I was scrolling through my Instagram feed and browsing through fashion blogger Negin Mirsalehi’s Instagram page which has 1.9 million followers and fashion blogger Aimee Song’s page which boasts 2 million followers and it got me thinking, should brands begin to seriously consider finding ways to include fashion bloggers into their marketing strategies? In this blog I will be looking at how influential bloggers are to a brand, why a brand should use bloggers in its marketing mix and some tips on choosing the right blogger for your brand.
So how influential are fashion bloggers? People rarely recognize how influential some of these fashion bloggers can be over their target audience for example Vogue is a globally recognized fashion and lifestyle magazine which has an impressive 3.9 million followers on Instagram and close behind Italian fashion blogger Chiara Ferragni has 3.6 million followers. Based on numbers an independent fashion blogger has just as much influence as a 120 year old fashion giant! But it doesn’t end there several of these bloggers have landed contracts with major brands because of the huge influence that they have. For example Emily Schuman has signed a contract with beauty giant Estee Lauder and Susie Lau cooperates with clothes retailer H & M, urban outfitters and Gap!
Ferragni’s hugely successful blog receives over 110,000 hits daily!
All of this shows just how much influence bloggers do actually have! Brands have begun to notice the value in engaging with the loyal audiences that bloggers have carefully built up and the powerful content bloggers create. Here are some examples of bloggers that have collaborated with fashion brands in some way, all of which have been a success:
#1 Elin King
To date one of the most successful blogger-brand collaborations has been with Sweedish fashion blogger Elin King and H & M. It was so successful because the collection reflected both the brands and her simplistic style and the collection subsequently received a lot of praise from fashion critics and the world over. Following her hugely successful campaign with H & M she collaborated with Guess, the brands first ever collaboration with anyone!
#2 Chiarra Ferragni
Arguably the most influential fashion blogger, Chiarra ferragni has had countless successful collaborations with brands due to her huge social media presence, most notably, her Instagram. She launched a collection of shoes with Steve Madden which sold 16,000 pairs in the first two weeks!
#3 Danielle Bernstein
Bernstein teamed up with fashion retailer Tibi to promote the brands summer collection and also contributed to their blog, giving readers advice on fashion and her favourite items that the company sold.
So to sum it up here are the main reasons why fashion retailers should be jumping at the opportunity to work with bloggers:
-People trust recommendations from third parties more than from a brand. An influential blogger is the mutual friend connecting your brand with your target customers.
-Influential bloggers can help your brand gain credibility
– An influential blogger relevant to your brand can amplify your reach to more of your targeted consumers.
– By bringing their own audience with them and because of their followers’ loyalty they have the ability to increase traffic to your site.
– Consumers purchasing is influenced by bloggers! A study reported that blogs are the third most influential online resource (31%) when making overall purchases!
If you decide to use bloggers as part of your marketing strategy make sure that you:
- Know your audience! You need to know your audiences demographics so that you know what your customer likes and then you can get a blogger that fits with your market
- Consider what other social media platforms the blogger is on
- Approach the blogger in a personal way, many bloggers won’t even consider working with you if you don’t know anything about them or their blog!
- When collaborating with bloggers your audience requires authenticity and trustworthiness from the blog (Kretz and de Valck, 2010)
- Select a blogger that best represents your brand and your brands personality! For blog marketing to be effective and credible a brand needs to fit with the blogger’s personal style and the general atmosphere of their blog (Kumala et al 2013)
Final thoughts
Nowadays fashion is everywhere and it’s mainly because of the internet! Blogs are so effective because of their strong individual, personal, popular, and elitist point of view and its engaging experience gives readers the chance to challenge the opinions of fashion critics and voice their opinions (Mohr 2013). Furthermore fashion bloggers are important opinion leaders who have the ability to influence the diffusion of new ideas and trends (Stokberger Sauer & Hoyer 2009 ). The fact that agents now specialize in representing fashion bloggers demonstrates the growing influence they have! (Mohr 2013).
Bloggers have the power to spread their views about a brand to their readers via electronic word of mouth (eWOM) (Dunlop, 2011; Schaer, 2011). eWOM brings with it disadvantages for example users have a higher chance of being misinformed and having inaccurate information passed on to them (Bailey 2004) and negative information is more influential than positive information (Fiske 1980). Blogger Vincent Ferrari’s for example posted a voice recording which shared his negative experience with AOL customer services and the story went viral, 300,000 of his angry followers downloaded the file and it caught the attention of thousands of other bloggers and mainstream media!
Nevertheless do not be deterred! The level of influence bloggers can have is scary! However like all marketing tools there will always be risks. Fashion bloggers were once amateur fashion fanatics but they have evolved into the new influencers and journalists of the fashion industry and are undeniably an extremely powerful and potentially rewarding marketing tool.
References
Bailey, A.A. (2004) Thiscompanysucks.com: the use of the internet in negative consumer-to-consumer articulations. Journal of Marketing Communications, 10(3), pp. 169–182.
Dunlop, E. (2010). All keyed up about fashion. Retrieved from: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10674866
Fiske, S. T. (1980) Attention and weight in person perception: The impact of negative and extreme behavior, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 6, 889-906
Kretz, G. and de Valck, K. (2010), “‘Pixelize me!’: digital storytelling and the creation of archetypal myths through explicit and implicit self-brand association in fashion and luxury blogs”, in Belk, R.W. (Ed.), Research in Consumer Behavior, Emerald Group Publishing Ltd, Bingley, pp. 313-29
Kulmala, M., Mesiranta, N. & Tuominen, P. 2013, “Organic and amplified eWOM in consumer fashion blogs”, Journal of fashion marketing and management, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 20-37.
Mohr, I. (2013). The Impact of Social Media on the Fashion Industry. Journal of Applied Business and Economics, 15(2), 17-22.
Schaer, C. (2011). The write stuff. Retrieved from: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10714340