Social network: New Age retail mantra for designer brands

Social networking sites are the New Age marketing tools that now designers are looking into for advertising and retailing their collections. For years, designers had to rely on either hired PR agents or invested in getting their clothes noticed through

fashion shows and events. While these vehicles of publicity continue to remain important, awareness about the prospects of internet among people across the lengths and depths of the country is proving to be a turning point for the designer wear industry. Social media has emerged as the new interactive as well as growth medium and designers are taking advantage of it.

New Age Retail Mantra

Internet has definitely brought the world closer and brands and designers are logging on to socia media sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to promote their labels. Now, a designer can easily create his own website or Twitteraccount or upload a work-related video on Youtube and ask family, friends, acquaintances and prospective clients to ‘like’ the page, follow him on Twitter or see his video respectively. This has helped prospective clients or a target group become aware about the latest happenings and launches regarding the designer’s brand.

International labels realised the potential of social media much earlier and the number of followers on Facebbok prove it. For instance, Converse has more than 36 lakh followers, Zara has over 18 lakh and Louis Vuitton has about 13 lakh. And though domestic brands had a relatively late start, Shoppers Stop has 4 lakh, Westside has about 1.5 lakh and Sabysachi has over a lakh followers.

Indian brands jump log on…

Indian brands and designers have a smaller presence online for now, however, the prospects are considered huge. Brands believe that social media marketing will be an important part of the marketing and branding strategy in the future. The best example of it is Fashion Design Council of India’s (FDCI) Twitter party right before the fashion week, which was a huge hit. Also, luxe brand, Burberry released its Spring/Summer collection’12 on Instagram and Twitter and did a live streaming of its show on YouTube. A lot of fashion weeks are also being uploaded on YouTube, if not live streamed. After every show there are pictures uploaded and page visitors are following and ticking ‘like’ making them popular.

Social media plays an important role in displaying latest designs, new product lines, fashion show pictures apart from sharing behind-the-scene pictures at a very negligible cost. It is like your website on a mass platform which you can edit at will. The major advantage of the social media is that it succeeds in garnering a lot of attention and feedback. With e-commerce emerging as the next big medium for fashion retail, it would be interesting to see how future of fashion labels shape up in terms of physical v/s online retail.