PROCESS BOOK T A R G E T V I S U A L I S A T I O N G R O U P 1
LIFESTYLE INFLUENCER FREE INDEPENDENT
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The typical influencer doesn‘t read that much. They like to spend most of their time on their prefered social media platforms such as Instagram (in most cases) to keep in touch with their follower base. Almost everything they do is immediately being shared on their story to showcase it to the world. And that doesn‘t differ within the different categories of inlfuencers (lifestyle, sports, music, …). Obviously influencers have a (self-chosen) lack of annonymity (wether that‘s online or in the offline world) due to their achieved fame. They are more interested into chart music since they‘re being surrounded by that while spending time on TikTok. Due to a vast ammount of sponsorships by all kinds of brands they are steadily supplied with new garments and lifestyle products such as fitness teas, shakes, beauty products, etc. on a weekly basis. Still, they like to spend their money on shopping sprees and on the night-out with friends. They rarely cook themself since they can now afford to eat out almost every day and spend time at nice cafés and restaurants. They live in a big modern city apartment with a nice and well thought-through interior since - obviously - they‘re gonna share their time at home in the same way as their time spent outside of their home. So a general feeling for aesthetic is necessary. To succeed in the steadily growing field of influencers a weekly meeting with their (image) managers is necessary for the success of their account and to keep up with the trends.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS WEEK 1 BRANDING FUNDAMENTALS
p. 6
VISUAL ANALYSIS
p. 8
MARKET RESEARCH
p. 10
DESIGN SKILLS
p. 12
WEEK 2 BRANDING FUNDAMENTALS
p. 14
VISUAL ANALYSIS
p. 18
MARKET RESEARCH
p. 22
DESIGN SKILLS
p. 24
WEEK 3 VISUAL ANALYSIS
p. 26
MARKET RESEARCH
p. 28
DESIGN SKILLS
p. 30
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WEEK 4 VISUAL ANALYSIS
p. 32
MARKET RESEARCH
p. 34
DESIGN SKILLS
p. 36
FINAL CONLUSIONS BRANDING FUNDAMENTALS
p. 38
VISUAL ANALYSIS
p. 38
MARKET RESEARCH
p. 38
DESIGN SKILLS
p. 39
REASON WHY I DIDN‘T ADD CONSUMER RESEARCH AND PHOTOGRAPHY TO MY PROCESS BOOK
p. 39
IMPROVEMENTS FOR NEXT ASSIGNMENTS
p. 39
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WEEK 1 “Products are made in the factory & Brands are created in the mind“ - WALTER LANDOR -
A brand is a mix of material and immaterial. Material: clothing, retail space, packaging & advertising. Intangible: meaning, values, emotions & feeling. Branding arises from a body of thought, a belief, a myth, a history from which the brand story is told and shaped.
Branding plants seeds in the brain and is closely linked to emotions. Emotions not only make judgements, they also trigger automatic physical reactions. Our emotions stimulate preference, choice, satisfaction and loyalty. Having a certain feeling or association causes us to buy or choose something. Branding is a difficult concept to define. To explain to your customers that your brand is much more than just a logo, colours and a slogan is often difficult. A brand effects all aspects of an organisation. It‘s all about the total picture!
Neuro branding Cortex Responsible for logic, learning, language, conscious thoughts and our personality. So in this part the conscious choices are made. Limbic system Responsible for emotions, moods, memory and our personality. R-complex Controls primary necessities of life such as hunger, breathing, fighting & flight reactions. Takes in stimuli and converts them into emotions. Hippocampus Where memory is stored
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VISUAL ANALYSIS TOOLSHOP OBJECTIVES • To understand that the f ield of branding practices attaching meaning and values to products in attempt to identify with different groups of consumers • Identifying the right values for a consumer segment is key to targeting them (importance of insight and research) • Values/expressions have different meanings to different target groups
WHY SEGMENT A MARKET? • Divides the market into different consumer groups based on their needs and desires • Enables a company to concentrate its efforts on a certain target group • Products and communication can be attuned specifically to that group • Studying a target group means trends can be detected early
WHAT IS TARGET GROUP VISUALISATION? • To Target Group Visualization is therefore the image that a certain group of consumers brings to mind • With Target Group Visualization you must make it clear for whom the product is intended; you must describe/show the chosen target group in a way that gives it life. • Visualisation: To be able to form a mental image or imagine
In order to successfully market a product it is utterly important to focus on segmenting the market and finding the fitting target group for the product. To do that, many different aspects have to be taken into account when researching the given target group. What is their annual income? How old are they? Are they single or do they already have a family? Maybe the children already moved out? In what sports are they interested? Where do they usually shop for groceries? This information is necessary to create an idea of how the target group‘s life looks like and to successfully brand to them. One can say that research is the key element to then be able to create a decent campaign, product, or anything else that wants to be sold.
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FREE INDEPENDENTS
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MARKET RESEARCH SIX STEPS IN MARKET RESEARCH 1.Problem definition , your main research question and sub questions
•What do you want to know ? Which questions do you need to answer to execute the assignment successfuly
2. The structure of the study
•Which research methods are you going to use •Which sources/ respondents are you going to consult? •Design any assets you need for the study (e.g., questionnaires) and test them
3. Collect the data
•Collect the data and record them in your process book (including the sources!)
4. Analyse the data and interpret the results
•Record the conclusions in your process book
5. Report and present your findings
•In the end, you will present the findings of the study in your Jeans Brand Database
6. Implement the results
•In the end, you will use the results to create a Fashion Retail Environment
TARGET GROUP SEGMENTATION Target group segmentation = Dividing the consumer market into different groups of homogeneous consumers. The aim is to discover which kinds of consumers with different needs are out there Segment = A group of consumers with certain similar characteristics that influence their purchasing behaviour, needs and wishes Ultimate objective = Letting the brand and the marketing match the specific needs and wishes of the target group as well as possible
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DESK RESEARCH VS. FIELD RESEARCH Desk research = research of secondary data = existing information, for example research that has been done by others (i.e. research agencies ) collected , grouped and analysed Field research = research of primairy data = data you will collect yourself as a (market) research especially for your study
SEGMENTATION WITHIN THE FASHION INDUSTRY Geographic = Climate, season, customs, etc. Demographic = Gender, age, income, profession, etc. Psychographic Personality = Introvert versus extravert Lifestyle = identity, social aspirations, peer group, type of work and sports / leisure activities = values/ ideas about (e.g.) politics, art & culture or environmental issues
Purchasing behaviour = fun shopping versus run shopping, value hunter or premium hunter, innovator or follower
Purchase motivation = low maintenance clothing, organic fabrics, wear resistant clothing, etc.
THE IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH • It gives you knowledge & insights • Gives you inspiration • It helps you to look at things differently , free from judgement and false assumptions • And helps you to find new possibilities , options , come up with new ideas • It helps you to make choices • You can test your ideas before you execute them • It helps you to give foundation for your idea and helps you to sell it
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DESIGN SKILLS In the first lesson we were shown different types of Dioramas / Showboxes in order to get an idea of what were supposed to do for the first assessment. We were then put into breakout rooms to start experimenting with composition and lighting with our three personal objects. The following screenshots of the Miro workplace are meant to show that exercise.
JASMIJN‘S PROCESS PAGE
MY PROCESS PAGE
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JASMIJN‘S FINALISED COMPOSITION
MY FINALISED COMPOSITION
At first I got the assignment wrong. We were supposed to experiment with the composition with all three objects at the same time but I focussed on one object at a time in order to see which composition works best for each one of them. Then I tried to support the compositions by adding light in an interesting way, also in order to highlight some details of my objects (e.g. the golden bracelet where I highlighted the nametag on it). Though I went for a differnt approach of the assignment it helped me to understand the function of lighting better. It really helped me to go for the second assignment in the Design Skills Toolshop where we had to transform our shoebox into a living room within 30 minutes. I really liked the outcome because the way I used the lighting made the whole scenario seam very realistc even though it was made in 30 minutes and only with the help of cut-out furniture from some architectural magazines I‘ve been collecting for the last couple of years.
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WEEK 2 WHAT IS A CONCEPT? AN IDEA Behind a product or service or collection, brand, campaign, artwork, film, piece of music, dance etc. Often this starts from a feeling, a thought, an opinion on a trend or a vision.
• It is urgent to explain something is something that is naturally present in humans. Man needs an intention, a thought, a feeling, an interpretation, a meaning. • Markets are saturated, everything has been thought up before, but there is always a need for meaning. As time changes, new meanings are created that demand new brands.
PRODUCT BRANDS VS. CONCEPT BRANDS Concept brands are brands that represent a certain body of thought; visions, attitudes, beliefs, areas of interest, worldviews (etc) that have a meaning for the consumer. People join the brand (not a target group but a follower group). Boss „Innovate, don‘t imitate“ is so attractive, that besides clothing and cosmetics there are also underwear, jewellery, watches and glasses. All with the same „Boss feeling“ Think also of Ikea, Bodyshop, Nike, Diesel etc.
CONCEPTS AROUND THE CONCEPT CONCEPT An idea behind a product or service. Such as a collection, brand, campaign, work of art, film, piece of music, dance, etc. CONCEPT THINKING Developing an idea, the process before you come to a concept. Broad research, out-of-the-box thinking, problem definition vs. solution. CONCEPTING Is the entire process of finding, establishing, translating and propagating a body of thought. BRAND CONCEPT The idea behind the brand. The mental place that a brand occupies. Unique, distinctive, unique, unambiguous and relevant.
Brands are often more than things, more than products. Brands have a meaning and represent a body of thought. ‘Concepting‘ is the entire process of finding, establishing and propagating that body of thought. This results in a short & powerful brand concept that forms the basis for the brand identity. Vision, mission and values are concepts that help to capture, interpret and share the identity.
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RESEARCH
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VISUAL ANALYSIS After looking for fitting visuals to our assigned target group we went into dividing our target group into sub-segments. We ended up with the following categories:
ACTIVISTS YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS LIFESTYLE INFLUENCERS
MARKET SEGMENTATION & ADVERTISING •Social identity is linked to dress but not always directly linked, for example, that would mean every time we change our look our social identity changes •Rather identity (or an aspect of identity) would seem to be linked not to particular dress styles but rather to an individuals position in the ever changing fashion cycle. •Fashion provides us with the kaleidoscope of ourselves, multiple possibilities of who we are and could be. • As these cycles speed up, it has led to connections of postmodernity and fashion as the epitome of consumer orientated, image driven society where meanings are increasingly less fixed and more chaotic • Consumers do not so much buy identity through their consumption of particular goods as ‘discover’ it be exposing themselves to a wide variety of products and experiences and then carefully monitoring their reactions to these as part of a process of coming to realize ‘who they really are’.
The role of advertising has been to attach meaning and create identity for the goods or services it promotes. A process known as branding. Target group visualization is the visualization of a consumer’s identity through their possessions. Our lifestyles are visualized by our possessions and spending habits. Brand associations are drilled into our heads. If a brand is repeatedly associated with certain qualities, advertisers hope that we may subconsciously believe we will adopt those qualities by wearing that brand.
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ASSIGNMENT Each individual choose a sub-segment (from the next assignment) from your combined target group research. And for your own individual sub-segment create a digital mood-board to convey who they are. No images of people, only lifestyle, products, brands that bring this person to life. (Research on next page)
ASSIGNMENT: DESCRIBE THE SUB-SEGMENT The typical influencer doesn‘t read that much. They like to spend most of their time on their prefered social media platforms such as Instagram (in most cases) to keep in touch with their follower base. Almost everything they do is immediately being shared on their story to showcase it to the world. And that doesn‘t differ within the different categories of inlfuencers (lifestyle, sports, music, …). Obviously influencers have a (self-chosen) lack of annonymity (wether that‘s online or in the offline world) due to their achieved fame. They are more interested into chart music since they‘re being surrounded by that while spending time on TikTok. Due to a vast ammount of sponsorships by all kinds of brands they are steadily supplied with new garments and lifestyle products such as fitness teas, shakes, beauty products, etc. on a weekly basis. Still, they like to spend their money on shopping sprees and on the night-out with friends. They rarely cook themself since they can now afford to eat out almost every day and spend time at nice cafés and restaurants. They live in a big modern city apartment with a nice and well thought-through interior since - obviously - they‘re gonna share their time at home in the same way as their time spent outside of their home. So a general feeling for aesthetic is necessary. To succeed in the steadily growing field of influencers a weekly meeting with their (image) managers is necessary for the success of their account and to keep up with the trends.
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RESEARCH
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MARKET RESEARCH ABOUT OBSERVATIONS Systematic observing & analysing of a natural situation or natural behaviour You can get a lot of valuable information by observing people on the street: Style of clothing Location Behaviour Conversations Company Mode of transport Shopping behaviour
- Style, taste, spending pattern (toolshop Target Visualisation) - Where do you meet them? - How do they behave? How do they come across? - What is on their minds? - With whom do they spend their time? - How do they move? - Where do they shop? And what do they shop? (bags)
ABOUT QUESTIONNAIRES research according to a standardized & structured list with questions Different kinds: face-to-face, online, on the phone Advantages •You can question a lot of people in a short time period •You can easily compare characteristics, opinions and preferences of different groups of people Disadvantages •You cannot judge the context; there is no room to ask further questions like “why”? •You get litle insight in emotions, feelings, motives of respondents
DIFFERENT KIND OF QUESTIONS Open vs. closed Open = respondent has the freedom to answer whatever he/she wants •Advantage: respondent is not limited to the given options •Disadvantage: are usually skipped in a questionnaire & process these questions cost more time and is more difficult to analyse Closed = respondent selects an answer from the list •Advantage: answers can be processed and analysed easily •Disadvantage: the possibilities are limited •Make sure all options are present! Or add the option ‘other…..’ or ‘not applicable’ or ‘no opinion’ 22
SETTING UP A QUESTIONNAIRE 1. Introduction •who is presenting this questionnaire and why •motivation to engage the respondent and to answer honestly 2. Filter questions •is the respondent really part of the target group (segment)? 3. Main questions •by subject, from wide to narrow 4. Personal information •e.g. age, gender, income, level of education 5. Closing & thank you
THREATS WHILE CONSTRUCTING THE QUESTIONNAIRE Biggest threat of the reliability of market research is the risk of bias (influence), by: The researcher •The researcher sticks to its own assumptions and hypotheses •Interpretations of what the researcher sees/ hears/ reads •Non verbal communication during contact with the respondents Wording •The wording of the question can influence the result •The order of the questions can influence the results The respondent •Wrong respondents (not matching your segment / sub-segment) •Socially acceptable answers
IMPORTANT WHILE CONSTRUCTING THE QUESTIONNAIRE Look at your main- & sub questions and decide what you want to know Use language / words that respondents understand and formulate questions that cannot be interpretated in different ways Ask questions that are objective and not directive (do not prime words) Group questions about the same subject together For each subject ask general, easy, quick questions first and then the more personal, more difficult questions Make your questions as short & simple as possible; do not ask too many questions 23
DESIGN SKILLS HOW TO CREATE DEPTH •layering or overlap •perspective in images and form •positioning (frontside - backside) •size difference •color saturation •sharpness •light
ASSIGNMENT Create two settings and describe which of your design aspects were applied. use: shoebox, images in magazines individually for 30 minutes. record: photographs, notes, sketches 2D and 3D
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I was actually suprised that I managed to come up with a living room in just 30 minutes. Usually I‘m struggling a little bit with my time management when it comes to very short assignments. My preparation for the toolshop helped me though to come up with the set-up for the shoe box living room really quick. I looked through a large ammount of architectural magazines that I‘ve been collecting for the past several years to search for fitting furniture for my room. I then took my knowledge about lighting which I gained in the first Design Skills Toolshop in order to come up with a good lighting source and technique to make the room look more realistic. I really like the end result since I‘ve achieved to create a realistic looking living room within 30 minutes even though the time pressure made the whole process quite stressful. But it also motivates me to really come up with a nice plan for my Diorama.
OTHER LIGHTING EXPERIMENTS
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WEEK 3 VISUAL ANALYSIS ASSIGNMENT Look at the target group mood-boards. Individually look at each mood-board and share your feedback on stickies for each:
• What values are strong in this mood-board? • Note the lifestyle tastes, style, interests, strong beliefs - you identify. • Can you guess the sub-segment? Note why you think this? • Is there a risk it could be mistaken for another target group and why?
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The feedback regarding my sub segment moodboard has helped me enormously to go further with my research and work on my diorama. I‘m generally happy that I was able to portray my target group through my choice of imagery and that it was clear to the viewer (based on the feedback I received on the sticky notes in miro). Though the moodboard is very stereotypical for an influencer I think it‘s still going to be quite a challenge to build up that same charakter in my diorama. That‘s what I‘m still a little bit anxious about. But since the feedback was overall really good I look forward starting on my living room moodboard and the actual diorama.
How Much Money Does an Instagram Influencer Make?
How Much Money Does an Instagram Influencer Make? | Petal. (n.d.). Petal. Retrieved October 3, 2020, from https://www.petalcard.com/blog/ money-instagram-influencer-make
In Order to get a better understanding of what the apartment itself should be build up like I think it‘s important to take a look at the money an influencer aproximately makes with their posts. Since my target group is Free Independet it is more likely for my sub segment to still be in the making of a flattering online appereance, meaning that their follower count is probably not going to surpass the number of 200.000 followers on their accounts. The article I read listed the general earning one does make on Instagram based on their follower count, which in the end is going to help me to understand how much money my sub segment actually has available to spend it on an apartment. It Pays to be Popular While climbing the influencer ladder, it’s common to get paid more per post if you have a higher follower count. This logic stems from the idea that the more eyes that see the content, the more brands are willing to pay. But what determines that magic number one must hit before these posts actually become profitable? < 10,000 Followers “Micro” influencers have anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 followers. Unlike your popular friend that has acquired this many followers by posting cool stuff, the people behind these handles are vying to grow their page around a specific niche. According to a recent survey, these accounts can make up to, on average, $88.00 per post. However, most micro-influencers hold off on charging upfront so they can first garner a larger, long-term presence. < 100,000 Followers One self-proclaimed „foodstagrammer“ currently holds 72,000 followers. While hundreds of likes swarm in for each post, the account is waiting to monetize their work until at least hitting the 100,000 mark – which is the “socially acceptable” marker. It’s somewhat of an unspoken rule that influencers can expect to be paid $10.00 for every 1,000 followers they have, once they hit the 100,000 threshold. Charging for posts before hitting this may result in getting paid less, or settling before the account has fully bloomed. Influencers with 50,000 to 80,000 followers get around $200.00 per post, but the price point changes based on the advertiser. Some accounts make deals with brands to post promotional codes on their feed, and everytime a new person uses their code, they make a percentage of the sale. Other accounts opt into giveaway deals that purely boost their follower count. Whether these middle-tier accounts are maintaining their presence on the side working vigorously to turn their accounts into a full-time career, their followings are impressive. 27
MARKET RESEARCH For this weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s market research lesson we in our target group came up with a questionnaire that we set up on Google Forms and sent out to our friends to get a better understanding both of our target group and our sub segments. Down below you will find a selection of charts that Google Forms created for us based on the answers that were given throughout the questoinnaire.
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At the end of the questionnaire we were left with 25 participants that answered all our questions. One thing that really stood out to me was how divided our target group is when it comes to social media. While 32% state that social media is an enrichment for their lives, 36% disagreed or strongly disagreed to that statement. I personally would‘ve expected a higher percentage for people that disagree with that statement but in the end it was good to see that our target group doesn‘t solely rely on social media and that they are still interested in what‘s going on in the outside world. We then went on to create three segmentation maps for our target group:
MOST IMPORTANT RESULTS: •Diverse range of role models (entrepeneurs, tech people, politicians, feminists, pop-stars •Clothing stores ranged from fast fashion, eco- friendly, thrift stores •High interest and devotion to art/culture places •Most people were on the left wing side of the politcal spectrum, with a few expectations •Most could name multiple things they did to combat climate change •The high majority of them valued their social position/life highly •Engaged with politics and economics •Majority cared about their appearance (clothes and features) •All of them cared about their individuality CONCLUSION Personal Identiy is highly valued among Free Independents: Their buying behavior, political opinios, interest, leisure time activities, career ambitions and social media all together form this identity. WE CONDENSED OUR RESULTS INTO THREE CATEGORIES: •Young entrepeneurs (career focused individuals, set on being their own boss/building their own company) •Lifestyle influencers (social media connoisseurs, have a personal brand, present idealized life online) •Activists (actively involved in progressive causes, finds art/culture important) Now that our sub segements have become way clearer through the questionnaire it‘s now time to start working on the diorama, since the questionnaire hase given us a good insight into our segment‘s personalites.
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DESIGN SKILLS In order to make the planning of our diorama more structured deep we set up a scenario for our diorama in small breakout rooms and gave feedback to oneanother. ASSIGNMENT
• Do your individual experimentation on your personal ‘scrap‘ frame. • Reflect on eachother‘s compositions (both in Zoom and place Sticky Notes in Miro.
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This exercise has helped me tremendously to come up with an actual plan for my Diorama. Though I already had a general picture in mind of how I would want to design the Diorama and set it up, actually coming up with 12 of the most important items for my target group has helped me to finalize that image in my head. I‘m probably not going to use all of the things I mentioned above though because I‘ll have to check if they actually work in the diorama or if they make things more confusing than they should actually be. I was actually really anxious about creating the diorama. I‘m normally not the type of person that likes to do crafting in general, to be honest I don‘t like it at all. But with the classes we had in the past weeks I feel like I‘m well prepared to start forming the Diorama and I also think the outcome is going to be quite decent. Since I‘m planning to create my actual Diorama in the coming fall break I spent some time after the lecture to work on a floor plan for my living room. I really like the idea of adding a mirror to a second wall which is placed in the middle of the room to the Diorama have more deepness and to make it look more realistic. I‘m still not quite sure about the kitchen area though. I think I‘m going to transform it into a greenscreen and video-producing area to make it more clearer to the viewer that he‘s actually looking at a living room of a lifestyle influencer. 31
WEEK 4 VISUAL ANALYSIS ASSIGNMENT The Assignment for this weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s class of Visual Analysis was creating a moodboard that is packed with images and rich in information in order to portray the sub segment and their living room in the best way possible. Down below you will find my first moodboard that I created and the reworked version based on the feedback that I got for my first one.
The overall feedback that I got for this moodboard was that it looks too expensive and too rich to be the apartment of an uprising lifestyle influencer. I put my focus on making the living room look visually aesthetic and pleasing while keeping a modern look to it. But I do get the criticism that a young influencer would probably not be able to afford such an apartment (especially if you look at the three images on the left hand side of the moodboard). Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s definitely set for creating my Diorama is that the apartment itself is going to be located in a big city (e.g. New York, Amsterdam, London, Paris etc.) so I started looking for pictures of small studio apartments in such places. With that gained information I went on to create the reworked version of my moodboard and tried to add a few more objects to the upper right corner where I placed all the objects and brands that will be placed in my Diorama. 32
REWORKED VERSION OF MY MOADBOARD
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MARKET RESEARCH Making the In-Depth interview was actually quite a challenge for because it was hard to find an influencer who was willing to make an interview or that had time in their schedule. In the end I found one girl (@chloesalysse) who replied to my e-mail I sent her and we were able to have a little phone call to make interviewing her a little bit easier.
When did you begin venturing into social media and launching your blog? What was your motivation for getting started? “I started my blog and Instagram page about two years ago. I was working full-time in marketing, “beer
marketing” specifically which is pretty funny. I studied all the advertising stuff in college so I had that experience under my belt but there was no fashion there. I had one small internship at a boutique but I really wanted to work in the fashion industry. I’ve always loved putting outfits together but full disclosure, I just couldn’t get a job after I graduated. So I decided to just do my own thing and started posting photos of my outfits.“
At what point did you feel that it was possible to make a career out of being a fashion influencer?
“Honestly, I just quit my job. I quit this past March and was juggling both that and the blog for a year and a half but I knew that my goal was to quit. I was sticking with the marketing job because it had given me some flexibility to work on the blog but it was just one of those things where I was burning the candle at both ends. I was so exhausted and was only giving 50 percent in both aspects. Something had to give and once I realized that the numbers were adding up, it just made sense to leave and start focusing on my own thing—it was time. I finally took that leap and it worked out!“
In your opinion, what makes for a great influencer? What would you say to those people who don’t consider it a “real” job? “I think there’s a lot of layers that go into it, one of which is obviously connecting with your audience. I mean literally talking to them and answering comments, DMs, engaging with their personal content and profiles. It’s super important because it shows that you’re a real person not just some fantasy-unattaina ble-Instagram-thing. It’s like I’m your friend. Talking logistics, good photography definitely helps, as well as being easy to work with, being flexible and staying true to yourself. Also, hashtagging. Hashtagging is so important it’s crazy. It honestly helps your content come to the surface so much and you have to make sure that you’re being active on your account too. For me personally, I do everything in terms of running a business. I answer my own emails, shoot and sty le my own photoshoots, I write, I take care of the SEO, I track down my money and do my invoicing—the list goes on. So if someone were to say that this isn’t a “real” job, I’d say live in my shoes for a day. It’s definitely not your typical 9-to-5 job, it’s a 24/7 job.“
What effect, if any, do you think fashion influencers have had on our buying habits?
“It’s kind of crazy. For example, you see something in a magazine, a model, and obviously she looks stunning but then you think, “I could never pull that off.” At the same time, you go on Instagram and see someone that’s your average Joe, someone you probably went to highschool with wearing something and think, “that looks so cool! I didn’t think I could pull that off but seeing how she wore it and styled it, I can go buy that.” So I think it’s really increasing buying habits, especially online. It makes fashion more relatable, like getting advice from a friend instead of some random fashion editor who said this particular thing was amazing. The audience is looking to us for information and for a real perspective.“ 34
Describe to us what a typical day is like for you.
“I usually get up around 7:30. I have the most energy in the morning so that’s when I like to sit down with my coffee and just blow through all my emails. My day starts as soon as I wake up so I don’t really have a specific routine I follow. Around 11:00 or so I remember that I should probably eat something and then I get ready for my meetings which are usually in the city. Those wrap up around 3:00 or 4:00 and then I do my shoots in the evening because I like the lighting. So I’ll shoot a couple looks or sometimes I’ll be out attending events. I get home around 8:30 or 9:00 and I’ll either do more work because there’s something due or l’ll watch a TV show and go to bed. It’s all fun but they’re long days. “
What advice would you give to those looking to get into the social media/influencer business?
“There are a couple main things. One is being consistent, especially when you’re first starting out. Things like posting at the same time everyday help your audience know when to look for your content. Two, hashtag the shit out of your photos. Seriously. People don’t like it because they think it looks weird or they’re cheating but it’s so dumb if you don’t. That’s the way your content is going to get the most eyes on it. Tagging brands is important too. Also, engagment. If you’re not engaging with other people you’re not going to reach as many people. Especially with the new algorithm, which, honestly,I’m still trying to figure out. I guess the last thing would be strong imagery. Instagram is all about the images. Having a blog helps but 98 percent of my traffic comes from Instagram. Oh, and obviously staying true to yourself. That’s a big one.“ I‘m really happy that I actually found someone to interview for my sub segment. In the last market research class I already told our coach Marko that I was having struggle to find someone suitable for my interview. He advised me to also look for people that are not per se influencers but are closely related to the business or work together with influencers. Since that didn‘t work out as well I‘m really happy that I found her to make the interview. Because she was on a tough time schedule as well we didn‘t had much time to do the interview but I think I managed to both show what her daily life looks like and how she approaches her business. With the information I gained, especially that she does video producing during the evenging, that really helped me to work more on my Diorama because now I know that I‘m defiintely gonne get rid of the kitchen section I had in my floor plan and instead make a video producing are with a greenscreen, ringlights and a camera in that part of the Diorama.
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DESIGN SKILLS On this page you will find imagery that shows my Diorama in it‘s making and the end results, meaning one picture of the full living room and my detail shot. I tried not to overcrowd the apartment since most influencers spend most of their time doing business meetings outside their apartment and only really use it to relax and produce their content. I‘m really satisfied with my end result and I think I managed to create a Diorama that shows my sub segment quite well without making it too specific since I didn‘t want to focus on one sector of the influencer business but create an apartment that shows content creators in general, since that‘s what influencers really are.
F R O M S K E T C H
T O F L O O R P L A N
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T O T A L S H O T
I‘m really happy with the way my Diorama turned out, especially since I was not really looking forward to creating it in the beginning of the last few weeks. I still didn‘t like actually building it too much but the end result was definitely worth it I think.
D E T A I L
I changed the kitchen area which I had planned in the beginning to a video creating area with a greenscreen, a ringlight and a camera on a tripod. The apartment is filled with Zalando boxes since influencers get send a lot of products for marketing purposes on social media. Adding to that my individual is currently working on a Zalando Unboxing Video for it‘s own Youtube Channel.
S H O T
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FINAL CONLUSIONS BRANDING FUNDAMENTALS The reason I only added the first two weeks of Branding Fundamentals is that the class itself wasn‘t
related to the Diorama assignment but I gained quite a lot of knowleder in how to approach branding and how branding in general works. Branding plants seeds in the brain and is closely linked to emotions. Emotions not only make judgements, they also trigger automatic physical reactions. Our emotions stimula te preference, choice, satisfaction and loyalty. Having a certain feeling or association causes us to buy or choose something. Branding is a difficult concept to define. To explain to your customers that your brand is much more than just a logo, colours and a slogan is often difficult. A brand effects all aspects of an organisation. It‘s all about the total picture! I also added the moodboard assignment be cause it helped me to approach moodboards in a better way than before. Making a trend moodboard on the one hand and a brand moodboard on the other hand was a really nice experience because we really had to focus on only supplying the moodboard with the information that‘s necessary, but not to overcrowd it with imagery and text. The knowledge I gained in that class helped me tremendously to go for the living room moodboard we had to do for Visual Analysis
VISUAL ANALYSIS In the beginning i didn‘t really know what to expect from the Visual Analysis classes. That‘s simply becau
se I had little idea of what they would actually be about. I gotta say though that when I look back at them I really enjoyed them. I was struggling a bit in the beginning to translate my research into imagery and find fitting visuals for the moodboards we had to create. But I like the way how feedback sessions were implemented into all the Visual Analysis classes because that really helped me to understand how to make my living room moodboard for example easier to understand for a viewer and really work with fitting visuals for it. Also the living room moodboard assignment has helped me hugely to come up with a plan for my living room. As I stated before I had a general idea of what I wanted my Diorama to look like but the feedback session on my moodboard and actually creating it has made the pro cess of creating the Diorama way easier. I have to say that I really like creating moodboards and that‘s definitely something I‘m gonna keep on doing within my AMFI career (for assignments I have to make) but also for projects outside of AMFI because now I really know the importance of a decent moodboard and how it can make work way easier.
MARKET RESEARCH The Market Research classes were kinda tough for me in the beginning. I had never set up a questionnaire
in such size. But with the help of my group members, which made it possible for me to consult them if I had any questions regarding Market Research, the whole project became way easier to follow than if it had been an individual project. I don‘t want to say that I wouldn‘t have succeeded in that case but it made things just way more comfortable for me. Also I just want to stay that my group members were really nice to work with and I feel like we‘ve been very productive throughout the last few weeks. When it came to conducting the in-depth interview (as I already stated) I had problems with finding someone to do the interview with but when that also worked out in the end the whole thing beca me more easy and it made my Diorama definitely more accurate than it would have been without the interview. The knowledge I gained regarding setting up questionnaires and coming up with fitting and interesting questions is probably going to be very practical in the next coming years and my career in the future since I now know that doing market research is key in order to come up with a decent brand model or anything that is related to that. 38
DESIGN SKILLS For Design Skills it was sort-of the same as for Visual Analysis. I didn‘t really know what to expect from
the classes and when I heard that they would be about creating the Diorama I wasn‘t to excited about that since I‘m not a fan of doing creative crafts (e.g. glueing and cutting out stuff e.g.). But I have to say that I not only really enjoyed the classes in the end, they definitely supplied me with the knowledge I needed for creating a decent Diorama. Also all the break-out rooms we did and the fact that feedback was even more important in this class as in any other class that really kept me motivated and inspired to go for my Diorama. In the end - even though I really wouldn‘t have expected it - it was a really pleasant experience and I‘m glad I sticked to it.
REASON WHY I DIDN‘T ADD CONSUMER RESEARCH AND PHOTOGRAPHY TO MY PROCESS BOOK The main reason for to not add consumer research and photography to my process book was simply
because to me there wasn‘t a real process when it comes to those classes. I gained a lot of knowledge on how to use lighting in my diorama through the Design Skills classes by the exercise where we had to create different compositions and play with lighting. Since we already used the lighting in the shoebox we created it was easy to transfer that knowledge to my Diorama. And it‘s basically the same for consumer research. Those classes were nice to get feedback but I don‘t really feel like they ad ded to my process. And since I only wanted to add the things that played an important role in my process that‘s why I left them out.
FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS • I will definitely approach the whole process book making a little different for the next assignments. I‘m going to write down conclusions of every class right after they end because that‘s gonna safe me a huge ammount of time when actually working on the process book itself. Even though I didn‘t run into much stress this time (which was definitely not the case last year because my time management honestly sucked last year) but I‘m trying to make my whole way of working just way more efficient and less stressful for me • I‘m going to make an extra document for all the miro links for the next assignment. It was a real pitty to go back to all of them and to actually find the links. Again, this is more about making my way of working more efficent and time saving so that there‘s more time to actually focus on the given assignments • I‘ll stick to collecting my research in Microsoft OneNote but I‘ll make the whole thing more organized just so that it doesn‘t look to sloppy. But that‘s just a personal favor of mine.
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SOURCES 1. Yates, M. D. (2020, May 8). MR Online | Trump, neo-fascism, and the COVID-19 Pandemic. MR Online. https://mronline.org/2020/04/11/trump-neo-fascism-and-the-covid-19-pandemic/ 2. Wikipedia contributors. (2002, April 11). Neo-fascism. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Neo-fascism 3. Pressigny, C. (2018, December 4). how diversity in fashion became about democracy. I-d. https://id.vice.com/en_us/article/bjeyza/how-diversity-in-fashion-became-about-democracy 4. Ahmed, O. A. (2019, September 30). balenciaga turns power, and power dressing, on its head. I-d. https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/8xwmwb/balenciaga-ss20-pfw-review 5. Nast, C. (2019, September 29). Balenciaga Spring 2020 Ready-to-Wear Collection. Vogue. https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2020-ready-to-wear/balenciaga 6. Lang, C. (2020, February 18). Balenciaga’s Ad Campaign Is a Terrifyingly Stressful Dystopian Newscast. Time. https://time.com/5786030/balenciaga-dystopian-newscast/ 7. Encyclopedia Britannica. (n.d.). Fascism - Common characteristics of fascist movements. Retrieved September 27, 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/fascism/Common-characteristics-offascist-movements 8. Wilson, J. (2018, February 9). Hiding in plain sight: how the “alt-right” is weaponizing irony to spread fascism. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/23/altright-online-humor-as-a-weapon-facism 9. 9 Brands Who Nailed Influencer Marketing and Got Amazing Results. (2020, October 8). GRIN Influencer Marketing Software. https://grin.co/blog/brands-using-influencer-marketing/ 10. Spruch-Feiner, S. (2020, January 8). These 9 Influencer-Founded Beauty Brands Are The Ones You Should Know. Glam. https://www.glam.com/beauty/best-influencer-founded-beauty-brands 11. Food Influencers: The Biggest Food Trends of 2018. (n.d.). Brandwatch. Retrieved October 1, 2020, from https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/react-food-trends-2018/ 12. The Importance of Social Media Influencers - Agency List. (n.d.). Agency List. Retrieved September 28, 2020, from https://agencylist.org/blog/the-importance-of-social-media-influencers 13. Knowles, M. (2017, June 22). Why have avocados become so popular? Fruitnet. http://www.fruitnet.com/eurofruit/article/172578/why-have-avocados-become-so-popular 14. Hansen, R. (2016, October 26). Rise of the Mobile Influencer. Smartphone Exec. https://www. smartphoneexec.com/rise-of-the-mobile-influencer/
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THIS IS
THE END
OF MY PROCESS BOOK
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