SAVAGE X FENTY Creative Pitch

Creative Thinking: Brand Development

YASMIN MICHELE ISHOLA S00902077 FSM603 Assessment 2

Brand Overview

Launched in 2018 Debuted at New York Fashion Week in September

Brand values in confidence and inclusivity Has a niche following called “The Savages”

Lingerie line

by Rihanna

Large tonal and size range at “accessible price point” (Savage X, 2018)

Consumer Segmentation “The Savage X consumer type is much more based around personality and the individual benefits they see within the Fenty brand rather than consumers with utilitarian consumer habits. This tends to be a more millennial-based consumer, due to that being the general age bracket of Rihanna’s fan-base and following. Savage X Fenty appeals to individuals who struggle to find their skin tones and sizes in regular retailers, as well as the experimental eccentric ones who see lingerie as more than just an undergarment.”

(Ishola, 2018)

Described as “the ultimate style heroine for millennials” (Zhang, 2016), Rihanna is known to have particular influence over the generational group, with several reports discussing the connection she has with millennials in particular, and therefore her brand, Savage X Fenty, has a largely-millennial consumer base.

They relate to her, want to be her and want to date her.

Overall Strategy Due to Savage X Fenty being a new online-based brand operating at a high success rate, they are currently utilising all aspects of their previously discussed promotional mix well. When looking at developing a campaign strategy to move the brand forward, the prospect of adding an concept that can gain the brand more loyalty is at the forefront, in order to ensure they retain all of the customers that are currently loving the new brand. It has long been recognised that brand loyalty has proven to represent a mindset in consumers that equates to repeat purchases (Aaker, 1991), with Schiffman and Kanuk (2010) stating that it is an asset that is ‘intangible’, and is often known to be the “ultimate goal” of a company (Gabor, 2018), as growth to new consumer bases is nothing without retention of the customers already purchasing there.

In order to achieve this, the techniques that have been suggested for the augmentation of Savage X Fenty via retention of their millennial-based consumer base are experiential marketing, print marketing and audio-visual marketing. These strategies will be put into effect through the introduction of a new campaign for Savage X Fenty to be launched in Winter 2019.

This new campaign is called Savage Fenty Christmas and is presented under a wider campaign strategy called Fenty World.

• The first strategy to be discussed that will be used to promote this new campaign will be an event, a form of experiential marketing, entitled Fenty World: Christmas Edition. Held over a week, it will be hosted in New York and will incorporate both a launch party aspect as well as pop-up shop attributes.

• The second strategy is a Savage Fenty Christmas magazine, a realisation of print marketing, that features a combination of visual and written articles and editorials reflecting Savage X Fenty’s brand values as well as photography featuring imagery, settings and models that represent the brands aesthetics, all whilst remaining seasonally on-brand.

• The third strategy is a Savage Fenty Christmas film, that covers three different models with the focus being on them wearing Savage X Fenty lingerie and nightwear, but whilst also featuring items of Fenty Beauty, to introduce the campaign.

The three promotional strategies will launch in conjunction with each other as the first seasonal installment of the wider campaign Fenty World. For comprehensive purposes, the event will be discussed first in order to give all-round understanding of the concept, but it is to be understood that the order of strategies shown here is not the proposed order of strategy launches, as in that case, the film would be primary.

Experiential Marketing Although seen to be event-centric, experiential marketing is more than just the process of hosting brand events. The marketing technique refers more to the consumer-brand interactions. It circles around the concept of being able to experience a certain brand in an “offline way, but...still..[have]..online dialogue around it”, with 65% of brands saying that the use of experiential marketing has positive correlation to sales (Becker, 2018). The memorable connection a consumer can have with a brand following the utilisation of experiential marketing is known to be a way of fostering brand loyalty (Galetto, 2017), examples of which can be seen by brands who have been running campaigns using this strategy over a long period of time. Now having been in existence for three years, Refinery29 has been hosting the 29rooms event to much success, describing itself as “an interactive funhouse of style, culture, & technology”, where they partner with brands to bring an experience to their consumers, for them to make a emotional/memorable connection with and to then form positive brand feelings (Becker, 2018). When looking at events, the idea of a pop-up is highly popular with millennials in particular. The idea of unique products, in a setting that is here one day, and gone the next is strikingly appealing to young people, who are particularly attracted to the notion of urgency and exclusivity in experiences, and the excitement that it brings (Baldwin, 2018; van Huffelen, 2018).

The online buzz derived from pop-ups get people excited for the next one, and so the trend continues.

Proposed Event Concept Fenty World would be a week-long pop-up store that also has a firstnight launch party that is themed and timed seasonally in different cities; ie. Winter/Christmas in New York, Spring/Easter in Paris, Summer/4th July in Los Angeles, Autumn/Halloween in London. This gives the campaign longevity and keeps the consumers excited for the next event, creating long-term buzz around the brand, a key aspect for millennial consumers (Baldwin, 2018).

Having originally launched the Savage X Fenty line at NYFW, and with the festive period being one of far-reach worldwide, it is fitting that the first launch of Fenty World would be the Christmas Edition and would also be held in the East Coast city.

Event moodboard

Venue The event would be held in a 5000 sq.ft venue in the West Village of Lower Manhattan as shown here. The venue space boasts exposed brick walls, a glass ceiling and industrial support structures throughout, which give the space an edgy feel that is fitting for the brand, especially once decorated. The area is also well-reachable to press and notable guests as well as the general public, aligning with Savage X Fenty’s brand value of accessibility, which they show through their price points (Savage X, 2018).

Launch Night Overview The launch night, would be a party that would have Rihanna herself there, the main models associated with the brand and notable friends of the celebrity. Press from major outlets both digital and print would be in attendance, such as the CondÊ Nast publications and Dazed Digital, as well as a large amount of influencers in order to gain as much media coverage as possible using the hashtag #FentyWorld. Reports have shown that millennials have the highest amount of media engagement of all the demographic groups, with the average member of the generation having 18 hours of media consumption a day (Koeppel Direct, 2018), with influencer marketing accounting for a large portion of reasoning behind millennial purchases (Arnold, 2018). Having as much coverage via these routes is therefore important to retainment of Savage X’s consumers.

There would be a press wall that guests can have their photo taken in front of before entering the venue and would be welcomed by their choice of a Savage drink, an Instagrammable-custom-creation off a personalised menu curated by Death & Co; an old-school speakeasy also based in Lower Manhattan, served by Savage X-wearing bartenders. The catering would be informal small bites rather than canapÊs, from nearby Jack’s Sliders and Sushi to fit with the fun nature of the brand, offering options to fit all dietary requirements.

The entertainment for the night would be provided by international DJs Simi & Haze, who are extremely popular with millennials - boasting over 844k Instagram followers -, with a Savage Santa sat giving out Fenty Beauty and Fenty x Puma stocking fillers helped by his Fenty Elfs. Around the venue would be Savage X displays of live models placed in Christmas-themed sets, as well as empty sets that serve as photo opportunities for social media.

Pop-Up The rest of the week, the venue would remain decorated the same, but will be open to the public to purchase goods. The visual merchandising would incorporate the three Fenty brands in colour-coordinating/style-coordinating displays featuring singular products, for example eye/lip makeup from Fenty Beauty that goes with nightwear from Savage X Fenty that coordinates with shoes from Puma x Fenty.

On entrance, customers would be awarded a Fenty Card which would act as a credit card for the store, which would allow them to be able to swipe the products they wish to purchase at the display stands and select sizes and quantities. Then at the ‘checkouts’ you’d be able to swipe your card to a machine and have a Fenty Assistant bring your items to you. This gives the store more of an experience for customers to enjoy the aspect of Fenty Currency as part of the ‘world’ they are in, as well as keeping the store tidy as there wouldn’t be people rummaging through racks. The efficiency of it would also mean that people would be able to walk around the pop-up without having to carry all their items, a bonus for those wanting to interact with aspects of the space/take pictures etc for social media.

The concept of Fenty World comes after many the many studies previously discussed with regards to the success of experiential marketing amongst millennials. Due to Savage X not having a physical retail store, a pop-up/event that is experiential as well as commercially efficient, would benefit the brand immensely and would have consumers excited for Fenty World to come to their city. The added aspects such as the use of Fenty Currency, and the interactive space, creates an immersive relationship between brand and consumer and therefore moves more towards the goal of brand loyalty.

Print Marketing

Contrary to reports in the news that ‘print is dying’ in terms of consumer magazines, especially due to the closure of long-standing magazine NME (Sweney, 2018) and the rise in print of factual news/current affairs (McIntosh, 2017), the next promotional strategy that would be employed by Savage X Fenty is a print magazine.

The reasoning behind this stems from although there have been closures of weekly and monthly magazines, there is definitely still a market for print magazines that occur less frequently, seen by the fact that editor of Glamour, who recently experienced a closure of their print magazines also, stated they would probably still publish magazines on occasion (The Straits Times, 2018). As Savage X Fenty - or any of the Fenty brands - currently do not have any brand publications, and Fenty World wouldn’t be an occurrence more than four times a year, it seems that the idea of print marketing is still appropriate. Also, due to the nature of print dying, it has almost become niche; something that millennials love.

The idea of print magazines for online brands is also something that helps give the consumer a piece of tangible marketing, as the majority of their promotions are based digitally. ASOS, an online competitor, have a brand magazine that they produce in print, as do Net-A-Porter with their PORTER magazine. These print magazines sell/are distributed well amongst their consumers and aren’t currently at threat as they work as a good strategy due to the main brand being digitally-based, alike to Savage X Fenty.

Magazine Concept Following research into print magazines, this brand magazine would launch concurrently with the Fenty World events, under the same campaign, and would therefore only be available for a week seasonally during the same four occasions; Winter/Christmas, Spring/Easter, Summer/4th July, Autumn/Halloween, and would be themed accordingly also.

The publication would be available to those who order from the Savage X online store during these 4 weeks of the year, as well as available to people who shop at the pop-up store/event. The magazine would be called SXF and have the tagline ‘for the savages’. Inside the magazine, there would be content exclusive to the magazine that wouldn’t be available on the website, making it an item that Savage X consumers would want to have their hands on, and would turn the quarterly magazines into collectable items.

Layout & Design The magazine would be largely visual-based. Although containing articles, there are sections of the magazines that will contain just imagery and graphics for double spreads at a time with no real titling, except product information. This is an ongoing editorial thread through the magazine that is there for aesthetics as well as simultaneously advertising the Savage X lingerie, giving the magazine lookbook attributes as well.

Savage X Fenty is quite an edgy brand, with a lot of personality.

The brand magazine would incorporate the darkness and contrasting lightness of tones and moods associated with the brand but would also have a seasonal twist on each edition according to the time of year it is released, which will be obvious from the front cover.

The typography of the magazine also reflects the brand style, and is uniform throughout the publication in terms of same fonts for main headers, sub-headers and taglines, and main body text. As the magazine is visually-led the text is placed in order to be easily read by the audience.

Content Inside, the content for the magazine would stick to the Savage X brand whilst being catered to the season it is based around. For this campaign; Savage Fenty Christmas, some of the suggested content to be shown in realisations would be: • • • • • •

A seasonal letter from Rihanna Colour of the season editorial: Red Christmas Wishlist New pieces editorial throughout Hopes for the New Year Guest journalists

The letter from Rihanna gives consumers of the brand something that feels more personal to the celebrity, an aspect that the majority of Savage X consumers are buying into. In the magazine it would take the place of the typical ‘editor’s note’ at near the front, but will be sandwiched by editorial imagery pages, as will all the other articles in order to break up the amount of body text in the publication.

Colour of the season allows there to be an editorial on all the Savage X pieces that fit the theme of the time of year. This being a Christmas edition, the colour of the season is of course, red.

The feature would covers red lingerie, robes and slips, all photographed in Christmas settings.

An essential part of everyone’s seasonal lead-up is making a Christmas wish list. In the Savage Fenty Christmas magazine, the wish list features holiday Savage X items as well as Fenty Beauty items and Puma x Fenty items, with the incorporation of it but not highlight on it, keeping the magazine on brand for Savage X Fenty but also on brand for the wider campaign of Fenty World.

There is space to fill it out yourself so the magazine is personal to the reader.

New pieces is a purely visual feature that runs throughout the magazine and is only photographic imagery and added graphics. This is used as a visual aid as well as advertising the latest pieces to the Savage X line specifically for the holidays.

Hopes for the New Year is an interactive page in the sense that the owner of the magazine can fill out the gaps for wishes themselves. This allows the consumer to feel like the magazine is more personal to them and also gives them an incentive to hold onto the magazine, as they may want to reflect on their New Year wishes in the months following, possibly when the Spring/Easter edition of Savage Fenty Magazine comes out where there would be a reminder to reflect on the last 3-4 months.

One of Savage X Fenty’s brand values is female empowerment, and a great way to represent this in a publication is having guest writers in for each issue of the magazine. They’d discuss topics about women, their lives, and current movements, giving the readers something to relate to and also giving aspirational writers the chance to feature their writing in a publication that will go worldwide. This also gives readers another element to look forward to, enhancing brand loyalty.

A u d i o -V i s u a l M a r k e t i n g

Over 12 years ago, Alps (2006) stated that audiovisual advertising was the most effective marketing strategy, and this has only grown tenfold since then. The use of fashion film as a form of media advertising is a growing method of brand communication (Díaz Soloaga and García Guerrero, 2016), as it allows them to connect to their consumer in a way they were not able to previously, or a way they aren’t able to through print. Short films capture the attention of consumers, especially millennials, 50% of whom are known to watch an online video at least once a day (Koeppel Direct, 2018). Interactive media content works well as a marketing strategy for obvious reasons, with a lot of information being able to be taken in through watching one short clip, something that appeals to impatient millennials. Often, the brand appeal of a fashion film as an audiovisual marketing strategy, is the lifestyle that they portray through the screenplay, or the character of the actors/models of the film. In the case of Savage X Fenty, the participants of a filmbased advertisement would exude confidence, a brand value of theirs and also something that their consumers want to buy into when they buy the brand; wanting to feel as confident as the girls on film.

Film Concept To gain attention about the new Christmas campaign for the Winter edition of Fenty World, a film would be produced and released a couple weeks before the pop-up/event and dispatch of magazines. The film is what would gain initial attention from consumers and create a buzz and discourse around the campaign, getting people excited for it. In conjunction with the film being released online, on the website, and clips shown on social media, there would be posts about the event subsequent to reaction from the film.

Again there would be a new film every 3 months or so, to signal in the new season, with each one being subtly themed around the time of year.

• Lulu • Anna • Methmi

Models

The models for the films will always feature women or men of differing appearances in terms of ethnic background and body types, to enforce Savage X’s brand values of inclusivity and diversity.

Styling Clothing: Lingerie pieces; lace bodies, bralettes, lace underwear, lace tights, suspender belts, silk robes, lace robes, mesh and feather gown Hair: Natural (for each model), down Makeup: Bold eyes in different colour for each model, pink/purple/gloss lips Locations & Settings: Sketch London Personal Home Bedroom Bathroom Swing Seat Christmas Tree Staircase Hallway Music: Fast Aggressive Dark Trap Instrumental Editing Software: iMovie VideoCrop Groovo RADVHS

Evaluation of strategies

The three promotional strategies all work in conjunction with each other as part of the Savage Fenty Christmas campaign under the wider umbrella campaign Fenty World. They integrate as the timeline of releases are one after another, in the sense that the film will be released first, at the end of November with teasers of it dropping through gif-like clips on social media during the month. With information about the pop-up posted alongside it, the film would then act as an announcement for the event, where subsequently the magazine would be given with pop-up store purchases. The magazine would also be available exclusively for the week of the pop-up with purchases made via the online store.

As the film is released first, the magazine imagery is then a continuation of it, featuring the majority of the same models in the same settings. As the magazine is available only exclusively, the images are something the consumers have been waiting to see after the anticipation being built by the film release.

This type of marketing - building buzz through perceived exclusivity, seen through both the pop-up and the magazine - is extremely effective especially with millennials; Savage X Fenty’s target consumer base.

Evaluation of success Event When regarding the event, success can be measured initially from the turnout of the launch night. If sufficient press and notable influencers and/or celebrities make an appearance, it can be seen to be certain to be positive. Ample media coverage can be an indicator of a successful night, as the following day there will be a hype around it. With the pop-up store following for the week after, success for this can be examined by the amount of customers that turn up to the physical store, how long the wait time is etc.

When people wait in queues, it shows to others that the product or experience they are waiting for it worth their time, reflecting positively on the brand. The ensuing social media marketing that would be derived from posts at the pop-up, and word-of-mouth marketing done by people that manage to attend can be an indicator for success, mostly shown by the turnout of the next Fenty World event in the Spring.

Magazine Evaluating the success of the magazine could be seen as difficult due to there not being any sort of digital record of it, and the fact that they are given with purchases. However, on the Savage X Website, there is a notice regarding the fact that magazines will be given during the week of the pop-up with online orders, and the amount of clicks that notice has can be seen to generate how much interest there is. Also, if the amount of online orders spark during that week, compared to the week prior and the week after, this could be determined to be a way of evaluating the success of the strategy.

Film Due to the film release being first, the evaluation of success will be easy to see early on. With teasers being released on social media in the build-up to the launch, the reaction online will make it clear to see how successful this method will be. The amount of engagement the initial posts get show the potential for the future, and when the film is eventually dropped, the amount of views, clicks, likes, comments and shares will be ample to be able to evaluate how successful this marketing strategy is, as well as looking as the amount of purchases made from clicks of the video.

Future Growth As mentioned earlier, the future growth for this campaign would be for it to be continual and branch out to different cities across the world every 4 months, perhaps having the Spring edition of Fenty World in Osaka, Japan, during cherry blossom season, with the flower being the main source of inspiration for the collection, film, magazine and event.

As the campaign also involves people worldwide during the week of the pop-up due to the magazine etc being available online, a social media movement could begin, and have the hashtag #FentyWeek circulating globally during these 4 weeks of the year.

All of this would enhance the brands image, possibly increase its consumer base by reaching out to other countries, and increasing its potential for brand loyalty amongst its current consumers.

Reflective Statement After studying creative marketing strategies throughout the semester, I have found that I have enjoyed a wider range of techniques than I had anticipated. I personally really enjoy the visual aspects of marketing such as advertising, film and magazines as I very much enjoy utilising my CAD skills, and I realised I can use them in other aspects such as events too.

Next semester I look forward to combining my visual skills with my written skills to realise my final project.

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