Objectives

Discuss about the Social Media Marketing and Fashion Industry.

Social media has been an emerging as well as evolving platform since the last few years. It has enabled the brand recognition and helped fashion designers get popularity in the industry of fashion, and at the same time contributing to the consumers and companies. In modern days, the fashion industry has adopted the mobile application technique in order to market themselves on the social media to a huge extent. Being a public form, social media helps in promoting transparency, which in turn helps in fetching the consumer feedback. In this era of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest, promoting fashion brand applications have become a lot easier (Andzulis, Panagopoulos & Rapp, 2012). 

The report throws light on the consumer experience analysis and the social media marketing for mobile app in fashion industry. The recent developments in the social media help the customers to follow and anticipate the upcoming fashion styles and trends, even before the brands enter the offline market. Traditional promotion tools include the public relations and advertisements done by the companies, in order to reach to its customers. Public Relations help the fashion designer to interact with the publics and analyze their experience. With the advent of the social media, this interaction and analysis of customer experience have become a lot easier (Ashley &Tuten, 2015).

The report highlights the consumer experience analysis and the social media marketing for mobile application fashion industry. In addition to this, it includes a critical literature review, research methodology along with findings and discussion points. It gives a brief detail regarding consumer experience analysis, social media marketing and mobile applications in the fashion industry.

This section of the report gives an idea of the whole research plan, proposal and the approach. In addition to this, it contains a detailed analysis of the literature review, that is, the review of some available secondary data. The consumer behavior analysis and social media marketing of online shopping is thoroughly based on the articles and journals available on the internet. The study is based on the individual consumer experience regarding online shopping of apparels, accessories and others.The main aim of this report is to understand in great depth the usage of web based social media platforms, in order to promote the fashion industry globally (Brogi et al., 2013).

Consumers look out for innovative and new methods for shopping. In this era of digital media, everything has become very easy, from booking cabs to ordering food, along with shopping online. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others, help the mobile application fashion industry to promote themselves to a huge target market. Consumers get attracted to these tactics and end up buying from those online stores (Castronovo&Huang, 2012). For instance; “The Real Trial” is an online site for shopping, which is an innovative business initiative located at Singapore. The business location offers easy accessibility and in turn helps in promoting the online products purchasing goals in the country. People can easily purchase their favorite products anytime and anywhere, as per their convenience (Chu, Kamal & Kim, 2013).

Scope

The company is purely technology based and helps customers order their favorite products and delivering those at their doorsteps. With the advent of digital media, people can purchase products, order food, book cabs anywhere and at any moment. Millions of customers shop their favorite products online. However, there are certain issues which arise due to this (Dahnil et al., 2014). Majority of the consumers face problems regarding the size, quality and design of the product. The Real Trial enterprise offer solutions to all these problems by enabling the consumers to view the product by resizing it. Moreover, it also has return policy for the customers who want to return their products after receiving it. It is important to define the problem first to the consumers, before moving to the next step of defining the solution (Halvorsen et al., 2013). “The Real Trial” enterprise makes sure that they solve the real problem to their customers, before presenting or defining the solution. It is important to clearly define the problems which need to be solved. They have a unique option which enables the customers to upload their picture and place it on the product they like. This gives the customers a visual idea of how they will look in that particular product, without actually buying it. This helps the company in gaining their trust and faith (Chu, Kamal & Kim, 2013).

It is very important to know the target market for any business. The Real Trial enterprise’s target market is the online shoppers of any gender, age or interest. The website provides all items such as clothes, accessories, footwear, bags and more. The target market is divided into small groups or segments. They price each and every item, after having an idea of each segment to which the particular product is catering to (Kim &Ko, 2012).Each and every business have competitors, be it small or big. The Real Trial has lots of competitors in the market which includes companies like Zalora, Lazarda and more. It is important to keep an eye on the competitors’ marketing approach and style. Customers prefer shopping on “The Real Trial” because of its unique feature of real life trial which other companies don’t provide (Ko&Megehee, 2012).

The Real Trial is a small business which does not require huge amount of investment. The company’s expenses are mainly on the electricity, taxes, salaries and others. Digital marketing is done to aware more customers, which however requires comparatively higher investment but it also generates profit (Ko et al., 2012). The enterprise is adopting new and innovative strategies to cater more and more customers on the global platform. They are focusing on the social media platform to increase their popularity (Ko&Megehee, 2012).

Critical Literature Review

This section of the report explains about the various methods of research, which are available and applied in this study as well as their analysis for addressing the problems. They are directed towards the research topic, that is, the consumer analysis and social media marketing for mobile application in the fashion industry. Likewise, it also presents different procedures and strategies for identifying the problems or issues related to this topic. It provides detailed analysis of the usage of various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others, by online fashion industries in order to promote them on the long run (Kontu&Vecchi, 2014).

This chapter throws light on several research methods, which are used to establish this report, the design of the research, collection of data, description of this study, the methods and processes used for analyzing the references and the gathered data analysis. Qualitative research method is employed, which helped in getting underlying opinions, motivations and reasons. Survey and interview was no conducted due to limited time. However, secondary data collected from the online available theses and academic journals, helped in gaining useful insights.

Multiple procedures are employed to this study, in order to examine the recent status of the usage of social media sites for marketing mobile application fashion industries, which includes the descriptive research methodology, ensuring that the study is quick and cheap as well. In addition to this, usage of qualitative analysis method has helped in the understanding of reasons, opinions and motivations, while providing a thorough insight into the problem along with some rich data. It has also helped in the development of opinions and ideas for the potential quantitative analysis of this study (Mohr, 2013).

The research methodology required gathering relevant data from specified documents and compiling databases. Secondary data is collected through internet, review of existing literature, journals and research thesis related to the topic. The academic articles are referred and studied, for the detailed analysis of the topic and the interpretation of the data which are being collected from the articles. The report contains American Psychological Association or APA style of referencing.

This particular segment of the report consists of the findings through detailed research and analysis of the academic journals, theses and articles. The consumer behavior analysis is done on how social media marketing has helped them gain an idea regarding the mobile application fashion industry (Nadeem et al., 2015).

Research Methodology

In this era of social networking sites, people prefer communicating on computers, laptops, mobile phones or telecommunications first, instead of face to face. People prefer using the technology for shopping, ordering food, booking cabs, keeping in touch with others and more. Everything starts with the digital platforms and even ends with it. Ecommerce is a trend setter in the modern days. Companies like, Amazon and Alibaba use the most of the technology to sell their products all across the world (Ngai, Tao& Moon, 2015). The companies have own many hearts, by sharing new updates on all the social media platforms. It helped them announcing their offers and product details, which in turn increases their sales. Moreover, ecommerce email marketing has helped them make the most number of customers out of it. It is the art of using the electronic mail to generate the sales for the stores. Furthermore, the companies’ 75-80% of the shopping revenue comes from mobile marketing or through mobile apps and that is huge in its own self (Okazaki & Taylor, 2013).

Majority of the companies have managed to develop a strong and matured customer base. They focus on more innovative trends in the industrial sectors, which help them grow and progress. The rising automation and interconnection helps in generating the necessary and important processes for optimizations.It has helped in satisfying more and more customers and their demands, in these extremely open and transparent markets (Öztamur&Karakad?lar,2014). Internet based communication and social media technology’s concepts and strategies have also helped in taking care of the stakeholders’ interests within the value chain. Companies like, Amazon and Alibaba have managed to set a new bench mark by meeting the consumers’ growing demands and desires, with their huge range of products and variety of options to choose from (Paquette, 2013).

Past research on this topic has concluded that the online brands should focus or concentrate more on keeping pace with the changing consumer demands along with the usage of social media channels (Pihl &Sandström, 2013). Fashion industry marketers should market themselves in more attractive and crisp manner which incorporate their organizational aim and in turn motivates the consumers to purchase their items. Furthermore, few more innovative techniques must be applied in order to engage the consumers, particularly by experimentation, attractive picture selection or selective messages (Saravanakumar&Sugantha Lakshmi, 2012).

Mobile marketing is also a new technique, where the target consumers receive personal messages on their mobile phones, regarding various offers and discounts. This makes the target customers feel special and the fashion applications can earn huge profit from these tactics (Schivinski&Dabrowski, 2016). Based on their marketing strategies, it will create “AWARENESS” among the consumers. Good techniques of marketing and promotion would “INTEREST” the consumers. This will create a “DESIRE” of buying the product from that particular application. Lastly they will actively perform their “ACTION”, that is, buy that particular product. Therefore, it is very important to be careful while promoting a product, which helps in differentiating itself from the competitors (Saravanakumar&Sugantha Lakshmi, 2012).

Innovative digital marketing strategies must be undertaken by the online fashion companies, as it can help in attracting the customers. They should promote themselves widely in all the platforms as well as social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others to reach the maximum consumers as fast as possible. With the advent of digital marketing, it is very important to focus on that particular segment of marketing, in order to reach the global market (Schlinke& Crain, 2013). It will prove to be beneficial for any online fashion company, by helping it reach a wide number of customers. It will help in creating brand awareness and image goals; this in turn will help the company grow. Moreover, it is crucial to understand thoroughly, the behavior of the target markets or consumers of the enterprise.Understanding the target markets or consumers will help the enterprise get an idea of what exactly their services or products would be and which sort of tactics would work the best (Simmons& Becker Olsen, 2013).

In modern day’s competitive environment of the business, implementation of social media marketing technology in consumer awareness and brand recognition, plays a very crucial part for the success of any company. Each and every company looks out for innovative ways to improve their marketing tactics and consumer base(Saravanakumar&Sugantha Lakshmi, 2012). They are upgrading their online marketing techniques or even implementing a new one in order to compete with the other companies. The implementation must be planned and strategically made, keeping in mind the pros and cons. Start-up companies or small businesses of apparel, accessories and others, tend to use this innovative platform in order to aware the consumers of their brand (Tuten& Solomon, 2014).

Consumers build a strong bond with anything which is self-expressive and which reflects their attachment with the brand. In an advertisement of baby products, say Johnson and Johnson, the baby-mother relationship is portrayed, which shares an emotional bond. Mothers of new born babies would attach themselves more with such advertisements (Wamba& Carter, 2016). Experimentation with various brands and the way they are advertised lures the customers and helps in developing a wide variety of self-concepts. A consumer’s love for a brand is some attachment building process; it builds emotional dependency and anxiety. The more the consumers are attached to a particular brand, the more they are dependent on it(Simmons& Becker Olsen, 2013).

The use of right technology is considered to be a crucial part for any fashion industry, in order to improve their operations. With the advent of digital media, marketing has gone too far. Digital marketing can be done to reach the international customers very easily. Web technology helps in improving the business marketing and reach to the furthest corners across the world(Öztamur&Karakad?lar,2014). Online purchaseshelp any business, be it small or big, get international acclamation. However, online purchases should be tracked and checked on a regular basis, to keep a record on whether any customer is facing any kind of problem or not. Suggestions or feedback boxes on the social media platforms helps in understanding the consumers’ demands and desires(Tuten& Solomon, 2014). Moreover, customers are also provided with lucrative opening offers and discounts in order to gain more and more attention. Online sites like Alibaba and Amazon uses these brilliant techniques, in order to promote themselves on the social media sites. Ecommerce leader,Amazon now has the market value of 170 billion dollars, with 75-80% of online sales(Simmons& Becker Olsen, 2013).

Social media platformshave marked its contribution in the ecommerce industry. It has made online sellers easily sell their items to the customers, even at the furthest corners. It helps in handling and managing the products and its tracking. The whole procedure is carried in a very short time span and with great accuracy, taking care of each and every thing. Consumers’ behavior is recorded through feedback sections, where they can even rate and review the items they buy for the particular online site (Schlinke& Crain, 2013). Moreover, consumers also receive information regarding the fashion weeks, like Lakme Fashion Week or Mercedes Benz Fashion Week and others. They can even comment on whether they liked the event or not. They are also given the opportunity to voice their opinion on what changes they would like the organizers to make(Pihl &Sandström, 2013).

• The report helps in understanding in depth, the behavior of the consumer and how they use social media to get an idea of the mobile application fashion industry.
• It helps in understanding the usage of social media platforms for the marketing and promotion of mobile applications.
• It gives detailed analysis the consume behavior regarding online shopping.
• Moreover, the report contains the differences in the behavior of the consumers, that is, how it changed with the advent of the mobile applications(Wamba& Carter, 2016).

• Analysis is purely on the basis of the items, which are available on the academic journals, internet and theses.
• The time was limited for the collection of data for this study.
• Survey and personal interviews could have established and supported the study more.
• The study was confined only to the consumer behavior analysis in terms of social media marketing regarding the mobile application fashion industry.

Conclusion

To conclude, consumers build a strong bond with anything which is self-expressive and which reflects their attachment with the brand.The recent developments in the social media help the customers to follow and anticipate the upcoming fashion styles and trends, even before the brands enter the offline market. Traditional promotion tools include the public relations and advertisements done by the companies, in order to reach to its customers. Public Relations help the fashion designer to interact with the publics and analyze their experience.

With the advent of the social media, this interaction and analysis of customer experience have become a lot easier. Social media platforms have marked its contribution in the ecommerce industry. It has made online sellers easily sell their items to the customers, even at the furthest corners. It helps in handling and managing the products and its tracking. The whole procedure is carried in a very short time span and with great accuracy, taking care of each and every thing. Consumers’ behavior is recorded through feedback sections, where they can even rate and review the items they buy for the particular online site.

Mobile marketing is also a new technique, where the target consumers receive personal messages on their mobile phones, regarding various offers and discounts. This makes the target customers feel special and the fashion applications can earn huge profit from these tactics. Therefore, from this study it can be concluded that social media has helped a lot to the online businesses enhancement. It has created various strategies in order to market the fashion applications on a huge way to attract as many customers as possible.

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