As life continues to get evermore hectic it has been difficult to keep up to date with my WWD's so recently I finally got around to catching up on some reading. In doing so I came across a fantastic article WWD had on their cover of their September 15th issue. I encourage every retailer regardless of their size to read this article as it gives creative ideas that other brands and retailers are doing to combat the urgency and immediacy consumers now have that has been growing as a result of the digital age. It also highlights creative solutions to the customer's need for unique and personalized product.
This article highlights the efforts of Burberry, Jeffsilverman.com and many other brands that are using the digital age to spread information about their brands, engage with customers and create new business.
http://www.wwd.com/wwd-publications/wwd/2010-09-15?id=3272312
In reading this article it reinforced what I have written about previously and speak nearly daily about with colleagues and students. Retail is in a new era and a key part of this new era is the participation of the consumer and digital media. Today as consumers we want things when we want them, we are impatient and we do not want to spend a lot of money but we are willing to spend more if product is personalized for us or we have had the opportunity to design it ourselves. The digital media goes beyond the social media of facebook, twitter and blogs and now gives the consumer front row seats to runway shows, educates them on the history of brands, brings immediacy and convenience to their purchases and now has started to make them apart of the design and production process.
Let's use Burberry as a model just as WWD had. First they created Art of the Trench (http://artofthetrench.com/) which is a social website dedicated to the iconic Burberry trench coat. This site has created a community for the trench coat which was a partnership between Burberry and Scott Schuman of the famous blog The Sartorialist (http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/). The Art of the Trench allows customers the world over to submit images and photos of themselves and others wearing a trench, documenting the life and history of this classic coat.
Now Burberry has evolved, just like other luxury brands like Armani, and has now begun to live stream the Prorsum runway shows. However, the Prorsum line is not only shown live stream but this season also enables the customer to order select pieces that will then be delivered straight to their homes within weeks. The fashion world has had the reputation for being distant from the consumer and many times elitist but the digital age has made brands question if that is the right approach and retailers are seeing positive results when including the customer.
Special orders, early releases and programs like men's made to measure are developing parts of the retail industry which has seen positive growth despite the challenge the retail industry has faced the past few years. These services not only provide personalization for the customer but in the current retail environment where inventory levels were so high prior to 2008 and buyers and retailers have had to scale back as a result, these programs minimize the risk for retailers by guaranteeing the sale of product prior to the production and manufacturing of it. Other companies that are using the consumer to order special product and even design it are Jeffsilverman.com (http://jeffsilverman.com/)
Some companies are taking this one step further by actually using the public as investors. Sites like Kickstarter and FashionStake are supporting emerging and new designers by providing financial public support. On FashionStake a designer can publish their collections and the public has the option to fund these designers by pre-ordering product as a buyer, becoming a funder or becoming a VIP.
Click on the links below to find out more about some of these companies.
Kickstarter
FashionStake
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