Most important social media strategies in the business of fashion
Last month, ‘BOF – Business of Fashion’ and its founder Imran Amed, conducted a dialogue on market analysis where mainstream subjects were discussed around futuristic digital ideas to shape the digital world of trading ahead. In attendance were the British Fashion Council and Council of Fashion Designers of America, Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode of France, Camera nazionale della moda italiana, and Fashion Futurum of the Russian Fashion Council. The sole subject these key commanders largely engaged in – digital dilemmas and how dreadfully dangerous the constant loss from past patterns has been. The next unavoidable step – how to prevent this and be more versatile online to seize the best of both sides.
According to experts, some significant elements that brands must appraise are:
1. SUSTAINABLE APPROACH
Sustainability has been very strongly discussed in most debate panels and webinars, where for future benefits of production, the change has been gladly adopted. It’s a wake-up call that can’t be ignored whether they are fashion, luxury, or beauty brands; it’s a financial and logistical win-win. Brands have to value the environmental impact before they create or market anything in the future.
2. EMOTIONAL QUOTIENT
If there’s one thing people have learned in the aftermath of the pandemic, it is having compassion towards what people have lost and dealt with. So, if a product doesn’t embosom in people’s minds considering the tough times we’ve all been going through, it’s not going to go very far. Keeping the DNA of products connected to the emotions of the targeted clients, providing cultural comfort is equally important in creating digital innovations.
“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” Jeff Bezos, Founder, and CEO of Amazon
3. THE NEW NORMAL
There are no two viewpoints anymore on how drastically the world and our lives have changed. Keeping that new normal in mind, customers began to buy things that are more useful and informative, seeking out sources that are more influencer-driven and promoted strongly on social media. Making content that is more creative and at the same time useful for awareness, and depicting social issues in a positive way will definitely be the key to move forward.
4. IMPACT ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Let’s look at the example of the biggest Italian fashion blogger, influencer, and designer Chiara Ferragni. She won a series of awards, was featured in Forbes “Top Fashion Influencers” list, became tremendously successful in blogging, and started her in-house label. Today, she has more than 22 million followers on Instagram and generates a big buying impact on her social media channels. It cannot be denied that the culture has shifted to fashion bloggers and social media influencers, and this new wave intensified during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many fashion-leaders and trendsetters have highly engaging social media channels that influence buyers. The creative heads of companies are looking into creating digital content for their own social media channels by collaborations, to improve their digital presence.
5.PRODUCT PROPULSION
Tackling all the challenges of the rapid shift in the global market, the products need to keep up with the surge of what’s trending. With the widespread digitalisation of the market space, changes in consumers’ mindsets, and circumstances requiring technology to accept more intelligence and leverage data, opportunities need to be quickly identified and used to move forward. If the concept and news you utilised are not innovative and intriguing for the buyer, it’s going to be cast aside in this fast-paced race of easy access.
6. FUTURE OF ONLINE BUYERS
The biggest companies and fashion week councils are working towards building the future of fashion and buyers coming on digital platforms from various organisations to boost trends and collections. Exploring and adopting online trends with new challenges is key, where products have to look justified with their presentations and photoshoots, and virtual recognition has to be created more professionally where the sense of the products and placement is unambiguous. With increasing demand online, one has to focus more on the on-screen aspect now more than ever. It’s going to be a slow and slightly critical year ahead of us in the transit, so going forward by being prepared with what works best with sharp digital streaming. Changing the mindset from offline physical shopping for a while will ignite interesting behaviour in the experience of progressive shopping.