Remember the scene from Pretty Woman, when Richard Gere is driving down Hollywood Boulevard in a Lotus, needing nothing more than directions? As he slows down, a slew of hookers emerge to taunt him. They’re not looking for love, they’re looking for someone to pay up, here and now. He ends up willing to pay Julia Roberts to help him find his way, and she takes the opportunity with a potential new client. Ultimately, he falls in love and they live happily ever after and she is elevated from a lady of the night to a lady who lunches. Maybe this is a stretch, but I think there is actually something fashion brands can take away from this, a lesson to be learned.
Fashion Brands on Google+
The initial selling points of Google+ are attractive. The draw of audience segmentation, the ability to share rich media content in a way that’s not limited to 140 characters and the option to decide who of your following you want to share content with is considerable. However, despite the positive qualities of Google+, there has been a fair amount of hesitation (and critique) of the platform’s capacity to reach critical mass.
The Online Behavior of the Luxury Shoe Customer
Over the past fifteen years, the relationship women have with key accessories, namely their shoes and handbags, has changed considerably. Choices in brands and style preferences now connote much more about a woman’s image than in years past. We’ve seen brands once only known by industry insiders and the uber-wealthy (brands like Manolo Blahnik) become recognizable names in average fashionable households around the world. Similarly, prices of footwear seem to have taken an upward turn, and it’s not rare to find designer shoes priced well above the $700 mark. On a recent trip to Nordstrom’s, a moderately upscale retailer with locations across the United States, shoe prices even climbed above $1,000 in one suburban store. On any given day, the Christian Louboutin store in New York City’s meatpacking district has a handful of customers not only browsing, but actually purchasing extravagant items that are more akin to artwork than footwear.
The Digital Innovations of New York Fashion Week
The fashion industry has come a long way in digital innovation when it comes to New York Fashion Week. We watched as the livestreaming of runway shows turned an exclusive industry into a democratized one, giving outsiders a peek into the ready-to-wear world of high fashion. Now, as New York Fashion Week gets more integrated, both technologically and socially, there is no longer just a desire to connect industry players and loyal clients to the information they so longingly desire at the tips of their freshly manicured fingers. Instead, it has become a necessity. This demand of connectedness requires brands find new ways to serve not only the industry, but their consumer as well. There are a few players that have made a splash in the market and are changing the way we can digitally experience new collections from sought-after designers of the season.
5 Things To Know About Marketing In China
Over the past year I’ve come to learn a lot about the digital branding landscape in China. While I am certainly no expert, I have been blown away by some of the things that I’ve learned.
The Issue of Counterfeiting in the Digital Age
It is a modern-day consumer reality that where there is demand for luxury goods, there is ample supply of counterfeit options. Counterfeiting is one of the fastest growing crimes, and shows no signs of slowing down. The World Customs Organization estimates annual global trade in illegitimate goods is about $600 billion, and this figure is expected to rise to $1.7 trillion by 2015. It is estimated that between 5% and 7% of worldwide trade is from the counterfeit market.
