DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND LAW

How International fast fashion brands

use Facebook as direct marketing tool.

CHIANG YU-FAN

Marketing communications project submitted in part

requirement for award of

MASTER OF SCIENCE IN MSC IN ADVERTISING AND

PR MANAGEMENT

SEPTEMBER 2011
Abstract

The purpose of this communication project was via online observations to understand
whether Facebook can help fast fashion brands to conduct direct marketing. Along with the
fashion clothing industry having changed rapidly, fast fashion has become a trend, with
fashion consumers demanding cheaper and faster fashion; therefore, fast fashion represents
the changing of the fashion industry, as well as fashion consumers changing. On the other
hand, more and more people are using social media to contact friends, with Facebook
being one of the most popular mediums. Facebook owns over 750 million users and firms
have started to use Facebook as a marketing tool. Direct marketing is one of the most
important tools within the fashion industry as it focuses on people rather than products.
Besides, Facebook is the platform to communicate with each other, thus, this
communication project tried to indentify how Facebook can be used for direct marketing.
Therefore, in order to understand if Facebook helps firms to conduct direct marketing
strategies this project developed on-line observation sheets, which combined Facebook
components and direct marketing concepts. The findings of this communication project
pointed out that Facebook is a good communication tool which enables and helps fast
fashion brands to promote and build customer relationships, aids the retention of existing
customers and collect consumer opinion, but Facebook has the limitation of not being able
to collect customers’ personal, purchase and communication data. Therefore, along with
on-line shopping markets increasing and emerging Facebook commerce development, if
fast fashion brands can combine on-line shopping and Facebook, these factors could help
brands to collect consumer personal data, purchase date and communication data.

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Acknowledgement

Firstly, I am very thankful to my parents for finical support and encouraged me all the time,
made me can concentrate on the course in UK. Secondly, I would like to thanks my
girlfriend-Chiang wen-jing, she always encouraged me when I feel Frustrated. Thirdly, I
would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Dr. David. He always gave me
useful advices and encourages me to finish this project, direct me to right direction.
Fourthly, I’m many thank all of DMU lecturer, I learned very useful knowledge form them,
which including Ros Masterson, Michael Strakey, Nichola Philips, Liz Bridgen and Anne
Broderick, among, I’m especially thanks for Anne Broderick, she teach me very important
marketing research knowledge, is really useful to help me to finish this project. Fifthly, I
would to say thanks to my lovely classmates, including Sana, Chau, Michalis, Calvin,
Phuong, Bozo, Tanya and Regina. We help each other to finish whole master modules, and
they are always encouraged me try new thing, they open my mind and outlook. Finally, I
would to thanks all the people who contributed to this communication project, made this
project can successfully complete.

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 10

1.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 10

1.2 OBJECTIVES OF PROJECT ................................................................................................................ 11

1.3 RESEARCH PROCESS .................................................................................................................... 11

1.4 CHAPTER OUTLINE ....................................................................................................................... 13

1.5 POTENTIAL CONTRIBUTION ...................................................................................................... 15

CHAPTER 2 PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF MARKET .................................................................... 16

2.1 FASHION........................................................................................................................................... 16

2.2 FASHION CLOTHING MARKET IN THE UK .............................................................................. 16

2.3 FASHION CLOTHING MARKET SHARE IN THE UK ................................................................ 17

2.4 MARKETING TRENDS ................................................................................................................... 17

2.4.1ECONOMY..................................................................................................................................... 17
2.4.2 THE PRICE OF RAW MATERIALS .................................................................................................... 17
2.4.3 TECHNOLOGY .............................................................................................................................. 18

2.6 FASHION CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR ............................................................................................ 18

2.7 FASHION CUSTOMER DECISION MARKETING ....................................................................... 19

2.8 FASHION CONSUMER SELF-IMAGE ........................................................................................... 19

2.9 FASHION DECISION MAKING AND SELF-CONCEPT .............................................................. 20

2.10 FASHION MARKETING SEGMENTATION IN UK .................................................................... 20

2.10.1 LOYALTY.................................................................................................................................... 21
2.10.2 AGE ........................................................................................................................................... 21
2.10.3 GENDER ..................................................................................................................................... 21

2.11 ONLINE SHOPPING ...................................................................................................................... 22

2.12 MARKETING COMMUNICATION TOOLS IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY............................ 22

2.13 THE FAST-FASHION PHENOMENA............................................................................................ 22

2.13.1 FAST FASHION PLC (PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE) ............................................................................. 24

2.13.2 ZARA- THE HEAD OF FAST FASHION BRANDS ............................................................................. 25
2.13.3 H&M-THE PIONEER OF FAST FASHION IN THE UK...................................................................... 26
2.13 .4 H&M VS ZARA ........................................................................................................................ 27
2.13.5 FAST FASHION MARKETING SHARE ............................................................................................. 28
2.13.6 FAST FASHION COMMUNICATION MARKETING ............................................................................ 29

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 2.13.7 FAST FASHION CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR ....................................................................................... 31

CHAPTER 3 MARKETING CONCEPT ............................................................................................... 32

3.1 DIRECT MARKETING .................................................................................................................... 32

3.1.1ACQUISITION OF NEW CUSTOMERS ............................................................................................... 33

3.1.2 RETENTION OF EXISTING CUSTOMERS ......................................................................................... 34
3.1.3 DATA COLLECTION....................................................................................................................... 35

3.2 SOCIAL MEDIA ............................................................................................................................... 36

3.2.1 WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA? ............................................................................................................. 36

3.2.1.1 DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ......................................................................................... 37
3.2.1.1.1 Collaborative projects ...................................................................................................... 37
3.2.1.1.2 Blogs ................................................................................................................................. 37
3.2.1.1.3 Content communities ....................................................................................................... 37
3.2.1.1.4 Social networking site ...................................................................................................... 38
3.2.1.1.6 Virtual game worlds ......................................................................................................... 38
3.2.1.1.6 Virtual social world .......................................................................................................... 38
3.2.2 WEB 2.0, UGC AND SOCIAL MEDIA ............................................................................................. 39
3.2.3 THE ADVANTAGES OF SOCIAL NETWORKING FOR MARKETING .................................................... 39
3.2.4 FACEBOOK ................................................................................................................................... 41
3.2.4.1 FACEBOOK’S USES ..................................................................................................................... 41
3.2.4.2 Age and Frequency.............................................................................................................. 42
3.2.5 BUSINESSES USE FACEBOOK......................................................................................................... 42
3.2.6 Facebook commerce ............................................................................................................... 43
3.2.6.1 46% people follow fashion/ luxury goods ........................................................................... 43
3.2.7 Facebook components ............................................................................................................ 44
3.2.7.1 Application ..................................................................................................................................... 44
3.2.7.2 Wall ................................................................................................................................................ 45
3.2.7.3 Events ............................................................................................................................................. 45
3.2.7.4 Discussion board ............................................................................................................................ 45
3.2.7.5 Notes ............................................................................................................................................... 45
3.2.7.6 Photos ............................................................................................................................................. 46

3.2.7.7 Video ............................................................................................................................................... 46

3.2.7.8 Other tools ...................................................................................................................................... 47
3.2.7.8.1 Analysis tool-insight for fan pages .......................................................................................... 47

3.2.7.8.2 Advertising tool-Facebook ads ............................................................................................... 47

3.3 SOCIAL NETWORKING INFLUENCED CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR ........................................ 47

3.4 DIRECT MARKETING AND SOCIAL NETWORKING ............................................................... 48

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3.5 DIRECT MARKETING IN FASHION ............................................................................................. 48

3.6 OBSERVATION DIRECTION .......................................................................................................... 50

3.7 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................ 50

3.8 THE DATA COLLECTION .............................................................................................................. 51

3.9 OBSERVATION SHEET/CHECK LIST DESIGN ........................................................................... 51

3.10 OBSERVATION TABLE COMPONENT ....................................................................................... 52

3.11 SAMPLE FRAME ........................................................................................................................... 52

CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................................ 54

4.1 ACQUISITION OF NEW CUSTOMERS SCHEME ........................................................................ 54

4.1.1 ZARA: ........................................................................................................................................ 55

4.1.2 H&M: ......................................................................................................................................... 56
4.1.3 MANGO: ...................................................................................................................................... 58
4.1.4 FOREVER 21: ............................................................................................................................... 59
4.1.5 TOP SHOP: ................................................................................................................................... 62
4.1.6 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................... 63
4.1.6.1 Incentive scheme ................................................................................................................. 63
4.1.6.3 Brand behaviour ................................................................................................................. 64

4.2 RETENTION OF EXISTING CUSTOMERS .................................................................................. 65

4.2.1 ZARA: ........................................................................................................................................ 65

4.2.2 H&M: ......................................................................................................................................... 67
4.2.3 MANGO: ...................................................................................................................................... 70
4.2.4 FOREVER 21: ............................................................................................................................... 72
4.2.5 TOP SHOP: ................................................................................................................................... 74
4.2.6 CONCLUSION: .............................................................................................................................. 77

4.3 DATA COLLECTION ....................................................................................................................... 79

4.3.1 ZARA .......................................................................................................................................... 80

4.3.2 H&M: ......................................................................................................................................... 82
4.3.3 MANGO: ...................................................................................................................................... 82
4.3.4 FOREVER 21: ............................................................................................................................... 83
4.3.5 TOP SHOP: ................................................................................................................................... 85

4.4 SUMMARY:....................................................................................................................................... 85

4.4.1 PERSONAL INFORMATION............................................................................................................. 85

4.4.2 PURCHASE DATA .......................................................................................................................... 86

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 4.4.3 COMMUNICATION DATA ............................................................................................................... 87
4.4.4 OTHER INFORMATION:................................................................................................................. 87

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 88

5.1 FASHION CLOTHING MARKET TRENDS- CHAPTER 2 MARKET ANALYSIS...................... 88

5.3.1 ZARA: ........................................................................................................................................ 91

5.3.2 H&M: ......................................................................................................................................... 91
5.3.3 MANGO: ...................................................................................................................................... 91
5.3.4 FOREVER21 ................................................................................................................................. 92
5.3.5 TOP SHOP..................................................................................................................................... 92
5.3.6 BRAND FACEBOOK PERSONALITY ................................................................................................ 93

5.4 HOW HAS THIS PROJECT MET ITS OBJECTIVES? ................................................................. 93

5.4.1 CAN FACEBOOK HELP INTERNATIONAL FAST FASHION BRANDS TO IMPLEMENT DIRECT
MARKETING? AND CAN THESE BRANDS USE FACEBOOK AS A DIRECT MARKETING TOOL?..................... 94

5.4.1.2 Facebook can “help” fast fashion brands to launch the acquisition of new customer
schemes. .......................................................................................................................................... 94
5.4.1.3 Facebook is a good tool for the retention of existing customers and the development of
customer relationships .................................................................................................................... 96
5.4.3 FACEBOOK DATA COLLECTION LIMITATION ................................................................................. 97

5.5 FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF USING FACEBOOK AS A DIRECT MARKETING TOOL ....... 98

5.5.1 COMBINING FACEBOOK COMMERCE............................................................................................ 98

5.6 RESEARCH LIMITATIONS ............................................................................................................ 99

5.7 FUTURE RESEARCH RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................................................... 100

5.8 PROJECT CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 100

REFERENCES:..................................................................................................................................... 102

APPENDICES: ...................................................................................................................................... 107

OBSERVATION SHEET A RECORD-ACQUISITION NEW CUSTOMER SCHEME ................................................

OBSERVATION SHEET B RECORD- RETENTION EXISTING CUSTOMER SCHEME ..........................................
OBSERVATION SHEET C RECORD- DATA COLLECT ....................................................................................

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List of Figure

Figure 2.13-1: Changes in cycle times.

Figure 2.13.3-1: Brand attitudes towards H&M
Figure 2.13.5-1: Product market position map
Figure 3.1-1 direct marketing concepts.
Figure 3.1.1-1 Acquisition new customers scheme.
Figure 3.9-2 Retention existing customer scheme
Figure 3.1.3-1 the forms of data
Figure: 3.2.6.1-1 the time and visits analysis of main web media
Figure: 3.2.7-1 Source: H&M Facebook page
Figure 3.11-1 sample frames information
Figure 4.1-1: Observation sheet A
Figure 4.1.1-1: ZARA’s Facebook landing page.
Figure 4.1.1-2: H&M’s observation sheet A record
Figure 4.1.2-1 H&M Facebook landing page
Figure 4.1.2-2: H&M’s Observation sheet A record
Figure 4.1.3-1: Mango’s Facebook landing page.
Figure 4.1.3-2: Mango’s observation sheet A record
Figure 4.1.4-1 Forever 21’s Facebook landing page
Figure 4.1.4-2 Forever 21’s observation sheet A record
Figure 4.1.5-1 Top Shop’s Facebook page.
Figure 4.1.5-2 Top Shop’s observation sheet A record
Figure 4.2-1 Observation sheet B
Figure 4.2.1-1 ZARA observation sheet B record
Figure 4.2.2-1 H&M observation sheet B record
Figure 4.2.2-3 “your H&M “ Service
Figure 4.2.3-1 Mango observation sheet B record
Figure 4.2.3-2 Mango uses discussion applications to communicate with customers.
Figure 4.2.4-1 Observation sheet B record
Figure 4.4.4-2: the “wall” of Forever21 Facebook
Figure 4.2.5-1 Top Shop’s observation sheet B record
Figure 4.3-1 observation sheet C
Figure 4.3.1-1 ZARA’s observation sheet C record
Figure 4.3.1-2 ZARA using Photos to promote new man’s collection
Figure 4.3.2-1 H&M’s observation sheet C record
Figure 4.3.3-1 Mango’s observation sheet C record

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Figure 4.3.4-1 Forever 21 Observation sheet C record
Figure 4.3.4-2 Forever21 uses questionnaires on Facebook to collect customer opinion.
Figure 4.3.5-1 Topshop’s observation sheet C record
Figure 5.3-1: the fast fashion brand performance on Facebook
Figure 5.3.6-1 brand Facebook personality

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Chapter 1 introduction
1.1 Introduction

Direct marketing is one of the very popular marketing methods mentioned, which focuses

on people rather than products. Via data collection to understand customers direct

marketing can potentially find desirable consumers(Tapp,2008). Besides, direct marketing

is one of the most important marketing tools used in the fashion industry(Jackson and

Shaw,2009). but alongside the fashion industry marketing has been influenced by

technology, the economy and other factors,etc. Fashion consumers love to buy cheap,

stylish pieces, therefore, fast fashion has emerged. Fast fashion via fast responses to the

latest fashion trends, even mimics celebrity dressing and fashion show designs. Within a

very short time a new garment can be produced, the lead time not being over 3 months,

even every week new pieces are launched. Every year ZARA launches over 10,000 new

designs, in just two weeks they can change their whole display in store. By changing their

window displays frequently they tell their customers that they have new collections in store.

Other changes include the use of Facebook, a public social media having more than 750

million users. Many fashion brands use Facebook to promote their products, to build

relationships and conduct advertising campaigns.

But most of fast fashion research are focus on how fast fashion success, and their efficient

supply chain, but few research focus on how Fast fashion promotion their product

especially in direct marketing, therefore, this communication project want to combine

latest clothing and social networking trend, to identify how Facebook can be applied in

Fast fashion brand under direct marketing concept, to identify dose Facebook can help fast

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brand promotion? And what extend Facebook can as direct tool? However, the main of

objectives of this communication project as following:

1.2 Objectives of project

1. Can Facebook help international fast fashion brands to implement direct marketing?

Can these brands use Facebook as a direct marketing tool?

2. How can Facebook achieve a direct marketing concept, including obtaining new

customers and developing customer relationships to maintain existing customers;

furthermore, to collect a customer database and information to understand customers?

3. To identify whether Facebook is useful tool in the fast fashion industry?

1.3 Research process

The project includes three key sections of research, with the fashion clothing market as

Chapter2; the direct marketing concept and social media analysis as Chapter 3 and online

observation and analysis as Chapter 4.

Chapter 2 aims to understand the mass fashion clothing environment. The secondary

research is via online database including Mintel, Keynote, “clothing retailing”, to identify

the mass fashion clothing environment, which includes via data and trend analysis to

indentify the main trends within the fashion clothing market. Besides, there are some

online fashion news websites that are useful resources, such as Drapers

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(http://www.drapersonline.com/), which contains the latest fashion clothing marketing

trends. In addition, the online Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management,

International journal of retail & distribution management, which including” Case study:

Internationalisation of the Spanish fashion brand ZARA”, and database of ProQuest, which

includes press and Journal, and Emerald, which for online journal and WARC support

these projects using different angle resources.

Chapter 3 is divided into two sections; first is the direct marketing concept and the second

section is on social media trends, applications and development, especially with business

proposals. In the first section of Chapter 3, direct marketing text books used include

Tapp(2008),Sargeant and West (2001), Spiller and Baier (2010), Bired (1998) and

Stone(1984). It compares definitions from different countries of direct marketing concepts

and between the UK’s and US’ direct marketing associations and institutes. In addition, via

online journals and databases to understand direct marketing in practice, which includes

WARC, the European journal of marketing such as “Fast fashion in the retail store

environment”. The second section examines the trend of social media, through online

databases and journals such as DDB, “Facebook and brands”,and online report such as

WARC, to understand how social media can be utilized in business. Besides, there are

several authors who share their experiences on Facebook, these include Shih(2010),

Goldfarb(2010). Furthermore, social media development is fast and changeable, therefore,

the section also examines, via online social media observation websites such as Mashable

(http://mashable.com/) the latest applications of social media, “such as 5 ways social media

changed fashion in 2009”.

Chapter 4 obtained data via observation and analysis. This chapter analysed five

mainstream international fast fashion brands, including ZARA, H&M, Mango, Forever21
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and TopShop. In order to achieve the objectives, the chapter observed observation sheets

which combined Facebook components and direct marketing concepts, and utilized this

check list to identify how these brands use Facebook for their direct marketing. It also

compared their pros and cons and logical analysis of their strategy.

1.4 Chapter outline

Chapter 2 explained the fashion clothing market in the UK, including market size, mass

environment and fashion clothing trends, besides, Chapter 1 also analysed fashion

consumer behaviour, including the decision marketing process, gender, age and purchasing

behaviour. Furthermore, Chapter 1 introduced how the fashion industry communicates with

its customer. Besides, this chapter also introduced one of the UK’s fashion clothing trends

of ‘fast fashion’ which was affected by high competitive markets, the economic crisis and

media power. Fast fashion not only influences the lead-time of producing a garment but

has also changed customer attitudes toward fashion and purchasing behaviour. Fashion

customers have become smarter, demanding faster and more up-to-date fashion pieces. In

addition, some fashion brand clothing companies were forced to change their brand

positioning, such as ZARA and Mango. They needed to produce more fashion products

and at a faster pace. ZARA every year produces over 10,000 new garments, and so far,

ZARA has become the biggest retailer worldwide. On the other hand, Chapter 1 explained

ZARA’s success and who are the main competitors.

Chapter 3 explained the key concepts of direct marketing. According to Tapp(2008),

Sargeant and West(2001), Spiller and Baier(2010) ,Bired (1998) and Stone(1994), this

project focused on three important sections of direct marketing, including the acquisition

of new customers, the retention of existing customers and data collection. In addition,
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Chapter 3 explained the trend of social media, introduced what social media is, how many

kinds of social media exist and explained the relationship between web2.0 UGc and social

media and which marketers use social media for business purposes. This chapter especially

focused on Facebook, to explain the development of Facebook and user behaviour. In order

to identify how fast fashion uses Facebook for direct marketing, Chapter 3 also introduced

Facebook components. Furthermore, this chapter explained the connections between

fashion, social networking and direct marketing.

Chapter 3 explained the methodology of this project , how to collect data and setting

observation directions; also about the use of development of observation sheets to

achieve the objectives of this project and which fast fashion brands were the choice for

sample frames.

Chapter 4 was divided into three sections using three direct marketing elements. The first

section of Chapter4 focused on how fast brands use Facebook to conduct the acquisition of

new customer schemes to achieve a direct marketing concept; section two of Chapter 4

analysed how fast brands use Facebook to build customer relationships, communicate with

customers and how fast fashion brands use Facebook to implement a retention existing

scheme. The third section of this chapter showed how fast fashion brands try to use

Facebook to collect customer data, including personal data, purchasing data,

communication data and customer opinions. These three sections accompanied print

screens and observation sheets to explain what they are they doing on Facebook. In

addition, the end of every section explained overall performance.

In the first section of chapter five will summary overall fashion clothing market trend, and

potential development. In the second section will summary every fast brand performance
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on Facebook and to analyze the advantage and disadvantage of every brand, and indentify

the limitation of using Facebook as direct marketing. In the end of section five will to give

advice to every brand how to improve currently situation and potential future issues. And

all of observation sheet will be included in appendix.

1.5 Potential contribution

This communication includes six potential contributions.

1. Identify current fashion clothing market trends.

2. Understand how fast fashion brands use Facebook to communicate with customers.

3. Understand how Facebook can help companies to collect customer data for direct

marketing.

4. To identify the potential limitation of the data collection on Facebook.

5. Development of online observation sheets for direct marketing and Facebook.

6. Understand if Facebook is a good direct marketing tool for the fast fashion industry.

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 Chapter 2 Preliminary Analysis of Market

2.1 Fashion

The word ‘fashion’ has been defined by Perna(1981): “The style of dressing that prevails

among and group of person….which may last for a year or two or span of years”(Jackson

and Shaw 2001.P 61). People enjoy and interpret fashion via different channels, including

posters, television and magazines using the visual medium to promote an image of the

brand personality. “The image is designed to reflect an attitude that is consistent with the

self-image and aspiration of the target customer. Fashion retailers can segment by targeting

certain types of personality through getting them to respond to a specific attitude. “Jackson

and Shaw (2001.P 66) and Stone,(1992) pointed out, fashion is a kind of appearance,

announces his identity, displays his values, expresses his/her temper and reveals

attitude(Evans.1989) .For the retailer, the brand image of the store is particularly important

to fashion retailers.( Birtwistle ed. al.1998)

2.2 Fashion clothing market in the UK

Fashion, especially in the clothing market is a very important industry in the UK,

according to a keynote report on clothing retailing in 2009. In 2008, the total expenditure

of clothing accounted for 4.5% of total consumer expenditure. Besides, according to the

Mintel report on clothing retailing in the UK October 2010, the clothing retailing UK

market was £31,577m (clothing specialists), and they predict that, until 2015, the clothing

retail market will steady increase.

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2.3 Fashion clothing market share in the UK

According to the Mintel( 2010) clothing report, Marks & Spencer held the lead position

and accounted for 11.9% of the UK market share. It owns 340 outlets in the UK, their sales

in 2009/10 were £3,606m(excl. VAT). The second largest is Next UK, whose sales reached

£3,147m (excl. VAT) accounting for 10.4% of the market share in the UK.

2.4 Marketing trends

2.4.1Economy

Recently, the UK has been facing an economic downturn. In addition, inflation and VAT

increases have changed customer behaviour towards clothing and shopping habits.

Customers were forced to cut back on luxury products or non-essential spending, which led

to people needing low priced products, therefore, demand for the low priced products

increased, which has resulted in the rise of the cheaper clothing market, such as Primark

and supermarket clothing (keynote,2011).

2.4.2 The price of raw materials

Due to the global shortage of cotton, the price of cotton had increased 127% ( September

2010), which strongly affected the clothing industries, especially the clothing producers

and retailers, especially the low price clothing retailers, such as NEXT, Primark and H&M

(Keynote 2011)

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2.4.3 Technology

Along with the internet develop rapidly the fashion clothing market was influenced by

technology too. Online shopping offers more choice and competitive prices in the fashion

clothing market, which has led to more and more retailers including ZARA, H&M and

GAP, all moving to offer an online shopping service.

According to a keynote clothing retailing report (2009), around 5% of clothing is

purchased online and they predicted that this number will increase twice in the next 3 years.

Besides, online shopping grows rapidly in recession periods, people may think they can get

more value products from the internet. For example,one online clothing retailer ASOS has

increased sales twice to £165m in the 12 months ending 31st March 2009. Technology has

accelerated the development of online shopping.

2.6 Fashion consumer behaviour

Although Mintel(2010) forecast the fashion clothing market will steady rise, economic

factors have indeed influenced consumer’s behaviour towards fashion. There are 39%

people who have been spending less on clothes, one reason was that deflation has eased.

The people may buy fewer items, but the amount of money is the same. However, like all

other contemporary businesses, the fashion clothing industry has become market-oriented,

it no longer dictates what its customers should wear, and importantly, it is no longer elitist.

(Costantion 1998,p6)

While the basic function of clothing is to cover our bodies, to keep us warm and to protect
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our physical bodies, such as you buy a pair of shoes and trousers to provide warmth, to

protect your feet and legs, that is the basic benefit of a garment by fashion customers

(Jackson and Shaw, 2010). Another function of clothing is to express social standing,

therefore people via purchasing high priced or luxury brands show their social position,

and the quality between a pair of £300 shoes and a £5 pair does not have the same

proportion. (Jackson and Shaw, 2009)

2.7 Fashion customer decision marketing

The fashion customer decision marketing refers to two factors, including internal and

external factors. The internal relate to personality, motivation, perception and self image.

The external influences include the macro environment, such as consumer’s lives or

specific group influences, such as peer, family and other reference groups.

2.8 Fashion consumer self-image

“Consumers’ personalities can be inferred from the brands they use, form their attitudes

towards different brands and from the meanings brands have for them. (Chernatony and

McDonald, 2003, P,134) Besides, people also have an “ideal self-image” (how they see

themselves) and “social self-image” (how other people see them). People might change

their self-image themselves to cater for different situations, their appearance could project

an individual’s image. (Jackson and Shaw, 2009)

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2.9 Fashion decision making and self-concept

“Consumers have a perception of themselves and they make brand decisions on the basis

of whether owning or using a particular brand which has a particular image, is consistent

with their own self-image.” (Chernatony and McDonald, 2003, p.134) Besides, the

self-concept or self-image was used to indentify individual’s motivation, preferences and

action, Theory tells us that individuals have different situations.” (Jackson and Shaw, 2009,

p.8). But, in a number of countries, women are major buyers in men’s clothing market; in

this situation, women are the decision makers about what men wear. (Jackson and Shaw,

2009)

2.10 Fashion marketing segmentation in UK

In the fashion industry, segmenting fashion consumers into smaller distinct groups is very

important; it enables fashion marketeers to understand the market and is easier to make a

marketing plan, as well as find out target audiences and product position more accurately.

(Jackson and Shaw,2009). The main methods of fashion marketing segmentation in the UK

include: demographic, purchasing behaviour, geographic and psycho-graphic segmentation.

(Jackson and Shaw, 2009) The demographic segmentation comprising age, gender, religion

and so on, for example, females spending more money than males; young people spending

more than old people; with cultural differences, UK women spending more on luxury

fashion than China’s.

The method of purchasing behaviour includes user occasions (weddings or sporting),

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benefits wanted (image-enhancement or value), loyalty level (regular purchaser), and

readiness to purchase (the stage which consumer goes from product awareness to desire

and purchase). The geographic segmentation refers to country and climate; the

psycho-graphic refers to social class or lifestyles. (Jackson and Shaw, 2009, p54)

2.10.1 Loyalty

The fashion industry is a fully competitive area. Even after a brand is successful it still

faces the challenge of customer loyalty, such as Levi’s and Next. They once dominated the

clothing market, they believed they had a solid historic heritage and that they could still

increase sales, but it was not true. In such a highly competitive market, nothing is forever.

(Jackson and Shaw, 2009)

2.10.2 Age

“The young are more fashion oriented than are older consumers….there are more people

aged 18-25…” (Evans, 1989, p.12); and the young people are more likely to use the

internet to buy items. “Young people are significantly more likely to use the internet for

fashion and ideas, and also to buy if items are out-of-stock in-store. (Mintel,2010)

2.10.3 Gender

Women prefer fashion than men and also prefer online shopping to men. Besides, women

may use both stores and internet channels. (Mintel, 2010)

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2.11 Online shopping

Although online shopping is growing, there are still 60% people who prefer in-store

shopping, and 15% like the option of ordering online and collection/ returning in-store,

with 14% people purchasing online because their size is not in-store. However, although

online purchasing is more and more popular, on-line shipping seems not to be a priority,

only if they can add more value from on-line shopping, for example, a more cheaper option.

(Mintel, 2010)

2.12 Marketing communication tools in the fashion industry

There are ten main types of promotional tools being used for fashion marketing in the UK,

including advertising, direct marketing, personal selling, sales promotion, PR and publicity,

word of mouth, visual merchandising, packaging corporate identity, and exhibition.

(Jackson and Shaw 2010), Different communication tools play different roles; if used

properly enable cost effectiveness and efficiency, in contrast, if used inappropriately may

cause cost waste (Jackson and Shaw 2010). Besides, there are new emerging promotional

methods-social media; fashion brands use social media such as Twitter, Facebook and

YouTube to develop marketing strategies to increase sales or store traffic. (Lee,

2009)[www]

2.13 The fast-fashion phenomena

In the past 10 years, the UK fashion industry has changed with the “fast fashion”
22
phenomenon, which has affected fashion clothing sellers. “fast’ means responding to

fashion trends very quickly, shorter lead-time, using the shortest produced product in the

store”(Hayes and Jones,2006,p.283) Such as ZARA, H&M, Topshop and Mango, in which

ZARA can make a new product from start to finish with a lead-time of 15 days; H&M, and

Mango have decreased their lead-time to approximately three weeks (Hayes and

Jones,2006,p.283) and Topshop reduced its lead-time from nine weeks to six. The cycle

times of cloth production was already significantly reduced from six months in 1970 to an

average of 6 weeks in 2000. (Hayes and Jones,2006)

Besides, they not only changed their clothing range and garment collection very fast, at the

same time they offered relatively cheaper prices than normal brands. One of the most

popular fast brands is the Spanish retailer, ZARA, which is the biggest and fastest fashion

brands worldwide now; they “according to Just-Style, stocks its stores with new lines up to twice

a week in a bid to encourage customers to find a new product with every visit….. While

also instigating a purchase due to the limited supply” (Mintel, 2010, p.5). Another one is

Sweden’s clothing brand H&M ( Hennes & Mauritz ), its prices slightly lower than

ZARA. ”H&M offers fashion and quality at the best price with a broad and varied selection

for women, men, teens and children” (H&M, 2011)

However, the trend for fast-fashion has already changed the structure of the whole clothing

industry. Value cheaper/ value clothing is more popular than traditional labels. The reason

for these phenomena was due to PRC(People’s Republic of China) and India’s low labour.

(Mintel,2010). However, technology and economy have changed the clothing market, not

just production and prices, but also by shortening the fashion product life cycle from

months to weeks, even days, which puts more pressure on retailers. (Barnes, 2010)

23
In addition, customer behaviour has changed; they have became more “savvy” and demand

more new styles, especially the collections with media coverage, inspired by the media,

fashion magazines, catwalk fashion shows and celebrities’ dressing. (Barnes, 2010)

Figure 2.13-1: Changes in cycle times. Source: Chemawat and Nueno,2006, Harvard

business school.

2.13.1 Fast fashion PLC (Product Life Cycle)

PLC, refers to product life cycle, the course of a product’s sales and profits over its life

time (Kotler and Armstrong, 2010), which includes five steps, namely development,

introduction, growth, maturity and decline, (Baines, et al. 2008) which means that no one

product can sell forever (Jackson and Shaw, 2009), of course, fashion is no exception.

Within the fashion industry, due to very fast changes, it probably has the widest PLC

differences, including fads, long-term fashion(icon), the “dog” or flop and seasonal product
24
life cycle times. Fast fashion is a kind of ‘fads’ product, the PLC being probably just three

or four weeks. (Jackson and Shaw, 2009)

2.13.2 ZARA- The head of fast fashion brands

ZARA is the flagship of Spain’s Grupo Induitex. It is a fast-fashion retailer which

transforms the latest trends on the catwalk into affordable ranges in store. (Mintel,2010). In

2005, ZARA overtook Sweden’s H&M to become the biggest clothing retailer in Europe :

in 2008, ZARA became the world’s largest clothing retailer by overtaking GAP, Induitex

increased sales by 9% to €2.22bn (£1.7bn) in the first quarter of 2008 ( keynote, 2009).

ZARA’s main consumers are 20-40 year old ABC1s, the women’s wear is its majority

product. But they offer men’s and children’s wear as well (Mintel, 2010). ZARA have their

own production facilities, which allows ZARA to control production. Besides, ZARA just

spent 0.3% of its turnover on advertising, the main promotional tool is its stores. There are

852 stores in 59 countries. (Lopez and Fan, 2009)

Speed is the vital key for ZARA. “ Zara’s vertical integration of design, just-in-time

manufacturing, delivery and sales, flexible structure, low inventory rule, quick response

policy and advanced information technology enable a quick response to customer’s

changing demands” (Lopez and Fan, 2009,p:2) therefore, ZARA only needs to spend 4~5

weeks to develop a new garment from design to finished product and to display it in store;

furthermore, to change their existing products just takes 2 weeks. This is compared to the

traditional model which needed 6 months fordesign and 3 months for production.

25
( Chemawat and Nudno, 2006)

Zara’s success has depended on its fast response supply chain. (Ghemawat and Nueno,

2003) Zara finished one new garment from design, manufacture, deliver to store and put on

the display shelf in less than four weeks, faster than any competitor. ZARA have 20 fully

owned factories in Spain, with 18 factories being located near to ZARA’s headquarters in

Arteixo; every year Zara produces over 10,000 garments. (Ghemawat and Nueno, 2003)

2.13.3 H&M-the pioneer of fast fashion in the UK

H&M(Hennes and Mauritz ), was founded by Hennes (hers) in Sweden in 1947(Ghemawat

and Nueno, 2006). H&M is a major international fast fashion retailer that is expanding

rapidly. With 250 new stores opening worldwide in the year to November 2009, it grew its

operations to over 2,000 stores in 35 international markets, producing sales of SEK 101

billion (€110 billion) and despite the negative impact of the downturn it accelerated its

store expansion programme in 2009 to take advantage of favourable conditions in the retail

property market. (Mintel,2010)

The core of brand value is “offering fashion and quality at the best price” ( Mintel, 2010).

H&M’s development of multi-band strategies adds to its growth motives, which includes

“a clutch of complementary fashion fascias such as COS, Monki, Weekdays and Cheap

Monday, are augmenting H&M’s market presence and enabling it to develop high margin

sales in niche markets without detracting from its core proposition” (Mintel, 2010)

H&M offers a varied range in women’s wear, men’s wear , teen clothing and kids’ clothing,

the women’s wear focuses on fashion minded women of all ages; men’s wear focuses on
26
modern basics, leisurewear and seasonal fashion; kids’ wear is aimed at 0-18 months, 1-5,

5-8 years and 9-14 years, they want to deliver “ fashionable, practical, durable, safe and

comfortable” ( Mentel, 2010). According to branding consultancy, Interbrand (2010),

H&M was ranked 21st of the most valuable global brands in 2010.

Figure 2.13.3-1: Brand attitudes towards H&M (Mintel, 2010) .H&M’s brand has a

distinctive higher average and people thought H&M is more innovative.

2.13 .4 H&M vs ZARA

The Inditex’s ( ZARA) is one of its main competitors. (Ghemawat and Nueno, 2006). But

compared with ZARA, H&M still had some slight differences. H&M outsourced most of

its production, which led to the trend time being slower than ZARA, but H&M had more

price advantages than ZARA (Ghemawat and Nueno, 2006).

Although, H&M was overtaken by ZARA in 2005, H&M didn’t follow ZARA’s strategy of

27
the shortest lead time and product renewals twice per week because it was difficult to

tighten the supply chain and be as fast as ZARA, even though H&M is fairly quick.

Besides, its advertising was very successful in its own right.”( Castano ,Warc, 2008)

2.13.5 Fast fashion marketing share

According to Mintel’s clothing retailer report, H&M’s market share in 2009 was 1.9%, and

ZARA’s was 0.9% (Mintel, 2010). But their main income came from the country, in which

there were 69% of sales come from international sales and H&M’s 90% sales no came

from international in 2005( Lopez and Fan,2009)

As fast fashion is a phenomenon(key note,2009), thus there are no specific academic

articles or reports focusing on this area, only via clothing retailers for analysis of the

marketing share in the UK. Most of their sales come from international sales, ZARA 69% ;

H&M 91%. Sources: compiled from annual reports, Alonso(2000), Ghemawat and Nueno

(2003)

28
Figure 2.13.5-1: Product market position map. Source: Chemawat and Nueno, 2006,

Harvard Business School.

2.13.6 Fast fashion communication marketing

The fashion industry usually uses ten main communication tools, but different tools have

different features, therefore, different fashion retailers use different types of tools, (Jackson

and Shaw 2009). In 2008, the Spanish fast fashion chain ZARA had overtaken GAP to

become the world’s largest clothing retailer. (Keynote,2009) But, ZARA every year only

spend 0.3% of its revenue on advertising, and generally avoid worldwide advertising,

except during the sales periods. In contrast, ZARA’s competitors spent 3%-4% every year

(Ghemawat and Nueno, 2003). Nevertheless, although ZARA didn’t spend much money on
29
advertising, ZARA didn’t lose its market share. ZARA’s used good stock control and

frequent window-changing of displays to keep its customers. ZARA controls creative

demand by reducing supply, thus customers may worry the garment they like could sell out,

therefore ZARA have to make decisions quickly.

ZARA uses on-trend garments and frequently changing shop windows to attract customers

to visit in store. On the other hand, except for window displays, they use the store and

consumers to do the marketing (Castano,2008). The fashion analyst with Mintel’s

consultancy agree that Zara’s shops are their main marketing tool, with their stores located

in prime and highly visible streets making it easy to see what they have in their windows.

‘The store is its advertising’ she said. (Castano, 2008) On the other hand, H&M also uses a

similar strategy to locate its stores (Lopez and Fan, 2009).

In addition, H&M invested in more expenditure on advertising, public relations,

co-operation with celebrities and fashion designers, (Pahl and Mohring, 2008) in-house

advertising parts, they used press, outdoor, direct mail, internet, TV and radio (create club,

2011), PR campaign such as “ Lanvin love H&M” (2010); celebrity endorsement or

co-operation with the famous designer Jimmy Choo.(Financial Times,2009) On the other

hand, fast fashion houses are more likely to use the web and social network sites to influence

potential consumers.( Mintel,2010).

However, Zara continuously adapts to market demands, aiming to deliver a unique service

to the customer. Besides, ZARA provides good service by good word of mouth. When

Inditex managers receive customers’ requests for a sought-after garment, managers can

order them for a one to two-week delivery - a speed unmatched in the industry where

factory-to-store times can range from one to six months.(Castano,2008,p3)

30
The nature of the fashion industry is changeable, fashion retailers need more and faster

promotions to be innovative and more subtle than before (Jackson and Shaw 2010:P4)

Every year, H&M launched 500 new designs per year, and ZARA more than 10,000 new

designs per year.( Lopez and Fan, 2009) and although ZARA’s success comes from its fast

response system, promotion is still one of its most important sections. Sheridan et al (2006)

pointed out that “Fast fashion retailing requires a fast response – not only in terms of

product, but also in terms of promotions and ranging supports.” Therefore, fast fashion

needs faster promotion tools to communicate to its customers.

2.13.7 Fast fashion consumer behaviour

Wang’s research of ‘consumer behaviour characteristics in fast fashion’ (2010) pointed out

that fast fashion consumer decision making was influenced very much by strangers.

Besides, consumers usually buy some unintended products in store ( Wang,2010)

31
Chapter 3 Marketing concept
3.1 Direct Marketing

Several definitions of Direct Marketing

Tapp “The capture of individual customer details at the first sale, so that
the marketer can begin a relationship with that customer,
subsequently treating them differently over time in order to
generate repeat business.”(Tapp,2008,p.4)
Sargeant and “The Database is the heart of all direct marketing activity, Data
West about known customer behaviours is stored and manipulated to
provide profiles of the best prospects to receive particular
communications.”
“Direct marketing is also characterized by a focus on retention….is
about ‘closing’ this communication loop: building a ‘dialogue’
with customer and using ensuing information to refine the nature
of the marketing offer to keep customer loyal”
“ Direct marketing is an approach that treats customers as
individuals and defines them” (Sargeant and West,2001,p.6)
Spiller and “Direct marketing is a database-driven interactive process of
Baier directly communicating with targeted or multiple
channels.”(Spiller and Baier,2010,p.4)
Bired (1998) “ Any activity which creates and exploits a direct relationship
between you and your customer as individual” (Jack & Shaw,
2009,p.9)
Stone(1984) “The selling of goods or services directly to customers (i.e.
without using intermediaries), using databases (e.g. mailing lists) and
through one or more media” (Lyer and Hill,1995,p.1)
US Direct “Direct marketing is an interactive system of marketing which uses
marketing one or more advertising media to effect a measurable response and/
Association or transaction at any location. (Sargeant and West,2001,p.7)
UK’s institute The planned recording, analysis and tracking of customer’s direct
of direct response behaviour over time….in order to develop future
marketing marketing strategies for long term customer loyalty and to ensure
continued business growth.” (Sargeant and West,2001,p.7)
Figure 3.1-1 direct marketing concepts.

32
According to the above definitions, we can understand that direct marketing is via first

sales to obtain customer data, then via interactive analysis to understanding customer

behaviour, building a long term relationship for keeping customer loyalty to yield repeat

purchases.

Therefore, we can classify that direct marketing involves three key concepts. First is to

generate a new customer purchase, via first sales or others to promote and collect customer

contact information. Second is retention of the existing customer, building a customer

relationship; as Tapp(2008) pointed out, direct marketing is to develop a long term

relationship with the customer, besides, direct marketing is about the retention of loyal

customers. Besides, Sargeant and West(2001) mentioned that direct marketing is via

building a dialogue to retain loyal customers. The last concept is the database, as Spiller

and Baier(2010) stated. Direct marketing is a database-driven interactive process, and

Sargeant and West (2001) also indicated that the “Database is the heart of all direct

marketing activity”. Therefore, we can define the heart of direct marketing involves all

three important sections.

3.1.1Acquisition of new customers

As chapter 3.1 mentioned, the acquisition of the first sale is the key process to conduct a

subsequent marketing strategy. According to Tapp(2008), there are many schemes to

obtain new customers and motivation of the first purchase, such as contact programmes to

acquire customers which have been used for a long time. Besides, Jones’(1996) has

commented that firms should ‘acquire with product and retain with service’. This is exactly

a direct marketing concept, thus, how to motivate a customer to purchase a company

product is very important. However, according to Tapp(2008) there are several acquisition
33
programmes which could motivate customers to purchase. (Figure 3.1.1-1 )

Programmes of contact to attract new customers

Free sample The sample offer helps to build a prospect database.
Unit of sales In order to shift more volume.
Credit options This was a major driver in the growth of direct marketing.
Free trial It removes that barrier of immediate pain.
Member gets new Offer incentives to current customer in return for their
member recommendation of someone they believe.
Bounce-backs This is based on the notion of which is the best time to
sell to someone. For example “ Thank you for
purchasing”.
Gifts/premiums The gift shows the linking to the brand image of the
company/product.
Competitions/prize draw One of the popular acquisition incentives to gain a
customer name.
Figure 3.1.1-1 Acquisition new customers scheme. Source: Tapp, 2008

3.1.2 Retention of existing customers

The second section concerns the retention of existing customers. It focuses on the retention

and building a relationship with the customer. This concept was different from the 1950s

and 1960s marketing, when via mass media focused on the attraction of large numbers of

new customers. By contacts, contemporary direct marketing used specific media to

communicate to existing customers, building a dialogue to keep customers loyal (Sargent

and West, 2001). Loyal customers are tempted to buy more and bring more profits to firms,

plus loyal customers cost less than the acquisition of new customers. They are generally

happy to share their purchasing experience; this is a kind of word-of-mouth advertising.

Besides, loyal customers are less price sensitive than new customers. (Spiller and Baier,

2010, P, 30) Furthermore, Reichheld and Sasser (1990) found that reducing customer

34
defections by 5 per cent can improve profit by 25%-85% (Sargent and West, 2001).

Tapp(2008) has pointed out the retention of the existing customer principle as Figure 3.9-2

The programmes include dialogue, loyalty schemes, cross and up sell.

Programmes for existing customers

Dialogue Provide information, newsletters, magazines, clubs and
digital product catalogues are more valuable to
consumers.
Tailored service Offers specially tailored service for someone.
Loyalty schemes Loyalty scheme is a “spending-related reward “and
related marketing activities. For example loyalty pricing.
Cross and up sell Promotes other products or more expensive products
/Direct mail and catalogue
Figure 3.9-2 Retention existing customer scheme .Source: Tapp, 2008

3.1.3 Data collection

“In direct marketing, the objective is to use customer information to develop ongoing,

continuous relationships with each individual on the database.” (Spiller and Baier, 2010,

p.11) Besides the “customer database is the key to develop customer relationships and

retaining existing customer” (Spiller and Baier,2010) However, the customer database

could be applied in many ways. For example, via database analysis to understand customer

needs, which enables marketers to develop proper subsequent approaches. Besides,

customer interaction enables a valuable customer database for the company to be generated

(Spiller and Baier, 2010).Therefore, the customer database could influence marketing

strategy, which could be applied to the product, service, to increase customer loyalty,

portioning and branding. (Tapp,2008). Besides, companies may need to obtain details of

requirements or requests for product information. Therefore, the collection of customer

35
data/ understanding customer insights are very important, The database should include

personal data, including name, telephone, email address. Secondly, the purchase data,

which products they bought and the purchasing frequency. Via purchase analysis the

company can identify who is a desirable customer. Communication data can identify the

response rate of customers which can help firms to find out the right target customer. Other

data includes, questionnaire responses, asking about product information or promotion

responses from customers.(Sargeant and Douglas,2001)For understanding customer insight.

(Spiller and Baier, 2010).

Data collection
Personal customer data Name, telephone number, address, e-mail address.
Purchase( transaction) What the customer has bought, frequency, subscription
data: details, product registration document, credit card details.
Communication data: Campaign history and responses.
Others Questionnaire responses, promotional event requiring a
response.
Figure 3.1.3-1 the forms of data.Source: Tapp, 2008, Spiller and Baier, 2010. Sergeant and

Douglas, 2001.

3.2 Social media

3.2.1 What is social media?

Social media is the media used socially, people use it to communicate with other people,

social media is a social tool and channel (Safko 2010). In recent years, social media has

become one of the most popular topics, people use it frequently and some people can even

be addicted to it, when they use it as often as they can. But maybe not every social media

user knows that. The concept of Social Media probably originated about 20 years

ago,(Kaplan et al, 2009). In 1979, Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis from Duke University had

built the “Usenet”, which allowed internet users to post messages. Besides, Bruce and
36
Susan Abelson’s “ Open diary” is an early form of social networking, at the same time, the

concept of “ weblog” began. This was followed by the high-speed internet development

creation of social networking sites, including MySpace (2003) and Facebook(2004). Thus

social media had begun to become very popular.

(Kaplan et al, 2009)

3.2.1.1 Different kinds of social media

3.2.1.1.1 Collaborative projects

Collaborative project refers to a kind of UGC, users can create, move and change content,

such as online encyclopaedia Wikipedia; another collaborative project is social

bookmarking application, which is a collection and rating of internet links or media content,

such as-Delicious. (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2009)

3.2.1.1.2 Blogs

Blogs might be one of the earliest kinds of social media, which have a personal web page;

the content can vary, could be personal diaries which describe the author’s life as

summaries. Blogs are usually written by one person only. (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2009)

3.2.1.1.3 Content communities

The goal of content communities is to share media content between users, which has a

wide range of media forms including text, such as BookCrossing; photos, such as Flicker;

37
videos, such as YouTube and PowerPoint presentations, such as Slideshare. (Kaplan and

Haenlein, 2009)

3.2.1.1.4 Social networking site

Social networking sites refer to applications which are being used to connect each other by

creating personal profiles, and where you can invite friends and colleagues to access your

profile. The personal profile could be any kind of information including video, photos and

audio. In addition, social networking can send e-mails, instant messages to each other, such

as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2009) In the UK the top three

social networking sites ranked by market shares are Facebook 51%, YouTube 16.66%,

Twitter 2.10% (keynote, 13th march 2010).

3.2.1.1.6 Virtual game worlds

Virtual game world is a three dimensional platform which enable users to play an avatar in

the game; the avatar could be a warrior, a wizard or dragon hunter to finish the task.

Besides, users can interact with other users, just like in real life, such as “World of

Warcraft”. (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2009)

3.2.1.1.6 Virtual social world

Virtual social worlds are similar to virtual game worlds; it refers to users playing an avatar

in the game, but a virtual social world is closer to real life, although there are no rule

restrictions; users can design virtual clothing, consumption, can talk, walk, it’s a virtual life,

such as Second Life (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2009).

38
3.2.2 Web 2.0, UGC and Social Media

People can easily link social media related information to web 2.0 or UGC (user generated

content), even lump them together; they are relevant but different concepts. The term Web

2.0 was first used in 2004, which represented a new internet development, a second

generation of web technologies (IT Governance,2009) thus, this kind has been called Web

2.0. Web 2.0 enables users to create their content and to share it with others as a two way

communication. (Shelly and Frydengerg,2010), Web 2.0 includes blogs, wikis, social

networking( Facebook, MySpace). Users can see Web 2.0 as a platform, everything is

created and controlled by users building their own data (Solomon and Schrum,2007) .

The term UGC came from “DIY (do-it-yourself) web” in 2005, which refers to the content

and material which is built by users, such as messages, photos, movies or audio files (Beck,

2007. UGC could be seen as the sum of all ways in which users make use of social media.

( Kaplan et al, 2009). “Thus the social media is a group of internet-based applications that

build on the ideological and technological foundation of Web 2.0, and allow the creation

and exchange of User Generated Content. ( Kaplan et al, 2009,p61)

3.2.3 The advantages of Social Networking for marketing

Whatever kind of social media is adopted both can be used as commercial or marketing

application (Kaplan et al, 2009). The keynote ( 2010 ) report showed that in September

2009 there were 64 % of companies who had used or experimented with social media, and

there were 26% of companies heavily using social media; only 10% of companies didn’t

39
use social media. This expressed that social media could be one of many useful business

tools. However, Mackinsey (2007) pointed out that more and more marketers are familiar

with Web 2.0 and were increasing their usage of social networking strategies. According to

a Keynote(2010) social networking marketing report, there were 74% of companies using

social media to increase official website traffic, and 64% of companies hoped to use social

media to gain more brand recognition. 62% of businesses set their objectives to gain a

better brand reputation; besides, over 50 % of businesses wished that social media could

enable them to increase sales and gain higher customer satisfaction/advocacy, and even use

it as CRM tools to maintain their customers, have good customer retention rates. This

shows us that companies started to use social media to conduct marketing strategies, to

build brand awareness, to increase sales and to maintain customers.

Besides, there are one-fifth of small businesses using social media within their businesses

and social media applications. Furthermore, 75% of companies have their own pages on

social networking; 61% used social media to attract new buyers, therefore, social

networking as a marketing tool is a trend of businesses and could continue to develop their

growth (keynote,2010).

In addition, social networking could be a source of marketing research or measurement,

including monitoring positive and negative word-of-mouth, offering a new way to generate

greater customer value and so on. Furthermore, social networking can enable firms to

indentify and target their audiences more precisely, cut through the clutter, engage in

dialogue, privacy and ethical issues, authenticity: in search of the real consumer, more

powerful, consumer engagement and offera new mindset(Tapp,2008). The Facebook

generation has changed the ways that brand owners communicate with consumers.

40
3.2.4 Facebook

“ Facebook is a forum where different social networks can document and share their lives

using stories, images and videos”( Saxgren,2010) and DDB (2010) defined Facebook as

the social network. According to Wasserman and Faust (1994), “a social network consists

of a finite set or sets of actors and the relation or relations defined on them”. It is a

complex system that is characterized by a high number of dynamically interconnected

entities, and connects entities in any type of link that implies a peer-to-peer relationship

(Bartal et al., 2009).

3.2.4.1 Facebook’s uses

According to a Keynote(2010) report, in 2006 June, there were 14 million users, but in

2009 January, there were 68 million; Facebook had increased by 386%, Besides, the

market share of Facebook of the top five social networking sites was 51.18% in 2010.

Facebook is the most popular social networking site and the second most popular website

in the UK, just behind Google UK. According to DDB (2010) survey, in 2010, there were

500 million Facebook users worldwide. Every day, there are 35 million users updating

their status, and there are 1.5 million corporations who have pages on Facebook. Over 100

million Facebook users access their pages via their smart phone.( Keynote,2010)

The reasons that social media became a marketing tool were derived from two global

trends, including the economical slump and that more and more people started to use social

networking (Keynote,2010) .The numbers of unique users across all online social networks

is estimated to climb to a staggering 1.971 billion by 2015 (Nelson and Klose,2010)

In the UK, there are 27 million Facebook users and Facebook enjoys a high engagement
41
with the media. Every user has 130 friends and is a member of 13 groups; more than 20

million people become fans of Facebook pages each day.( DDB.2010)

3.2.4.2 Age and Frequency

The average age of a Facebook user is 31, and 32% are between 18-24 years, with 25-39

year old users accounting for 47%; 43% of hard users use Facebook several times a day

and 33 % of people use Facebook every day.

Figure: 3.2.6.1-1 the time and visits analysis of main web media (Source: DDB)

3.2.5 Businesses use Facebook

Due to more and more people joining Facebook, it has started to be used for business

purposes. Basically this includes Facebook advertisements, Facebook applications and

Facebook business pages among firms using business pages to share updates, special offers,

videos, photos, events and applications. In addition, Facebook is suitable for the
42
B2C( Business-to-consumer)industry(Shih,20110).

In the period from December 2009 to January 2010, there were 55% of companies using

Facebook to improve their brand awareness and reputation; there were 47 % of companies

using Facebook as a marketing tool; 46% of them used Facebook to publicise new content

and 37% used it to conduct brand monitoring and 32% used Facebook to gather customer

feedback (Ketnote,2011). Thus, it can be seen that most businesses were already involved

with social media, and more businesses used Facebook to conduct marketing strategies.

More and more businesses have started to transfer their marketing or advertisement

budgets from traditional media to social media.

3.2.6 Facebook commerce

Apart from advertising and CRM being applied to Facebook, Facebook was starting to be

used for online shopping, or so called Facebook commerce, F-commerce. Facebook

commerce refers to companies using applications or software to sell their products on

Facebook without leaving the Facebook page. (Ente,2011)

So far, this phenomenon is not very popular. There are some brands opening Facebook

storefronts, such as 1-800-flowers selling flowers; Lady Gaga selling T-Shirts. In the

fashion clothing industry, there are some brands using Facebook to sell clothing, including

ASOS and Express. Customers can choose products on their Facebook page. (lndvik,2011)

3.2.6.1 46% people follow fashion/ luxury goods

There are 55% of users following media/entertainment: 51% show support and 46 % of

users follow fashion/luxury goods.(DDB.2010). The followers can post their ideas or write

their comments on the brand/firm’s wall. This interactive function enables the brand’s
43
marketers to collect customers’ opinions through analysis to identify customer insight.

Even submitting a question on Facebook allows followers to answer. This is one of the best

ways to promote a company’s brand and Facebook is an advertising platform

( Sazgren,2010).

3.2.7 Facebook components

Figure: 3.2.7-1 Source: H&M Facebook page

The Basic Facebook page component includes: wall, information, photos, links, events,

video/YouTube, discussion, polls, notes and other applications such as location, or users

can set their own FEML.

3.2.7.1 Application
Applications are tools that help facilitate your interaction with friends on Facebook as well

as other Facebook adventures. (Feiler,2008 P10)

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3.2.7.2 Wall

The wall is an area of your profile on which anyone (including you) can write. It is visible

to anyone who looks at your profile and is a good way of sharing brief news and comments

among your friends. Network pages also have walls onto which members of the network

can write. (Feiler,2008 P11)

3.2.7.3 Events

Marketers can set up many different kinds of events, including promotion events in their

shop, holding a party for customers, or creating online events. Marketers can add pictures

to create events. Once an events page is created this can spread to all fans via

newsfeeds(Goldfarb, 2010.)

3.2.7.4 Discussion board

Marketers can use this function to ask questions to their fans, or can talk about their

business, products and events. This is a good way to collect customer feedback.

When any administrator of the fan page writes on their discussion board, the post will

appear as it was created by the fan page name and not by their personal profile name.

(Goldfarb, 2010)

3.2.7.5 Notes

Notes can be used to tell fans about recent press mentions, or awards that have been
45
received, or to describe new products. (Goldfarb, 2010)

3.2.7.6 Photos

Facebook photos can be uploaded as unlimited numbers of albums to a Facebook fan page.

Photos can be recorded, rotated and friends tagged in them.

This option is really powerful in creating a social media buzz. You can upload photos of

your business and products and I suggest that you do this on a regular basis because visual

content catches the eye of the user while browsing his new feed. You can tag people in

those photos and create more of a viral spread of photos.

If you make a contest or do a special promotion by asking your fans to upload relevant

photos to your fan page, the more fan photos you get, the more the viral spread of

information that you will end up with.

Facebook is the largest photo sharing website and users love photos, so if fans can upload

photos related to your business you will receive more engagement from your fans because

they will be more active and this is what Facebook is all about! When people talk about the

new age of marketing, they are talking about creating engagement with their customers!

(Goldfarb, 2010)

3.2.7.7 Video

Videos are a great way to get people’s attention so you should upload videos of your

business, customer testimonials and all other relevant video material.

46
You don’t need to have super professional videos because people like to see real and

authentic videos! So if you take simple videos of your business, you can receive many

viewers. (Goldfarb, 2010)

3.2.7.8 Other tools

3.2.7.8.1 Analysis tool-insight for fan pages

There is a function on Facebook pages which firms can use to view fans’ data, including

age and gender. This enables a firm to monitor the performance of the activity, for example,

how many people respond? and to help firms to know who exactly to target on Facebook.

(Goldfarb, 2010)

3.2.7.8.2 Advertising tool-Facebook ads

Firms can promote its pages to fans via advertisements. Besides, Facebook ads. can filter

the viewers by age, sex, interested in, relationships and language. (Goldfarb, 2010)

3.3 Social networking influenced consumer behaviour

In marketing perspectives, social networking has also changed consumer behaviour, which

includes three main influences: 1. Social networking provides new methods for consumers

to interact with one another. 2. Facilitates how consumers share and disseminate

information, views and opinions. 3. Accentuates? the importance of peer recommendation.

47
(Tapp, 2008, p:300)

Besides, social networking also influences the consumer decision-making process,

including information searching and evaluation of alternatives. For information searching,

especially for high involvement products and unfamiliar products and brands, social

networking enables customers to find the right product and reduces the information search.

For evaluation of alternatives, Web 2.0 helps users to find opinions, views and products,

ranked from peers, groups or advocates.(Tapp, 2008, p:306) Social networking helps

customers to save time when searching and evaluating products.

3.4 Direct marketing and social networking

Social networking sites enable people to connect with friends, customers and others.

Besides, the central model of social networking sites is on head, ? every social networking

site has two important components, profiles and connections, such as Facebook and

LinkedIn; they are all about people and relationships(Shin,2011). This concept is very

similar to direct marketing; the heart of direct marketing is to focus on people rather than

products; besides, another important direct marketing concept is to build relationships with

customers (Tapp, 2008).

3.5 Direct marketing in Fashion

In the fashion industry, direct marketing was one of the main tools of communication mix.”

Direct marketing is the process and technique which is used to communicate personally

and meaningfully with individual fashion consumers. It includes internet-enabled facilities,

telephone calls, personal contracts and/or written communication. Store cards are a key
48
part of the armoury” (Jason and Shaw, 2009, p:160)

Direct marketing could be any kind of direct communication with the customer, which is

used to create a direct response that develops a long-term relationship with the fashion

customer. Besides, along with the overall decline of TV viewing and printed media, direct

marketing has been a strong growth media. For fashion, Internet transactions are easily

able to collect customer data, information which can be stored in database format for

several years to indentify customer pictures and insights. Direct mail and telemarketing are

two of the most widely used tools in direct marketing, Besides, data could be used in

emails, with well-targeted emails of quality customer lists being effectively used in fashion

marketing. (Jason and Shaw, 2009)

Although, direct marketing is one of the main communication means in the fashion

industry,but little research has focused on how the fashion industry uses social networking

as a direct marketing tool.

As chapter 3.4 mentioned, social networking enables marketers to interact more easily with

customers, easily gain customers’ opinions, and even fit with traditional marketing

approaches. Thus this project has tried to understand how Facebook can be applied to

fashion industry marketing, especially as a direct marketing concept.

On the other hand, due to traditional fashion marketing, direct marketing spent relatively

more money on individuals, (Tapp, 2008). If Facebook could be a proper direct marketing

tool, it might help fashion’s direct marketers to save more money when directly marketing

the individual.

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3.6 Observation direction

Due to social networking providing good opportunities to engage and communicate with

the consumer, collecting customer data and insights is a characteristic that is closer to the

direct marketing concept. In addition, direct marketing is one of the important marketing

communication tools, therefore, this project aimed to understand how fast fashion brands

use Facebook as a direct marketing tool.

This project observed the main nature of direct marketing, developing relationships and

obtaining a customer database (Tapp, 2008). Nevertheless, according to this principle, this

project focused on how fast fashion brands use Facebook, obtaining new customers and

developing customer relationships to maintain existing customers, and collecting customer

information for understanding customer insight. However, this project’s main objective

was to identify if Facebook could be a proper direct marketing tool in the fast fashion

industry.

3.7 Methodology

“The methodology of observation is a strategy in qualitative research, which …. is strategy

in qualitative research that helps researchers to become familiar with an online or

conventional setting by systematically and ethically recording what they see and hear in

the field’” ( Daymon and Holloway, 2011,P.258). Besides, using observation as a formal

research method, recording what you see and hear becomes an essential part of the process

of observing, and should start as early as possible (Daymon and Holloway, 2011)Thus,

observation sheets/check lists were used in this research to record what users are doing and

to observe their marketing behaviours on Facebook.

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3.8 The data collection
his project’s main objective was to indentify how the fast fashion brand uses Facebook

regarding the direct marketing concept. Thus, this project had to define the attribution

and components of Facebook, then use the direct marketing concept to analyse how

those fashion brands use Facebook’s characteristics to achieve a direct marketing

concept.

3.9 Observation sheet/check list Design

This project observed the observation sheets/Check lists; the observation sheets combined

Facebook components and the direct marketing concept. For example, the “wall “ is a

place where Facebook fans can leave messages for the firm, and firms can interact with its

customers. This is one concept of direct marketing “ dialogue”, via interaction of collecting

customers’ insight.

In addition, direct marketing includes three important steps, including acquisition of new

customer A’s observations, retention of existing customer B’s observations and collecting

customer C’s data observation,but Tapp (2008) defined direct marketing as “capture of

individual customer details at the first sale, so that the marketer can begin a relationship

with that customer, subsequently treating them differently over time in order to generate

repeat business” (Tapp, 2008, p4). The main concept of direct marketing is not just to build

relationships but “sales”, but so far(2011.Aug), Facebook still does not offer online

transactions, thus this project especially adds “ motivate repeat sales” as process four, to

observe how they integrate Facebook and transactions.

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3.10 Observation table component

The horizontal section represents Facebook components and the vertical represents the

concept of direct marketing. If Facebook components matched the direct marketing

concept, the tick was marked in the table. In addition, the comment table gives an overall

evaluation.

3.11 Sample frame

This project focused on the fast fashion industry/ brand, because along with technology

development the very fast fashion market and consumer behaviour have changed hugely.

The fashion market has become more competitive; this trend has even influenced the

fashion brand strategy. “Brands are not static and move position as a result of external

competitive activity” (Jackson and Shaw, 2009, p.251), such as H&M, Mango and ZARA

who entered as fast fashion brands and repositioned their brand’s position.(Jackson and

Shaw, 2009). Therefore, the fast fashion industry was one of the most changeable fashion

markets.

In addition, this project used non-probability sampling to choose sample frames.

“Non-probability sampling provides a range of alternative techniques to select samples

bases on subjective judgement” (Saunders et al, 2009), thus the sampling was filtered by

five conditions: fast fashion brand, fast response clothing brand;

brand size, in terms of the number of stores; international brand, because there is no

country barrier on Facebook, thus the project only focused on international brands, at least

in operation over two countries; both running online shopping and storefronts. As

Chapter 2 mentioned, most people prefer shopping in the store, on the other hand,
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 Facebook is an online community. Number of Facebook fans, more fans might represent

a better brand reputation and awareness, besides; they might conduct a better Facebook

marketing strategy.

According to five conditions, there were five brands chosen as the sample frame:
Brand size: Running on- The numbers
Fast fashion International
Nationality The number line shopping of Facebook
brand brand
of stores and storefront fans
ZARA Spain 1.540 ✓ ✓ 9,731,809
H&M Sweden 2,000 ✓ ✓ 7,822,086
Forever 21 USA 500 ✓ ✓ 4,995,622
Mango Span 1,500 ✓ ✓ 2,300,244
GAP (USA)* USA 3,100 ✓ ✓ 1,603,581
Top shop UK 750 ✓ ✓ 1,530,125
Figure 3.11-1 sample frames information. source: ZARA, H&M, MANGO and Top Shop
Facebook page, official website, yahoo Finance, (Mintel, 2010A), (Mintel,
2010B)( Wikipedia,2011)[www] (Cachon and Swinney,2011),(Rowland,
2010),(Fibre2fashion, 2011)[www]

*Although Gap owns over 1 million fans and over 3,100 store worldwide, besides,
many authors (Chimawat and Nueno,2006)(Lopez and Fan,2009) saw Gap a major
rival to ZARA and H&M. but Larenadie (2004) pointed out that Gap’s average lead
time was between three and nine months(Hayes and Jones,2006). Thus, Gap does not
belong to the Fast brand.

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Chapter 4 Analysis

Introduction

This chapter will via observation sheets check the performance of fast brands on Facebook

with a direct marketing concept. To indentify how fast brands use Facebook to obtain new

customers, retention of existing customers and collection of customer data. This chapter

will be divided into three sections, including the acquisition of new customer analysis,

retention of existing customer analysis and database collection analysis. Every section will

explain their performance. Furthermore, the end of every section will summarise their

performance.

4.1 Acquisition of new customers scheme

The analysis followed observation A, which combined the acquisition of new customers

scheme and Facebook components. In addition, every fast fashion brand has its own pages’

personality or unique Facebook application, thus different brands might have different

Facebook components, therefore the observations were adjusted slightly by different

brands.

Figure 4.1-1: Observation sheet A

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4.1.1 ZARA:

Figure 4.1.1-1: ZARA’s Facebook landing page.

Figure 4.1.1-2: H&M’s observation sheet A record

ZARA’s Facebook page owns 9.9 million fans (Aug/11), has the largest number within the

fast fashion brands, but ZARA seemed to not use any acquisition of new customers

schemes. ZARA’s Facebook page is very simple and clear, with few applications; ZARA

just uses basic Facebook components, even removing polls, discussions and events. Only

one unique application, “FW11”, refers to fall/ winter 2011 collection, this is just to display

the latest collection. In addition, ZARA combines all new collection messages together,
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which includes profile pictures, a wall and video, especially using a large number of

pictures. ZARA divides different target audiences by different topics, such as young Fall

winter campaign, men’s Fall winter campaign and women’s Fall winter campaign. ZARA

uses much visual media to deliver its products’ images, trying to match its customers to

their self-image

ZARA is a mature and mainstream fast fashion brand and as Chapter 2 pointed out the

stores are its main form of advertising. That is why ZARA did not spend too much on

advertisements but they have still become the largest clothing retailer worldwide and own

almost 10 million fans through Facebook.

4.1.2 H&M:

Figure 4.1.2-1 H&M Facebook landing page

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Figure 4.1.2-2: H&M’s Observation sheet A record

H&M owns the second largest number of fans within the fast fashion brands, 7.9 million

fans. H&M have relatively more applications than ZARA, which include friends’ activities,

deals, H&M discussions, polls, links and notes. Although H&M owns more Facebook

applications, but H&M does just one thing, matching the acquisition of new customers

scheme, competitions/prize draws. H&M uses “Notes” and conducted a Wateraid

competition event in May 2011; Wateraid used H&M’s summer collection pictures to make

a collage. Although the competition has finished, they still keep the terms and conditions of

the event; they might use photos, wall and video of this event in the future.

This competition’s entrants had to be an H&M fan and only one email address per person

was allowed; you had to to offer full name, address and phone number. This was a very

good opportunity to obtain new fans, to attach new customers, to obtain customer data, but

H&M announced that “ we will never add you to our mailing list, sell it or give it away”

besides, fans did not necessarily have to purchase any product. Therefore, the main

propose of this competition seemed to not focus on first purchases but in product

promotion, via the competition delivering product information.

However, although H&M conducted the competition on Facebook, not to attach new
57
purchases, but they could recruit more fans and offer promotions via this event.

4.1.3 Mango:

Figure 4.1.3-1: Mango’s Facebook landing page.

Figure 4.1.3-2: Mango’s observation sheet A record

Mango focuses on the women’s market, there are 2.3 million fans who followed Mango on

Facebook. The Figure 4.1.3-2 shows that Mango used competitions/ prize draws to obtain

new customer data. There were two events which have been observed.

The first event was the “great escape” event, which invited Kate Moss to join and this
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event integrated a wall, video, blog and official website. The players answered questions

from the website such as: what was the registration plate number of the van Terry and Kate

used to flee the scene? Players had to find out the answer from the video and send

specified photos to contest@mango.com; the players had an opportunity to win €100;

besides, this prize draw was not limited to Facebook fans. Mango could via this event

collect customers’ email addresses.

The second event was the “Mango Fashion Award”, which is an annual international

fashion contest, the winner can win £300,000. The registration form includes name, contact

address, country, email address, telephone and fax number, besides, they also ask the

candidate, and ‘how did you find out about the competition?’

Although Mango conducted competition/prize draws on Facebook, the main point was not

to focus on “first” sales or to recruit new fans. The “great escape” event was a kind of PR

event via a celebrity to attract customers, and then via the prize draw to engage with

customers, to build relationships, with the email address being used to match the online

shopping database to understand customer behaviour.

4.1.4 Forever 21:

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Figure 4.1.4-1 Forever 21’s Facebook landing page

Figure 4.1.4-2 Forever 21’s observation sheet A record

Forever 21 just reached 5 million Facebook fans in Aug/2011. Forever 21 used three ways

to obtain new customers, including “the name of style Denim”, “ Sneakpeeq” and “ heart 2

art contest”.

“The name of style Denim” which is for Facebook fans voting for events. Contestants must

be Forever 21 Facebook fans; the rule is that contestants have to wear Forever21’s pieces

and take pictures to upload them onto Facebook’s voting pool, then let fans vote for the

best picture. The winner’s name will then be used as the name of the new collection.
60
Besides, every contestant can get 10% off vouchers.

The contest recruited over 250 pictures, every picture can be voted on, commented and

shared with friends. This was a very good event to recruit new fans or customers because

people had to join the fans’ page, the contestant’s name could become the name of the new

collection, thus, an easy way to ask friends to join this event. In addition, Forever 21 offers

10% vouchers to participants, which may help with the acquisition of new customers. This

event can also collect customers’ email addresses.

The game of “Sneakpeeq” is a ‘member get member’ scheme. Fans can browse “Today’s

boutiques” Facebook page; once a fan has joined he shares this page, the fan can get $11,

$1 for the fan’s friend, $10 for the fan. Then every new participant can get $11, to share

with their friend.

“ heart 2 art contest” is very similar to the “The name of style Denim” contest. Fans sent a

picture about their school, it is put onto a Facebook page, let the customer vote, the winner

can win $1,000 for their school, participants can get $10 off vouchers.

“Free shipping” events was launched in July by Forever 21 for a clear inventory. Although

this event was finished before these events, thus it was difficult to access promoting the

web pages to check what kind of customer data they could collect. But at least they could

recruit fans and email addresses.

To summarise, Forever 21 uses the power of online word-of-mouth, vouchers and free

shopping to attract new customers; these methods matched three acquisitions of new

customer criteria; member get member, gifts/premiums, competitions/prize draws. The

61
wall and photos were used to promote these events and to collect customers’ comments.

4.1.5 Top Shop:

Figure 4.1.5-1 Top Shop’s Facebook page.

Figure 4.1.5-2 Top Shop’s observation sheet A record

Top Shop owns 1.5 million fans on Facebook. Top Shop launched an event “Summer tastes

sweet at Top shop” in summer 2011. It was Top Shop’s corporation with FREE frozen

yoghurt. When a customer got one tub Free they also got one secret code, the customer
62
brought the code into the store to see what prize they had won, the biggest prize was a

value £250 . This is a kind of gifts/premiums event, Top Shop uses this event to motivate

customers to shop.

4.1.6 Conclusion

4.1.6.1 Incentive scheme

There are some incentives which are not used in those five fast brand Facebook pages,

including free samples, unit of sales, credit options, free trials or bounce-backs; the reason

is likely that the incentive is unsuitable for fashion brands because brands sell the brand

image; the buyer reflects his self -image on the brand, thus free samples and free trials are

not useful for this industry. On the other hands, the unit of sales, is frequently implemented

in storefronts, but in this observation they used it on Facebook to acquire new customers.

The bounce-backs may happen to help finish the shopping, but it is difficult to identify this

in Facebook. To sum up, the competition/ prize draw is most popular on these brands’

Facebook page.

In the member get member scheme, only Forever21 used it. Forever 21 used the power of

Facebook, e-word-of-mouth, to spread event messages and used vouchers to attract new

customers to join. The voting event can also attract new customers to participate,

participants may ask friends to join Forever 21 and use Facebook to vote for their favourite

picture without buying anything, but at least Forever 21 can deliver brand information via

Facebook.

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4.1.6.2 Facebook components

There are some Facebook components which are used largely, including walls, photos and

videos, because the wall is the best communication medium for firms. When firms post

messages on their walls, the fans can get the message at the same time; besides, fashion is

a visual industry, therefore fashion uses photos and videos to deliver the brand image,

especially photos, because this is cheaper and more convenient. Fashion brands integrated

this component to promote their events; there are few events without the use of walls and

photos.

On the other hand, most brands have their own applications, such as Your H&M, F21

features; most of them can be applied in other areas. This part will be discussed in the next

sector-existing customer schemes. Furthermore, there are some temporary applications,

such as the Denim content of Forever 21; they are built just for the event.

4.1.6.3 Brand behaviour

Via observation sheets we found that although ZARA owns the company, but ZARA

didn’t do anything to acquire new customer schemes on Facebook. Besides, H&M, with

the second largest number of fans, only used one acquisition scheme. Therefore, the

number of fans may not have a considerable connection with the acquisition scheme.

According to Chapter 2 mentioned, most fans follow brands because they saw the

advertisement or heard a friend’s recommendation, and some fans like this brand, thus, the

number of fans is relevant for the brand image, advertising and future recommendations..

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However, in this observation it was difficult to identify how much money was used on

Facebook to recruit fans. But, we found out that Forever 21 used many friends’

recommended schemes on Facebook (voting event).So far, the number of Forever21 fans is

already over 5 million and this is the third biggest number in this observation.

4.2 Retention of existing customers

This sector aimed to observe how fast fashion brands used Facebook to retain existing

customers, build relationships and communicate with fans. The observation sheet B was

used in this sector of observation.

Figure 4.2-1 Observation sheet B

4.2.1 ZARA:

Figure 4.2.1-1 ZARA observation sheet B record

4.2.1.1 Dialogue
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Basically, Facebook is a kind of communication tool, and can collection fans’ opinions,

therefore whatever information that ZARA is delivering, it as a kind of dialogue. The

information is posted on the wall, new photos uploaded and new videos are dialogues

between the customer and ZARA. For example, ZARA builds an “FE11 ( Fall/winter 2011

new collection)” application, ZARA posts a picture linking, this links to its Facebook

landing page, therefore, this is not including dialogue.

On the other hand, ZARA posted some fashion pictures of normal people who dress well,

then ZARA took their pictures and shared them on Facebook. It is a very good way to

interact with fans and enables the company to build relationships with the customer.

4.2.1.2 Tailored service:

It might be that ZARA in the fast fashion industry provides a variety of products, thus ,it is

difficult to offer a tailored service for some specific customers.

4.2.1.3 Loyalty schemes:

Facebook is a kind of club, therefore, Facebook is a kind of loyalty scheme. Besides,

ZARA offers sale information on its wall which is a kind of loyalty scheme.

4.2.1.4 Cross and up sell:

ZARA uses a wall, photos, videos and FE11 to promote new products, which includes the

young, women and men.

4.2.1.5 Summary:

ZARA uses Facebook to keep in touch with its customers, building customer relationships,

interacting with customers. ZARA can collect customer insights via comments which
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include whether they like the new collections or not.

4.2.2 H&M:

Figure 4.2.2-1 H&M observation sheet B record

4.2.2.1 Dialogue:

H&M posts new information frequently, including pick of the day, and especially uses the

wall and photos to communicate with customers or fans. Compared to ZARA, H&M offers

more information on Facebook.

4.2.2.2 Tailored service:

H&M has one specific service, which is the “dressing room” where fans can link to the

official website to choose any clothes or jeans which they like and put them together to see

if they match or not.

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 Figure 4.2.2-2 H&M dressing room

4.2.2.3 Loyalty schemes:

H&M uses “Your H&M” pages to offer promotions and other customer services as

following:

You H&M
Items Attribute content Link
Back to school Promotion New products introduction Official website
Dressing room Customer An application, customer can choose Official website
Service any clothing, trousers and accessories,
put on an avatar to check if good or not
which also links to online shopping.
In stores now Promotion New collection display Official website
H&M IPhone app Customer You can download H&M application on Apple app store
Service your smart phone. Keeping in touch
anytime, anywhere which H&M.
H&M Android Customer You can download H&M application on Android app store
app Service your smart phone. Keeping in touch
anytime, anywhere which H&M.
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About H&M Customer Brief H&M background Official website
Service
Store locator Customer Customer can use location or postcode Official website
Service
Customer Service Customer Contact form to H&M Official website
Service
Working at H&M Customer Recruitment Official website
Service
Corporate PR events H&M conscious, supply chain working Official website
responsibility condition, environment issues.
All for children PR events Help India children to work and into school. Events web page.
H&M on twitter Dialogue H&M Twitter information H&M twitter page
H&M on Dialogue Brand story and PR H&M YouTube page
YouTube
Figure 4.2.2-3 “your H&M “ service

H&M integrates a variety of services in “your H&M” page; via this page fans can ask

questions, collect customer opinions and H&M even integrates other social media in to

Facebook.

4.2.2.4 Cross and up sell:

H&M uses the wall, photos and videos to promote their other products, and “Dressing

room” application is a kind of cross and up sell too.

4.2.2.5 Summary:

H&M uses Facebook to provide dialogue with customers, and offers promotional

information and very good service to its customers. This is very important for existing

customers. Beside, the Figure 4.2.1-3 shows that most links are to the official website. It

69
can be seen that H&M integrates official website resources and services on Facebook.

H&M not only uses Facebook as a retention of existing customers tool but it is also a very

important medium linking Facebook and official pages.

4.2.3 Mango:

Figure 4.2.3-1 Mango observation sheet B record

4.2.3.1 Dialogue:

Mango also posts messages on the wall, uses photos and video dialogue with customers.

But all information is linked to its blog. Facebook is Mango’s communication platform.

4.2.3.2 Loyalty schemes:

Mango used some videos about their model interviews or working recording.? Besides, on

the “welcome” Facebook application, Mango links to its blog-“Keep the beat,” which

offers much clear information about the new collections, models, It offers very good

service to its customers, and customers find it easy to find the information that they want.

This enables Mango to manage its information more efficiently. Blog linking to Facebook

is a very good method of managing information. In addition, Mango also posts sale

information on Facebook.
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4.2.3.3 Cross and up sell and tailored service:

Mango usually sets some “themes” to promote its products, for example “rock star”, the

key items for more rock style. This is cross and up sell and also a kind of tailored service

for some specific groups. The idea may come from customer data analysis. The next sector

“data collection” will discuss how Mango collects information from customers.

4.2.3.4 Discussion:

Fans or customers can ask any questions on this application; it offers customers an online

Q&A service which is very important for customer retention.

Figure 4.2.3-2 Mango uses discussion applications to communicate with customers.

4.2.3.5 Summary:

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Basically, Mango posts any information on its blog first, then re-posts this information on

Facebook, therefore, most of the information title, including those words “ Keep the beat

Mango blog”, enables Mango to more easily manage its information. Mango utilizes

Facebook as a platform for dialogue, communication and interaction with its customers,

although Mango does not offer a price loyalty scheme. Mango offers a different angle of

service to its fans and customers, and has used some interesting things behind the screen;

for example, super model interviews, via video, lets fans know more about a super model’s

life and the brand. Mango’s blog might replace Loyalty magazines providing high-quality,

added-value communication to existing customers.

Besides, Mango replies to any questions on the “discussion” application, such as refunds,

what kind of music should Mango play in the stores? Mango, via Facebook, offers much

information and services to customers and fans, thus keeping the relationship with existing

customers and the retention of existing customers.

4.2.4 Forever 21:

Figure 4.2.4-1 Observation sheet B record

Forever 21 uses the Facebook wall, photos, votes denim, F21 features and discussions to

create dialogue with its customers. It especially uses a large number of text on the wall,
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besides, the tone is more like a friend telling you some things, for example, “Summer is

almost over- enjoy the last days of the sunny season with our hot swimwear. Which look

would you wear to the beach or pool?”, “Repeat after us: Today, I will make that sidewalk

my own personal catwalk.” Forever 21 uses much of this kind of text to communicate with

fans; whatever promotes a new product, new events, Forever21’s Facebook seems to have

one person talking to you and uses a very friendly tone. Many messages usually

accompany one website link, linking it to the official website or blog, which is the online

magazine or catalogue used to display the new collection. Of course, if you like one

particular garment, you can buy on-line directly.

Figure 4.4.4-2: the “wall” of Forever21 Facebook

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4.2.4.1 Cross and up sell:

Forever 21 created an application-F21 game. The rule of the game is that Forever21

chooses 21 items, players can choose specific products and share them with a friend, and

then the buyer can win discounts. This is kind of cross and up sell.

4.2.4.2 Summary:

Forever 21 posts many messages on the wall, many of those messages look like a normal

dialogue, but indeed they are promoting new products, Forever21 uses combination

dialogue and “cross and up sell” to promote new products unconsciously; fans or

customers may think that it is new fashion information. Besides, Forever21 uses an

integrated “game” and “cross and up sell”, which lets customers think that they are playing

a game, but indeed it is a loyalty scheme and cross and up sell. This is a very good strategy

because loyalty schemes do not generate loyalty by themselves which must be part of the

strategy. However, Forever21 successfully uses dialogue, loyalty schemes and cross and up

sell, all as an integrated Facebook tactic.

4.2.5 Top Shop:

Figure 4.2.5-1 Top Shop’s observation sheet B record

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4.2.5.1 Dialogue

As with other fast brands, Top Shop uses a wall to communicate with customers; they

usually put up new messages with pictures or links, rarely just posting a message. Top

Shop uses a different communication strategy with Facebook and Twitter. Besides, Top

Shop builds “Welcome” applications, which include new collection links, customers

(delivery and retunes), and Blogs, Twitter and YouTube links.

Besides, Top Shop created a application for Twitter, fans enable read Top Shop’s twitter via

Facebook, but on the Twitter, Top Shop use different tone talking with fans on Twitter,

such as “ have a really great weekend”,” it’s nearly the weekend”, but most of message are

different with its Facebook.

4.2.5.2 Loyalty scheme:

Top Shop teaches people how to make ?WHAT via video, “videos about behind the scenes”

and sales on Facebook, which enables their fans or brand followers to follow them more.

Besides, Top Shop launched a “summer tastes sweet”, which linked with a sweet company;

when you give one Frozen yoghurt, you can give one secret code, the customer can get a

maximum £250 prize. This is a kind of loyalty scheme. In addition, Top Shop uses

Facebook to spread Sale information.

4.2.5.3 Cross and up sell:

Top Shop posts many message on the wall, mostly promotional messages, thus most of

them include a link to their on-line shopping website.

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Besides, In order to promote its makeup, Top Shop built a “ Virtual makeover” application.

Customers can upload their picture, try any colour, play a game; if you put on a man’s

picture or use a strange colour on the face, it will be very funny. As Chapter 3 mentioned,

existing customers find it easier to purchase more products than new customers, therefore

when Top Shop wants to promote its new makeup products, they definitely start from their

existing customers. This is a kind of cross and up sell.

Figure 4.2.5-2 Top Shop built a makeover application on Facebook, fans can upload their

picture to an on-line makeup session.

4.2.5.4 Summary:

Top Shop uses the wall to promote its new products. As Chapter 2 mentioned, fast fashion

launches many new garments, thus they might need to deliver information frequently, with

is very good for existing customers.

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Top Shop uses Facebook as a communication platform. It provides much of the latest

fashion information to customers, builds dialogue with customers, and most importantly,

Top Shop has direct links to its official on-line shopping website, from which customers

can buy immediately.

4.2.6 Conclusion:

4.2.6.1 Dialogue:

As Tapp (2008) pointed out digital media makes it is easier to create dialogue with

customers; interested consumers can find out more information about the company.

Basically, Facebook is a communication platform; via Facebook fast brands can interact

with customers, deliver messages to customers. Besides, a Facebook page is a kind of club

format which can be used for dialogue with customers (Tapp,2008).

The fast fashion brands usually deliver their brand image via photos, videos and fashion

information. This is very important for fashion brands because as Chapter 2 mentioned, the

fashion industry focuses on visual imagery which enables them to deliver the brand image

to customers and for them to match customer self-image.

ZARA focuses on new collection messages on Facebook; H&M via “your H&M’

application linking official information to customers; all of Mango’s information comes

from its blog; Forever21 updates information frequently and uses friendly tones and Top

Shop always shares new single products. ?

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4.2.6.2 Tailored service:

Within the fashion industry it seems very difficult to serve a tailored service; at least this

is not easy to discover on Facebook pages. Most of them just provide a service to the

general public, whether fans and customers the service is the same. Thus in the tailored

service sector, there are 3/5 brands who did not offer a tailored service on Facebook.

Mango and H&M are the only two brands who offer a similar service.

Mango utilizes the wall to post messages of specific themes, such as “rock star”, the key

needed for more rock style. It is perhaps only another type of promotion but it is the

closest to a tailored service. H&M builds a “dressing room” so that fans can link to the

official website to choose any clothes which they like and put them together if they match

or don’t match.

The really tailored service share focuses on desirable customers, offers them a special

service, but with Facebook it is not a very good way to offer a tailored service.

4.2.6.3 Loyalty scheme:

All fast fashion brands use Facebook to offer sales information to customers. Sales are a

kind of pricing scheme, a type of popular loyalty scheme within fast fashion brands, such

as summer sales or Boxing Day sales. Besides, all brands via Facebook offer customer

service, answer questions, all of which enables the retention of existing customers, builds

customer relationships and maintains keeping customer loyalty.

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4.2.6.4 Cross and up sell:

Facebook is a very good communication platform, also a very good platform from which

to promote new products. As Chapter 3 mentioned, loyal customers usually purchase more

products than new customers; in addition, more fans follow brand pages because they like

the company, thus, using Facebook to implement cross and up sell is very efficient.

All fast brands promote their new collections via walls, photos and videos. When ZARA

posts a new collection on Facebook, not too many events or explaining is needed, yet

ZARA always delivers the brand image. H&M’s dressing room is an interesting virtual

on-line fitting room, customers can choose on-shelf garments and dress an avatar to check

if it matches or not. This might motivate the customer to purchase more related products,

such as shoes, accessories, even sports and swimwear; it is a very good interactive

application for cross and up sell. Mango built an application called “work it UK” as a cross

and up sell event, which uses “working dressing” as a topic to let the customer browse

other products. Forever21 integrated games, loyalty schemes and cross-and-up sell, to

promote other products. Besides Forever21 uses word-of-mouth to spread new collections

to other people, not just to its fans. Forever21 uses the features of Facebook to integrate

strategies and tactics which is a very smart method. Top Shop usually utilizes a wall to

promote single products, and to direct customers to their on-line shopping page.

4.3 Data collection

This sector will discuss what kind of data is collected on Facebook. Is this information

useful information? How is it collected? According to Chapter 3 it mentioned that

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customers include personal data, purchasing data and communication data; besides,

opinion is another form of data which could be applied to product development, therefore,

this sector also observed how fast fashion collects customer opinion. The observation sheet

as Figure 4.3-1.

Figure 4.3-1 observation sheet C

4.3.1 ZARA

Figure 4.3.1-1 ZARA’s observation sheet C record

Fans or customers can post their comments on ZARA’s wall. By collecting such customer

feedback ZARA can (Figure 4.3.1-2) understand what fans think about their new collection.

As Chapter 2 mentioned, ZARA monitors the sales of garments to record which kinds of
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product are unwelcome and thus ZARA might stop producing such products immediately.

Figure 4.3.1-2 ZARA using Photos to promote new man’s collection

But ZARA didn’t conduct any other events or activities on Facebook to collect customers’

personal, purchasing and communication information.

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4.3.2 H&M:

Figure 4.3.2-1 H&M’s observation sheet C record

H&M opened its wall to customers; customer can post their comments on the wall,

including “please open a store in Taiwan”; this information could be applied to new market

development. In addition, H&M developed questionnaires on Facebook polls to collect

customer information. Besides, H&M have been holding events, the rule was post it on

Note application; H&M can collect customers’ personal information via this event.

4.3.3 Mango:

Figure 4.3.3-1 Mango’s observation sheet C record

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As Chapter 1 mentioned, Mango conducted “great escape” and “Mango’s Fashion Award”

on Facebook, and through such events can collect customers’ personal data.

In addition to walls, photos and videos, Mango uses “work it UK”, discussions and polls to

collect customer insight. “Work it UK” was to collect what kind of work dresses they like

and by using pictures and videos to teach the customer how to choose clothing for work

occasions. Besides, they let fans vote for five favourite items. This can help Mango to

understand customer insight, what kind of features they like about the new product? This

application enables Mango to develop new marketing strategies or new products.

Discussion is a mutual platform, fans can post any questions on discussion. Mango can

also offer an on-line service which can collect opinion; the “poll” is another data collection

application. Mango can use this application to conduct market research. It is a very fast and

convenient application to understand target customers (Fans).

4.3.4 Forever 21:

Figure 4.3.4-1 Forever 21 Observation sheet C record

Forever21 implemented three events to obtain new customers, including “Sneakpeeq”,

“heart 2 art contest” and “Free shipping “. These events enabled the collection of

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customers’ personal information,

“Game”. Forever 21 conducts a game which offers 1 day special products. Fans can share

with a friend to see if they like the products which enables the company to understand

which products are most popular.

Forever 21 set over 13 questions to ask its fans, such as what did you wear this weekend?

They offered three options; 1, Floral shorts and sandal wedges-perfect for Easter egg hunts.

2, Jeans and a cute tank- casual is the way to go. 3. Prim sundresses and ladylike heels, a la

your “ Sunday brunch” blog post.

Figure 4.3.4-2 Forever21 uses questionnaires on Facebook to collect customer opinion.

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4.3.5 Top Shop:

Figure 4.3.5-1 Topshop’s observation sheet C record

As sectors of existing customers mentioned, Top Shop usually post single products on their

wall, which enables Top Shop to collect information. Besides, Top Shop also uses

Discussion to collect customer opinion. But unfortunately, H&M did not conduct any

events to collect personal, purchasing or communication data.

4.4 Summary:

4.4.1 Personal information

These observation sheets show that, H&M, Mango and Forever21 via Facebook events

collect customer personal data, but can this information be applied to direct marketing?

Does this information involve customer privacy? Only H&M’s statement says that “We

will never add you to our mailing list, sell it or give it away.” But Mango and Forever21

did not inform customers. Is this legal or does it need more discussion.
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In addition, Facebook is an open communication platform, not a database system. Thus

with Facebook it is difficult to record customer basic information via walls, photos or

discussion, unless marketers check everyone’s respondents’ profiles. It is artificial to record

customer basic information and fans can control their own privacy. Customers can

customise their information, such as changing their name, hiding birthday data and

addresses, an individual can even own several accounts in the same time, thus marketers

have difficulty in obtaining exact accurate customer databases on Facebook.

4.4.2 Purchase data

So far, all of these fast brands have not had any transaction mechanisms on their Facebook

pages. Thus, their customers cannot shop on Facebook, therefore, firms cannot collect

customer purchase information directly via Facebook. So far, ZARA, H&M, Mango,

Forever 21 and Top Shop have all launched online promotions to motivate customers to see

purchases on Facebook, then directed customers to their official shopping website or in

store. The real transaction has not taken place on Facebook, therefore, these brands cannot

collect a customer transaction database via Facebook, at least not directly.

Currently, the fast brands treat Facebook as a medium, a word-of-mouth platform to inform

customers of new collections. Via this public platform they can promote their brand image,

then stimulate consumers to desire and be motivated to purchase. If these firms want to

collect customer transactions on Facebook, they have to establish a transaction mechanism

on Facebook or try to connect a database between their Facebook page and an internal

customer database. As Chapter 3 mentioned so far only one fashion clothing retailer owns
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an on-line shopping mechanism on Facebook, and that is ASOS.

4.4.3 Communication data

The Observations show that Facebook cannot help firms to record communication data

individually and is thus difficult to record consumer response data. With the direct

marketing concept, the communication data should include how the company

communicates with customers, which might be by email or direct mail and should include

customer responses or non-responses. But Facebook is a kind of club through which firms

can announce messages, but cannot record communication data.

4.4.4 Other information:

Facebook is a very good platform from which to collect customer opinion, understand

customer insight, firms can use walls, photos, polls, discussions to collect customer

comments which can be applied in improve customer service, develop new products and

also stop producing unwelcome products. Especially using “polls”, via questionnaires to

give customer insight, which is very useful in this fast changing industry, especially in the

fast fashion area. As Chapter 2 mentioned, fast fashion brands imitate the latest fashions

and tend to grasp market trends to develop new products. Facebook is a good information

centre, via customer comments, to compare actual sales in order to adjust marketing

strategy.

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Chapter 5 Conclusion

5.1 Fashion clothing market trends- Chapter 2 market analysis

In recent decades, along with advances in technology and the internet, the fashion

clothing industry has become more competitive. Alongside these factors, the economical

crisis has affected customer behaviour. They wish to spend less money but get the same

products. In addition, the media has extensively reported celebrity dressing and fashion

information; fashion clothing customers have become smarter, demanding more new

clothing; the fashion product life cycle is shorter than 10 years ago. Fashion brands have

accelerated their response time, the lead-time for garments has reduced from six months to

several weeks which has lead to a fast fashion phenomenon. Every week fast fashion

releases new fashion products with affordable prices, thus leading to a fast fashion

phenomenon, and even changing their brand strategy, such ZARA and Mango. ZARA is

one of the most successful fast fashion brands; they spend less money on advertising than

other brands but their sales keep increasing. Every year ZARA designs over 10,000 new

products which has allowed the company to defeat GAP to become the biggest clothing

retailer. Affordable prices and fashion styles encourage customers to visit fast fashion

stores and bring some new pieces home. Fast fashion has influenced the whole fashion

clothing market.

On the other hand, although over 60% of people prefer shopping in-store, shopping on-line

is another trend, because consumers think that they can get cheaper prices and options, like

with ZARA & H&M; both started online shopping stores in 2010. Most of the fast fashion
88
brands have on-line shopping mechanisms.

5.2 Facebook marketing trend

There are two important issues with Facebook:

1. More and more users on Facebook.

2. Facebook commerce.

Social media has become very popular, in which social networking focuses on people;

besides, along with the success of Facebook, there are over 750 million Facebook users so

far(Aug/2011). In addition, a large number of companies started using Facebook as a

marketing tool to promote brands or via e-word of mouth to increase brand reputations. On

the other hand, more and more companies use Facebook to conduct online shopping, which

is called Facebook commerce, such as Pizza Hut or ASOS. Customers can browse

Facebook shopping catalogues, use login accounts to purchase directly without visiting

another website. Besides, those pieces can be shared with a friend; Facebook shopping is a

trend with Facebook marketing.

5.3 Overall performance using Facebook-Chapter 4 analysis

This figure5.3-1 was briefly summary five fast fashion brand performance on Facebook

under direct marketing concepts.

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 Overall performance
Acquisition of new Retention of Data
customers existing customers collection
ZARA Not any acquisition Use wall, photos to Just uses wall of
scheme build dialogue with comments to collect
customers, loyalty customer opinion.
schemes and cross and
up sell.
Sales information.
H&M Only conducts one H&M add discussion Competition events
acquisition of new board, note, polls, and can collect
customers event “Your H&M” customers e-mail
which is competition application on via comments and
event Facebook. Offers used to collect
more service to customer
customers information
Mango Launched three events Mango connection Collection of
(competition)which with Facebook and its customer opinion
customers need to Blog” keep the beat”. via events,polls,
provide personal data. Offers more fashion discussion and
information to its comments.
customers. Uses“work it UK”
to collect customer
personal data.
Forever 21 Member get member/ Forever 21 Collection of
Gift/Competition. communicates with its customer opinion
Three different ways customers like friends. via comments,
to obtain new questions and
customers. discussions. Uses
three events to
collect customer
personal data.
Top Shop Gifts, via free gifts “Summer taste sweet” Collection of
attached to customer event for existing customer opinions
purchase. customers. via events and
discussions.
Figure 5.3-1: the fast fashion brand performance on Facebook

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5.3.1 ZARA:

All of ZARA’s information on Facebook is relevant to the storefront, such as new

collections or sale information; ZARA didn’t launch any events on Facebook. ZARA used

very few Facebook applications, just a wall, photos and videos, the least within these five

brands, thus ZARA didn’t offer any other services on Facebook. ZARA seemed to treat

Facebook as a unique communication platform, just using Facebook to inform of the latest

collections and promotion information. As Chapter 2 mentioned, ZARA didn’t use much

effort on advertising. However, Facebook didn’t seem to change ZARA’s strategy; they just

used Facebook to attract people to visit its physical stores. This matched Chapter 2 on

fashion behaviour with most people preferring to shop in the real stores.

5.3.2 H&M:

H&M’s Facebook not only offered a very good communication platform with customers,

but also used Facebook as its official website extension. H&M integrated the official

website service and functions of Facebook, utilized Facebook to build dialogue and

develop customer relationships. On the other hand, H&M used Facebook to collect

customer opinions, but just launched one event to collect customer information.

5.3.3 Mango:

Mango not only used Facebook as a communication platform but launched many events to

collect customer personal data, retain existing customers and interact with customers. For
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example, “great escape” is a competition, but offers its fans or consumers a prize thus, it

could be another loyalty scheme. Besides, Mango always posts any information on

Facebook and blogs; customers can easily to find out previous information. In addition,

Mango sets different topics to conduct cross and up sell. Besides, Mango uses polls,

discussions and comments to collect customer data. Mango’s Facebook is one of the most

match direct marketing concepts. To summarise Mango’s Facebook page seems to aim to

develop customer relationships, with emphasis on existing customers.

5.3.4 Forever21

Forever 21 launched many events including its famous “Sneakqeeq”, “ heart 2 art contest”

and “Free shipping”. Those events integrated the acquisition of the new customers scheme

to obtain customer data, and via member to member event “free shipping” game to spread

the latest collection via e word-of-mouth. Forever 21’s events integrated the acquisition of

new customers scheme, retention of existing customers scheme and collection of customer

data. Forever 21 is another one of the most match direct marketing concepts. Compared to

Mango, Forever21 seem to focus on obtaining more customers. Maybe this can explain

that Forever 21 owns over 5 million fans on Facebook and it is the second largest number

of these five brands.

5.3.5 Top Shop

Although Top Shop launched the acquisition of new customers scheme, retention of

existing customers scheme and collecting customer data,Top Shop seemed to want to put
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everything on Facebook. But it lacked an integrated strategy; besides, Top Shop always

posts too many texts on its wall; as a fashion brand, photos maybe better than texts to

deliver information or collect it. However, Top Shop usually uses its wall to promote new

pieces and is only one of these five brands whose connection is with Facebook and online

shopping. If you like some pieces, click the link to direct to the online shopping page.

5.3.6 Brand Facebook personality

Facebook personality

ZARA Unique communication platform, posts all information of storefront to

attract customers to physical store.

H&M Official website extension, offers many services.

MANGO Focuses on retention of existing customers.

Forever21 Focuses on new customers and sales.

Top Shop On-line shopping extension.

Figure 5.3.6-1 brand Facebook personality

5.4 How has this project met its objectives?

The objectives are as following:

1. Can Facebook help international fast fashion brands to implement direct marketing?

Can these brands use Facebook as a direct marketing tool?

2. How can Facebook achieve a direct marketing concept, including obtaining new
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 customers and developing customer relationships to maintain existing customers;

furthermore, to collect a customer database and information to understanding the

customer?

3. To identify if Facebook could be properly used as a direct marketing tool in the fast

fashion industry?

5.4.1 Can Facebook help international fast fashion brands to implement

direct marketing? And can these brands use Facebook as a direct

marketing tool?

With this project it was found that Facebook can help international fast fashion brands to

implement direct marketing but not entirely.

1. Facebook can “help” fast fashion brands to launch the acquisition of new customer

schemes.

2. Facebook is a good tool for the retention of existing customers and the development

of customer relationships.

3. Facebook has data collection limitation.

5.4.1.2 Facebook can “help” fast fashion brands to launch the acquisition

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of new customer schemes.

Facebook is a good tool to “help” launch the acquisition of new customer schemes,

because it is fast and cheap; messages are very easy to spread. But as Chapter 3 mentioned,

the purpose of the acquisition of new customer schemes is, via any method, to motivate

new customers to purchase products and via first purchases to obtain customer data. But

firms cannot obtain customer data directly by Facebook because Facebook is not a system;

there are no purchasing records. Although H&M, Mango and Forever21 conducted some

member get member, competitions/prize draw events, most of the information provided is

incomplete; even participants need not provide a real name, just an e-mail address. Besides,

even if they are really shopping online or in store, it is difficult to judge whether the

particular sale comes from Facebook. Thus Facebook is a good tool to help companies to

spread the acquisition of the new customer scheme.

On the other hand, if fast fashion brands just use these events to increase fan numbers this

is rational because fast fashion can, via long term communication, affect new customers. In

addition, as Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 pointed out most followers follow a particular brand

because they like that brand, via friend’s recommendation and advertising. Thus, if fast

brands want to use Facebook to increase their number of fans via advertising, and if they

want to increase brand advocates, they have to build a brand personality, match the brand

image to the buyer and persuade the customer to like their brand image. These are most

important issues within the brand industry.

Moreover, if fast brands want to obtain customer data, their Facebook pages have to build

long-term mechanisms, to ask customers to leave their data but there is an important
95
issue of customer privacy. Before a company collects customer data for follow-up of a

marketing event, the company has to inform their customers; this data will be used for

other marketing activities, otherwise the firm may face legal privacy issues.

5.4.1.3 Facebook is a good tool for the retention of existing customers and

the development of customer relationships

Facebook can help fast fashion brands to build existing customer relationships and to

promote their products to their target audience. It is much cheaper than other direct

marketing media, such as direct mail or telemarketing. Besides, more and more people

access Facebook via mobile phones, thus Facebook is a very good tool for fast fashion

particularly as they launch new products every week. It is,however, impossible to use

advertising every week, the cost is too high for companies. Facebook helps fast fashion to

contact their consumers anytime and anywhere, via regular communication to create

customer loyalty.

Facebook is a very easy tool to build dialogue with customers and to develop loyalty

schemes on Facebook; it is a kind of member magazine too, where fast brands can launch

new collections on Facebook. However, this observation shows that fast fashion uses

Facebook to build dialogue with customers, and to develop long term relationships with

existing consumers, via loyalty schemes, dialogue,etc; besides, via Facebook they can offer

an on-line service. Facebook is a good tool for fast fashion brands development of

customer relationships.

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But, using Facebook as a retention of existing customers tool still has some issues which

need to be considered.

1. Information management.

2. Dialogue management.

Chapter 3 shows that, only Mango post its message on Facebook and blog, which is easy to

manage information, let consumer and manager can easy to search, but others brand did

not using other media to manager its information

5.4.3 Facebook data collection limitation

As the observations show it seems that Facebook cannot be effective in collecting customer

data because, so far, these five fast brands haven’t combined online shopping to function

within Facebook; thus, fast fashion can only use events to attract customers to join events

to collect customer data, but even fast fashion brands can launch events on Facebook, but

still cannot collect purchasing data from Facebook. So far,a company can only can direct

consumers to the official on-line shopping website, and via on-line shopping gain their

purchasing data information, but they cannot make sure if these customers are from

Facebook or from another medium. On the other hand, Facebook is a very good tool to

collect customer insight, via polls, discussions and comments to understand what

consumers think about the brand and products. Facebook is a very convenient two-way

interaction tool, to conduct on-line market research. However, although Facebook is a very

good tool to collect customer opinion, but difficult for collecting personal data, purchasing

data and communication and these are most important for direct marketing. This is the
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biggest limitation of using Facebook as a direct marketing tool.

5.5 Future development of using Facebook as a direct

marketing tool

5.5.1 Combining Facebook commerce

As Chapter 5.3-5.3 mentioned, Facebook can help to obtain the acquisition of new

customers and build customer relationships, but it is difficult to obtain customer data,

especial purchasing data. The heart of direct marketing is to focus on “people” not products,

data is to help the company to find out desirable consumers, loyal customers and to

understand their behaviour and insight – to know how to communicate with them. Besides,

the usual objective of direct marketing is set in terms of the numbers of customers rather

than products. However, all of direct marketing is to recode customer data and via analysis

of this data to develop strategies or products.

Currently, Facebook can help fast fashion brands to understand customer insight via walls,

photos and video comments or opinions, polls and discussion applications. But, it is

difficult to collect customers’ personal data, purchase data and communication data.

Maybe fast fashion brands can via Facebook commerce combine on-line shopping

and Facebook.

Along with the on-line shopping market increase, and all of these five brands launching

online shopping pages, online shopping is another fashion clothing trend. Besides, as
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Chapter 3 mentioned, there are many brands starting to use Facebook as on-line shopping

storefronts; customers can shop on Facebook directly without linking to other pages,

consumers just login to their account which is their own on-line shopping account. This

can help the company to collect personal data on Facebook, including personal data and

purchase data. Companies can via such data identify who are desirable consumers and

compare their shopping behaviour on Facebook; consumers can even via this method

influence their friends on Facebook. Tapp(2008) pointed out that analysis of consumer data

enables potential consumers to be identified and Facebook can easily be a link to their

friends, via word of mouth to influence their friends.

5.6 Research limitations

There were some limitations of this project. Firstly, there was not enough time to collect

deeper information or to conduct long term observations. Long term observations could

enable more diversification and business behaviour to be discovered. Secondly, with the

number of sample frames, due to limited space, the project only selected five fast fashion

brands. If sample frames were bigger, more brands or different levels of brand could have

been compared, which would have enabled this project to be more complete. Thirdly,

social networking development has changed very fast. Facebook is always improving its

functions, adding new components, therefore some existing applications maybe replaced

by other new applications in the near future.

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5.7 Future research recommendations

As chapter 5.6 mentioned, due to time limitation, future research could focus on long

period observation, via one year observation to observe one fashion cycle, which enable

find out more detail of firm strategies. Secondly, future research should collect more

sample frames, besides, can compare different level brand, such as high class brand, such

as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and low price fashion, such as Primark. In addition to brand level,

future research also can contain different clothing retailer, such as pure online shopping

retailer ASOS. Via different type of fashion studying to collect deeper and broader

information.

Thirdly, this project focused how firms could use Facebook as a direct marketing tool. But

there is difficult to identify the real motive of fashion brand, thus future research could via

in-depth interview to identify how fashion brand marketing department or social media

manager using Facebook as direct marketing tool. Fourth, Future research could focus on

customer behaviour, to understand how fast fashion customers treat brands through

Facebook and their attitudes towards Facebook commerce because as mentioned above,

if brands can combine Facebook and on-line shopping(Facebook commerce), it may help

brands to collect more complete purchase data.

5.8 Project conclusion

Facebook is the most popular social networking site; besides, it has become one of the
100
most important marketing tools. This project, via the of development of Facebook on-line

check lists, tried to understand and identify how the extent of Facebook could be used in

direct marketing. It tried to find out how fast fashion brands use Facebook and about their

potential business model. However, Facebook enables firms to conduct a direct marketing

strategy, develop customer relationships, but firms need to develop Facebook commerce to

resolve the limitations of data collection.

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Baines, P, et al. (2008) Marketing. Oxford: Oxford university press

Barnes,L. (2010) International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management: Fast fashion
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Barnes, G. and Lea-Greenwood, G. (2006) Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management:

Fast fashion. 10(3) pp.247-298

Bartal, A. ed. al. (2009), Predicting links in social networks using text mining and SNA,
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Appendices:

Observation sheet A record-Acquisition new customer scheme

Observation sheet B record- Retention existing customer scheme

Observation sheet C record- Data collection

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