Thesis Dissertation

BA Fashion marketing & communication, Level 6, 2018-2019 6FAMK001C Major Project CWK2, 13.150 words

José Guerrero

Understanding Digital Age Reshaping Fashion Weeks’ System

Patricia Payá Guillot

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Understanding Digital Age Reshaping Fashion Weeks’ System *All the illustrations belong to Rosie McGuiness*

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“Once upon a time, being thousands of kilometers from New York or London would have made it impossible for a brand to have a global presence.�

(Walker, 2016)

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The Abstract The purpose of this dissertation was to analyse and demonstrate how Fashion Weeks, as a key element of the Fashion Industry, are moving from BTB to BTC in this new Digital Age. The chosen theme is a relevant subject nowadays, since with the entrance of social networks, the Fashion Weeks’ system has been in continuous movement for a few years, where fashion professionals strive to understand and to decipher which are the steps they have to follow in order to adapt themselves to this new Era. But even though this topic is of paramount importance to the industry, it is hardly studied in a deeply manner, what encouraged the author to investigate it.

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approximation to the consumer and a better engagement. Furthermore, it was analyzed how consumers are taking an increasingly active role in co-creating everything from product design to promotional messages.

The last aspect investigated is The Crisis of Fashion Weeks. To understand this crisis, the author has made an analysis of the information obtained in the previous Literature Review comparing it with the possible crisis that those changes in the marketplace might be generating.

The Literature Review was divided into three stages: a general view of the transition to the New Media, an specific study of how this has caused the Business to Consumer strategy in brands, and how this could be generating a crisis of Fashion Weeks’ event.

Books and research papers published in the nowadays Media marketplace, Marketing and Communication strategies, and Consumers behavior have allowed the author to reach conclusions.

It was crucial for this dissertation to understand first the global context of the transition to the New Media marketplace, where digital and interactive media are giving the opportunity to consumers to also serve as content producers and what leads to a new media discourse because of technology, where new generations are born to expect 24/7 connectivity and are impatient by nature.

The second aim of this dissertation, and probably the most relevant one, is to analyze the Consumer Centric Businesses. It was investigated that the incoming database technology has allowed customer-centric firms to know more about their consumers, and to act taking that information into consideration, generating a greater

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Acknowledgements

I would first like to express my gratitude for my thesis tutor JosĂŠ Guerrero, who since the day one has guided me to the right direction, and who has always helped me to see the whole process from a better perspective.

To Cristina Lastra, for being my specialized tutor and always helping me not to lose my focus.

To my family for their constant support and love.

This dissertation would not have been possible without them. Thank you.

Patricia PayĂĄ Guillot Wordcount: 13.150 words

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Table of Contents

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Introduction to the Topic - Motivation

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- Spider diagram

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- Aim and objectives

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- Research questions

18-19

- Methodology

20-21

Literature Review - The transition from Mass Media to New Media

22-25

- Consumer centric businesses

26-31

- The Crisis of the Fashion Weeks

32-37

Data Results

- Benchmarking of the Fashion Weeks: old Fashion Weeks vs new Fashion Weeks

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- Social Media impact on Fashion Weeks

42-63

- Boundaries and challenges in today’s Fashion Weeks

64-71

Discussion

72-77

References

78-81

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Introduction to the topic

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Motivation The author’s motivations to focus this research on the subject of analyzing the new Fashion Weeks’ system came from a great personal interest in the event itself and in its constant evolution, being the reason why she started to love the world of Fashion.

The author, a born digital native, wants to discover how these new technologies and how her generation are changing the system of Fashion shows, taking into account the importance of this event within the industry.

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The Spider Diagram

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New Relationship between producers and receivers

Consumer at the center of the business attention The Transition from Mass Media to New Media

Consumer Centric Businesses

Technology has transformed the Media discourse

Understanding Digital Age Reshaping Fashion Weeks’ System Relationship businesses

Customer integration

The Crisis of Fashion Weeks

Customer relationship marketing

Fashion Weeks’ change in the focus of interest

Social Media as an integrated tool

Instant gratification implications

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The Aim and Objectives The aim of this research is to analyse and demonstrate how Fashion Weeks, as a key element of the Fashion Industry, are moving from BTB to BTC because of the Digital Age. The main objectives are to comprehend the transition from Mass Media to New Media and in which way this evolution to the Digital Age is remodeling brands towards a consumer-centric marketing strategy.

In addition to this, another one dissertation objective is to understand how the behavior of the consumer is transforming due to technology and in which way this has had an impact on Fashion Weeks’ system.

Finally, the project also evaluate the boundaries and challenges that fashion brands are suffering in today’s Fashion Week event.

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Research questions

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1. The Transition from Mass 2. Consumer Centric Media to New Media Businesses — Which is the new relationship between producers and receivers?

— How does technology transformed the Media discourse?

— What is the new consumer behavior inside the Fashion Weeks’ system?

— Why and how are consumers becoming the center of the business attention?

3. The Crisis of Fashion Weeks — Why is the Fashion Weeks’ system having boundaries and challenges?

— Which is the new rol of consumers inside the Fashion Weeks’ system?

1. Why has the power of Social Media affect firms in Fashion Weeks?

2. Why is instant gratification generating a crisis inside Fashion Weeks?

— How do brands satisfy consumers’ needs and wants in this Digital Age?

3. Why is the constant need of gratification affecting designers?

— Why is there a shift from product to consumer orientation?

4. Why has Social Media influenced in the change of focus of interest inside Fashion Weeks?

— How is technology improving firms knowledge about consumer preferences?

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The Research Methodology In order to attain the research objectives and tackle the research questions, a methodology must be established.

The examination of secondary sources such as books and research papers published on the new media in this digital age, new consumer-centric businesses, and digital consumer behavior, conceived a crystal depiction on the dissertation topic and allowed the student to develop an impartial vision of the subject.

It was crucial for this dissertation to have a focal point on secondary sources.

In order to understand the transition to the New Media and get a context about the topic, the author will look first of all at the analysis of Philip Napoli (New Media expert and author of many Communication books), William Fielding Ogburn (American Sociologist), and Paul Roberts (American journalist and author of ‘The Impulse Society’).

In a fast-moving world, they all identified that technology has taken over society. Where with the digitalization of the media, producers and consumers are gaining a new role and where the incoming generations are having new immediate needs.

To comprehend why and how consumers are becoming the center of the business attention and which is the new role of consumers inside these businesses, the author will analyze the theories of Allan Mitchell (Author of ‘The New Bottom Line: Bridging the Value Gaps that are Undermining Your Business’), Lucio Lamberti (Marketing professor and author of ‘Journal of Strategic Marketing’), Massimiliano Bonacchi (Economics and management professor), Loïc Plé, Xavier Lecocq & Jacques Angot (Authors of the research paper ‘Customer-Integrated Business Models: A Theoretical Framework’),

and Philip Kotler (Marketing author, consultant, and professor. Author of ‘Marketing 4.0.”).

All the authors discussed the new marketing strategy implemented by businesses due to the digitalization of the media, and also how consumers are now integrated in every process.

In order to consider all these theories further and evaluate this transition inside Fashion Weeks’ system, the author will analyze secondary sources in Data Results; will do an observation of the evolution to Business-to-consumer strategy inside this system by displaying a benchmarking and statements related. And also will analyze the impact Social Media has made on fashion shows, by analyzing the new consumer behavior and the voices driving today’s event. In order to measure this, reports from Launchmetrics coming together with CFDA and WGSN, will be analysed.

Concerning the possible crisis that is happening inside Fashion Weeks, the author will contrast some theories of the previous literature review with some critical aspects that indicate and denote a challenge inside the system.

Also the author will do an observation of the boundaries Social Media has created to designers, the new see now buy now challenge and a demonstration in the change of the focus of interest inside the event and its drawbacks.

This dissertation will not have primary sources due to the fact that this topic is analyzing Fashion Weeks, a worldwide event mainly attended by high-fashion brands. Therefore, the author has preferred to find secondary sources of renowned designers and institutions. Also, she wanted to discuss the issue on a global scale, so some international secondary reports have been of great help to her.

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Literature Review

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The Literature Review is performed in order to gain some insight about how the surrounding of Fashion weeks was before and how it is now due to the appareance of the Digital Age, which has helped the author to understand why the industry has changed in many levels. The information has made the author to comprehend the new dynamic of Fashion Weeks.

The aim of this research is to investigate how social media is impacting the fashion week’s system.

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1. The Transition from Mass Media to New Media Observing the current media marketplace there is a clear transition from Mass Media to New Media. It is crucial for this dissertation to understand the naturalness of this evolution in Media, in order to contextualize the change of the Fashion Weeks’ system.

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1.1. The new relationship between producers and receivers One of the most distinctive characteristics of the contemporary media marketplace is the new role and function of the audience. In the traditional dual-product marketplace, in which content is sold to audiences and these are, consecutively, sold to advertisers, audiences are at the same time, the customer in one market, and the product in the other one, occupying a unique position.

But with the digitalization of the media, there has been a remarkable transformation of the media marketplace in many levels (Napoli, 2015).

One of the most significant aspects of this transformation is that it has further expanded the role of the audience (Napoli, 2011).

Today, the dualism of the audience as consumer/product has being further complicated by the ways that digital and interactive media are constantly giving the opportunity to audiences to also serve as content producers, by making and distributing content (Shirky, 2010). Means that, media users now produce and distribute content addressed and consumed by audiences. In addition, today, media users usually produce content, such as social media comments and endorsements, that can also be used as data in assessing the effectiveness of the advertising campaigns (Napoli, 2015).

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1.2. Technology has transformed the Media discourse With the arrival of Technology, the Media discourse has radically changed. Mainly because the Digital Age has transformed our way of thinking and relating, which has made us obtain immediate needs that we did not have before.

Nowadays in society, technology can be equated with tools. In broadest sense, technology also includes the skills or procedures necessary to make and use those tools (Henslin, 1998). But the sociological aspect that is given to Technology is that its importance goes far beyond being a tool itself.

Technology even influences the way people think and how they relate to one another (Stromquist, 2005).

This is the reason why Ogburn (1964) identify Technology as the fundamental driver of change. His study is divided into three pronged processes: invention, discovery and diffusion. Ogburn (1964) defined invention as a combination of existing elements and materials to form new ones. The next process of social change is discovery, which means ‘a new way of seeing reality’ (Ogburn, 1964). And finally diffusion is the spread of invention or discovery, and even ideas, where the contact with other cultures is the main source of dispersal.

Ogburn (1964) viewed diffusion as the major process of social change and argues that it can have far reaching effects on human relationships.

Another aspect that has changed in the Media discourse because of

Technology is the impatience, gratification, in favor of a consulinked to theories such as instant mer culture focused entirely on ingratification. Millennials, a gene- dividual satisfaction. ration of ‘digital natives’ born to expect 24/7 connectivity has often been described as impatient.

Growing up in this environment ‘Millennials expect a much greater array of product and service selectivity’ (Sweeney, 2006, p.2) meaning that this generation are normally frustrated when presented with a selection of limited choices.

In the other hand, Roberts (2014) discusses the way the consumer economy has become more and more personalised and that through this personalization ‘the world becomes our world’(Roberts, 2014, p.19). Roberts (2014) has described our socio-economic system as a society heavily driven by speed and efficiency; we also have become ‘oblivious to long-term consequences’ (p.19) in search to short-term satisfaction. This impulsive attitude that we have now is not limited to the business world or the self, it has reached out in mainstream media, education and even charitable organisations. Roberts (2014) continues describing how this influence has even reached our political institutions, who are pushing aside complex or time consuming issues and favoring ‘rapid wins’ (p.20); concluding we are now becoming a society ‘ruled by impulse’ (p.20). Roberts (2014) states that we ‘remain in a state of permanent childhood’ by focusing on only the immediate outcomes and disregarding any considerations of future consequences. Overall, we have disregarded community and the challenges of delayed 25

2. Consumer Centric Businesses Today, the age of growing competition, scarce resources, and more demanding customers, brands are striving to increase profitability by becoming more customer-centric.

This is the core reason why the Fashion Week event has shifted in many aspects by moving from BTB to BTC. Following this discussion the author has gone into the origin of this change.

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2.1. Consumer at the center of the business attention The conceptualizations of customer centricity in the literature generally endorse the idea of customer centricity as the opposite of product centricity (e.g. Galbraith, 2005; Shah et al., 2006). The underlying assumption of a product-centric approach sees the brand as a repository of resources and competences developing products or services. These products and services are the core value proposition, and the brand acts on them to please as many customers as possible, modifying the offer to meet customers’ expectations (Galbraith, 2002). And on the other hand, customer centricity focuses its attention on the purchaser and on the establishment of mutually satisfactory customer relationships (Day, 2003): individual customers express needs and fashion brands’ resources are activated to develop solutions able to satisfy these needs. Despite this, according to Philip Kotler, it is necessary first of all to take note of most profitable customers trying to retain them.

As noted by Philip Kotler (2003), you should take care of your clients, but not necessarily of every of them equally.

In the literature, customer centricity has been associated with the capability by the company to: (1) generate customer intelligence, gathering and processing data and information to build comprehensive data repositories about the interactions between customer and the firm, to support customized marketing activities (Sharma & Sheth, 2004); (2) actively involve customers in marketing and innovation processes, co-creating value with them (extended in 2.2.1.) (Payne & Frow, 2005); (3) move the focus from the product/service offered to the whole customer experience to create value in a way that is intimately related to the individual self of the customer (extended in 2.2.1.) (Perry, 2004)

However, Ramani and Kumar (2008) stated that the concepts of customer-centric and ‘interaction orientation’ marketing strategy are not new.

Nonetheless, with the advent of new channels of distribution for products and services, such as the Internet, firms increasingly stretch themselves across various channels so as to appeal to many different customer segments.

In addition, improvements in database technology have given firms the ability to collect a large amount of computer readable data about their customer and their marketing performance (Epstein, 2007; Varian, 2006). Clearly, these developments have significantly increased the availability and sophistication of customer metrics (Jain and Singh, 2002). For instance, advertising models have evolved from a focus on brand awareness to a focus on direct and measurable customer acquisitions (Epstein, 2007). Similarly, unlike television advertising, Internet advertisers are billed on the basis of the number of user click-through to their websites, gaining a reliable measurement of customer acquisition costs (Laffey, 2007). Such insights allow customer-centric firms to learn about new and latent customer preferences by directly observing the customer’s purchase and subsequently link this data to customer value and firm performance.

These theories has helped the author to understand the main cause of the Fashion Weeks’ evolution. Where brands, as a result of the appearance of new technologies, have had to acquire this marketing system focused on the consumer and not that much on the product. Cause mainly, as noted

by Epstein (2007) and Varian (2006), the improvements in database technology are giving the opportunity to brands to know everything about the consumer and therefore engage more

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with them in terms of product and marketing performances. Which has caused a significant change in the system’s structure.

Nevertheless, Sheth et al. (2000) argue that customer centricity goes beyond customization, as it aims at adapting existing products to different customer needs rather than developing products around customer needs.

Customer centricity is in play when not only the product/service, but also the whole marketing process is customized (Wind & Rangaswamy, 2001)

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2.2. Relationship businesses 2.2.1. Customer integration As we have seen in the previous literature, a long-standing and fundamentally important division of labour between marketers and consumers is coming to an end. Traditionally, companies make and sell while consumers buy and use (Mitchell, 2004). But now, with the ‘information age’ emerging added-value buying services are putting the power of IT (Information Technology) in the hands of consumers and reversing the flow of product and marketing processes.

The involvement of customers in NPD (New Product Development) processes is one of the most debated subjects in management literature; contributions are widespread both in time and scope, and they all start from the same assumption: interfacing with customers and creating relationship with them during the development of new solutions tends to increase the probability of acceptance of the new products by the market (e.g. Perks, 2004; Sheth et al., 2002).

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More and more organizations have been giving an important role in their processes to the customer. For these organizations, the customer is not only the revenue yielder but also a resource on his own. But the affirmation of the need to stimulate a collaborative customer involvement is not only related to co-creation management. In fact, it has been applied more or less to all the marketing activities (Lamberti & Noci, 2009). In these cases, the role given to the clients may vary: producer, distributor, tester… We label CIBM (Customer-Integrated Business Models) the business models involving largely the customers (Plé et al., 2008).

It means that, customer centricity reaches further than customization, where consumers are no longer merely passive recipients in the marketing exchange process. Today, they are

taking an increasingly active role in co-creating everything from product design to promotional messages (Berthon, Pitt, McCarthy, & Kates, 2007).

Furthermore, as stated by Hanna et al.

(2011), in the new social media-driven business model defined by customer connectivity and interactivity, content goes hand in hand with technology, producing far-reaching effects for the way marketers influence current and potential customers. An also, as noted by Reid Hoffman, co-founder and chairman of LinkedIn, the ability to leverage relationships embodied in social networks will become one of the most transformative uses of the Internet (Ricadela, 2007).

These studies reinforce the affirmation of a transition in the Fashion Weeks’ system which is transforming the functioning of the Fashion Industry.

Because, as we have seen previously, new technologies are integrating consumers into product and marketing processes. This is generating, that today, consumers also participate in the elaboration and promotion of the collections offered by the brands, since social networks and blogs now enable individuals to create, share and recommend information. (Ricadela, 2007)

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2.2.2. Customer marketing

relationship

In this Social Media Revolution Age, customers are becoming harder and harder to please, thus it is necessary to find new ways of interaction in order to perceive more deeply their needs and to develop products able to succeed on the turbulent contemporary markets (Addis and Holbrook, 2001).

In this competitive environment, a business organization cannot survive longer with a transactional attitude towards customers. It has been very important to focus on marketing lenses which are considered as a major aspect for satisfying and maintain customers (Khadka & Maharjan, 2017). In this context, customer satisfaction is entitled as an important theoretical and practical issue for the marketers and the researchers (Rakhsha & Majidazar, 2011). Satisfaction is the feeling of the individuals after comparing product and service performances with their expectations. If the business organization meets the expectations of the customer then there is the possibility of a long-term relationship (Kotler, 1996).

Customer relationship marketing (CRM) is the biggest paradigmatic shift in marketing theory and practical in the existing world. It is concerned with attracting, developing and retaining customer relationship (Berry & Parasuraman 1991.) To identify, establish, maintain, enhance and terminate the relationship with customers and other stakeholder customer relationship marketing plays a crucial role. Moreover, it is the best contemporary marketing strategies for the companies to satisfy their customers’ needs and wants. Along with this, it has evolved from the direct response marketing, it focuses more on customer retention and satisfaction of their needs. Instead of focusing on delivering and selling the products, many companies are targeting in developing and marketing long-term relationships with customers and this is defined as a relationship marketing. (Khadka & Maharjan, 2017).

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According to Khadka & Maharjan (2017), enhancement and focus on the customer, building relationships with the customers have become necessary for the companies in the past few years because business success depends on clients. Therefore, companies are trying to keep the existing customers through which it will easier to gain the steady income. Once the customers are attracted towards the firm, they are more likely to stay in the relationship when they are constantly supplied with quality products and services and good value over time.

Under relationship marketing, loyalty, long-term relationship and customer retention are three factors that determine the profitability of the business.

It is true that if the customers are satisfied they are willing to pay more for the products and services and maintain a long-term relationship. Therefore, the business organization should make an effort to understand the core factor of the business to increase the customers.

However, despite the fact that customer relationship marketing is a strategy used for many years, with the arrival of social networks, Kotler (2018) offers us another perspective which is important to understand another of the origins of the Fashion Week’s shift: For companies, the connection with their customers through social networks has ceased to be optional. Due to this revolution, we went from Traditional CRM to Social CRM, -the use of social networks to manage the interactions of a brand with consumers and establish long-term relationships with them- which will be an essential loyalty tool (Kotler, 2018).

According to Kotler (2018), Social CRM supposes a drastic change regarding to the traditional one, that was promoted by a company, whereas the social one is in the hands of the own consumers. In Traditional CRM companies dictate communications with consumers using the channels of their choice, such as email or call centers.

While in Social CRM the conversation is initiated by consumers with questions or comments through social networks. Therefore, Social CRM does not know about schedules and is difficult to automate. Consumers expect immediate response at any time of the day and night (p.164).

Due to the nature of social networks, Social CRM is generated as a dialogue. Unlike traditional CRM, which is more unidirectional and cyclical, the social is made up of permanent conversations. The dialogue is established not only between brands and consumers, but also among consumers within their communities (Kotler, 2018, p.164).

Kotler (2018) affirms that usually the uses of Social CRM are classified into three types. First of all, in order to listen to the consumer’s voice, brands can extract information from the conversations that are established about them in social networks. Secondly, Social CRM can be used to involve brands in conversations, and thus achieve more favorable results. And the third type, with Social CRM, a company can handle consumer complaints that can potentially lead to a brand crisis (p.164).

Following this discussion, as a sphere of influence, the social media ecosystem centers on the consumer experience. As stated by Mike DiLorenzo, director of social media marketing and strategy for the NHL, ‘‘Social networks aren’t about Web sites. They’re about experiences’’

(Wyshynski, 2009). As a result, Hanna et al. (2011) affirm that these experiences arise when marketers are able to incorporate reach, intimacy, and engagement into the company’s overall integrated marketing communications strategy through the interconnectedness of online social media combined with traditional media.

Unfortunately, too many companies make the mistake of treating these media as disparate plat- forms or silos that operate independently of each other. Instead, companies should view their approach to social media as an integrated strategy that brings consumer experiences to the forefront, all whilst recognizing that Internet-based media does not replace traditional media. Internet-based media expands marketing’s ability to move consumers from awareness to engagement, consideration, loyalty, and advocacy.

While the use of traditional media constitutes a trade-off between reach and consumer engagement, social media enables both reach and engagement through judicious use of all formats and platforms. Marketers need both people and community platforms in order to create experiences that achieve the overarching goal of attention and influence (Hanna et al., 2011).

In the Fashion Weeks’ system, this new way of relationship with consumers is generating a shift in the minds of Fashion brands. Where traditionally the main focus was the product, now is the consumer and the relationship with them. This has generated a new form of approach in the system.

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3. The Crisis of Fashion Weeks The literature review has helped the author to understand the main causes of the current transition in the operation of Fashion Weeks. Before the author conducted the literature review, it was known that the Fashion Week, the exclusive runway show only for industry people is changing, but after going into the background of the alterations by displaying the literature review, the author know more about the topic.

But also, from this background, the author wants to show the possible crisis that brands currently suffer in Fashion Weeks, and how these changes have altered designers operations.

Social Media as an integrated Instant gratification tool As explained in ‘Technology has transformed the Media Discourse’, Technology and Social Media has altered our way of thinking and relating, and regarding Fashion Weeks, this has caused a change in the conversation, the experience and even a change in the collections.

Hanna et al. (2011) discuss in the study “We’re all connected: The power of the social media ecosystem” the way social media has taken control of the lives of the consumers and how consumers has started to take an active role in the co-creation of the company’s marketing strategy. They also discuss how companies have started to realize that they have to be active at social media platforms. But companies do not know exactly how to do it effectively. Hanna et al. (2011) describes the importance of understanding that the use of platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, is part of an integrated system or as they put it, in an ecosystem, when it comes to marketing. They mean that realizing that social media has to be a part of the marketing plan of a company together with traditional media is important for companies of today.

This whether the plan is to promote a new product or service or to engage the consumer in a dialogue, because the consumer has created a life at social media platforms.

The change of the Fashion Week is seen as ambiguous by industry people (Friedman, 2015). The fact that companies do not know how to use social media effectively or how they can take advantage of it in the best way could be an explanation over the fact that the change of Fashion Week is such a big issue after all.

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Following this discussion, Technology has made consumers obtain immediate needs that we did not have before. As Roberts (2014) stated, digital natives are born to expect a high connectivity. We are in a environment where Millennials expect more and more, much greater array of products and services, and do not stay satisfied with limited choices. In conclusion, we are in a world that has become the world of this generation of consumers (Roberts, 2014).

This theory of impatience is one of the aspects that leads the author to comprehend the Fashion Weeks’ possible crisis. Where brands are under intense pressure to deliver spectacular products and shows, and furthermore, this constant need of gratification generates that consumers demand options for making purchases immediately after the curtain of the Fashion Show is closed. Because living in a world where shoppers can receive with just their fingers any product they want in what it feels like an instant, the idea of ​​waiting six months to purchase the collection seen on the runway is inconceivable.

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Fashion Weeks as an entertainment. Change in the focus of interest.

In addition, as explained in ‘Consumer Centric Business’, the consumer now has a much more participatory role, and not only that, but also brands reach the point of focusing more in developing and marketing long-term relationships with consumer instead of focusing on delivering and selling products (Khadka & Maharjan, 2017), where the focus is on relationships and not so much on the calendar. To this approach is added the perspective of Kotler (2018) on the Social CRM, which supposes a drastic change regarding the traditional one. Where now the conversation is initiated by consumers with questions or comments through social networks.

These theories help us to understand the change in the focus of interest that may be happening within the Fashion Weeks, and therefore implies a setback for the designers. The hyper-relationship between brands and consumers has generated more attention focused on what encompasses the brand and its relationship with consumers, and not so much in the products brands offer on the catwalk.

Meaning that, the importance of the event is transferred from the product to the surrounding world. This could be the reason why now Fashion Weeks and shows have become more of an entertainment and creative tool with the underlying interest to seduce both industry people as well as people outside the industry (Friedman, 2016). Fashion Week that has, since the starting point back in the 1940s, been an event only for industry people. Now Social Media has definitely something to do with the shift of focus from being an industry event to an entertainment event instead discussed

by Friedman (2016).

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Moreover, another reason why Fashion Shows are now entertainment events can be explained by the observation of ‘Customer integration’.

Nowadays consumers are taking an increasingly active role in co-creating everything from product design to promotional messages (Berthon, Pitt, McCarthy, & Kates, 2007). And that content in the form of social networks and blogs that enable individuals to create, share, and recommend information is extending the spheres of marketing influence, and a wide variety of social media platforms are providing the tools necessary for these influential and meaningful firm-customer exchanges. Nowadays, everyone has the opportunity to share their opinion of the fashion event by social media. This has caused designers to be more in the spotlight than ever.

In addition, in 2010 when social media hit the fashion industry, consumers exercised that role in Fashion Weeks.

It was the time when street styles, bloggers and celebrities joined the cluster and consumers suddenly became interested in fashion shows and wanted to attend fashion weeks (Sese, 2009).

Those well-dressed digital natives were the focus for street style photographers who waited outside runway shows, thereby creating the spectacle and entertainment outside the fashion show that was bigger than what was going on inside it. (Jennings, 2019) This is another factor that can be translated into a crisis for many of the designers. The main focus is no longer the product, so brands should not only focus on the collections but everything that includes the Fashion Week.

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To sum up, with the appearance of Social Media and the new consumer behavior, the author has displayed some critical factors that need to be understood to comprehend the shift in the Fashion Weeks’ functioning and how these changes may have caused inconveniences in Fashion brands today, which has been able to generate a crisis.

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KEY FINDINGS

1. The Transition from Mass 2. Consumer Centric Media to New Media Businesses — With the digitalization of the media, there has been a remarkable transformation in the role of the audience.

— Digital and interactive media are constantly giving the opportunity to audiences to also serve as content producers.

— Millennials, a generation of ‘digital natives’ born to expect 24/7 connectivity are often described as impatient.

— Millennials expect a much greater array of product and service selectivity.

— Individual customers express needs and fashion brands’ resources are activated to develop solutions able to satisfy these needs.

— Database technology allows customer-centric firms to learn about new and latent customer preferences by linking this data to customer value and firm performance.

— Today, consumers are taking an increasingly active role in co-creating everything from product design to promotional messages.

— The use of social networks to manage the interactions of a brand with consumers establish long-term relationships with them.

— The relationship and conversation between brands and consumers is initiated by the last ones with questions or comments through social networks.

— Internet-based media expands marketing’s ability to move consumers from awareness to engagement, consideration, loyalty, and advocacy.

— The social media ecosystem centers on the consumer experience.

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3. The Crisis of Fashion Weeks — Companies do not know exactly how to take advantage of social media effectively.

— Brands are under intense pressure to deliver spectacular products and shows.

— The constant need of gratification generates that consumers demand options for making purchases immediately after the curtain of the Fashion Show is closed.

— The hyper-relationship between brands and consumers has generated a shift in the Fashion Weeks’ focus of interest.

— The importance of the event is transferred from the product to the surrounding world.

— Social Media has definitely something to do with the shift of focus from being an industry event to an entertainment event instead.

— Nowadays, everyone has the opportunity to share their opinion of the fashion event by social media. This has caused designers to be more in the spotlight than ever.

— The focus for street style creates the spectacle and entertainment outside the fashion show that is for some people bigger than what is going on inside it.

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Data Results

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The Data Results is a demonstration of what has been displayed theoretically in the Literature Review. This Data Analysis tries to find real facts and examples of the theoretical vision.

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1. Benchmarking of Fashion Weeks’ system: old Fashion Weeks vs new Fashion Weeks 1.1. BTB vs BTC As explained in Consumer Centric Business, today brands, as a result of the appearance of new technologies, have had to acquire a marketing system focused on the consumer and not that much on the product.

BTB

BTC

Focus on collections

1. Focus on consumers

Industry insider’s events offered to buyers and press

2. Runway shows are offered to everyone

High fashion was for exclusive audience

3. Anyone with internet access can now watch almost any major runway show in the world in real time

The connection between brands and consumers was indirectly

4. Social media channels and live streaming have enabled fashion houses and brands to connect and interact directly with their huge consumer audiences.

Typical coverage

5. Social media is allowing more established sources of fashion commentary to respond to shows in a conversational, real-time way that is more accessible than typical coverage

Fashion week was conducted 6 months in advance before the clothes would actually hit the stores (Time-to-market)

6. As nowadays is crucial engaging with target audiences in an instant manner. Brands have adopted a direct-to-consumer strategy (See-now-buy-now)

Fashion Weeks were only about the industry and sales-focused

7. The Fashion Week act as a consumer media and marketing platform

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Source: Personal data’s Elaboration

Major Project “Nowadays fashion shows have become far more than just an industry affair attracting editors and journalists, but a consumer-facing event that is empowered by social networks and digital technology.” (Michael Jaïs & Steven Kolb, 2019)

1. “The Fashion Week will always continue to be relevant, but tailoring the content of your runway or your presentation to your desired audience is the most important way to reach your consumer in the most impactful manner.” (Catherine Bennett, 2016) 2. “With Instagram, we gave 4 million people instead of 40 the opportunity to sit front row.” (Wes Gordon, 2016)

Figure 1: A model walks down a runway at the Hotel Pierre in 1946. (Vox, 2019)

3. “Technology has made fashion shows – originally mostly trade events – accessible to a vastly larger audience in real time, amplifying excitement around designs.” (CFDA, 2019)

4. “Digital media is becoming more and more important, we do have to catch up on the use of these tools.” (Hellessy’s Sylvie Millstein, 2019)

5. “I like to see what people appreciate on social media, and what my customers react to, and then take it into consideration while maybe moving in that direction.

I suppose I use media like a barometer.” (Adam Selman, 2019)

6. “The current way of showing a collection four months before it is available to customers is an antiquated idea, and one that no longer makes sense.” (Tom Ford, 2017)

7. “Last year we released our first study of the various fashion weeks across New York, London, Paris and Milan. After analyzing the data, it became quite clear that these events were no longer just about the industry, but a global platform to reach the digital-savvy consumer.” (Bringé, 2019)

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2. Social Media impact on Fashion Weeks 2.1. Customer Journey Instant gratification As mentioned in ‘Technology has transformed the Media discourse’, the new generations of ‘digital natives’ born to expect 24/7 connectivity has often been described as impatient. Today, our socio-economic system as a society is heavily driven by speed and efficiency, and ‘ruled by impulse’.

It means that today, as technology enables faster experiences, consumers are growing impatient.

Arguably, the rise of B2C fashion shows, photo-sharing social media apps and e-commerce have already shifted consumer preferences toward immediate gratication and heightened expectations for newness. (State of Fashion, 2017)

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Help me faster

47%

of consumers expect a website to load in two seconds or less.

(Kissmetrics, 2015)

53%

of people will abandon a mobile site if it takes more than three seconds to load.

(Google analytics Data, 2016)

72%

of customers expect a response to their complaint on social media within one hour.

(Econsultancy, 2016)

64%

of consumers expect companies to respond and interact with them in real time.

(Salesforce, 2017)

Figure 2: Conversocial, 2018

Major Project

Wow me everywhere “Empowered by access to more information, social networks and digital devices, consumers are now well equipped to do research and receive satisfaction for most of their needs.

As a result, consumers have come to expect more, making it harder for businesses to keep up. The challenge for businesses is how to close the gap when dealing with millions of individual expectations.� (Deloitte, 2019)

63%

of people expect brands to deliver a consistent experience everytime they interact with a brand.

(Google analytics Data, 2016)

60%

of consumers have higher expectations for customer service now than they did just one year ago.

(Parature, 2016)

48%

of consumers expect brands to know them and help them discover new products or services that fit their needs.

(Cube, 2015)

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See Now Buy Now Following the increasing need of instant gratification of these new generations, brands are in need to satisfy the changing demands of the consumer, which makes it the cause of designers adopting the ‘see now buy now’ strategy.

The promotion of brands’ collections on social media during and directly after fashion shows has led to a fashion immediacy among millennials.

Adapting to the increasing impatient consumers and their need for instant gratification, the consumer-facing ‘See Now Buy Now’ business model shifts the traditional time-to-market from six months to the day after the show has been done. Consequently, SNBN is a disruptive business model, opposing the traditional format of ‘see now, and wait.’

“Customer behaviour has changed so dramatically. I’m not sure any more that when we watch something, and then six months later, we’d remember it again because we have all become so used to technology allowing us to [experience everything immediately].

(Christopher Bailey, 2016)

“Today, everything is instant, which is great but it also creates a gap.” (Esteban Cortazar, 2016)

“Logistically looking at the fashion-show construct, it makes very little sense now. If you put a business consultant in to look at what the fashion industry is doing, they would think it was insane.” (Alexandra Shulman, 2016)

“Everyone is changing the way they live, work, shop, eat — our industry is not immune to that change, and our customers are not immune to those changes [either].” (Christopher Bailey, 2017)

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“It’s always felt a little alien, inviting people from around the world to tune in and to watch, to Instagram, share and like and all of those things, but then not be able to buy it, or look at it, until four to six months.”

(Cristopher Bailey, 2017)

Major Project

Paradigm shifts Conventional model

See Now, Buy Now

Key target

Buyers, press and celebrities

Consumers and influencers

Marketing objective

Consumer awareness

Consumer engagement

High-street competition

Simultaneous with high-street

Ahead of high-street

Channel

DTC + wholesale

DTC

Purchase

Delayed 4+ months

Inmediate

Figure 3: ATKearney, 2016

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It was on February 5th 2016, when Burberry became the first high-fashion house to announce the ‘See Now Buy Now’ realignment by combining both men’s and women’s collections into twice-annual seasonless shows. That very same day, Tom Ford announced a plan in order to postpone his fashion show for six months so the brand can make the collection available to consumers.

(McKinsey&company, 2017)

Figure 4: See Now Buy Now (Digital me up, 2018)

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Brands that have adopted the SNBN model Designers adopting SNBN in their main co- Designers adopting SNBN partially through limited items, capsule collecllection fully or partially tions or fashion show rescheduling

Figure 5: SNBN (Malcolm Newbery Consulting, 2018)

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2.2. The voices driving Fashion Weeks in Today’s Digital Era As explained previously, fashion shows have become more than just an industry affair, but a consumer-facing event that is driven and empowered by social media and digital technology. Through the power of social media, the once private, industry-only event has become a global cultural moment, attracting not only industry insiders, but also end consumers.

Taking Tom Ford as an example, the brand generates an average of 800% more online media impact during Fashion Week than any other time of the year (Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017).

Who are the voices driving Fashion Weeks today?

When analyzing the Voices that prevailed during the four biggest fashion weeks last SS19 season, the battle between traditional media and influencers in terms of share of voice is more than evident. But in terms of the overall media impact of Fashion Weeks SS19, influencers generated up to 50%, largely exceeding traditional media.

For several years, Fashion Weeks have experienced an unceasing evolution to satisfy the changing demands of the consumer. While some designers meet these needs by adopting the ‘see now, buy now’ strategy and using fashion shows as sales platforms, others utilize the runway as an exhibition space.

The methodology used to understand how new voices have contributed to the changing landscape of Fashion Weeks is represented by Launchmetrics’ audience-driven Media Impact Value (MIV) algorithm provided by Launchmetrics.

“Today, the audience is disrupting the content. What that means is that depending on who your audience is, the content and format of your show, product launch, or even campaign changes” (Michael Jaïs)

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Figure 6: Launchmetrics & WGSN, 2019

Major Project

The voices driving the four Fashion Weeks today When looking at the analysis of the four fashion weeks last SS19 season, we observe that Paris and London continue to obtain good results from more traditional formats, while New York and Milan obtain a higher percentage of MIV from digital influencers. Surprising, once again, is the case of Milan, which proves to be ahead of the markets in Europe as far as influencers are concerned.

Figure 7: Launchmetrics & WGSN, 2019

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The voices’ distribution by channels In the analysis throughout the FW SS19 report, there is a common denominator: the most active Voices are not necessarily the most powerful. And here we find the first example: while the number of appearances or mentions in online media and social channels is practically the same, it was social networks that generated the highest percentage of value (almost 79% of the share of value compared to 21% of online media).In the same way we find that Instagram is the main channel in social media without a doubt.

Figure 8: Launchmetrics & WGSN, 2019

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Major Project

The voices For a better understading about how these voices can add value through different strategies, there will be highlighted multiple designers who have managed to face and overcome the evolving challenges of the industry to illustrate how powerful a fashion show can be in today’s digital era.

The statistics displayed are collected from the Fashion Weeks SS18.

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Media The evolution of fashion journalism from print to online has created a more diverse marketplace and publications now satisfy the readers’ desire for stories beyond fashion and beauty advice – with topics including current affairs, health and celebrity news.

Also, quite notably is the shift media has taken when reporting on Fashion Week, focusing on the spectacle of the shows, the impressions of the guests as well as the general experience that each brand is able to build in a few minutes.

(Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017)

Tom Ford

Figure 9: Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017

Tom Ford successfully generated nearly $7 million in MIV from traditional media, which accounted for 41% of the total MIV. Looking closer at the content which contributed to the total media MIV, celebrity influencers such as Gigi Hadid, Kim Kardashian and Cameron Dallas, were all huge drivers for the designer’s coverage.

Kim Kardashian alone was mentioned in 600 online articles about Tom Ford’s show. According to data trends found, 80% of media content mentioned a celebrity influencer, suggesting the shift in focus from product and runway reviews to social content.

(Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017)

TOM FORD SUCCESSFULLY GENERATED NEARLY $7 MILLION IN MIV FROM TRADITIONAL MEDIA, WHICH ACCOUNTED FOR 41% OF THE TOTAL MIV

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TOM FORD GENERATED MORE MIV ON THE DAY OF THEIR SHOW THAN ANY OTHER NYFW DESIGNER.

Figure 10: Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017

The big reveal of the “FUCKING FABULOUS” fragrance campaign the day after the show gave the brand a significant hike in media mentions. In return, the show also helped promote the campaign.

The overlap in content between the runway show, campaign launch and after-party brings to light how both media and the audience are keen to experience the excitement on and off the runway.

(Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017)

Figure 11: Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017

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Influencers

When Vogue published their firstever print edition, editors made up a small elite who were considered some of the most influential figures of the industry. Since then, the definition of an ‘influencer’ has evolved and the influencer of our time has proven to be a powerful resource for brands to communicate directly to their end consumers. Whether it be the traditional editor with a readership of millions, a micro-influencer with a following of 10K, or a celebrity with over 2 million followers, each individual has the ability to shape the industry by sharing their own opinions amongst their communities.

(Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017)

Now, some of the biggest brands who turn up at Fashion Week think much more creatively about how their collection will not only inspire the usual editors and stylists, but also the Instagrammer with a totally engaged following Backing up this strategy is the fact that, according to a study by Google, 64% of women shopping for fashion on their phones are influenced to purchase something based on seeing that product in context. In other words, the fashion brands chosen and shared by the right social media influencers are more likely to end up in a lot more people’s shopping baskets.

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Micro

Medium

Macro

Celebrity

64%

of women who shop for apparel on their smartphone agree that seeing images of products in context positively influences their purchase decision.

(Google analytics, 2016)

Major Project

Calvin Klein

On the day of the SS18 show, the room was not only filled with traditional fashion influencers, but a blend of micro, medium, macro and celebrity influencers from their own areas of expertise.

The diversification, even among the celebrity influencers, draws attention to the increase in synergies between the world of fashion and Pop Culture.

The mix between various categories of influencers helps ensure that the brand maximizes its engagement ratio.

(Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017)

Figure 12: Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017

Figure 13: Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017

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Jeremy Scott

With the milestone of his 20th anniversary collection, Jeremy Scott bedazzled the audiences with not just jewels and crystals, but powerful models and celebrity influencers.

From the 46% of total MIV generated from influencers, over 90% was produced by celebrities. Some of Jeremy Scott’s muses include Paris Hilton, Miley Cyrus and the Beckerman sisters, who genuinely represent the brand philosophy–fun, playful and wild.

(Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017)

Figure 14: Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017

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Figure 15: Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017

Major Project

The Voice of an Influencer: Aimee Song Some years ago Aimee Song started a forum to showcase her portfolio which later became a popular blog to promote her interests in fashion, travel and design aesthetics.

As one of the earliest bloggers to join the movement, she now has a following of 4.7 million and has made it on the Forbes 30 under 30 list.

While her Instagram account is a huge driver for MIV, her video content on YouTube also helped generate an average of $87.5K MIV on SS18 FW, making it evident that new-era influencers have the ability to authentically bridge the gap between brands and consumers.

(Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017)

Figure 16: Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017

NEW AGE INFLUENCERS HAVE THE ABILITY TO AUTHENTICALLY BRIDGE THE GAPS BETWEEN BRANDS AND CONSUMERS.

Figure 17: Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017

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Own Media There is always a constant need for brands to pull audiences in, keep them active and engage them. The emergence of new digital channels has allowed brands to build their own “media� through which they can reach their final audience directly.

Owned media, is simply defined as those channels the brands own and control content for (including social, blog, etc.) has acted as a pull medium to achieve this goal and ultimately transform consumers into brand advocates and loyalists.

(Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017)

Michael Kors Not only did the brand broadcast the show on Facebook, it also gave their fans an #AllAccessKors pass on their Instagram channel. By following the hashtag, fans were taken on a journey throughout the whole fashion show experience.

Michael Kors leveraged its owned media to distinguish itself from all the buzz created from other designers’ shows earlier in the week,which has helped enhance the consumer experience.

Moreover, once again, Instagram is the most important channel.

(Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017)

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Major Project

THE LABEL’S STRONG INSTAGRAM FOLLOWING AND CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS WITH INFLUENCERS MEANS THAT ITS OWNED GENERATED CONTENT AND DIRECT COMMUNICATION WITH CONSUMERS IS HIGHLY EFFECTIVE.

Figure 18: Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017

Figure 19: Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017

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Consumer The growth in technology and the rise in social media has allowed individual consumers to have a share of voice. This evolution has greatly changed the way we have been consuming fashion and has broadened the scope of fashion weeks by giving access to the everyday consumer. The following designer have strategically activated the direct consumer and generated most of their total MIV through consumer-generated content.

(Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017)

Alexander Wang

Wang has been a long-standing supporter of the direct-to-consumer approach, or fans as they tend to reference them. With previous collaborations including Adidas Originals or H&M, and the brand’s very own capsule collection, No After Party, the designer continuously produces and tests different approaches to ensure not only that products are available at the right time, but the price points are accessible for their diverse group of followers.

(Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017)

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Major Project

THE DESIGNER CONTINUOUSLY PRODUCES AND TESTS DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO ENSURE NOT ONLY THAT PRODUCTS ARE AVAILABLE AT THE RIGHT TIME, BUT THE PRICE POINTS ARE ACCESSIBLE FOR THEIR DIVERSE GROUP OF FOLLOWERS.

Figure 20: Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017

Figure 21: Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017

With announced bi-annual strategy at Alexander Wang in 2017, the American designer will now be presenting pre-collections, aiming to optimize the delivery timelines to meet the constant demands of the end consumer.

As the digital landscape continues to change and exposes fans to excessive amounts of new content each day, this strategy will ensure the brand delivers the right products at the right time and reinforces the brand’s commitment to finding the best solution to fit into this fast-paced industry.

(Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017)

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The influence funnel

Figure 22: Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017

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Major Project

In today’s rapidly changing environment there is no one-size-fits-all solution to which voices brands should engage and how to engage them. The concept of brand equity is more critical than ever and ensuring your brand is activating the right voices at the right time is essential to your success. As illustrated in this ‘Voices driving Fashion Weeks in Today’s Digital Era’, the four voices highlighted represent each stage of the customer journey and should be targeted with a specific goal in mind. The Influence Funnel is a guide to help to understand the stages of influence and the value each brings in this acquisition process.

(Launchmetrics & CFDA, 2017) The four critical stages of the Influence Funnel include: Stage One: Awareness Brand awareness is the extent to which consumers recognize your company. As this phase is critical in acquiring new audiences and helping potential customers discover your brand or product, the role of media is vital in making this introduction.

Stage Two: Authority Influencers are one of the best allies in establishing a brand’s legitimacy. Their voice remains a strong proponent in this phase to influence the buying decision of your potential customers.

Stage Three: Amplification This phase relies on the word of mouth of your customers in spreading the message about your products and services. The goal of this phase is to create a viral effect with the right audience and build an echo that manifests a stronger voice for your brand equity.

Stage Four: Advocacy Here a brand can leverage their owned media channels to speak directly to their fan base. Using inspiring content about your products & collection, brands can activate these fans and to increase their Share of Wallet to complete the initial cycle of the Influence Funnel.

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3. Boundaries & Challenges in today’s Fashion Weeks By showing the boundaries and challenges brands are suffering today, the author wants to demonstrate the Fashion Weeks’ crisis analysed in the Literature Review.

Social Media as an integrated tool The use of social media clearly has both positive and negative effects within Fashion Weeks. The use of social media opens up the brand so that it feels more authentic, but at the same time the brand’s open up for the consumers to become a part of the communication of the brand which means that whoever can be a part of creating the brand’s image. To illustrate an example Burberry stands for posh living on their Instagram and encourages consumers to use their hashtag #Burberry. However, this could also harm the brand because they lose the control over who is promoting the brand.

This is something that Hanna et al.

(2011) as well confirms in the discussion regarding that the consumer is taking an active role in the co-creation of the company’s marketing strategy.

This also confirms the fact that Hanna et al. (2011) describes, that companies do not know how to use social media effectively. All communication and social media spread is not positive for the brand. As soon as a company makes the consumer a part of the communication of the brand they loses the control, which is a sign of the fact that brands not yet is sure how to use social media effectively.

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“To be perfectly honest with you, we do have to catch up on the use of these tools.

Classical editorial is limited in its impact, or doesn’t quite have the influence it used to have before social media started to become so important.”

(Hellessy Sylvie Millstein, 2019)

Major Project

Some statements are gathered from BoF’s editor at large Tim Blanks interview with four individuals from fashion industry:

JJ Martin (2016): I think a lot of the brands are petrified. They know they need to embrace digital and they don’t know how. They have 23-year-olds running their $2 billion empire and making friends with people who have a million followers on Instagram.

Fantastic! But there’s no way of tracking sales linked to that. Is that really the way to be manning your ship? I think that’s a load of horse crap.

JJ Martin (2016): We need to start thinking about how selling that £2,000 coat works in the digital world. Everyone needs to get their heads wrapped around digital. The media needs to get their heads wrapped around it.

They have a herd mentality and the brands are acting like a herd when it comes to: “We don’t know what to do so let’s make sure the Blonde Salad is front row.”

Daniel Marks (2016): One of the issues with brands is that advertising content is generic — same model, same photographers — all generic.

And you have to be in a lucky position to afford all of that.

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Instant gratification

Within a week, Tommy Hilfiger, Paul Smith and a number of smaller designer brands announced a shift to some form of fashion immediacy strategy, seeking to better rationalise the fashion show calendar for consumers and capitalise on immediate demand for runway products.

However, the global fashion industry has been neither united nor unanimous in its view on this break from tradition. In fact, some of its most influential figures went on record against the shifts in strategy, including senior representatives of the two biggest luxury fashion conglomerates LVMH and Kering (The State of Fashion, 2017).

SNBN challenges

1

A mega shift in supply chain stratgey

2

Trade-Off Anticipation for Immediacy & Accessibility

3

Brands are guessing the consumer, instead of using the retailer as a middle man hedge

4

Pressure on Creativity & Quality

5

The buying has to be done in advance Source: Personal data’s Elaboration

“For me, it’s completely difficult to do. It’s true that we need to be quicker, but why see-now-buynow? We are not talking about a piece of soap. We need to [build the] desire for the products and make the storytelling [perfect]” (Diego Della Valle, 2016)

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“ “ 1

You normally design the full show, then you show the show, and then your supply chain starts to kick in, Now, as we are designing the show we will be passing things over immediately to our supply chain partners to say, ‘Let’s look at the lead times on this; how can we work with this factory to get this on the date that we need it?

(Christopher Bailey, 2017)

3

”

” “ 4

“ 2

The infrastructure and scale is not there for a lot of brands. When you take out the middleman, you’re holding all responsibility, so you have to have a big platform that you can market, It’s a huge challenge for smaller brands and luxury designers. And alongside that, there’s this friction between scarcity and creating aspiration, because it’s not available on any mass level.

(Elizabeth Stafford, 2017)

“Fashion immediacy negates the dream of luxury, and delayed gratication (rather than instant gratication) is what creates desire.”

(François - Henri Pinault, 2017)

[I have no intentions of joining SNBN crowd] It is not for me, it is not for [products of] excellence. We have long [designing] time frames. I am not interested.”

(Ermanno Scervino, 2017)

”

” “ 5

The internal structure was the problem. Brand recognition and awareness, and a buzz factor was needed for this to work, and that wasn’t happening in a coordinated way. It was a big, 360 move.

They couldn’t pull it off.

(Thakoon brand, 2017)

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Fashion Weeks as an entertainment.

Change in the focus of interest.

1. Fashion show as an spectacle As we have seen previously in the Literature Review, according to Friedman (2016) fashion week and fashion shows have become more of an entertainment event where the aim is to not just satisfy people working within the industry but also satisfy everyone outside the industry.

In order to know more about this issue, the author highlights and takes Kanye West as an example. Satisfying everyone outside the industry is something that Kanye West has adapted to by creating a fashion show as an event for everyone, regardless if you really like his fashion style or not, where the focus is not the product. Kanye West has built an event with many milestones including social media, which Friedman (2016) also states is something that leads the focus from an industry event to an entertainment event.

In 11th February, Kanye West held one of the major fashion shows that NYFW has ever seen, which was a combination of fashion and music.

Kanye West had an open fashion show at the Madison Square Garden where anyone could buy a ticket. The arena welcomed 18,000 visitors, mostly already fans of Kanye West.

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KANYE WEST HAD AN OPEN FASHION SHOW AT THE MADISON SQUARE GARDEN WHERE ANYONE COULD BUY A TICKET. THE ARENA WELCOLMED 18,000 VISITORS, MOSTLY ALREADY FANS OF HIM.

Figure 23: Yeezy Season 3 (Oberver, 2016).

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2. Influencers stealing the show As we have seen in ‘The Voices Driving Fashion Weeks’, influencers have become a huge voice in today’s digital landscape generating the 50% of the total MIV of Fashion Week SS19, where somehow they are stealing the show. Furthermore, in Tom Ford’s example, even when the greatest impact of the show is generated by traditional media, it was found that the 80% of Tom Ford’s media content mentioned a celebrity influencer, suggesting the shift in focus from product and runway reviews to social content.

“

(Sally Singer, Vogue Creative Digital Director, 2016)

“

But despite the fact that many fashion houses recognise how important the right influencer can be, some ‘old world’ fashion players may be uncomfortable with this new world of style influence (Collabary, 2016).

This has generated a battle between some fashion industry people and social media influencers:

Note to bloggers who change head-to-toe, paid-to wear outfits every hour. Please stop. Find another business.

You are hearlding the death of style.

The professional blogger bit, with the added agression of the street photographer swarm who attend them, is horrible, but most of all, pathetic for these girls, when you watch how many times the desperate troll up and down outside shows, in traffic, risking accidents even, in hopes of being snapped.

(Sarah Mower, Vogue.com Chief Critic, 2016)

“

”

Which brings me back around to Sally and Sarah’s points about the street style mess. It’s not just sad for the women who preen for the cameras in borrowed clothes, it’s distressing, as well, to watch so many brands participate.

(Sarah Mower, Vogue.com Chief Critic, 2016)

“

”

”

There’s not much I can add here beyond how funny it is that we even still call them “bloggers,” as so few of them even do that anymore. Rather than a celebration of any actual style, it seems to be all about turning up, looking ridiculous, posing, twitching in your seat as you check your social media feeds, fleeing, changing, repeating . . . It’s all pretty embarrassing. Have you registered to vote yet?

(Alessandra Codinha, Vogue.com Fashion News Editor, 2016)

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”

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Figure 24: Instagram screenshot (The visual aspect, 2017)

Figure 25: Instagram screenshot (The visual aspect, 2017)

Figure 26: Twitter screenshot (The visual aspect, 2017)

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Discussion

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The initial and general aim of the dissertation was to analyse and demonstrate how Fashion Weeks, as a key element of the Fashion Industry, are moving from BTB to BTC. A cautious Literature Review has aid to understand the context of a Transition from Mass Media to New Media, Consumer Centric Businesses and the Crisis of the Fashion Weeks.

In the Data Results, the investigation has been focused on justifying through some resources, the information displayed in the Literature Review.

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The first main purpose of this research was to understand the general change of the Media towards the New Media, in order to create a context about the topic. The author detected that this transition, caused by the digitalization of the media, are allowing consumers to serve as content producers. In addition, the New Media has generated a new way of relating and even thinking, where incoming generations, known as digital natives, are acquiring some needs that consumers didn’t have before, which makes them be extremely impatient.

To comprehend why and how businesses are becoming consumer-centric, has been crucial to understand why Fashion Weeks have adopted a ‘Business to Consumer’ system. The findings revealed that database technology is being used by firms to know more about their consumers, causing brands to adapt everything they create to satisfy consumers’ needs. In addition, this has generated consumers to have a participative role, co-creating everything from product design to promotional messages. As a conclusion to this point, with the new social relationship between brands and consumers, the latter are starting the conversation, forcing brands to change their way of acting and modifying their strategies.

The other critical aspect of the dissertation was to discern how this digital age’s impact inside Fashion Weeks may be causing a crisis. Some aspects have been contrasted by the author with the previous Literature Review to understand the possible crisis of the system. It was declared by Hanna et al. that firms do not know exactly how to use Social Media. Also, as Roberts stated, new generations are more impatient than ever, which has been discovered to be a crucial issue inside Fashion Weeks, making designers feel under intense pressure to fulfill consumers’ needs. And finally, according to Friedman, the importance of the show is transferred from the product to the

surrounding world, becoming more of an entertainment event, where everyone has the opportunity to share opinions, and where social media influencers are stealing the limelight.

The Data Results research was focused on: making a benchmarking between Business to Business and Business to Consumers fashion weeks’ systems, The social media impact by displaying the new customer journey, showing the voices driving Fashion Weeks today and their impact, and The crisis of Fashion Weeks shown by examples.

The Data Results confirmed that the Digital Age has completely transformed the system, in order to exhibit this, the author has done a benchmarking showing the passage from the old system to the new one focused on consumers. To prove it, this table has been supported by statements from great industry professionals. From this findings is understood that now this key event is offered to everyone and not only for buyers and press, where every person has access to what was an exclusive event, and that these shows have become a global platform to reach the digital consumer instead of being just about the industry.

This transformation of the system has gone hand in hand with the evolution of the consumer, for this to be demonstrated, in the second part of the Data Results, the author wanted to show this new consumer behavior and how it has impacted the shows. Several sources have indicated that consumers today need instant gratification and efficiency, and which also expect more and more from brands, by wanting firms to surprise them every time they interact. When talking about the fashion system, these data have proven to be the cause of the See Now Buy Now strategy, born in 2016, and developed by many brands today, which has been a drastic change opposing the traditional format that had been in effect for so many years.

Major Project

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Following this discussion, the author wanted to demonstrate how, with the incoming of Social Media, the voices within Fashion Weeks have completely changed and in what way these new voices are driving the event.

From this findings it has been discovered that within all the voices that participate in the fashion shows, in the FW’s SS19 the influencers have generated up to 50% of the total share of value, obtaining more impact than anyone, despite having less share of voice than the traditional media. What has helped the author understand that there is a common denominator: the most active Voices are not necessarily the most powerful. What also happens when analyzing the different channels, it was social networks that generated the highest percentage of value (almost 79%) compared to the 53% of the share of voice.

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the growth in technology and the rise in social media. Taking Alexander Wang as an example, he has strategically activated the direct consumer and generated most of their total MIV through consumer-generated content.

In Data’s last point, in order to follow what was analyzed in the literature review, the author wanted to demonstrate the crisis that some fashion houses are suffering in today’s fashion shows.

Some fashion industry members’ statements have claimed to have a problem in knowing how to use social networks properly, stating that some fashion houses do not know how to promote themselves in an appropriate way, allowing everyone to promote their brands. In addition, as explained above, the instant gratification has led to the creation of a new strategy proposed by designers, the SNBN, which for many of them, is a drawback and a When analyzing each voice indivi- challenge in many aspects rather than dually, it is important to re-emphasize a breakthrough in the system. Another the case of Tom Ford, this was one of of the boundaries of Fashion Weeks the brands that had the most impact is how the event has become an enin Traditional Media, but the curious tertainment show, where the focus is thing is that according to data trends not the product, but everything that found, the 80% of Tom Ford’s media surrounds it. In the case analyzed of content mentioned a celebrity influen- Kanye West, is a clear example of how cer, suggesting the shift in focus from what matters to many people today is product and runway reviews to social the show that is guaranteed, regardless content. In the case of the Influencers’ of the clothes shown. In addition, with voices, they have the ability to sha- the arrival of social media influencers, pe the industry by sharing their own as we have seen before, they are the opinions among their communities, as ones that generate the most impact, is the case with Jeremy Scott, where and in some way they have managed the influencers had an impact of to- to seize the fashion shows with street tal share of voice of the 46% on the style photos, posts, or Instagram sto2018 show, which 90% of them were ries, generating a greater observation, celebrities representing the brand once again, in everything except the in social media. On the other hand, product that is shown inside the builwhen talking about the Own Media, ding. This has caused a battle between the emergence of new digital channels them and fashion professionals, who has allowed brands to build their own think they should disappear for the “media” through which they can reach sake of the industry. their final audience directly. This is something that some brands, such as Michael Kors, have used to maintain a close relationship with consumers, in this case, generating almost 34% of impact. Finally, Consumers have an important share of voice allowed by

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CONCLUSION Both designers and consumers has realized that social media is here to stay even in Fashion Weeks.

Social media has made it possible to experimenting when it comes to Fashion Week and how designers should display fashion and communicate with its consumers. The society has shown how they want fashion to be delivered where social media owns a big part. A conclusion that can be seen is the fact that social media has changed the rules of the game when it comes to putting up shows at fashion week. The traditional runway shows seem to have come to an end. Because Fashion Week now is trying to satisfy industry people as well as consumers.

We can clearly see a development in how social media has grown and made it essential to Fashion Weeks.

Social media has made fashion for everyone and now it is the consumer that has the control and not the company. The company is losing its control of the brand identity through the use of social media. Social media has made it possible for consumers to get fashion delivered immediately. This also confirms that bringing in social media to the fashion business model as well as in the marketing strategy is of great importance in order to keep a strong relationship.

Now social media has made us trust that we can get what we want delivered in no time. Why Christopher Bailey for Burberry as an example, has chosen to focus on the see now buy now fashion model. The consumer will have the ability to get what they see at the same time as it hits the runway. Which has been demonstrated to be a challenge for many luxury brands to adapt to this model.

The exclusiveness around a brand has in a way disappeared as it is available to everyone through social media. It does not matter if you are rich or poor anymore. Social media has also made it possible for companies to make their consumer to a seller or promoter for their brand. When you are on Instagram, and by using a hashtag that is connecting to a brand everyone of us promote that brand. And for free.

However, one can not forget the loss of control that social media creates for a brand. We now know that social media is positive to a brand but we can also see that brands yet do not know how to use social media effectively so it does not harm the brand. So brands need to be on social media but they still need more fact in what way they should use the different tools.

At the same time there will not be a good Instagram moment to post if the front row seats are not filled with celebrities and fashion icons. During the thesis it has been shown that the influencers now have a huge impact on fashion shows, and that they are also stealing the event in some way.

These people are one of the main reasons why the focus of the event has changed. Furthermore, as it has been discussed, fashion shows are now an entertainment tool and an spectacle.

Demonstrated by someone who has managed to adapt himself of todays’ fashion week, Kanye West, with a combination of fashion, music, social media phenomenon and spectacle.

Nevertheless, the loss of focus on the product is an important challenge for many fashion houses today.

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Figure 19: Front Row to Consumer: the voices driving Fashion Weeks in today’s digital era. (2019). Launchmetrics.

Figure 20: Front Row to Consumer: the voices driving Fashion Weeks in today’s digital era. (2019). Launchmetrics.

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Patricia Payรก Guillot IED Barcelona Major Project 2019