If you’ve read my ‘about me’ page, you will know I am a Copywriter, freelancing for the time being. I currently working at a London Fashion company shaking my booty! Working in fashion is extremely rewarding and is definitely one of my passions. I enjoy it immensely.
Just the other day, I was been briefed on a new project, and the point was raised….”we are a company with a young audience 14 – 23.” Sparks flew from my seat as I was amazed how they can say this. From an outside perspective, they’re definitely perceived as a 29 – 39ish market. One could say this is where they have come unstuck! The tread on the wheels have been delaminating, rather like poor old Hamilton in China. But there is light at the end of the tunnel if they stopped, took cover and galvanised their thoughts. It’s one thing changing your target audience…it’s another ball game implementing this! At my last agency, we worked on an urban fashion label that had come unstuck because their audience (12 – 24) wasn’t segmented. In fact, it wasn’t segmented at all! This strategic change doesn’t happen overnight… it takes months, if not years to implement and have a return.
However, lets look from the point of view that their audience is this epiphany 14 – 23 bracket. Print, DM and TV advertising will influence this market to a degree, but the main pull will come from the Internet. I don’t mean banner advertisements either…. I am talking social networks.
Social Networks have a huge influence on young teens everyday lifes. Look at HSBC, who recently reversed a decision to scrap interest-free overdrafts for university graduates. Is this a shift in power or merely a coincidence?
Which brings me onto my point. Every young teenage boy and girl, man and woman love fashion. They want to be seen wearing the latest must-have looks that will have heads spinning and friends screaming. You’ve heard of the tagline ‘dress to impress.’ Well, we the young, want to impress, especially the opposite sex.
Start up a community on Facebook or any other social network that is heavily populated and start talking to your audience and use it as your essential guide to what to do, see, hear and wear this season. Believe me, word of mouth will spread and in time you will be inundated with responses and web hits. The main lesson is that outsiders (brands) need to get pulled into the conversations that youths are involved in. Adding value to this could involve setting up twice annual fashion shows whereby you have a competition for 50 young designers (Facebook friends) to showcase your company’s work or alternatively their own designs. It could even be called ‘What to look good in with… (Company name)…’
If you haven’t already seen, Littlewoods have a programme on the website whereby you put in your body size and shape, and it generates, based on Trinny and Susannah’s findings, what you should be wearing. This is a fantastic idea. Ok, the programme is pretty lame, but the idea is very original.
Key research undertaken shows:
- More than three quarters of social networkers actively comment on brands
- Befriend, don’t banner
The key is understand how your brand is talked about in the social media network.
If any fashion companies hear me… I would be more than happy to implement this with you. Give me a buzz.
Anyway, enough of my drooling! She's just a stint in rehab... you would have thought this would have damaged her reputation, but it appears this is not the case. 
