Marketing Report for ASHISH prepared by Chloe Hannah
Fashion designer known as the 'king of sequins' Ashish Gupta
"I’m not a morning person, but I try to wake up at 8am and start work around 9.30. Breakfast is my least favourite meal of the day, so more often than not I just have a coffee. I work at home or in my studio in Hackney until 12 when I’m usually starving and get hunger shakes. I like to sit down and each lunch properly, never just a sandwich on the go. Afterwards I get back to work. I’m a movie addict so in the evenings I watch something on Netflix." – A.G
ASHISH
Designer profile & brand overview
Ashish Gupta is a womanswear/unisex designer based in London and designs under the name ‘Ashish’. Originally from Delhi, Gupta studied Fine Art in India then came to London completing a BA fashion degree. He then went on to complete his MA at Central Saint Martins. His education led him to pursue the chance to find employment in Paris with the intention of working in a design studio. After his portfolio was stolen he alternatively made garments for his friends, then launched the brand in 1992. He was spotted by Yeda Yun (Browns Focus buyer) who placed his first order with Ashish in 2001. Guptas brand took off and he first featured at London Fashion week 2004. His influences are Western and Eastern culture collaborated with sportswear, high-octane glamour and craftsmanship resulting in forming his signature style. Ashish has a celebrity following, having designed outfits for Madonna, Jerry Hall, Victoria Beckham, Kelly Osborne, Lily Allen and Patrick Wolf. "I have always wanted to make beautiful clothes for as long as I can remember. I used to love fashion magazines, all the beautiful models in gorgeous looking clothes. It felt like the best escapism as a child growing up in India. So I came back to London and just started making some clothes. A friend of mine was wearing something I had made for her and she got noticed by the buyer at Browns Focus while she was out shopping one day. They rang me and asked me to come in with my collection and placed an order. That’s how I started, it was sort of a cross between bad luck and a happy accident really."- A.G
ASHISH SWOT analysis
S
W
- USP is their strong recognizable statement brand image. - Regular new collections launched and featured in shows such as London Fashion Week as well as his own shows. - Well-publicized events (London Fashion Week, re occurring collaborative collections with Topshop) producing a more affordable collection that approaches a different market than usual). - Regular collaborations with high street brand Topshop. - Celebrity buyers and media coverage. - Handmade products with craftsmanship in every garment. - No evidence of unethical labour behind the brand.
- Lack of brand advertising - No evidence of previous advertising films, recording styles and methods of filming. - The brand relies too heavily on related companies, stockists, brands and trade shows to promote them such as Topshop and London Fashion Week. - Current communication strategies are sparse, as Ashish doesn't have a branded page featured on Instagram. There is only his personal page with the link to the website. - Not concerned about competitors and what they are designing and doing.
O
T
- Improving the current communication, marketing and advertising strategies such as creating branded pages on different social media sites and a public advertising strategy such as guerrilla marketing would be suited to the brand reputation and ethos. - Creating an advertising film that has never been done before that will reflect the brands identity. - Repeatedly attend trade shows that are publicised and well known events. - Shipping to a range of stores in different countries and attempting to expand its stockists for growth purposes.
- Ashish has very similar competitors to them that are targeting the same market and are generally within the same price range. - Increasing higher market competition. - No individual store in the UK. Ashish is dispatched and sold within other retail stores and online that are selling competitors clothes alongside one another. These stores in the UK include Browns focus, Machine - A and Farfetch.
ASHISH PEST analysis
P - Exports accounted for about 20.1% of total UK economic output. Given United Kingdom’s population of 64.1 million people, its total $511.1 billion in exports translates to roughly $7,975 for every resident in that geographic entity. - UK interest rates rise by 2%. Higher rates give way to a stronger pound decreasing exports.
S - Shoppers prefer purchasing in store rather than online due to the store experience and direct exchange of money and products. - Popular fashion in India originated from Western culture and has a history of sequined clothing they symbolised wealth in places like Egypt. This could effect customer views on sequined garments in a positive way due to the history behind the embellishment.
E - The UK business investment is expected to grow 3.5% in 2015, compared to 6.8% in 2014. However, business investment is expected to grow 7.2% in 2016 and 7.4% in 2017. Therefore, meaning there is a higher chance of committing to spending and creating investment plans with the expectation of profit within businesses. - Exports are expected to increase by 3.7% in 2015, and 2.6% in 2016 and 2017.
T - Ralph Laurens 4D experience in 2010 was an industry first, creating an architectural, sound and smell installation displaying the garments with a background consisting of architectural light-mapping technology, cutting-edge digital sound tech and Ralph Lauren scents to fully immerse their audience. Fashion shows are rapidly changing and guests have higher expectations. - ShopStyle is an online shopping app designed to make shopping quick and easy from top retailers selling designer clothes. The app allows you to browse trends and spot sales from your phone or tablet.
ASHISH Consumer profile
This person is aged between 20 – 28 that is most likely a female but could be a male who differs from the masculine stereotype. They have previously attended further education to achieve their salary of about £28,000 per annum. The lifestyle they lead is based on creativity including their occupation. The customer would be in the creative industry working as a designer, photographer, creative director, stylist, graphic designer, personal shopper or fashion buyer. This person socialises regularly, frequently exercises and eats healthily to obtain the image they emit. They are confident appearance wise and have a distinctive individual style. Their interests include traveling, reading fashion and lifestyle magazines including Dazed, Garage and I-D, trying new experiences, attending live music events, visiting modern art galleries, attending trade shows, clothes exchanging events and shopping specifically in shops located in Soho and Shoreditch that source vintage, one off garments. An Ashish customer is visualised as someone who likes to experiment with what they wear in terms of colour, accessories, and likes anything eye catching that shimmers, glitters or sparkles. They wear whatever whey want and don't tend to follow trends or intent on pleasing anyone but themselves. Their fashion sense is outgoing, bold and differs from the norm. Ashish is classed as womenswear/ unisex making their market broad. Anyone who likes girly aesthetics without necessarily wearing feminine colours and prints but instead resorts to floral patterns, materials embellished with beads, sequins and glitter as a stylish alternative would wear Ashish. “I think its usually someone fairly left of centre, someone cool, someone who is going to wear a sequin trouser with a big cashmere jumper and beaten up old trainers and go out for dinner. I have customers in their 20’s and customers in their 60’s. It’s just a matter of context and personality; it’s how you wear something.” - A.G Colourful Stand out Outgoing Quirky Personality Urban
Sporty Confident Embellished Distinctive Expression Unconventional
Textured 90s Tumblr Instagram LFW Cool
ASHISH Jeremy Scott SWOT analysis
S - Jeremy Scott is an independent designer for well-respected sportswear brand Adidas. - Collaborates regularly with Adidas. - Worn by celebrities such as Rihanna and Britney Spears featuring garments worn in their music videos. - Owner of Jeremy Scott and creative director for Moschino. With two brands having the same creative approach may double the chance of success.
W - Claims of controversy such as plagiarizing designs from Santa Cruz Skateboards and Adidas overruling the distribution of a pair of sneakers designed by Scott due to the shoes being criticized for their apparent resemblance to shackles and allusion to slavery. - Criticism of his designs regarding the Autumn/Winter 14 - 15 collection in particular which shocked the fashion industry for being 'distasteful' and 'shocking for all he wrong reasons'.
O
T
Jeremy Scott promotes and increases sales with his role within Moschino. - Both brands have their own online site that ships to a variety of countries. The brands could expand and ship to a wider audience globally. - Further collaborations with sportswear brand Adidas. - Collaborating and working with other brands to branch out covering a wider audience.
- Known controversy including plagiarism and criticized designs that could effect customer views. - Clothes are to a specific niche customer taste narrowing their market. - Similar competitors and price range in the same market. - Growing higher market competition. - Sold within other stores and online selling competitors clothes alongside their own (Browns focus and Farfetch).
ASHISH Marketing product, place, price & promotion
Product | Heavily embellished dresses, jackets, jumpers, skirts, shorts, trousers, jeans, sweatpants, bags and shoes. Ongoing collaborations with Topshop resulting in capsule ranges. A collaboration with underground produced some personalized creepers. Promotion | Instagram benefits the brand by giving viewers an insight into the lifestyle and future designs. The website showcases shows and current and previous collections. London Fashion Week covers Ashish catwalks and writes articles, takes backstage and onstage photographs and runway films that they publish. Lowered prices for last seasons products allow a new customer to approach the brand therefore widening the market. Trade shows advertise new products. Collaborations with other clothing brands including Topshop and Underground. Celebrity customers wearing items or custom made items that are promoted when photographed and featured in a magazine or webpage. Articles from popularly used websites and magazines like SHOWstudio, The Telegraph, New York Magazine, and VOGUE.
£1,711
£805
£1,487
£350
Place | Stores including MACHINE-A (in partnership with SHOWstudio) Browns Focus in the UK supply Ashish. Ashish has stockists in Italy, Hong Kong, Azerbaijan, USA, China, Greece, France, Japan, Monaco, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, South Korea, Switzerland and Thailand. The brand has collaborated and designed capsule ranges for Topshop and collaborated with Underground designing creepers. Online retailers Net-a-Porter, Luisa Via Roma, SSENSE, Farfetch and Nordstorm sell Ashish products. Price | The highest priced item out of all UK stockists is a camo sequined bomber jacket costing £2,255. The lowest priced item available at all UK stockists is sold by Browns Focus costing £700 for cut off shorts. All UK stockist sell different pieces with the exception of a best selling garments. The design range for Underground sold the creepers for an average of £125 each. The Topshop range was sold at an increased high street price apart for certain items such as the LED bag and the light up platform trainers, which was exceedingly more both costing £350 each.
ASHISH Current communication strategies, social media & advertisting
Ashish uses Instagram as an advertising platform. He posts aspects of his colourful, exciting lifestyle, fashion items in progress that he’s working on, finished garments, snippets of fashion shows and backstage antics resulting in a tongue and cheek informal page. Gupta has a following 49.2k followers but the brand does not own its own individual social media page. The website instantly streams a catwalk show displaying the latest collection. There are links leading you to pages divided into collections, archives and stockists. The page leads you to stockists websites not allowing purchases directly from the website. No information is presented describing the designer himself or the brand, the information provided shows previous collections, archives, stockists and contact details. Another effective communicator is the collaborations between similar high street brands. Ashish evokes a personal take on Underground creepers and Topshop that has proven worth it by increasing sales and publicity. Global Stockists www.farfetch.com www.antonioli.eu www.asos.com www.brownsfashion.com www.colette.fr tizianafausti.com
UK Stockists Browns focus Machine-A
In conclusion Ashish are missing an opportunity to promote with social media advertising. Ashish has a unmistakable aesthetic that could be keep consistently throughout all their communication strategies while creating an impact on the public. The use of various social media platforms dedicated to promoting the brand would be a insights on updates on trade shows, new garments and visuals that would connect with the customer and public. By shooting a promotional film encapsulating brand identity, this platform for promotion would reflect the customer and expand their consumer base. The film would be viewed as a background for their website, be a trade show backdrop and could be their first Ashish advert on the Internet. The theme of the promotional film is childhood due to Gupta describing his young at heart attitude. “How old do you actually feel?” “Mostly I feel about 16 years old, not very grown up (but legal!), like I’m still figuring things out. Some days I feel very grown up though, but I don’t enjoy those days as much.” - A.G Having a psychical store in a prime location in New Delhi and London could be an opening for new custom and publicity as well as creating an in store installation of the brands image causing the in store experience to improve sales and attract custom.
ASHISH Bibliography
Afsun Qureshi | V&A's “Fashion in Motion” Series Fêtes Ashish's 10 Years of Sequined Humor and Craftsmanship | October 27, 2015 Browns Fashion, 2016. Embellished Organza Midi Skirt ASHISH. [online] Available from: http://www.brownsfashion.com/ product/011L20860003/298/embellished-organza-midi-skirt [Accessed 26 Jan. 2016]. Bullettmedia.com, 2016. Designer Ashish Gupta on His Sequins Obsession & Tumblr as Inspiration | Bullett Media. [online] Available from: http://bullettmedia.com/article/designer-ashish-gupta-on-hissequins-obsession-tumblr-as-inspiration/ [Accessed 2 Feb. 2016]. Fashion.telegraph.co.uk, 2016. Inside the world of Ashish Gupta Telegraph. [online] Available from: http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/ columns/ellie-pithers/TMG10527783/The-world-of-Ashish-Gupta.html [Accessed 2 Feb. 2016]. Fashionsauce.com, 2016. Ashish Stockists — Fashion Sauce. [online] Available from: http://www.fashionsauce.com/brands/ashishstockists [Accessed 2 Feb. 2016]. Ft.com, 2016. World business, finance, and political news from the Financial Times - FT.com. [online] Available from: http://www.ft.com/ home/uk [Accessed 26 Jan. 2016]. Instagram.com, 2016. ASHISH (@ashish_uk) • Instagram photos and videos. [online] Available from: https://www.instagram.com/ ashish_uk/?hl=en [Accessed 2 Feb. 2016]. Sedghi, A., 2013. India's trade: full list of exports, imports and partner countries. [online] the Guardian. Available from: http://www. theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/feb/22/cameron-india-tradeexports-imports-partners [Accessed 26 Jan. 2016]. Showstudio.com, 2016. Ashish Gupta. [online] Available from: http:// showstudio.com/contributor/ashish_gupta [Accessed 2 Feb. 2016]. TheGlobalEconomy.com, 2016. UK Political stability - data, chart | TheGlobalEconomy.com. [online] Available from: http://www. theglobaleconomy.com/United-Kingdom/wb_political_stability/ [Accessed 26 Jan. 2016].
TXF - Trade & Export Finance, 2016. 2016 – The year of monkey business. [online] Available from: http://www.txfnews.com/News/ Article/5417/2016-The-year-of-monkey-business [Accessed 26 Jan. 2016]. Wikipedia, 2016. India–United Kingdom relations. [online] Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India–United_Kingdom_relations#Political [Accessed 2 Feb. 2016]. Indiatoday.intoday.in, 2016. Proposal unveiled to keep Britain in EU, sceptics unmoved : World, News - India Today. [online] Available from: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/proposal-unveiled-to-keep-britain-in-eu-sceptics-unmoved/1/585723.html [Accessed 2 Feb. 2016]. Oxlade, A., 2016. Latest interest rates predictions: First rise forecast lurches from January to November 2017. [online] Telegraph.co.uk. Available from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/ interest-rates/11032396/Interest-rates-predictions-When-will-the-BankRate-rise.html [Accessed 2 Feb. 2016]. Workman, D., 2015. United Kingdom’s Top 10 Exports - World’s Top Exports. [online] World’s Top Exports. Available from: http://www. worldstopexports.com/united-kingdoms-top-exports/ [Accessed 10 Feb. 2016].
ASHISH Image list
FRONT PAGE MOODBOARD [img.1] Sources: http://cleoglover.tumblr.com ASHISH GUPTA DESIGNER [img.2] Sourced: http://showstudio.com/cntributor/ashish_gupta STAR BACKGROUND [img.3] Source: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/534591418245519504/ SINGLE SEQUIN [img.4] Source:http://www.simplysewing.co.uk/loose-sequins-10mm-cupsequins-c-6_88_138 THUMBS OUTLINE [img.5] Source: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/316800155015517470/ RAINBOW BACKGROUND [img.6] Source: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/563231497124162381/ RAINBOW SEQUIN DRESS [img.7] Source: http://www.livingly.com/runway/Ashish/ London+Fashion+Week+Fall+2012/Details/bOB4ktdvV3I MOODBOARD IMAGES [img.8] Sources: https://uk.pinterest.com/channah0836/digital-marketing/
RAINBOW SEQUIN DRESS [img.7] Source: http://www.livingly.com/runway/Ashish/ London+Fashion+Week+Fall+2012/Details/bOB4ktdvV3I MOODBOARD IMAGES [img.8] Sources: https://uk.pinterest.com/channah0836/digital-marketing/ SEQUIN HAIR [img.9] Source: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/546272629781253664 INSTAGRAM SEQUIN JACKET MAN [img.10] Source: https://www.instagram.com/ashish_uk/?hl=en SEQUIN JACKET [img.11] Source: http://www.farfetch.com/uk/shopping/women/ashish/items. aspx EMBELISHED CROP TOP [img.12] Source: http://www.farfetch.com/uk/shopping/women/ashish/items. SILVER TROUSERS [img.13] Source: http://www.farfetch.com/uk/shopping/women/ashish/items. TOPSHOP X ASHISH LED SHOES [img.14] Source: http://www.topshop.com/en/tsuk/category/ashish-xtopshop-3009278/home?geoip=noredirect FLOWER BOYS [img.15] Source: http://www.hungertv.com/feature/ashish-powers-of-ten/ SKULLS [img.16] Source: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/299278337712212638/ LED SHOES [img.17] Source: http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/18899/1/ashishaw14 UNICORNS [img.18] Source: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/576038608559995919/
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