FMP Research
Who was Vivienne Westwood?
Vivienne Westwood was a British fashion designer who began making and selling clothes in the 1960s. She met her then partner Malcolm McLaren (manager of the Sex Pistols) and they created ‘provocative’ clothing to be sold in their London shop. As Malcolm McLaren was the manager of the Sex Pistols and later other British Punk bands, punk had a heavy influence on the clothes which they created. The punk clothing was heavy on leather, zips and tartan. This soon became the ‘uniform’ of the punk community in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The Punk movement was about aiming to piss people off with the clothing and their outrageous actions and the aim of this was to achieve anarchy.
Even after the punk craze died down, Vivienne continued to design clothing using these principals. Her brand has created avant-garde pieces that still have a punk look to them.
Vivienne also continued the spirit of punk through her designs, creating slogan t-shirts protesting the climate change issues which she held close to her heart. All throughout her life Vivienne carried this spirit with her inside and outside of her work.
Unfortunately, Vivienne died in December 2022, leaving her legacy and her brand in the hands of Andras Kronthaler, her husband. She left big shoes to fill.
The Brands Target Market
The brands target market is very niche. The target market is people similar to Vivienne in the sense that the brand is aimed towards peopl who have a ‘bold’ sense of style and who appreciate a chic take on the punk style. The ages of Vivienne Westwood consumers are between 2560. Although the target market is niche, this leaves a huge group of people who the brands campaigns and promotions need to reach.
Vivienne Westwood is also popular amongst males and females within this age category, making the target audience so specific yet so broad at the same time.
Brand engagement
Although many people are aware of Vivienne Westwood as a brand and what they sell, the brand engagement as of 2023 is low.
The brand has a TikTok and instagram account with the instagram account being updated regularly. The Instagram account has over 3 million followers with their rival brands such as Alexander McQueen having over 13 million. There is a 10 million follower difference between the two brands and I think this is because of their target audience. Their TikTok has over 371k followers, lower than the Instagram although they are posting regularly here as well. After looking through their content on both of the accounts, the content they are creating is not engaging and can be quite boring. I feel that this is not a true representation of the brand as the brand itself has a strong narrative behind it and an exciting one at that. With their TikTok’s only receiving a few thousand likes at most and around 100 comments while having 50-700k views, I feel that they are not using the social media platforms to their advantage.
The lack of social media engagement could be due to the target audience, brands such as PLT are aimed at gen Z who are the main users of TikTok and Instagram. Vivienne Westwoods target age group is 25-60, meaning the older generations in this group will not see the social media posts or will just generally not be interested in them. taking the target market into account, i think that this campaign should be featured on their instagram, TikTok but also being shown on billboards and bus stops. This will catch the attention of everyone, even the people who do not follow the social media pages. My campaign aims to spark nostalgia in their older consumers so having the comapign infront of them while they are driving, walking or waiting for the bus will help them remember the time of punk and the attitudes which it inspired. I also aim to bring this back to people and a subtle reminder will help with this.
Online or in store?
Currently Vivienne Westwood can be bought in designer department shops such as Harrod’s and Selfridges online or in store and can also be bought through the Vivienne Westwood online store and the shops. after looking through the online shop, I have found many bad reviews for the Vivienne Westwood Jewellry bought online on Trip Advisor and Trust Pilot saying that people are not receiving the items they have ordered and that the items they are receiving are poor quality. over the past few years the Vivienne Westwood jewellry range began trending, specifically the pearl necklace amongst gen Z men and women. This sparked a huge increase in sales of the jewellry and even now it is still very popular amongst younger people.
I want to keep with how viviennne Westwood are currently selling their products as this is what is familiar for all of their customers. No matter what generation is buying from the brand, there is ways to do this that each generation prefers.
References
https://www.britannica.com/biography/VivienneWestwood
https://diversification.home.blog/2019/03/04/the-brand/ https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1352021/viviennewestwood-luxury-fashion-brand-profile-in-the-uk
Vivienne Westwood Instagram
Vivienne Westwood TikTok
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/viviennewestwood.com? stars=1 https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g186338d554328-r823971496-Vivienne _ WestwoodLondon _England.html