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Social Media’s Influence On
The Fashion Industry
Crista
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According to Hall, “From the world's fashion capital of New York City to the streets of
small-town America, the range of clothes we wear reflects our diverse personal tastes and the
environments we live in. But our sense of fashion also draws on international influences, such as
the diffusion of different cultures into mainstream styles and the global network for designing
and creating apparel.” (HALL, (2012). As social media become the main source of information
and the way people communicate today, several businesses are changing their marketing
strategies. Social Media is changing the Fashion industry, and simply helping it grow in several
ways as well. According to Zauner, “Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and
Google+ have advanced to such an extent that they are a highly relevant topic in our everyday
private and business lives” (Zauner , Koller & Mink, 2012). The fashion industry in particular
has dramatically changed, and due to the creation of these social media platforms, savvy business
owners now utilize social media to connect with their consumers on a more personal level. Social
media have opened new access to potential buyers, have expanded the way in which consumers
and others can access information about various things pertaining to fashion, and have provided
a number of new outlets for advertising.
Today, social media have helped many designers and fashion companies show off new
products and brands that they have created a name for. According to Gwori, “Most of the
products being sold in the market today are identified by their names. The name which helps the
buyers in recalling the product instantly is known as brand name. It is for the purpose of
identification of product, it becomes more crucial in the consumer durable market where buying
decisions of the consumers are based on the brand perception.” (Gowri, 2012). Therefore, it is
impossible to deny the power social media have on the fashion industry. Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube and even Tumblr and Instagram have all transformed the way our entire society
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functions, bringing forth new ways for businesses and designers to interact with their consumers.
The fashion industry has embraced social media, turned away from its old way of marketing, and
wasted no time in using the most effective social media platforms in a number of different ways.
How is the fashion industry embracing social media? Despite the fashion industry coming
fashionably late onto the social media scene, it definitely has wasted no time in making sure its
presence was felt. Top brands like Burberry, Urban Outfitters, and Louis Vuitton are promoting
exclusive clothing and have become more accessible to the general public via social networking.
This industry has embraced all that social media has to offer for it to grow in business. Today,
ads are being replaced with blogs and marketing activities are centered on social advertising. Not
only do brands and retailers use social media to communicate with their consumers, they use it to
listen to them as well. According to Seock and Norton, “With the consumers' increased use of
retailers' Internet Websites for searching out product information and purchasing, the websites
have become key tools for retailers to communicate with current and prospective customers and
the attributes of a retailer's website are crucial for attracting shoppers to the site and convincing
them to become or remain customers” (Seock & Norton 2008).
A perfect example of how the industry has embraced social media is Burberry’s
campaigning strategy. Burberry, known to always be innovative and fresh, uses a mixture of
different media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. The most dominant of the
three, YouTube, is being used by Burberry to broadcast its image and promote its campaigns.
This specific media platform is a personal studio place for the YouTube user to express their self
in a creative, dramatic and artistic way while being recorded.
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Burberry’s theme used in this YouTube
(videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87556Xu5nnU) is high fashion, youth, style and
innovation. In the video is Romeo Beckham, the 10 year-old son of Victoria and David
Beckham, who was specially picked to represent Burberry’s spring 2013 campaign. What do you
think Burberry is trying to pitch here? High fashion +youth+ fan= Burberry. The company’s
vision is that a customer has total access to Burberry, across any device, anywhere. This example
goes to show just how much the fashion industry has embraced social media. Burberry has
become aware of the different social media platforms consumers use (especially young
consumers), it’s created various advertisements using the social media platforms consumers use
the most. Not only should a brand be aware of imagery when reaching out to consumers, but
their overall content as well. The more unique a brand's overall content is, the more likely it is to
receive a large amount of re shares and likes across social media platforms. According to Seock,
“Consumers across the age spectrum shop online, but college students aged 18 to 22 have been
identified as the Internet's "hottest" market and a prime source of future growth in online sales.”
(Seock & Norton 2008).
For what reason did the fashion industry decide they needed social media as a marketing
tool? One reason is that the fashion industry’s old way of marketing products and brands
eventually went out of style! According to Winter, “In a matter of minutes, eight cameras
coupled with computer software can generate three-dimensional images of the human form, both
clothed and unclothed.” (Winter, M. 2003). Without social media, the fashion industry would
definitely be behind. The fashion industry is all about keeping up with the new and latest trends
that are in, and social media happens to be one of the new trends in which they needed to take
part.
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The most important factor that no business can survive without today is feedback. According to
Raban “Information
provided in the form of answers on a Q&A Website can be evaluated by the
asker given tools that have become common on the Web.” (Raban, D. 2009) If companies don’t
get an accurate online feedback from your active customers, then that company will never know
what their consumers are interested in or searching for, and could easily lose them if they don’t
meet those needs. Today, many businesses still use surveys and polls to get feedback from their
customers, but these are old-fashioned and imprecise. In order for them to get feedback using
those predictable methods, they have to annoy the consumers with surveys that he or she wasn’t
really prepared for. Social media is probably the best way ever for fashion companies to see what
your customers are thinking and how they are responding to the product. Because the feedback
they receive from various social media platforms today, is mostly based emotional response,
which means they end up getting honest feedback even without asking for it.
The fashion industry used to be an industry that focused solely on the quality of its goods.
This is still the case today, but this industry knew that it was time to take the next step forward in
order to stay relevant, and social media was its solution. The fashion industry functions sort of
like your most popular high school clique: A leader confidently undertakes something new; a
few imitators carefully follow the leader’s get-up, and the rest then rush to participate before that
trend dies out. Therefore, the fashion industry undertook social media, consumers follow the
trends that the industry shares through social media and then next thing you know everyone
wants to try it out to before it’s too late. The fashion industry’s reason for using social media was
to keep up with trends and stay relevant so it wouldn’t be left behind.
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What are some social media platforms that are most effective in the fashion industry
today? There are so many: Twitter, YouTube, Pintrest, Instagram, blogging, Tumblr and many
more social media platforms that are highly popular in the fashion industry today. Out of the
many social platforms listed, blogging seems to be one of the most popular in the industry today.
According to Chittenden “According to Luman (2006), in 2006 there were approximately 27
million blogs in the world. Corcoran (2006) noted that some 2 million of these blogs were
devoted to fashion and fashion/shopping-related themes.” (Chittenden, T. 2010).
Fashion bloggers are now seen as leaders in the industry, and brands are now turning to
them not only to check and offer feedback on their products, but also to act as a connection
between themselves and their target consumers.” Fashion blogs typically include a mix of images
_ from personal photographs and professional photographs of runway shows or magazine shoots
(taken from other websites), to images of products seen on websites, other blogs, or in the local
neighborhood of the blogger. Written entries discuss events in the blogger’s day, their outfit
choices, ‘things they like’, or fashion items encountered in other places or other media.”
(Chittenden 2010 pg. 49). This social platform has a very big influence on how many people
dress, shop, wear their hairstyles and even do their make-up.
The second most popular social media platform is YouTube; this social platform is used
to create videos. Breen stated, "As more people capture special moments on video, YouTube is
empowering them to become the broadcasters of tomorrow."' This self-glorifying quote may
have seemed far-fetched less than a year ago, but of late, YouTube has been discussed as a
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potential "sixth network” (Breen, 2007). Various You Tubers upload videos about fashion, hair
and beauty tips to share with people all over the world. These views benefit from these videos
because they can do and watch at the same time, which gives them the leisure of playing and
pausing when they want. Not only do the viewer’s benefit from these videos, the You Tuber does
as well. Many now earn six figures from marketing products for top companies in their videos
and go on to owning their own fashion businesses and selling products of their own. A lot of the
big designers you see today were discovered on YouTube. Depending on how interesting and
useful the YouTube video is, many viewers will subscribe and pass on by word of mouth,
helping the You Tuber sell their own personally made clothing.
Last but not least, Instagram, Pintrest, Tumblr and many other apps that allow many to
express their sense of fashion are highly used today to influence how one views and captures
fashion. These apps target more towards the younger generation; it’s quick and easy, you just
snap and go. According to Livingston, “The most popular photo revival software is Instagram
available for iPhone and Instaplus for iPad with excellent reviews. You can load images from
your photo library or from your iPhone and create stunning artistic compositions. Images are redeveloped (digitized) replicating past analogue processes, before your very eyes, complete with
original mechanical sounds of the Polaroid camera” (Livingston, 2011 pg. 65).
Instagram is a mobile app for photo sharing and accomplishes the same social, visual
goals as Tumblr, but in a prettier, scaled-down way. Many use this instagram as a channel of
self-expression. Like Facebook and Twitter, Instagram’s appeal lies in its number of provided
utilities both for individuals that love fashion and for owners of fashion brands. Many use
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instagram to do several things like display their personal lines, make up tips, cooking recipes and
many other skills they have, but fashion is the most seen on these networks.
Therefore, to conclude, the days of a brand’s success relying solely on the quality of its
goods are well and truly over. As the fashion industry has embraced social media, brands are
simply opening their doors to personal contact and adding humanity, emotion and opinion.
Whether you are interested in fashion or not, it is difficult to escape the constant bombardment of
information on the latest fashions and trends that we receive through social media and the
internet. From the fashion blogs, to the live streaming of catwalk shows from the main fashion
weeks and the social shopping where we get all sorts of opinions on different pieces of clothing
through Facebook, and Twitter, the fashion industry will never be the same.We live in the digital
age, where it is important that social media is used as a marketing tool to avoid being left behind.
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Work Cited
Chittenden, T. (2010). Digital dressing up: modeling female teen identity in the discursive
spaces of the fashion blogosphere. Journal Of Youth Studies, 13(4), 505-520. doi:
10.1080/13676260903520902
Breen, J. C. (2007). YouTube or You Lose: Can YouTube Survive a Copyright
Infringement Lawsuit?. Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal, 16(1), 151-182.
Gowri, S. S. (2012). Impact Of Brand Factors on the purchase of various brands of television.
Researchers World: Journal Of Arts, Science & Commerce, 3(1), 76-84.
HALL, S. (2012). Fashion Sense. Human Ecology, 40(2), 4-7
Livingston, D. (2011). Digital Nostalgic Moments. Social Alternatives, 30(3), 46.
Raban, D. (2009). Self-presentation and the value of information in Q&A websites.
Journal Of The American Society For Information Science & Technology, 60(12), 24652473. doi:10.1002/asi.21188
Seock, Y., & Norton, M. T. (2008). College students perceived attributes of internet
websites and online shopping. College Student Journal, 42(1), 186-198.
Winter, M. (2003). High Technology in the Apparel Industry. (Cover story). Human
Ecology, 31(1), 11.
Zauner, A., Koller, M., & Fink, M. (2012). SPONSORING, BRAND VALUE AND
SOCIAL MEDIA. RAE: Revista De Administração De Empresas, 52(6), 681-691.