Fashion Marketing: Creative Advertising of Textiles & Garments - Essay Sample

Introduction

Marketing is an structural function and a cluster of procedures for creating, communicating, and delivering value to clients, and managing the relationship in a way that will benefit the firm (Sarker, 2019 pp. 105-106). Marketing is hugely essential for textile and garment products since all textiles and garment commodities require representation and promotion to be recognized by the clients (Sarker, 2019 pp. 105-106). Fashion marketing can be defined as a creative way of advertising textile products with the motive of luring a client to purchase the commodity (Baker and Hart, 2008 pp. 81-84). However, the main worry for fashion marketers is not only how they will design their fabrics or sale their garments, but also how they will integrate technology and innovation to market their products effectively to the majority of their online audience (Berg, et al., 2018 pp. 9-14). Further, fashion producers are faced with the challenge of most consumers changing their habits, as a result of digital and social technologies within the industry (Berg, et al., 2018 pp. 15-21). The paper is focused on go-to-market processes and situational analysis of the MDS clothing store.

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Background of the Company

MDS clothing is a local brand in Singapore that began as an online store. This local firm focuses on producing fashionable apparel for women, and further targets to bring women ready-to-wear runway fashion. MDS was formulated by Georgiana Yeo and Joe Phua in 2007 (Yeo and Phua, 2011 n.p). The clothing store has over twenty physical retail outlets in different countries, such as Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Malaysia. The local brand registered a 41% growth index between 2009 and 2010 excluding sales from retail stores (Yeo and Phua, 2011 n.p). They obtain a large proportion of revenue from sales accrued from online operations. In the MDS clothing, Go-to-Market Process Survey executives shined a interest on both the revolution efforts ongoing in the industry and the problems they still endure (Baker and Hart, 2008 pp. 55-58). An overwhelming 97 % of these executives said it was mandatory to enhance their go-to-market processes and disciplines to ensure they maximize the revenues obtained from physical sales to beat their competitors "As Seen on Screen" (ASOS) a British online fashion and cosmetic retailer (Yeo and Phua, 2011 n.p).

SWOT Analysis of MDS Clothing Store

The environmental analysis is an essential part of the strategic management planning process. The SWOT analysis framework is viewed by many as a tool that is used to categorize critical environmental factors both internal and external to the organization. This section will examine succinctly the SWOT analysis of the MDS clothing store located in Singapore.

Strengths

Strong brand image- MDS has created a good brand image by focusing on corporate responsibility and by availing quality female apparel to promote the fashion industry in Singapore (Yeo and Phua, 2011 n.p). As a local brand, they endeavor to promote a healthy body image and do not conform to any typecasts.

MDS designs- MDS ensures that it does all it can to assist the female clients to find their fit. The brand has more than 30 sizes and designs, ranging from an exquisite collection of party wear dresses, Maharashtra designer sarees among others (Yeo and Phua, 2011 n.p). MDS provides a selection of products that suits the tastes and preferences of their clients. This method has helped MDS become on of the best online fashion destination in Singapore, and across all their outlets (Yeo and Phua, 2011 n.p).

Supply Chain- MDS has a unique method of understanding and strategically implementing supply chain operations (Hines and Bruce, 2007 pp. 28-32). They have implemented an aspect called supply chain visibility, which helps them to react sensibly to unplanned events, and ensures the progressive supply of the required apparel to their clients (Hines and Bruce, 2007 pp. 28-32). The clothing brand normally works on the principle of delivering quality designs of clothing and on time delivery to ensure they retain their clients.

Social Media Marketing Metrics- MDs started out as an online store in 2007. During that period most fashion companies had not realized the significance of creating online traffic for their products since technology had not grown to what it is now (Ozuem and Azemi, 2017 p. 62). The aspect of social media marketing has helped them generate a lot of revenues from sales, and up to now it still gives them that competitive edge against top fashion brands in the Asian continent and worldwide.

Weakness

High Prices- although MDS works on the principle of delivering trendy apparel and on time delivery, these clothes usually retail at high prices that favor the high-class citizens. This is an aspect that makes their competitors like ASOS take advantage of and create a string base in the fashion industry (Lemieux, Pellerin, Lamouri and Carbone, 2012 pp. 177-179).

Generating Traffic- even though MDS has created an online presence for its online clients, they still face a challenge in gathering traffic (Yeo and Phua, 2011 n.p). The industry has a low barrier to entry, therefore generating new business is like creating a mountain out of a hill. Most of the clients in Singapore prefer to shop offline, therefore limiting the revenues they obtain from their online campaigns (Yeo and Phua, 2011 n.p).

Innovation- there is a need for the company to invest in technology to improve its customer experience (Ozuem and Azemi, 2017 p. 62). The fashion industry is a volatile sector that spans the growth in technology and innovation. The firm needs to augment the application of data analytics to enhances its reduced sales growth in the online spectrum (Ozuem and Azemi, 2017 p. 62).

Opportunities

Changing Trends- the newer trends in the industry and variations in the consumer purchasing behavior will help to create wider markets for MDS (Yeo and Phua, 2011 n.p). They are currently working on expanding their product lines to include lifestyle products and lingerie (Yeo and Phua, 2011 n.p). They will further look to introduce a "market place" where they could recruit sellers to get even closer to the clients (Yeo and Phua, 2011 n.p).

E-Marketing Scopes- Due to the growing number of social media sites, and the use of data analytics, MDS will able to augment its efforts to leverage traffic from other sites that its competitors thrive in (Rathnayaka, 2018 pp. 1-4). This will allow them to convert their unconvinced shoppers to purchase their products, thereby increasing their consumer base.

Threats

Competition- The main competitors are ASOS and Lulus. MDS should focus on marketing their commodities in terms of brand positioning and unique selling propositions to retain more clients (Yeo and Phua, 2011 n.p). They face a challenge from ASOS which has over 100 trendy styles, has a 28-day return policy and free shipping for clients who buy clothes over $ 1,000 from foreign nations. They also face a challenge from Amazon's Prime Wardrobe which offers considerably higher discounts than MDS (Yeo and Phua, 2011 n.p).

Flop- the investment in outsourced advertising for Google Adword and Facebook elicited a lot of loses (Yeo and Phua, 2011 n.p). The existing conversion of MDS is at 0.7, which implies if every 10 clothes are purchased into the store, 7 get sold out (Yeo and Phua, 2011 n.p).

PESTLE Analysis

Political and Legal Factors

Since MD clothing is a local clothing brand and has not yet established itself as one of the tops brands, the business is subject to a number of legal and political factors. MD clothing targets a younger clientele, political changes impacting their finances like reduction in student's grants would certainly affect their purchasing power due to reduced disposable income (Chavan, 2018 pp. 216-217). An increase in value added tax would increase the price of the apparel even further hence affecting the ability of consumers to purchasing clothes (Chavan, 2018 pp. 216-217).

Economic Factors

Economic factors have a great effect on how an organization conducts its business and the profit margin it will generate at the end of a fiscal period. Singapore is faced with a challenge of income inequality which has mainly affected the youthful population who are the main target for MD clothing. It has affected the sales performance of the company domestically. Singapore's Gini coefficient remains at 0.402 the lowest compared to where they were in 2016 at 0.516 (Bhaskaran, 2018 n.p).

Social Factors

These factors include-population growth, age distribution, and a healthy population. The good news is that Singapore has a majority of the youthful population and MDS can benefit from it in terms of increasing its sales revenue (Chavan, 2018 pp. 216-217).

The only problem is the fashion tastes and preferences of teenagers are broad and volatile and are determined by celebrities (Chavan, 2018 pp. 216-217).

Technological Factors

The fashion industry is always affected by technological changes that influence how clothing products are manufactured, supplied and delivered to the clients (Chavan, 2018 pp. 216-217). The growth of the internet and enhancement in communications technologies have enhanced the flow of new trends and brands from the retailer to the clients in the market (Chavan, 2018 pp. 216-217).

Environmental Factors

MDS clothing store has developed some policies to decrease its adverse effect on the eco-system, such as "click and collect" and also using 100% biodegradable packaging. Their click and collect strategy focus on reducing the firm's carbon footprint (Chavan, 2018 pp. 216-217).

Michael Porters Five Forces (Competitor Analysis)

Threats of New Entrants

This aspect determines how to ease or difficult it is for a firm to enter the fashion industry. MDS faces the challenge of sustaining its online operation since there is an increasing number of retailers willing to operate online. They are only left with the option of diversifying their online operations and investing in bigger discounts and offers (Amelia, Murni, Putri, Badri and Johan, 2019 pp. 173-174).

Threats of Substitutes

This challenge arises when a client is purchasing a cheaper substitute product at a lower cost. MDS can lower the threat of substitution by augmenting the cost of switching for clients. They need to increase their customer loyalty for three more years, and frequently offer clients with discounts and vouchers to encourage their shopping (Amelia et al., 2019 pp. 173-174).

Bargaining Power of Consumers

In this scenario, the higher the bargaining power of a buyer demanding lower diversion cost, the lesser profit MDS will obtain. Lower product pricing implies lower income for the clothing store. Therefore, MDS can decrease the power of customers by augmenting their brand loyalty (Amelia et al., 2019 pp. 173-174).

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

Whenever there is higher bargaining power of suppliers it means a vendor will sell raw material at an excessive price to a buyer which will make MDS lose profit. MDS ensures they create a relationship with multiple suppliers, therefore having alternative options if one supplier augments its prices (Amelia et al., 2019 pp. 173-174).

Industrial Rivalry

MDS can lessen the threat emanating from rivalry within the fashion industry by embracing differentiation and taking advantage of the niche other firms have not yet exploited. They can also lower their price, once they note other firms have hiked the price of their clothing apparel (Amelia et al., 2019 pp. 173-174).

URIO: Customer Analysis

MDS can be categorized as a fast fashion company since their clothing collections are mainly based on recent fashion trends. According to customer analysis, the company targeted a youthful population aged between 19-30 years (Wang, 2010 pp....