With the online clothing pure-play industry forecasted to slow in growth by over 60% over the next five years (GlobalData 2016), we take a look at 4 ways in which building online partnerships can be used to reach out to both new and existing customers.

1: Affiliate Marketing 

Affiliate marketing has the power to be a great tool for firms, as it involves no upfront payment until a sale is made. This does not however, make it a sure fire solution for a firm to reach new customers, with Edwards (2007) highlighting the way in which poor affiliate marketing management can lead to rising consumer distrust of a brand. When advertisements through affiliates are placed on product-relevant pages or sites, they are far more likely to generate positive attitudes towards the brand, as well as greater purchase intentions among consumers (shamdasani et al 2001). Online clothing retailers ASOS and Boohoo offer the chance for anyone with a website or blog to become an affiliate, however in doing this both retailers run the risk of inconsistent branding and potentially bombarding consumers with intrusive advertising. Seth Godin (2009) sums up this need for management of brand affiliates in his quote below:

“You don’t find customers for your products. You find products for your customers.”

It is worth mentoning that affiliate marketing does not have to be limited to the efforts of individuals-  take a look at the new website Boom25.com, whereby brands pay commission to feature on the site that gives every 25th user their order for free, regardless of the brand. For more information visit www.boom25.com.

2: Brand Sponsorship

We are no strangers to the way in which brand sponsorship naturally generates brand awareness (Cornwell et al 2001), with it also being seen to drive sales, heighten awareness of the brand and increase positive publicity. Many brands however, are not always aware of the importance of sponsor distinctiveness. This involves brands “conveying difference in the context of similarity”, ensuring that consumers are not confusing your brands sponsorship efforts with those of another rival brand (Weeks et al 2017). Furthermore, if brands are able to form sponsorship deals with partners that align themselves with the values and objectives of their brand, then this will effectively resonate with consumers.  A unique example of this can be seen in Ferrero’s sponsorship of London Fashion Weekend on their Kinder bueno chocolate bars, with Ferrero targeting a mature female audience by associating both fashion and chocolate as positive feelings surrounding a light indulgence. More information on effective sponsorship partnerships can be found Here.

Figure 1.1: Ferrero sponsoring London Fashion Week with the Kinder bueno chocolate bar

Very.co.uk made history with their sponsorship of the Big Brother TV show, after integrating their products into a shoppable virtual tour of the house in which the TV show is set (see Figure 1.2).  Very.co.uk regularly communicated their association with the show and highlighted their click to buy microsite, relating back to the need for distinctive elements being incorporated into sponsorship campaigns. The ease in which viewers could browse and purchase products is another factor which would have enabled them to reach consumers who may not have previously known about the brand.

Figure 1.2: Very.co.uk’s virtual platform on the Channel 4 website

3: Link Building

Google (2017) recently drew our attention to an increase in spam links written in the name of one website, but published on another, reminding users of the guidelines in place to reduce link building as being the primary objective of websites. There are, however, a number of ways to effectively build external links that don’t violate Google’s guidelines. One of these is the use of video marketing, whereby firms can educate customers and customers-to-be about various aspects of their brand. An example of this can be seen in Boohoo’s spring campaign last year, as shown here.

Additionally, online clothing retailers need to effectively manage their link building strategy, with ASOS highlighting their team of fashion influencers on their website (see figure 1.3). These influencers have a global reach, using social media accounts to promote their style as a means of naturally building links across other platforms.

Figure 1.3: ASOS team of influencers featured on their website

4: Collaboration

Amidst an era of fast fashion, the industry is no stranger to collaboration through co-branding between popular clothing brands. Much of the time these partnerships come between fast fashion retailers and high end fashion retailers, such as H&M’s various collaborations with the likes of Marni and Versace to name a few.

Figure 1.4: Uniqlo’s former collaboration with Jill Sander

When used effectively, such collaborations give your brand the power to access individuals who may not have paid your brand much attention in the past, allowing you to expand your customer reach. Anselmsson et al (2014) found the uniqueness of a product offering also contributes to users’ willingness to pay a price premium for a particular product, with limited edition collections creating a sense of urgency to buy among consumers.

Fashion retailers are warned, however, to not use collaboration with other brands as a ‘quick-fix’ strategy. The buzz around an exciting new hybrid brand range is often seen as being short lived, while fueling future customer expectations of the brand and its performance.  Brands must also ensure they are on the same page with one and other, as well as being prepared on what to do should the relationship turn sour. An interesting read on this can be difficulties surrounding co-branding can be found here.

References

Cornwell, T., Roy, D. and Steinard, E. (2001). Exploring Managers’ Perceptions of the Impact of Sponsorship on Brand Equity. Journal of Advertising, 30(2), pp.41-51.

Edwards, K. (2007). Affiliate marketing finally goes mainstream. Marketing Week, 30(35), pp. 27.

GlobalData. (2016) The UK Clothing Market 2017-2022. [PDF] GobalData, pp.69-72. Available at: https://consumer.globaldata.com/Analysis/details/the-uk-clothing-market-2017-2022 [Accessed 20 Aug. 2017].

Godin, S. (2009). Seth’s Blog: First, organize 1,000. [online] Sethgodin.typepad.com. Available at: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/12/first-organize-1000.html [Accessed 3 Jan. 2018].

Google. (2017). Official Google Webmaster Central Blog. A reminder about links in large-scale article campaigns. [online] Available at: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2017/05/a-reminder-about-links-in-large-scale.html [Accessed 4 Jan. 2018].

Shamdasani, P., Stanaland, A., and Tan, J. (2001). Location, location, location: insights for
advertising placement on the web. Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 41 No. 4, pp. 7-21.

Weeks, C., O’Connor, P. and Martin, B. (2017). When ambush marketing is beneficial to sponsorship awareness: creating sponsor distinctiveness using exclusivity and brand juxtaposition. Journal of Marketing Management, [online] 33(15-16), pp.1258-1264. Available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0267257X.2017.1372506?scroll=top&needAccess=true&instName=University+of+Brighton&instName=University+of+Brighton [Accessed 3 Jan. 2018].