Design Publication - Specifics , A Study of Context.
What is a brand? The process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumers’ mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme. Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.
What is a brand personalities? A brand personality is something to which the consumer can relate, and an effective brand will increase its brand equity by having a consistent set of traits. This is the added-value that a brand gains, aside from its functional benefits.
You know Topshop as the style setter and star of your wardrobe, but over the years we’ve become so much more! From the charities we sponsor to our work at London Fashion Week, our love of everything fashion knows no bounds! We started out life way back in 1964. Since those humble beginnings in the basement of a department store we’ve grown up and now have over 300 stores in the UK alone! We ship to more than 100 countries and our eclectic British style is known all over the world. Our Oxford Circus flagship is a mecca for cool girls, whether they’re holidaying in London or living in the capital, and we’ve spread the love across the pond with flagships in Chicago and New York!
Over the years we’ve built a strong bond with industry insiders and in 2002 we joined forces with NEWGEN, a scheme which allows us to foster new design talent and provide a global platform for the scene’s brightest new stars. We’re also the only high street brand to show on schedule at London Fashion Week. From our collaborations – think Christopher Kane and Kate Moss – to our fresh take on making new season pieces work for you, we’re on a mission to bring style to you, wherever you are. Follow us online to keep up to date with our latest collections, competitions and collaborations and get set to fall in love with everything Topshop!
“I’m almost embarrassed to say it’s OK.… We can sell twofor-$18 jerseys and a $500 dress within 15 feet of each other. That’s the secret. We have something for everyone.”
- Sir Philip Green
Topshop Buyer Interview With Khairan Majid How do you work out your market? “As the high streets leading fashion retailer, we need to have a strong brand identity but we also need to move with the times and make sure we’re constantly educating & inspiring our customer base whilst enticing new customers. This involves ensuring there’s a constant offer for the ‘loyal’ customer as well as making sure we’re competitive with what’s going on with the rest of the high street as new competitors are popping up more frequently than ever.” How do you understand the consumer and who your buying for? “We develop trends each season that are focused around the Catwalk shows/street style/blog inspiration etc, whilst looking at department history to build a strategy to ensure we’re identifying opportunities to help us decipher exactly what our customer base wants across the UK & Internationally.”
Does the consumer inspire you to choose the things you buy? “Yes they do in terms of department history. However it is vital that being the ‘high streets leading fashion retailer’ we continue to inspire our customer and give them the confidence to express themselves & explore the constant, exciting new things happening with fashion.” Do you think that the style of clothing reflects the brand? “Yes definitely. We provide a varied range, from festival dressing to Premium suiting & that is reflective of the brand. We are constantly elevating ourselves and that is shown through the product & how we represent ourselves through marketing campaigns etc, most recently collaborating with Cara Delavigne.” What influence does a Topshop buyer have on how the brand develops and changes? “Buyers have a huge influence. The buying side identifying what the commercial ‘key drivers’ are and also work very closely with design to develop the seasonal trends.”
- Khairan Majid
“We continue to inspire our customer and give them the confidence to express themselves”
“ I have always been a big fan of Topshop and regularly shop there. I love what they stand for and I’m very excited at the though of working with them its going to be great fun” - Kate Moss
Topman Designer Interview - Paul Luke How do Topshop and Topman work out there market? “I don’t work with the marketing team directly they have somebody called a market analyst and they will do lots of trend forecasting trend interpretations looking at influences and some how filtering that information into a what’s called a high street level. Because obviously what we see on a Milan catwalk is couture and wouldn’t really be salable in a London or Leeds high street so that’s where our market analyst come into play.” How do you understand the consumer and who your designing for? Me personally I am totally in sync with who I am branding for and I think that is very important and the second I don’t feel in touch with the top man and customer then I’ve got to step out of it then I would have to move on to move on to another brand where I am walking in there shoes I like to practice what I preach I used to work for H&M the same thing for H&M I kind of felt that I outlived my H&M connection so that’s why I started working with arcadia. So I think it’s very important that you understand your consumer because that’s the only way that you can truly know who there appealed by.
Does the consumer inspire you to design the things you do?
What influence does a Topman designer have on how the brand develops and changes?
Very much. it’s a tricky one because you cant be to influenced by them because you’ve got to dictate they go. So its kind of having respect but not being totally influenced because the consumer is looking to us for something new. We do have a loyal customer, a loyal brand follower and with all due respect whatever we put in the store they will trust us that, that is the trend , that is what.. to some extent should be wearing.
Not much you would be surprised its not as creatively free as you might imagen I’ve worked with addadias for four and half years and the brand guidelines were absolutely stifling to the point where if it wasn’t 77% CYAN and 2% MAGENTA and a future font in the exact position where they want it, you weren’t doing your job right. Topman is a little bit freer. But there are still very strict brand perimeters that designers have to abide by.
Do you think that the style of clothing reflects the brand? Yeah, or the brand reflects the style of the clothing yeah, they go hand in hand its like wearing the correct shoes with a suit if your wearing doc martens with a suit is it because your trousers are a particular length or tailored to a particular cut. They really need to compliment each other. As I mentioned there’s so much care and attention goes into the branding elements I have a certain font I have to use or a certain colour palette that I am told to use. There isn’t too much creative freedom it’s more farness then I execute that concept.
How do Topshop and Topman differ from other high street brands? I don’t think we differ much if I am being honest, remember this is my job and I do look at the high street as a book and Topman is just one page in there. I don’t think were doing anything - we try to, and people might be fooled to think there a little bit cutting edge but you know dover street market Come des Garçons their cutting edge. With all due respect the average shop probably wont know these brands, so they will look at Topshop/ Topman and think there a little bit cooler and more contemporary than Primark or than H&M so it’s a bit of a mind game. In my opinion I don’t think we differ too much from Urban Outfitters or Zara for that matter; But our brand concept is that we are different so I think we get away with it.
Do you personally think that the branding for Topman as a whole makes the brand more successful? Yes & No I don’t think we take to many risks we always commercially safe. Again referring to the previous question it’s a bit of visual trick that to the high street were seen to be quite cutting edge but to some extent it’s a filtered version of what contemporary Avant garde designers are doing on a much more assessable level so. I think the branding does make us successful each season is exciting and we do come out with something visually stimulating so yes and no. Yes because we keep on top of current trends and no because we are a saturated version of more contemporary avant garde brands and labels.
- Paul Luke
Style is nothing Without substance.
Victoria Beckham is a fashion designer, style icon and Vogue cover girl. Having first hit the headlines as part of British girl band the Spice Girls in the Nineties and then as the wife of footballer David Beckham, in recent years she has emerged as a fashion industry force to be reckoned with.
From the days of Posh Spice - where monochrome palettes and sleek hair ruled to Queen Bee of the WAGs during the 2006 FIFA world cup, she has played style mentor to Katie Holmes and launched a collection of jeans, sunglasses, sell-out dresses and now handbags.
Beckham’s designs are known for their confident simplicity and artful use of colour. “She takes conventional dresses and makes them stand out,” British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman said in 2010.
With her many designer friends (Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs, Roberto Cavalli, Roland Mouret and Dolce & Gabbana, to name but a few), her own sell-out dress collection, two British Vogue covers to her name and fashion campaigns for Marc Jacobs and Emporio Armani, Victoria Beckham’s fashion status is undeniable.
For Victoria Beckham the rise to fashion’s highest echelons has been a long journey, peppered with many memorable outfits and style reinventions.
“ I get excited by being told its not possible. Why? Lets find a different way to do it and lets do it.�
- Victoria Beckham
Victoria Beckam Interview , Standard.co.uk When we meet she is padding around barefoot across the top floor of her new Dover Street boutique, wearing a crisp white shirt and a pair of black trousers that graze her ankles. Incidentally, so am I. “A lot of attention has gone into making things look really quite minimal because that’s my taste,” she says before pausing to look out over Dover Street and the achingly cool Dover Street Market — “one of my favourite stores in the world”, she says with a childlike sense of pride. We’re meeting to discuss this, her very first stand-alone store, a 6000 sq ft retail outfit designed by Iranian architect Farshid Moussavi. Set over three floors, the space features cutaway glass flooring — designed to allow customers a 360-degree view — as well as mobile metal hanging chains, created in coordination with Beckham’s handbag line, and an impressive poured-concrete stairway. It strikes me as more of a fashion amphitheatre than a shop.
Set to open today without any of the pomp and ceremony one might expect from the Beckham media circus, it seems both perfectly suited to its Mayfair location but also unlike anything else in the capital. “I’m not trying to be like anyone else,” says Beckham. “I want people to come in here and feel like it’s me. I’ve only ever tried to be me.” Creating something conceptual but also welcoming was a must for Beckham who, I sense, has poured her heart and soul into this place. “We’ve put a lot of time and effort into making sure things are perfect. I put myself in the customer’s shoes, I know what it’s like to go shopping.” It is for this reason that the fitting rooms have been created on a large scale — “when I shop I’ve always got at least one child with me, so with my fitting rooms I wanted to make sure there’s somewhere to put your shopping, somewhere to put your child,” she says. Beckham has paid special attention to the store’s customer service offering — so much so that she has hand-picked all the sales assistants herself. “I want women to come in here for the experience. This is fashion. It should be fun.”
For Beckham, who has an acute understanding of the power of celebrity, the shop is also about allowing her fans a further insight into her world. “It’s my way of saying thank you — and not just to fashion people but to the public who have come on this journey with me,” she says. But why here in London? While Beckham’s studio is in Battersea, she launched her label in the US and continues to occupy an important slot on the New York Fashion Week schedule. “I’m proud to be British,” says Beckham, starting a spiel I fear she has been forced to give many times before. “I was brought up here, my family is here, my friends are here, my kids go to fantastic schools here ... “I respect anyone who works hard who has a family. There are so many of us out there, working hard for what we believe in,” she says. And is it those women she wants to dress? “From the very start, what mattered to me was that I created a brand that was believable,” says Beckham. “It has always been about the clothes I want to wear. I want to make a woman feel like the best version of herself, whoever she is.”
It is this autobiographical approach that serves as a huge draw to customers of the Beckham label, which has developed to include much more than the signature corset dresses she launched with. “I still love those dresses but I’ve evolved, I’ve moved on.” I wonder if this is because Beckham has won over the fashion naysayers who laughed in her face when she set out her stall as a designer? “I’ve definitely loosened the way I dress,” she says. “That could be because I work a lot and go out a lot less but it’s also because I’m older and more confident. I don’t have anything to prove.” It is this quiet air of confidence that makes Beckham the fashion maven such a likeable figure. That and the fact that she has achieved what everyone said she wouldn’t. “I probably don’t stop to think about it as much as I should but I am very proud of myself,” she says. “But then I’m always looking to the next thing. I’ll always want to
- Karen Dacre Fashion Editor.
The secret to Zara’s success largely was because of the way it kept up with street fashion with the changing times. The brand takes a look at how fashion is changing every day. It makes new designs and puts them into stores in a week or two. Most other fashion brands would take a whole six months to get their new designs into the market. That’s where Zara beat the rest of them and became the favourite brand among people who liked to keep up with the fashion. Zara’s success offers us all some instructive lessons in how to create and sustain a break through strategy. The striking thing is that Zara has found differences that matter to customers and differentiated itself from its competitors by performing key activities [in its supply chain] differently.
It is this that sets challenges for competitors because they will not find it easy to imitate or equal Zara’s positioning and it is this achievement that has given Zara sustainable competitive differentiation and positioning. Small and frequent shipments keep product inventories fresh and scarce—compelling customers to frequent the store in search of what’s new and to buy now...because it will be gone tomorrow. Thanks to the twice weekly deliveries of replenishment stock as well as new items, customers constantly return to stores to browse new items. Zara’s global average of 17 visits per customer per year is considerably higher than the three visits to its competitors
“ZARA is committed to satisfying the desires of our customers. As a result we pledge to continuously innovate our business to improve your experience. We promise to provide new designs made from quality materials that are affordable�
Zara - Interview , Samuel Shepherd How does Zara work out there market? “Zara has established itself as a fashion high street brand that can get clothing from design to store in as little as 6 weeks. Quicker than most retailers. So I suppose their business is directed at a fashion conscious customer primarily. They don’t really do market research as such and they don’t do printed advertising. I guess people just know what Zara is and the customer comes to them. They’re confident they provide a range of clothing from basics at cheap price points to more extreme fashion styles that attract a broad customer base. Price is key to their success. Generally people will buy if it’s cheap, the customer is very price aware.” How do you understand the consumer and who you are designing for ? “Zara retails in the majority of the countries worldwide and each country will get the majority of the range.
Zara has a team of commercial managers responsible for each of the countries they sell to. They will produce styles that are country specific ie fur boots for Russia as it’s colder. We didn’t design with a customer in mind generally. It’s all about getting the trends from the catwalk into store quick and at a good price.”
The style of clothing is very european, and it doesn’t always appeal to the UK customer. People know Zara as a Spanish brand, so I think the clothing reflects the brand well.” What influence does a Zara designer have on how the brand develops and changes?
“The catwalk. It’s all about the designer trends from Burberry to Prada. They do a lot of blog research and research trips to different countries.”
“The designers create the ranges so in terms of developing, it doesn’t happen without the designer. It’s the start of the cycle. We change the development of the brand by being aware of trends and customer buying attitudes. A top selling style can sell over 100,000 pairs a season, so there is big money to be made from good designs.”
Does the consumer inspire you to design the things you do?
How does Zara differ from other high street brands?
“Yes in some ways as we get figures every week saying which styles are selling well. Generally though it’s about what’s new, the stock turnaround is fast.”
“It’s fast. Very fast. They react to trend very quickly. They get it in store as soon as possible. They have more seasonal drops into store than the other retailers.”
Do you think that the style of clothing reflects the brand?
Do you personally think that the branding for Zara as a whole makes the brand more successful?
Who and what inspires Zara’s brand as a whole?
“I think Zara has created its own brand identity over the years as it has evolved.
“I think the stores and the website look strong, which are the two main sources where the company brands itself to the customer. The website is sleek and the products looks very high end. The stores replicate high end designer stores with the finishings. The product looks expensive, but of course it is relatively cheap.”
- Shoe Designer Samuel Shepherd
“Through Zara’s business model, we aim to contribute to the sustainable development of society and that of the environment with which we interacts.”
Acne Studios is a multidisciplinary luxury fashion house based in Stockholm, Sweden with own-brand retail stores in locations around the world. It was founded in 1996 as part of the creative collective ACNE. The fashion house offers men’s and women’s ready-to-wear fashion, footwear, accessories and denim, as well as special artistic collaborations and one-off projects.
Acne Studios was founded in 1996 in Stockholm, Sweden as part of the creative collective ACNE that focused on graphic design, film, production and advertising. The name ACNE stands for “Ambition to Create Novel Expressions”. In 1997, cofounder Jonny Johansson created one hundred pairs of raw denim jeans with red stitching and gave them away to friends and family.
Acne Studios, Referred To By Most, As “Acne” Is Well Known For Its Quality Jeans And Exquisite Editorial Publication, Acne Paper. The Name Is Actually An Acronym For Ambition To Create Novel Expression. With New Stores Popping Up Worldwide, It’s Proving That Its Cult Following And Expansion Has Grown Successfully Into A Worldwide Business.
Wallpaper and Vogue Paris quickly picked up on the popularity of the jeans and Acne Studios rapidly expanded their fashion offering outside of denim. In 2006, Acne Studios became a standalone company and separated from Acne Film, Acne Advertising and Acne Digital, at the same time launching their ecommerce website acnestudios.com
Acne Studios Interview , Chairman Mikael Schiller Your company has grown really quickly. You are now 450 employees worldwide and 150 at your HQ. Do you have different teams now? “Yes, it grew pretty quickly. Back then, we had maybe forty people in that office. But those other projects are not ACNE branded work. We come from the same core values, but today, it’s basically two totally different working bodies that are independent of each other. I have only worked with ACNE’s fashion, magazine, books and furniture. I was never involved with production or advertising.” Can you discuss what that core value is at Acne? Has that changed? I think that three of the founders came from the advertising world and Jonny (Johansson) came from the fashion world. I think that we really had to put the product in the center.
When I went to business school, we always learned that first you start with a business plan and then you check who will be your customer and it’s a very kind of marketoriented way of working. What I think we’re doing here is the total opposite. We say, that if we make an amazing product, then it will have its own following. If we think it’s amazing, then hopefully others will think it’s amazing. It’s a time for leading and not following. What makes ACNE stand out is your independent spirit. It’s part of your strength and identity.? “I think we are very organically driven, in the sense that we try to open stores that we are really excited about. It’s not just opening stores because we need to open 10, 20, or 30 stores with some kind of quota. Sometimes our board of directors gets confused because our plans are a bit loose compared to other companies. That said, we want to be professional. We want to be organized and structured and have a fantastic supply chain and so forth. We just feel like we don’t want to do things that we don’t really believe in. I think this is the conversation that has grown.
What’s it like being a Swedish fashion company?
The term loses its strength and transforms from a solid to a gas so to speak.
“We are inspired and influenced by what others are doing globally, but because we come from Sweden and there are no other high-end fashion brands from Scandinavia, we had to learn things by ourselves and we had to write the rules while going along because we didn’t have many people to ask. That is something we always speak quite a lot about. When is it important to do things own way or when do we feel stupid because you know sometimes going against the flow is just stupid.”
“It’s like if every high street brand in the world goes around saying that they are design-driven then design-driven doesn’t have any point.”
You have this sort of freedom both creatively and with regards to making business decisions because you maintain control of your company.? “Yes, I would say so. Some of these words like “creative” or “concept” or “lifestyle brand” make you itch if you know what I mean, when you hear them. I’m a bit afraid to use them because they’ve been hijacked…” Like the word “pop-up” or “curated” or “inspired” perhaps.
Can you share some of the projects for ACNE and how they originated? For creative projects, we’ve collaborated a lot with Lord Snowdon, the photographer. We worked with him through our magazine ACNE Paper. Through various discussions, we learned that he often shot people in blue shirts. You know, Princess Di or the Prince (Charles) or David Bowie or whomever, would come to his studio to get photographed. They were always really dressed up and he felt that it was difficult to capture a person’s soul when they were, you know, fancy. So, he asked his assistant to bring a blue shirt for them to wear. We made this book together called Snowdon Blue, which is basically, photographs of interesting people in blue shirts over a long time period.
- LA Contempoary
“The company’s momentum is derived from the desire to tell stories, to engage people, to make them think or feel something.� - ACNE founder Tomas Skoging