How has Instagram helped promote and change fashion branding?

The social media giant describes itself as “fun and quirky way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures. Since its creation it has grown into a global community of brands and consumers, with over 300 million members who share over 70 million photos and videos each day (Beese, 2015), it has become an undeniable platform to the markets that can be reached. Good communication is as important between the company and the consumers just as equally as the price and the product is in order to be successful in this type of market – Promotion, the third element in the marketing mix is the element that these types of companies are using to communicate with their target markets.

Instagram and Fashion Marketing 

Instagram has had an unquestionable influence to the fashion industry, it is now the main social tool that is used by fashion journalists and editors reporting live from fashion shows and commenting on product campaigns that companies release. With so many outlets to digital marketing bridging the network gap between the brands name itself and the Instagram page seems to be a key area to enhancing the online presence and growing your online brand.

If used correctly Instagram can be highly targeted to its users and produce masses of digital data that can be used by fashion brands through visual advertising leading to a healthy stream of revenue for the brands. Instagram gives a opportunity to show behind-the-scences of the fashion brands directly to the customers and also can alter the way brands develop (Lazazzera, R 2015). Alexander Wang stated that the impact of social media today affects the designs – “The way that we shoot it, the way it is showcased, the way it is designed has all changed (Schneier, 2014).

Examples of Instagram’s digital power can be seen by the high-scale fashion brands. Christian Loubouiton launched the campaign in January 2014 #louboutinworld, a photo gallery that displayed on the fashion brands homepage that was directed onto their Instagram page.

Since this campaign was posted the fashion brands’ followers grew over 80% on Instagram with only an 8% growth rate on their Facebook page.

Burberry also used Instagram as part of its marketing campaign in Milan for the fashion runway event “Come rain or Shine”. Brand marketers used Instagram to photos to create a build up to the event day sharing photos such as “behind-the-scenes” at the fashion event and interviewing models on the day. The company used Instagram API to integrate the photos that were being fed onto the Instagram page onto their website (Bullas, J. 2012), which is a great way to form a collective creation on one or more platforms at the same time.

Aside from the high end fashion brands that are sought after by so many consumers, it has become a lot easier for new fashion designers hoping to create a brand to gain attention and respect (Mizobe, E. 2014). Mr Porter is an online fashion brand/retailer that has formed its sole audience from Instagram, the company has no physical store and relies on its Instagram audience to form word of mouth and follow the company as it grows. “The real appeal of instagram, lies in the windows it gives you into other peoples worlds” (Mr Porter, 2015). The retailer has stated that many different applications have allowed the brand to tinker with photos and has become key to their online success with applications such as VSCO cam being the main shooting choice for Mr Porter. “It gives you even more options to stand out while giving the consumers a clean and stylish look into your product” (Mr Porter, 2015).

Conclusion

Instagram has some real potential for fashion giants and new and upcoming fashion brands that are willing to put the work in to consistently provide their audiences with fresh, stylish and gripping photos to accompany campaigns and releases. It is becoming more and more obvious that a fashion brand with a solid social platform that promotes via Instagram has affected the way consumers are buying and dressing. It has even gone far enough to the point that fashion brands are changing their designs based off of consumer likes and comments. In conclusion it would seem that Instagram for a fashion brand is one of the most powerful tools that the fashion world current has.

References

Beese, J. (2015). 5 Insightful Instagram Statistics That You Should Know, [Online] [Accessed 30th January 2015] Available at: http://sproutsocial.com/insights/5-instagram-stats/

Bullas, J., 2012, 6 Tips for Marketing your Business with the Social Media Mobile App Instagram, [Online][Accessed 30th January 2015] http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/10/12/6-tips-for-marketing-your-business- with-the-social-mediamobile-app-instagram/#X0qlB2k2s3WklCrt.99

Lazazzera, R. (2015). How to build a massive following on Instagram, [Online] [Accessed 30th January 2015] Available at: http://www.shopify.com/blog/14288561-how-to-build-a-massive-following-on-instagram).

Mizobe, E. (2014). The Power of branding through social media in the fashion industry, [Online] [Accessed 30th January 2015] Available at: http://www.mmaglobal.org/publications/Proceedings/2014-MMA-Spring-Conference-

Schneier, M., (2014). Fashion in the Age of Instagram, [Online][Accessed 30th January 2015] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/fashion/fashion-in-the-age-of instagram.html?_r=0