Jingjing Jiang

The fashion industry is a collection of clothing，footwear and accessories. Statistics show that the market size of the global fashion industry has grown steadily from $145.6 billion in 2016 to $1,570.1 billion in 2021. And they are growing at a compound annual rate of 1.5%.With gradual economic development in the next few years, it will increase to 17,502 per billion US dollars by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 2.2%. In terms of product types, apparel is the largest contributor, accounting for 71.0% of the total market size in 2021, while footwear is the second contributor, accounting for 20.3% of the total market size in 2021. This year has seen significant positive trends in the e-commerce market. For the fashion market, these trends appear to be particularly strong. In the next five years, the fashion industry online transaction size will maintain a compound annual growth rate of 7.18 per cent. That would make the Internet industry more than $1 trillion.

Figure 1: Statista,2021

Fashion is no longer a reliable long-term powerhouse and the global economy is in turmoil, but the fashion industry has no intention of stopping. The fashion industry, especially the fast fashion industry, is becoming increasingly competitive, and fast fashion brands are also facing the threat of “super fashion”. Fashion e-commerce, unburdened by physical stores, poses a threat to traditional fast-fashion brands with faster clothing delivery and lower operating costs. Some fast-fashion brands that focus on young fashion are also closing stores and stagnating, which means that superficial fashion can’t sustain the brand in the long run. What really builds brand value is a complete operating model and close to contemporary consumption. In addition to “fast” and “fashion”, these traditional fast fashion brands clearly need a more solid core competitiveness. In my opinion, this core competence is the unique value orientation of the brand. For example, the choice of the fast fashion brand Uniqlo is based on the life style concept with technology as the fulcrum (Ulasewicz, C., Hethorn, J., Ulasewicz, C., 2015). Second, it’s important to be able to constantly explore ways to market your product. Uniqlo penetrates clothing into more scenes to enhance the freshness of the brand for consumers. In this process, high-tech fabric technology has become a clothing booster suitable for weekend travel, daily commute, family leisure, outdoor sports scenes.

For fashion brands, the designer is the soul. Three years ago, CELINE was facing a brand crisis. Phoebe Philo, the former creative director of CELINE, has been hailed as the most feminine of designers and is known for her minimalist style, arguing that luxury should not be sacrificed for comfort. She has spent 10 years establishing CELINE as a benchmark for contemporary female pop, cultivating a fan base with a strong sense of identity and belonging. However, that all changed when new creative director Hedi Slimane took over in 2018. Huddy is known for his intense grunge style and teen subculture. He changed the brand logo and deleted all posts on CELINE’s official IG, symbolizing a new era and drawing criticism from many loyal fans at the time. Hedi’s aggressive actions over the past three years have succeeded in taking CELINE’s career to new heights. CELINE’s success depends not only on Slimane’s creative genius, but also on finding the right marketing strategy. CELINE’s clothes also tend to trend brands, moving towards the sporty styles and mix-and-match styles favored by the younger generation. From baseball caps to baseball jackets and even sports underwear with CELINE written on the elastic, luxury brands have shattered the impression that they are not accessible to the common people.

References

Ulasewicz, C., Hethorn, J., & Ulasewicz, C. (2015). Sustainable Fashion what’s next.

The competition in the future is the competition for the lifetime value of users. Brand building is a way for enterprises to share value with consumers, resonate with content and spread resonance. The success of a brand depends on whether consumers buy it. It’s up to the user to determine whether the evaluation is valuable. The biggest concern is Generation Z.

Generation Z was born from 1995 to 2009(Francis & Hoefel ,2018). They prefer to play with “new and exotic” products, rely on social media for shopping, and their consumption decisions are influenced by “creativity” and “quality”. They have distinct personalities, focus on experience, and are willing to pursue experiments and new things. As a positive, optimistic and responsible generation, Gen Z is the most individualistic and most concerned about the development of the earth and the environment(Dillon,2018).

Appealing to Gen Z consumers can be done in the following ways. First of all，consider speed and efficiency，because Gen Z has short attention span means that if the same AD is repeatedly targeted at the same user, it will make them more indifferent to your product and brand. Secondly, the brand also advocates for social change, and the brand’s stance and attitude towards various social, gender and environmental issues that Gen Z cares about very much. Gen Z prefers brands that are inspiring and not afraid to engage on issues affecting society. Third, pay attention to the dissemination of social media user-generated content (UGC) on the platform, such as KOL, KOC marketing.

Gen Z users have a certain rebellious streak and will prefer fashion brands that express their opinions. As an example. Karl Lagerfeld, the fashion king who dominated Chanel for decades, has not been shy about his distaste for fat on many occasions. Chanel’s new artistic director Virginie Viard has taken the historic step of inviting plus-size models onto the stage for her autumn/winter 2020 show. One of them is Jill Kortleve, 26, a size 40 model. The move reflected Chanel’s attitude towards feminism and expressed his fashion stance.

With the development of the fashion industry, some people believe that the two most important factors for the success of fashion brands are: digital skills and critical thinking. Today’s future is an era of digital transformation. Digital has brought major changes to the fashion industry, especially in the wake of the pandemic in 2020, with some brands opting for digital-only shows, including the all-digital shows of Seijia Paris and Hanifa. Critical thinking is key to supporting brand diversity because it aligns with Gen Z’s universal values and allows for ongoing communication with Gen Z users.

Fig.1

Reference list：

Francis, T., & Hoefel, F. (2018). True Gen’: Generation Z and its implications for companies. McKinsey & Company, 12.（Accessed：16 October 2022）.

Dillon, S. (2018). The fundamentals of fashion management. Bloomsbury Publishing.（Accessed：16 October 2022）.

Vogue（2020）.“Being The Right Fit For A Brand Is Not About Your Size”: Model Jill Kortleve On Becoming The Toast Of The AW20 Runways .Available at：https://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/article/jill-kortleve（Accessed on 16 October 2022）.