As we all know the digital age is well upon us, e- commerce, social media and new ways of engaging with the consumer are important to understand. However the same principles of two way communication, creativity and understanding the consumer needs are all relevant to the way fashion business is conducted.
MARC WORTH (UK)
Chairman and CEO
Stylus Media Group
Marc was the founder of WGSN which was created from a graphic design print t - shirts company. It started as a graphics library in the realisation it was harder to source trends from books and trend publications. Trend forecasting was born online and in 2005 Marc sold WGSN to EMAP.
Stylus, a global design based service was born soon after providing a service that offers research and analytics to inspire creative minds across a number of consumer industries.
What is the future of trend forecasting? We now know it is so much harder to pin point exact trends. Social media interaction, cultural shifts, speed of information and globalisation have contributed to a melting pot of trends.
The most important reference point that crosses all consumer groups is DESIGN, globally not just locally, identifying the overall picture.
Stylus fuels how to:
Stay ahead in the competition
Create a difference in market place
Unlock the ideas
Without innovation business will not succeed. The Fashion industry has become complacent and less creative. The consumer industries that get it are food & beverage.
RON POMPEI (USA)
Founder & Creative Director
Pompei A.D.
Commerce, Culture, Community makes a philosophy
Cultural indicators are shifts on values in society.
Community - tumblr which is the fastest growing social media sharing platform
Transparency - Social responsibility
Co- authorship -Vimeo
Authenticity - Tad
Technology - Nike kinect training and human interaction with technology
Purpose driven - Toms footwear
Localization - Blue Hill restaurant, using only local produce.
Storytelling - TED (Technology, Entertainment & Design)
Understand who we are addressing and what defines the brand.
Commercial entity needs to relate to a cultural entity to be relevant to consumers.
People need to be able to relate to their surroundings, the longer they stay the more they will buy. The experience becomes the advertising. There is no house style when creating the environments through store design each brand has it's own DNA.
BIL DONOVAN (USA)
Fashion Illustrator & Artist
In the 70,80's & 90's the luxury market supported fashion illustration.
There was then a shift towards visual communication, graphic design. Bil's Illustrations and his style have evolved to contain a graphic sensibility. Which works hand in hand with illustrations use for today's commercial work with clients in the beauty industry and fashion collaborations with the likes of Elle and Dior.
Conceptualised illustrations are important to communicate the text and brief in a non literal way. Capitalising on the brands aesthetic. Illustration Cost effective creative.
A resurgence due to a fresh audience.
PAUL MCINERNEY (JAPAN)
Principal and Leader of the Asia Pacific Marketing & Sales Practice.
McKinsey & Company
Searching for the next wave of growth. CEO perspective.
What are the trends CEO's are indentifying with in the luxury industry?
1. Fast fashion & accessible luxury
2. Surfing channels; digital relevance from offline to online - affecting the consumer expectations offline. The double store squeeze
3. Asian growth in markets - Asia will come to us
Even high end brands are incorporating fast fashion like D & G
There is now a shock effect on supply chains due to a change in lead in times.
Consumers are trained to search for discovery even fast fashion, when it's gone it's gone or WIGIS is an example of creating a exclusivity excitement product to re engage the consumer.
The Double store squeeze
- rising margin price vs rising expectations for the store
How to address this:
Multi brand going small like John Lewis compact stores with the same range linked with a digital presence.
Online going offline - Nordstrom . They found people still wanted to touch the product.
Been aggressive with resolving the expectations of the store.
Stores are been built as brand ambassadors, flagship retail that sells the brand from the street.
Outlet cities are being built for the bargin hunter- like Harbour town, DFO purely markdown merchandise.
Fighting back with big data
- price transparency, personalised cross selling, using data effectively to sell creatively.
No.1 problem arising from costumers is You don't have my price, size or colour, retailers still need to identify with who your consumer is.
Inclusion - the consumers first initial consideration set, what they first have in mind when buying:
Evaluation - online research - price and product
Closure - the consumer selects a brand at the moment of purchase
Post purchase - to make the consumer come back
Asia exploding - all happening in cities
1m Chinese tourists will hit our shores by 2020 retailers and designers need to be able to capture the global emerging market traveler by making unique experiences through product and environment.
MARY KATRANTZOU (UK)
The Queen of prints launched her label in the height of the Global Financial Crisis starting with a collection of 8 pieces.
New Gen scheme supports new designers in the U and at London fashion week alongside British fashion council BFC. London UK designers are now more commercially viable because of the support within the industry.
In managing her business she has found recruiting from other experience pools - from bigger houses and managerial or senior talent has helped spread the work load effectively with a production small team.
Digitally printing is not limited to fabric bases anymore, now more cost effective in development and production. With Mary's designs print is part of her DNA but contrary to look of her designs the silhouette is still the basis of her designs. And she wishes to experiment much more with textures.
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