and publisher Finalise book layout Start content for the book 4 Months Create holding page for the site and link to business email Encourage subscribers to site Book advertising in magazines 3 Months Create social networking & pinterest Link social networking to website Start spreading the word Foundation PR start promoting 2 Months Upload content to the site Finalise book content 33
1 Month Send book to printer Push promotion on social networking Advertise in magazines 3 Weeks Email subscribers with launch date and access code via email Create press release and email to media Pilot test site 2 Weeks Push promotion to site via social networking Keep promoting, updating pinterest and encourage subscribers Upload content to the website Launch Day Morning Premier access to the site including media and current subscribers Interviews with media Reviews of the site written by media and uploaded online Launch Day Afternoon Public access to the site Respond to enquiry emails Encourage subscription Upload content to the site Update social networking with website statistics 1 Month After Launch Book venue for the event: The Baltic, Newcastle Upon Tyne Confirm industry professional panel Plan event 6 Months After Launch Review website and content Host first event Hire website developer Hire employees 34
Summary
The creative strategy has acknowledged the current steps that need to be considered as well as long term options that may be put into practice once the brand has become more established. For the first 6 months, Trendition’s main aim is to create as much awareness around the topic and the brand as possible, trying to reach as many consumers as it can. Within the first 5 years, Trendition aims to become established enough to be the bridge between the miscommunication of consumers and retailers. The brand hopes to help ethical fashion and sustainable living to become accepted into the mainstream industry.
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Picture References
1. Vivienne Westwood A/W 11/12 Campaign – Red Label (Front Cover) http://www.viviennewestwood.co.uk/multimedia/the-campaign-aw1112 2. Vincent Callebuat - Dragonfly (Page 3) http://www.geo.fr/fonds-d-ecran/ musees-et-monuments/ports-urbains/37415 3. Honest By Campaign (Page 6) http://www.honestby.com/en/news/2/newcampaign.html 4.
Trendition Logo (Page 8)
5. Customer Profile: London Skyline (Page 12) http://impressivebuildings.com/ big-ben-london-united-kingdom/big-ben-united-kingdom/ 6. City in the Sky - Megatropolis Project (Page 14) http://www.hrama.com/ skycity/ 7. Show Studio Homepage (Page 15) http://showstudio.com/#showcabinet_ daphne_guinness
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8. Maniko: ‘Middle of Somewhere’ (Page 18) http://pinterest.com/ pin/430797520575703399/ 9. Vincent Callebaut: The Coral Reef (Page 20) http://gbssmag.com/2012/08/ vincent-callebaut-architecture-coral-reef/ 10.
Bottletop Lookbook Collection (Page 22) http://bottletop.org/lookbook/
11. Vincent Callebaut Lilypad (Page 23) http://inhabitat.com/lilypad-floatingcities-in-the-age-of-global-warming/ 12. Byronesque ‘Out of Hand’ Campaign (Page 26) https://www.byronesque.com/ editorial/number-outofhand-fall-fashionweeks-2013#1 13. The Quayside, Newcastle Upon Tyne (Page 30) http://www.painesplough.com/ blog/come-to-where-im-from/come-to-where-im-from-newcastle/ 14. Vivienne Westwood Autumn/Winter 11/12 Campaign (Page 36) http://www. viviennewestwood.co.uk/multimedia/the-campaign-aw1112
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Trendition www.trendition.co.uk Jessica Ding Please recycle this document once completed