An Analysis of Social Media in Fashion Industry

This assignment is a comprehensive analysis of the role of social media in the fashion industry. It involves examining numerous research papers and studies that investigate the effects of social media on consumer behavior, brand management, and marketing strategies within the fashion sector. The assignment aims to provide an in-depth understanding of how social media influences the fashion industry, including its impact on customer satisfaction, brand equity, and supply chain coordination.

Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING AND ITS PRACTICE IN FASHION
INDUSTRY
Social Media Marketing and its practice in the fashion industry
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................3
1.0 Introduction............................................................................................................................3
1.1 Background of the study...................................................................................................3
1.2 Rationale of the Study...........................................................................................................4
1.3 Research Aim.........................................................................................................................5
1.4 Research Objectives and Questions.......................................................................................5
1.5 Significance of the study.......................................................................................................6
1.6 Research structure..................................................................................................................6
Chapter 2: Literature Review.......................................................................................................8
2.0 Concept of Social media........................................................................................................8
2.1 Concept of social media marketing.......................................................................................8
2.2 Popular and effective Social Media Sites..............................................................................9
2.4 Objectives of Social media marketing.................................................................................11
2.5 Social Media marketing strategy.........................................................................................12
2.6 Comparison of Traditional Marketing and Social Media Marketing..................................12
2.7 Impact of social media marketing in the fashion industry...................................................13
Chapter 3: Research Methodology................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................17

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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.0 Introduction
Social media marketing uses social media as a marketing tool and platform for companies in
the market. Social media marketing includes advertising and promoting products and services.
Social media networking is the part of Web 2.0 that has changed the use of software used over
the internet. It includes the more collaborative use of Web 2.0 through open services and
applications.
This chapter focuses on introducing research topic and creating motivation for the research.
This chapter focuses on the aim of research, objectives and research questions. The problem
statement has been depicted in this chapter.
1.1 Background of the study
Social media has been an emerging platform for fashion designers to recognize their designs
and creativity to the customers. Social media has been providing opportunities for the fashion
industry in the market. Various social media platform including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and
Instagram have been providing opportunities for global marketing. Social media is a public
platform that enables of posting and sharing views and thoughts over the internet. As commented
by Nawaz, Salman and Ashiq (2015), various fashion brands in the UK have grappled with
social media to advertise their designs over the internet. Social media was able to attract a large
number of customers over the internet. Therefore, different companies have targeted social
media marketing for attracting customers.
Social media has become an effective marketing tool over the years. It was able to create a
new era of marketing for the companies over the internet. Social media is able to connect with

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the customers easily with new fashion technology in the fashion industry (Scuotto et al. 2017).
Different fashion bloggers are active over the social media, blogging about new fashion trends of
the companies. Customers can communicate with the company through the social media
platform. This helps in maintaining the Customer relationship management in the company.
1.2 Rationale of the Study
As commented by Ngai, Tao and Moon (2015), the connection of the customers with the
social media has helped in creating opportunity in the fashion industry. The fashion industry
includes designers, consumers, media and brands. These components can be linked with the
social media marketing for enhancing their market.
Figure 1: Number of people employed in the UK
(Source: Nadeem et al. 2015)
According to a survey, there are around 555,000 people employed in the UK fashion
industry. The subindustry includes 75% of 414,000 people employed in the retail sale of clothing
(Coelho, Oliveira and Almeida 2016). Therefore, the clothing sector has been creating maximum
revenues for the fashion industry. However, the companies in the fashion industry have been
facing problems with the marketing of the products in the market in a negative way. Therefore,
companies are worried about the brand image of their company in the market.

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Figure 2: Fashion market in the UK
(Source: Kontu, Nobbs, Duffy and Montecchi 2015)
This research will focus on the effect of social media on the fashion industry of the UK. The
benefits of the social media marketing will be discussed in the study. This study will help in
mitigating the challenges in the implementation of social media marketing in companies of the
fashion industry.
1.3 Research Aim
The aim of the research to analyze the effect of online media marketing on the fashion
industry of the UK.
1.4 Research Objectives and Questions
Following are objectives of the research:
 To analyze the advantages of social media in the fashion industry
 To critically analyze the impact of social media on the fashion industry
 To identify issues in implementing social media marketing in the fashion industry
 To recommend strategies for mitigating these challenges in the fashion industry

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Following are the research questions:
 What are advantages of social media in the fashion industry?
 What are effects of social media on the fashion industry?
 What are challenges in the implementation of the social media marketing in the fashion
industry?
 How can these challenges in the fashion industry be mitigated?
1.5 Significance of the study
The consumer reaction towards the implementation if the social media marketing has
been positive in the market. Companies in the UK has been utilizing the social media platform
for advertising their fashion products and design. This study will focus on benefits and
effectiveness of online media in the fashion industry if the UK. The study will help in
understanding benefits of social media and importance of social media in the growth of
companies in the market. This study will use both qualitative and quantitative methodology for
completing the research within time. The Gantt chart will be provided in the study.

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1.6 Research structure
Figure 3: Research Structure
(Source: Created by author)
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Chapter 3: Research Methodology
Chapter 4: Findings and Analysis
Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations

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Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.0 Concept of Social media
As mentioned by Geissinger and Laurell (2018), social media is a group of internet-based
application that is built in web technologies including web 2.0, which helps in sharing and
exchanging views and thoughts of users over the platform. The demand for the social media has
been increasing with a time that has created opportunity in the market. Users can upload and
share their feelings, pictures, videos and audios over the social media. Companies in the fashion
industries can also provide their new fashion designs over the social media (Schivinski and
Dabrowski 2016). There are different social media platform that can be used by the fashion
industry companies including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. These social media platform
helps in advertising and promoting the products of the companies in the market.
2.1 Concept of social media marketing
As commented by Shah, Syed and Mushtaq (2017), Online media marketing has helped
in the creating opportunities in the market for the companies (Scuotto et al. 2017). Various
technologies in the social media including Ajax has helped in enriching the quality of the
advertisement over the social media platform. However, social media marketing includes wikis,
blogs, online videos, photo sharing and podcasts.

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Figure 4: Different types of Social media
(Source: Sarulatha and Sasirekha 2017)
2.2 Popular and effective Social Media Sites
Online Media Web sites that enable fashion industry have able to connect with the
customers in the market. The social networking websites, including Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram and Blogs participate in creating dialogues with the people. Twitter has been different
from other social networking sites, as it restricts not more than 140 characters at a time. A user
can retweet same tweet and links attached to it. However, Twitter helps in direct conversation
through the @ function in which user can tweet directly to author user over the internet
(Geissinger and Laurell 2018).
However, Facebook has been more popular than other social media sites over the
internet. Users and companies can upload their pictures, videos, status and feelings over the

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internet. The user has to create an account on the Facebook and can connect with different
people all over the world. Facebook provide different offers and facilities to the users that are
attracting to them. Facebook helps in both audio and video calling with people over the internet.
Users can chat with other person having an account on the Facebook. Therefore, it has decreased
the complexity of communication worldwide (Shen, Qian and Choi 2017). Therefore, this kind
of social networking sites has been updated from traditional press venues. Fashion companies
used to post their new designs on the Facebook wall that helps in attracting the customers online.
The popularity of the Facebook has been the main cause for the traffic generation for the
company over the internet. Facebook helps in increasing the sales of the company in the market.
Figure 5: Effective social media in the market
(Source: Kang and Kim, 2017)

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However, Pinterest and Instagram are the social media sites that are photo pinned to
profiles of the users. Users can upload their photos and videos to these social media sites.
Therefore, there are various filters and editing software installed on these websites. Pinterest is a
virtual pin board that can browse pins from other sites in the network. In this case, companies
can also upload their clothing designs and apply the filter to the photo that helps in attracting the
maximum number of customers to the company. However, the fashion industry is still new to the
social media marketing. There are various requirements for the industry to make up their position
over the internet and social media networking (Chang and Fan, 2017). However, some of the
social media sites have been absolute including Orkut due to unable in maintaining the market of
the company. The social media has been growing in the market in recent years that has provided
various opportunities for the companies in the market.
2.4 Objectives of Social media marketing
The basic objectives of the online media marketing are to enhance marketing strategy of a
company in the market. Social media marketing helps in increasing sales of the company. In case
of the fashion industry, social media marketing helps in providing an extra benefit to the user for
choosing various products over the internet (Escobar-Rodríguez and Bonsón-Fernández 2017).
The advertisement provided on the websites are attractive to the customer. This enables them to
inquire about the product online. Therefore, the sales of the company are increased. The use of
social media marketing helps in maintaining the business strategy of the company in the market.
However, social media marketing has helped in generating more access to the new fashion trends
and brands in the market Customers are always attracted to the new brands and trends of clothing
in the market (Ramanathan, Subramanian and Parrott 2017). Therefore, companies have to
maintain a peer approach to the customers with their new fashion designs and brands.

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2.5 Social Media marketing strategy
Social media marketing strategy deals with an evaluation of the set of goals having a
proper budget and time with the proper plan of action and is an integral part of the marketing
plan. Therefore, social media marketing strategy has been helpful in planning and designing the
output of the marketing plan (Tak, Pareek and Rishi 2017). Social Media Marketing strategy
includes selection on social media platform suitable for the company. There have been various
improvements in the social media websites. According to the survey in 2012, there are one
billion registered Facebook users with around 600 million users from mobile. Twitter has 500
million total users and Instagram has 100 million active users with over 4 million unique posts
updated daily (Turban et al. 2017). Therefore, there is a huge number of customers present over
the internet and social media websites. This provides the different opportunity for fashion
companies all over the world. A proper marketing plan has to be ordered for the company in
order to maintain sales of products and services in the market. The fashion trends and blogs are
being updated by the companies that help in increasing the sales of the company. The marketing
plan of the company depends on the targeted customers over the internet (Tong, Su and Xu
2017).
2.6 Comparison of Traditional Marketing and Social Media Marketing
Marketing has been a key feature for the business to be developed in the market. Various
companies in the market are following traditional marketing that has been costlier with less
output. However, with the implementation of technology, the digital and social media marketing
has been in the light. Social media marketing was able to minimize the cost of advertising (Felix,
Rauschnabel and Hinsch 2017). Traditional marketing includes billboards, television

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advertisement, newspaper and pamphlets. Therefore, this traditional way increases the cost of
marketing. However, the time required is high for the marketing.
Figure 6: Comparison between Traditional Marketing and Social Media Marketing
(Source: White, Nielsen and Valentini 2017)
The number of customers targeted by the traditional marketing has been very less. On the
other hand, social media marketing has been faster than the traditional marketing. This type of
marketing is dined over the internet using the social media platform. Targeted customers are far
higher than the traditional marketing. Most of the customers are online over the social market.
This help in reaching out to the maximum number of customers at a time (Clayton, Ridgway and
Hendrickse 2017). Therefore, the cist if the marketing is decreased. Various advertisements,
videos and photos are shared over the social media platform that helps in attracting maximum
number customers online.

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2.7 Impact of social media marketing in the fashion industry
According to Henderson et al. (2017), social media has been an emerging network all
over the world. Therefore, many multinational companies are focusing on the social media
marketing strategy. The main benefit of the social media marketing has been the huge number of
customers at a time. The companies are able to approach to the large number of customers over
the online media network. Therefore, social media have enhanced the fashion industry over the
internet. There are various online stores from fashion and its accessories that been successful in
the market. Various e-commerce websites are developing theory market over social media
platform including Amazon (Arriaga, Andreu Domingo and Berlanga Silvente 2017). Social
media has helped in improving the business of the companies in the market. The fashion industry
has been in rising in the market with an implementation of the social media marketing strategy in
various companies.

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Chapter 3: Research Methodology
Research methodology is the systematic way of proceeding in the research. It is an idea
by which data is collected and analyzed properly by different methods. The research
methodology consists of philosophy, approach, design, data collection, data analysis, limitations
and ethical considerations of research.
3.1 Research philosophy
Positivism philosophy deals with the factual knowledge about the study including all the
mathematical facts. Interpretivism philosophy deals with the observational results from the
stakeholder perspective. The research will use interpretivism philosophy that helps in analyzing
data and information collected from secondary sources (Itani, Agnihotri and Dingus 2017). This
philosophy uses quantitative data collection in order to analyze data and information.
3.2 Research approach
Deductive approach deals with developing a hypothesis that is based on existing theory
and designing strategy according to it. The inductive approach deals with a scarcity of sources
incusing all risks accepted. The research will select the deductive approach for focusing on the
objectives of the research. The deductive approach focuses on the objectives of the research and
deducts all other information not related to the research. On the other hand, the inductive
approach does not focus on the objectives of the research (Reilly and Larya 2018).
3.3 Research Design
The descriptive design focuses on the research problem and its various aspects through
data collection process helps in describing the situation. The exploratory design aims to explore
different aspects of the study. The research will use the descriptive design that helps in getting an

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observational overview of the research (Mkono and Tribe 2017). The use of descriptive research
design helps in maintaining the data collection process in the research. The data will be collected
from both primary and secondary sources of data.
3.4 Data Collection method
The primary sources include the raw data collected from organizing online survey with
the customers using online shopping. The secondary data sources are online journals, reports,
books and governmental databases. Data and Information will be collected from secondary
sources including online journals, books, reports and governmental databases. Online journals
have taken selected that are published after 2012 related to the research topic. (Mkono and Tribe
2017).
3.5 Limitations
There might be some limitations in the data collection method. The online journals might
be off before the year 2012 that is not applicable for the research purpose. Some of the journals
might be of a paid version that cannot be available for research. Some of the journals might not
be related to the research topic and not taken for the study (Grappi, Romani and Barbarossa
2017).
3.6 Ethical Consideration
The research will be followed under the Data Protection Act 1998 that include the safety
of data and information of participants during the online survey. The security of data and
information will be taken in concern. The results and outcomes of the research will it be
published in the market before completing the research. The participants of the survey will not be
forced to remain in the survey and they can leave the research on their own.

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3.7 Gantt Chart
Figure 7: Gantt Chart
(Source: Created by Author)

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