This post will look at the use of digital influencers in the fashion industry and analysing the benefits and drawbacks of their relation with fashion brands.
Welcome the new generation of online PR, influencers. The emergence of social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, paved a sharing platform of experiences, opinions, and information, enabling electronic word-of-mouth, an effective marketing tool (Uzunoglu and Kip, 2014). Uzunoglu and Kip (2014), states that digital influencers have the ability to influence target audiences attitudes, perceptions and even purchase behaviors making them powerful in the eyes of the brand. As a result, fashion brands are turning from traditional print advertising and celebrity promotions to individuals who share their opinions and advises via social media platforms (Hendriksz, 2016), to promote their brand in an effective way.
Guess used blogger, Dulceida, to promote their new bag Cate. Dulceida promoted by recommending the Guess bag to her followers by posting that she is ‘In love’. Dulceida used the hash tags #LoveGuess and #TheOneILove along tagging Guess to recommend others as well followers.
Personal recommendations are used by influencers to be accepted, as ‘one of us’ by online users, creating a friend-like relationship with consumers/followers (Uzunoglu and Kip, 2014). As a result, personal recommendations is an important marketing tool that has the potential to significantly improve a brand’s relationship with customers (Smith, 2011), thus playing a central role in persuading customers to like a brand. According to Uzunoglu and Kip (2014), this is because customers value comments of someone who personally has tried a product. Therefore trusted influencers’ recommendations related with a brand indicates a ‘good, trusted brand’ (Uzunoglu and Kip, 2014).
Thus promoting through influencer’s recommendations will develop a brand trust even before actually experiencing Guess’s product. This is because, as consumers become to trust Guess they will become loyal and share positive reviews. In which Guess will benefit from a better image and reputation, leading to have a good relationship with consumers, as in the online community they would have already built a good image through influencers recommendations.
This is essential as fashion brands tend to get bad images due to ethical practices, like Primark, which affects their relationship with consumers (Vergnault, 2016).
Nonetheless, if the fit is not correct and the influencer’s image does not align with the brand’s image then it is likely to have little value (Hendriksz, 2016). Therefore affecting the impact it will cause the consumer, as they will feel that Guess does not meet their needs and will prevent any contact with the brand. According to Telegraph (2017), picking the right influencer is 75% of the battle. Telegraph (2017) states that a key to a successful campaign is spending time making sure that you select the right influencers with the right personal brand, audience demographics and social engagement.
Zara collaborated with well known fashion-focused instagrammers to showcase their latest products. They posted a video showcasing influencer Teesh Rosa and used the hash tags #iamdenim. It managed to get more than 360,000 views. Thus boosting awareness (Instagram, 2017b).
According to Booth and Matic (2011) brands currently don’t have a voice in the social media space, driven by the difficulty to reach their audience amongst the existing competition. However, the increase in digital media usage has lead to a much larger connectivity, thus allowing influencer’s to reach and capture a wider audience (Smith, 2011), particularly younger audiences, via social media channels. Such as using hashtags and links to reach and engage consumers by encouraging them to share to increase awareness.
Therefore as consumers become more available and accessible online, influencers presence can provide brands, the opportunity to expand their presence in the online environment (Uzunoglu and Kip, 2014). Hence benefiting Zara, as well as other fashion brands, from greater brand awareness by becoming more visible through their posts. Additionally, as influencers have a wide audience due to social media, they are present in different markets. Therefore Zara will benefit from an increase in their brand awareness in a different market, which consequently will help it enter new markets.
Nevertheless, Zara should be aware of taking too much of a commercial approach when working with influencers to promote their brand, as consumers will notice the difference between sharing a product versus paid product promotion (Hendriksz, 2016, Archer and Harrigan, 2016). Therefore, if does not managed effectively influencers will lose their voice in the community, as their opinions are being influenced, thus losing the sole aim of using influencers.
Take a look at Zara’s campaign with the use of influencer Teesh Rosa: Click here
According to Hardy (2017), as influencer campaigns get so much product exposure it accelerates consumers from awareness through to the purchasing stage. Thus skipping or shortening the consideration stage. This is because consumers/followers trust influencers opinion due to building a friend-like relation, which increases their power to influence (Uzunoglu and Kip, 2014, Hardy, 2017). Therefore greatly increasing purchasing decision process, as shown in the image below, which benefits fashion brands sales. For example fashion retailer Boohoo saw a 17% sales boosts from vlogger, Zoella collaboration, in which she did a boohoo haul and offered her favourite products from the website (Thompson, 2015). However, Hardy (2017) states that smaller bloggers or influencers tend to have loyal followers that big influencers. Thus not selecting the correct influencer may affect the level of success of the promotion.
Take a look at Zoella boohoo haul: Click here
Yes, using influencers is the new big deal, as it offers the fashion industry greater benefits when promoting clothes. But how do brands select the suitable influencer to ensure a successful promotion?
The image below includes seven steps to have a successful influencer campaign. For further insights to how to achieve the seven steps : Click Here
(Kumar and Mirchandani, 2012)
But how can fashion brands measure the benefits provided from using influencers?
Fashion brands can use conversation points as a guide to view the performance and the influence of the influencers.
- The number of visits, response and the quanity of comments, which can be assess through analytic websites (Booth and Matic, 2011)
- Brands can search any tags used by the influencer to see how many times the tag has been used (Booth and Matic, 2011).
References:
Archer, C. and Harrigan, P. (2016) Show me the money: how bloggers as stakeholders are challenging theories of relationship building in public relations, Media International Australia, Vol. 160 pp. 67-77
Booth, N. and Matic, J. (2011) Mapping and leveraging influencers in social media to shape corporate brand perceptions, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 16 pp. 184-191
Hardy, J. (2017) How Influencers Are Transforming The Path To Purchase. Acorn. [Online] Available at: http://www.acorninfluence.com/blog/influencers-transform-the-path-to-purchase/ [Accessed 18 February 2017]
Hendriksz, V. (2016) Tapping into the rise of the Digital Influencers. Fashion United. [Online] Available at: https://fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/tapping-into-the-rise-of-the-digital-influencers/2016012719197 [Accessed 17 February 2017]
Instagram, (2017a) Dulceida. [Online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/BCKdtcrCxnx/?taken-by=dulceida [Accessed 17 February 2017]
Instagram, (2017b) Zara. [Online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/BCfp8XIC_Y7/?hl=en [Accessed 17 February 2017]
Kumar, V. and Mirchandani, R. (2012) Increasing the ROI of Social Media Marketing, MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol 54. pp. 55-61
Telegraph, (2017) How to use influencers in your next marketing campaign. [Online] Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connect/better-business/how-to-use-influencers-in-your-marketing-campaign/ [Accessed 17 February 2017]
Thompson, H. (2015) 3 lessons to be learnt from retailers who boosted their sales with social media star generated content. Syndy. [Online] Available at http://syndy.com/3-lessons-to-be-learnt-from-social-media-user-generated-content/ [Accessed 18 February 2017]
Smith, K. (2011) Digital marketing strategies that Millennial’s find appealing, motivating, or just annoying, Journal of Strategic Marketing, Vol. 19 pp. 489-499
Uzunoglu, E. and Kip, S. (2014) Brand communication through digital influencers: Leveraging blogger engagement, International Journal of Information Management, Vol. 34 pp. 592-602
Vergnault, O. (2016) Is Primark ethical? The heavily criticised chain stands by its practices after opening in Truro. Cornwall live. [Online] Available at: http://www.cornwalllive.com/is-primark-ethical-the-heavily-criticised-chain-stands-by-its-practices-after-opening-in-truro/story-29897317-detail/story.html [Accessible 17 February 2016]