There are two things that technology can have an impact on: revenue and costs.

Boosting revenue through technology

There are two types of customer that fashion labels need to reach: buyers and consumers. If you reach consumers, the buyers will follow. That’s why it’s important to get press exposure. If buyers expect it will sell, they’ll stock it in their shops.

• Social marketing – reaching out to customers online has never been easier. Engage them through interaction on your site, use social networks, twitter, blogs, etc. There are endless possibilities. Use them creatively.
• Selling online - the figures speak for themselves. Despite a small slump in recent months, online retailers continue to outperform the high street.  It’s been predicted (by IMRG in this article) that 20 per cent of all UK retail will be online this year. If your market is young, the percentage is probably much higher.
• Online sample sales - samples sales have long been a way for hard up designers to generate some quick cash. Often, however, they can be more trouble than they’re worth. That’s where selling samples online becomes attractive: simply load up your inventory and wait for the orders to come rolling in. To get noticed you may need to do a bit of promotion – or leave it to one of the sample sale websites out there (eg. Catwalk Genius)
• Online showrooms - rather than going to the same old trade shows and standing around for a few days waiting for buyers to come to you, you can interact with your buyers in online showrooms. More on these later.

Cutting costs through technology

To save time and money while running your business – take a look at our website to see how World on a Hanger can help!

I’m surprised that it’s taken them this long to catch on to the potential of viral video. I’m even more surprised that smaller labels aren’t doing more videos to promote themselves. It’s not an entirely level playing field; the buzz created by the release of these videos show that marketing budgets are important. However, smaller labels can make a big impact with viral video – much more cheaply than by forking out for adverts or billboards.

Let us know if you know of any good examples of viral video campaigns by smaller labels!

Below is a teaser of the Dior video:

And, for comparison, here’s the Chanel video:

Going directly to the customers is becoming easier and cheaper than ever before for designers. The risk of investing in extra stock is offset by the potentially huge upside of getting retail margins. With the booming growth of ASOS and the continued growth in online retail sales (WWD) it’s clear that going online is a good way to temper the impact of the downturn.

If the risk of holding too much extra stock, a good middle way is selling samples and old stock online. This could be done through your own website or third party sites like the brilliant Catwalk Genius. Catwalk Genius makes it easy for designers to put up stock for sale without the hassle of building their own shops.

Today’s WWD has an interesting report from this week’s Salon International de la Lingerie in Paris. The main trend seems to be fewer foreign buyers, especially from the UK. Rather than crossing the channel in search of new talent buyers are sticking with their old suppliers. Also, labels such as Invista, while they were present at the fair said that this was a year to focus on communicating directly with clients.

One way to boost sales in the face of cut retailer budgets is to offer a larger selection of low-priced garments. If you’re a new label this may be the only way to keep up with more established brands. In the article, Gaita Malla fashion director of Brazilian lingerie chain Scala was quoted as saying “we’re looking for less expensive, but good quality lines.”

What’s the key to its success? Free delivery to a large number of European countries on orders above a certain minimum, as well as a simple returns policy both ensure that customers keep clicking away.

Thanks to fashionunited for the tip.

I came across this article in the New York Times; here’s a related article from the Herald Tribune. It’s great news for that they are ‘cutting out the middle man’ in terms of cutting costs, this won’t really impact very much on smaller labels.

If you’ve got money to burn, you might as well get Condé Nast to put together your multimillion dollar advertising campaign. But why pay for coverage when there are a hundred other ways to get noticed?

If your PR budget is tight you’re best off with the DIY approach and getting noticed through social media – PRcouture.com has an excellent guide to how to do this.

Twitter rules the roost when it comes to microblogging . In a couple of years it has gone from a bunch of techies chattering to a mainstream phenomenon, with plenty of fashion types on there. Engage with other twitterers and above all have fun. Here are a few tips to get you started.

Other people have done a much better job at guiding would-be PR moguls through the process. The only points I have to add are: be friendly and not spamming. It might take a while, but it’s well worth the effort. Best of all, it’s free!

When you do get on there, make sure you follow us @WorldOnAHanger

]]> http://blog.worldonahanger.com/fashion-advertising-and-pr-on-the-cheap/feed/ 0 http://blog.worldonahanger.com/welcome-to-the-world-on-a-hanger-blog-2/ http://blog.worldonahanger.com/welcome-to-the-world-on-a-hanger-blog-2/#comments Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:07:36 +0000 ari http://blog.worldonahanger.com/?p=19 The last months have been very exciting for us here at World on a Hanger. In the course of  building a web-application that promises to help fashion designers and small labels with the business side of things we come across all sorts of wonderful things.  That’s why we’ve decided to set up a blog where we will share our thoughts and allow you to follow our race towards finishing our software and getting it to the masses.

Expect lots of musings about

1. The fashion business
2. Reflections on the technology that is revolutionizing the industry
3. Features on designers who are using tech in exciting new ways
4. Updates how we are progressing with development
5. Anything else that springs to mind!

… Enjoy!