A report exploring how social media could be included in the DSM universe.
Comme des Garcons is a Japanese brand founded by Rei Kawakubo. They are best known for their Avant Garde pieces and their different colour schemes and silhouettes. Kawakubo also opened Dover Street Market in 2004 to sell and show her pieces as well as other brands who she picked and decided had similar qualities to Comme des Garcons. Comme des Garcons has never followed the trends of the time and have always stuck to creating pieces which Kawakubo wishes to see on the runway and enjoys designing and ‘finding beauty in the ugliness.’ Comme des Garcons can be described as a punk brand, following Vivienne Westwood (Kawakubo’s inspiration) and the punk revolution through the 1980’s. The brand was taken to Paris Fashion Week in 1981 and gained a lot of negative press and becoming a controversial brand from there. Come des Garcons does not follow the social media trends. In the present day, social media has taken over and majority of people have accounts where they can share what they like and can see what brands and businesses have to offer. Comme des Garcons is yet to take this step and promote their products using social media. Although Comme des Garcons do have an Instagram page where images of their products are showcased, their account does not really interact with their followers and keep them intrigued. I believe the reason Comme des Garcons are not using social media to their advantage is because it is what is trending right now. Their target market has not really changed throughout their years and people who continue to buy their lines have always bought them as they have the emotional connection to the brand from the beginning. as time goes on, technology and social media are only going to advance and I believe that it is in Comme des Garcons best interest to use social media to promote their products to a new, younger market in order to stay relevant in the fashion world. They could use TikTok to tell the brands story in short videos that keep the audiences’ attention while also showcasing what they are doing and what they have coming out. Balenciaga is another luxury brand which is also sold at Dover Street Market who use social media to their advantage.
Balenciaga is a brand that is sold alongside Comme des Garcons in Dover Street Market. The brand has a huge social media presence as well as using relevant influencers to wear and promote their brand. They also collaborate with well-known tv shows such as The Simpsons and even worked together on an episode which showcased their runway pieces in cartoon form worn by the popular characters of the tv show (cartner-morley, 2021). This reached out to their younger consumers as they saw the episode and acknowledged Balenciaga’s involvement with the tv show. Balenciaga also released a range of t-shirts with The Simpsons cast and logo on them. Balenciaga have also worked closely with Kim Kardashian recently. She has worn the brand to The Met Gala and has even walked in one of their run-way shows. She is often seen sitting front row at their shows during fashion week. Kim has 335 million followers on Instagram (as of December 2022). It can be argued that Kim Kardashian is responsible for the rise of Balenciaga as after their partnership, the brand came first in fashion in the 2021 Lyst Index Q3 report, opposed to their fifth-place ranking in 2020 (McClelland, 2021). They have their own Instagram shop as a way for consumers to buy their products that can be tagged through Balenciaga’s posts promoting the products. Balenciaga have been very successful using social media to promote their products with a following of 14.3 million followers (as of December 2022). They have collaborated with other fashion brands such as Adidas
which was their most recent collaboration and the pieces used the sportswear brands 3 stripes on the product. However, recently Balenciaga have released a distasteful campaign involving the sexualisation of children. This campaign has led to the brand being boycotted by not only their customers, but also influencers who are sharing their views on the brand on their social media platforms which were once used to promote the brand. Balenciaga have lost millions of Instagram followers following this scandal and so have their partners. Kim Kardashian has posted an apology to her social media accounts explaining that she is now ‘distancing herself’ from the brand and that as a mother, she feels disgusted by the campaign and that protecting her children is the most important thing to her (Https://Twitter.com/Kimkardashian, 2022). Balenciaga have proved that promoting their brand through social media can be a good way of marketing when done correctly but when done incorrectly can have a catastrophic impact on the brand that they may never come back from. Although Balenciaga have a higher social media presence and are more interactive with their followers than Comme des Garcons, the world of fashion on social media is constantly changing and a brand may be thriving on social media one day and be ‘cancelled’ the next (Balenciaga being a prime example of this). Even though Balenciaga are being boycotted, Dover Street Market are yet to stop selling their products. Stopping selling Balenciaga will create positive press as the message they will send out is that they are against what Balenciaga have done and that they no longer stand with them. This will get people talking about Dover Street Market, resulting in people going to visit. After seeing how Balenciaga have fallen so far due to one social media campaign, Comme des Garcons may be making the right decision by not being as active on their social media platforms to protect their brand but will this hold them back with their new target market causing them to fall behind their competition?
Comme des Garcons could have a bigger presence on social media. Their Instagram account currently has 2.4 million followers and their posts only get around 3000 likes each. I feel as though Comme des Garcons are missing out on a huge opportunity to reach out to a much larger market by using their social media platforms effectively. Their Instagram currently showcases the artwork on display at Dover Street Market and the pieces which are being shown on the runway. Although this is showcasing the brand and what they create, they could do this in a better way. Perhaps they should make their Instagram posts more interactive. They could post stories asking their followers what they would like to see from the brand and could ask which Comme moments are their favourites. They could even ask their older followers which moments they remember as in the 1980s the brand was viewed as controversial as they did not and continue to not engage in what’s trending and just create what they like, regardless of the public’s opinion. When Rei Kawakubo created her brand, she took inspiration from Vivienne Westwood who was also a punk designer at the time. Similar to Rei, Vivienne Westwood has an interesting story of how her brand was created although Viviene was involved with punk musicians at that time, sharing her brand with their fans and spreading the word of her brand. I personally think that these two designers have lots of similarities but Vivienne uses her social media effectively. She uses her platform in a similar way to Comme des Garcons by showing her work but also uses the platform to speak about real issues in the world right now such as climate change and shares how she is helping to stop this. They have a sustainability section on their website, showing how the brand is trying to make a difference in the world and sharing ways that their consumers can also make a difference. Their tag line for their sustainability campaign is ‘Buy less, Choose more, Make it last’ (Sustainability | Vivienne Westwood®, n.d.). Comme des Garcons do not even produce relevant information about their sustainability, meaning that they have been deemed as an unsustainable brand (Comme Des Garçons - Sustainability Rating - Good on You, n.d.). Taking the small step of using more sustainable materials to create the pieces and releasing the relevant information will improve the brands sustainability rating. Due to the climate crisis, brands need to be more mindful of how they produce their products and the impact that this has on the environment. The Comme des Garcons perfumes are vegan and are not tested
on animals but they do not have the signs on the packaging to signify this (Comme Des Garçon’s WONDERWOOD, n.d.). Just by the brand sharing what they are doing to tackle the climate crisis through social media, they will reach out to younger audiences who are interested in their carbon footprint and how the brands they buy from are damaging the planet. Comme could use hashtags about the climate crisis to share what they are doing and reach a bigger audience than just their followers.
Rei Kawakubo has remained a mystery throughout the years. Although she has taken part in interviews, she rarely does this. The story of how Comme des Garcons became a brand is interesting and her story and how she built her brand could be shared more through social media platforms and exhibitions at the Dover Street Market stores. Dover Street Market was an amazing concept as a way for Comme des Garcons and brands which Rei feels resonate with hers are sold. The pieces sold there are showcased next to artwork, making Dover Street Market look like a gallery. From the outside, Dover Stret Market does not look like a clothes shop, especially one which sells luxury items. Compared to the window displays at Harrods, the Dover Street Market window displays were disappointing and showcased nothing. The shop itself is not inviting and the staff are intimidating to the younger shoppers. This is off-putting and having a negative experience in a shop can cause consumers to not buy from that brand again as they do not feel like a part of the brand. To create this emotional connection, Comme des Garcons could share their story through social media. They could create a TikTok account where they share videos and images from the 1980s to the resent and include snippets of interviews Rei took part in to highlight the brands journey and to reach out to their followers. This should create a positive relationship between the generation z customers and the brand as their followers will find ways to relate to the brand and their message of not caring what others think and to do what makes you happy, as this is what rei has done her whole life. This is a message which I personally think that generation z needs to hear. We are living in a world where as well as clothes trending, physical body features are trending and not having this naturally is seen as ‘ugly’ and ‘not good enough’. Comme could also bring their story to Dover Street Market, with their old designs as art pieces. They have not changed the displays at Dover Street Market in around three years. The concept behind Dover Street Market is that it is different to any shop you will go into and changing the displays will create a different experience every time someone enters the shop. They could place QR codes on the different floors of Dover Street Market that when scanned take the person to an online space with small videos of the displays being set up and how it was created so they can see the thought put into the idea.
When Comme des Garcons was first introduced in the 1980s, punk fashion was seen as controversial as it did not follow the trends at the time and it was different to anything that had ever been seen before. Since then, punk has become its own subculture. 2022 is a totally different time to the 1980s and the people of today have more of an open mind to what is different. Today, we are encouraged to wear and look how we want and to ‘not care’ about what others think. I think that Comme des Garcons can use their original message of designing what they want for people who like it and not caring what people think about the pieces or how they look on. As Rai Kawakubo is an ‘outcast’ she will relate to the people who buy from Comme des Garcons and Dover Street Market as they will feel as though they are buying from somebody who understands them and knows how difficult it can be to live their life. I don’t think that Comme des Garcons needs to change their brand or the message behind the brand, I think that they need to get their brand and message out more effectively. Although we are taught that ‘everyone is beautiful’ no matter what they look like, we
now live in a Kardashian world and if we do not look like the Kardashians, we are not good enough. It is important for fashion brands to show us (the client) that clothes are just clothes and that they look different on different body types and that its ok to not fit into the ‘ideal’ body type. Rei Kawakubo designs clothes that are comfortable and that can be worn by anyone, creating a place where all body types can feel and look good in the same garment.
Comme need to use the 7Ps of marketing to be able to effectively sell their products to the new market. They already have the good quality products that their customers love to buy. However, as I have previously said they could use more ethically sourced materials to make these products and lower their carbon footprint. Their price points vary through their collections. Their PLAY collection is much cheaper than the Comme des Garcons range. PLAY is targeted at a completely different market than Comme des Garcons, perhaps a younger market. A t-shirt from PLAY costs around $70 (PLAY Comme Des Garçons - CDG PLAY | Dover Street Market London, n.d.) where as a shirt from Comme des Garcons costs around $500 (CDG Shirt, n.d.). Comme des Garcons need to change how they promote their products. We are in the golden age of social media but they are yet to take that step to promote their brand. Once they have mastered how to effectively use social media, they will have a much larger market with sales increasing. Comme des Garcons is sold at Dover Street Market, in the shops and online. The stores themselves need more promotion as people do not realise that it exists and the concept behind it. The online store has no promotion either which causes the online sales to stay at the same rate. The people who buy from Comme des Garcons do this because they know about the brand and their story, leading to a connection between them and the brand. Their target market needs to expand if they want to stay relevant in the future. This will be done through effective marketing and reaching out to a larger market. The process which they use is effective, they supply to the demand which they have however, this demand needs to increase to increase sales but I believe that Comme des Garcons have the facilities to be able to accommodate this. The physical evidence is currently shown through people wearing the clothes. This could change though. They could use images on social media platforms such as Instagram to showcase customers wearing their Comme des Garcons pieces and through creating a hashtag so that all the images’ people post of them wearing the brand are in one place and can be accessed at the same time. This may influence others to buy from the brand after seeing the clothes being worn.
In conclusion I believe that social media should be included in the Dover Street Market universe. Although Comme des Garcons is not struggling, they will do once their current market is no longer buying from the brand. I think that it is within the brands best interest to connect with generation Z now to be able to build a relationship with them and create a loyal customer who will continue to purchase from the brand. Although online campaigns are a good way to promote brands at the minute, they need to be mindful of what they post and how they do this. One campaign going wrong can negatively affect the brad and their reputation forever. As long as Comme des Garcons are mindful of what they post and understand the risks of what they post, I believe that social media will work in their favour as it is no longer the 1980s and creating ‘out there’ pieces is no longer a shocking thing and does not create the media frenzy which it once did. I think that if Comme des Garcons do not change with the times the brand will become irrelevant and will eventually die out.
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