Report on Understanding Marketing Events: London Fashion Week Analysis

This report delves into the realm of marketing events, providing a comprehensive understanding of their definition, classification, and strategic significance. The analysis centers on the British Fashion Council's marketing activities, particularly highlighting the role of London Fashion Week (LFW). The report explores the key marketing activities, including digital marketing campaigns, event organization, and social media engagement. It also examines the application of the marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion) in the context of LFW, along with segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategies. Furthermore, the report addresses crucial risk management considerations relevant to event planning, such as site safety, electrical safety, and entry/exit pathways. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and emphasizes the importance of strategic event marketing.

Understanding
Marketing Events

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION OF SPECIAL EVENTS............................................1
2. KEY MARKETING ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN BY BRITISH FASHION COUNCIL.....2
Key marketing activities..............................................................................................................2
Role of London Fashion Week....................................................................................................3
3. ROLE OF MARKETING MIX...................................................................................................3
Application of marketing mix in London fashion Week.............................................................3
4 (A) MARKETING STRATEGY INFLUENCED BY.................................................................4
Segmentation...............................................................................................................................4
Targeting and positioning............................................................................................................4
(B) RISK MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS........................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: London Fashion Week Festival........................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION
Marketing an event is concerned with development of a themed exhibit for promoting an
organization, product or service (Kim and Ko, 2012). These can take place online or offline and
play a major role in raising the awareness of its audience (Bowdin and et.al., 2012). London
Fashion Week (LFW) is a special event that comprises of exuberant catwalk shows and
exhibitions that form the heart of fashion industry (History of London Fashion Week, 2017). The
event is organized in London and is attended by a number of fashion designers and media
persons. The present report explains the classification of special events. It further explains the
key marketing activities undertaken by British Fashion Council thereby explaining the role of
LFW. The role of marketing mix has been explained in relation to developing an event marketing
strategy. Lastly, risk management consideration that need to be taken into account for LFW are
discussed.
1. DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION OF SPECIAL EVENTS
Special event is defined as an event which brings a large number of people together to
participate or watch. Special events are classified on the basis of their impacts on community.
Depending on their impact, the special events can be classified into the following categories:
 Mega event: A mega event is defined as an event that is characterized by a unique one
time nature (Kim and Ko, 2010). This is in relation to the specific place in which the
event was held. For example, Olympic Games held in Athens in 2004.
 Major event: A major event is defined as an event that is capable of generating
significant economic, cultural and social benefits in immediate as well as long term. It
also acts as an attraction for large numbers of international spectators and participants.
For example, FIFA U20 men’s World Cup.
 Hallmark event: These events are the major expositions, fairs and sporting events which
are characterized by regularity. The hallmark events are conducted with the prime motive
of providing an opportunity to the community for gaining a high prominence in the
market place. These are either arranged on a regular basis or on one- off basis (Moeran
and Pedersen, 2011).
1

 Local events: These are defined as the events which contain primarily local participants.
They have limited international media coverage. Hence, these events provide benefits to
the city or town in which they are organized (Ross and Harradine, 2011). For example,
Upper Hutt Summer Carnival.
2. KEY MARKETING ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN BY BRITISH
FASHION COUNCIL
Key marketing activities
Objectives
Following are the key marketing activities undertaken by British fashion council:
Objective 1: The objective of British Fashion Council are to increase its customer base
Strategy- Digital marketing campaigns: British Fashion Council also undertakes various digital
marketing campaigns. It enables its users to shop real time trend during various events (Lea-
Greenwood, 2013). The organization adopts the strategy of content marketing and providing
shopping convenience to its customers.
Objective 2: To increase the brand awareness of its existing as well as potential customers
 Strategy- Events: The organization undertakes the strategy of organizing various fashion
events that increase the awareness of people. Various events are hosted by the British
fashion council (BFC) every year which are intended towards promotion of British
fashion worldwide (History of the BFC, 2017). These include the London Fashion Week,
The Fashion Awards, The London Showrooms, The London Fashion Week Festival etc.
Objective 3: To engage with the customers
 Strategy- Social media marketing: Since Social media sites provide an efficient platform
to interact and engage with customers, BFC adopts social media marketing for enhancing
engagement with customers. The council undertakes social media marketing by
connecting with the customers through Facebook and raising their awareness on
Instagram. Facebook ads increase the brand awareness of the visitors.
2

Figure 1: London Fashion Week Festival
(Source: Key events, 2017)
Role of London Fashion Week
In the overall marketing strategy of British Fashion Council, London fashion week plays
an important role. It constitutes a vital part of the marketing activities of British Fashion Council.
The objectives of London Fashion Week are to showcase and demonstrate the new products. It is
organized with the objective of showcasing a wide variety of options of clothes and accessories.
Its purpose is to engage BFC with the attendees of the event. This event is organized twice in a
year in the month of February and September. The LFW provides an opportunity to over 250
designers to be showcased to the global audience (History of London Fashion Week, 2017). The
event could be seen by around 35 million people through 60 outside screens. The content of the
event will also be screened on the Curve screen through which 2 million weekly visitors to
Piccadilly Circus will be able to see the event. Therefore, it will help in promotion of British
Fashion Council.
3. ROLE OF MARKETING MIX
Marketing mix plays an important role in event marketing strategy. Marketing mix
comprises of decisions regarding product, price, place and promotion. When an event is to be
organized, marketing mix provides the above mentioned four parameters that assist in
development an event marketing strategy (Jackson, 2013). Marketing mix assists in developing
an effective event that attracts the attention of right people and spreads the required message
across the audience in the best possible manner.
3

Application of marketing mix in London fashion Week
 Product- Product is defined as the item that is manufactured for satisfied the needs of the
consumers. It may be tangible in the form of a good, or intangible in the form of a service
(Jackson, 2013). The event, London Fashion Week is the product itself. It is tailored to
meet the needs of the people that it aims to attract. The event features top designers of
UK and is attended by 5000 buyers and press.
 Price- Price is defined as the amount paid by the customers for a product. This
corresponds to the fee that is charged for the event. Further, as the event is a promotional
event which does not charges a fee, then the prices for sponsorships will be the price
element of LFW.
 Place- Place is defined as providing access to the customers. This is concerned with the
place where the event is to be held (Rogers and Davidson, 2015). Attendance to an event
can be maximized by the place where the event as well as its pre and post activities are
organized. London Fashion week is held in London twice every year. The event is
organized at the show space of British Fashion Council or at other locations in central
London.
 Promotion- This is defined as the marketing communications undertaken for promoting
the product. It can be done through various tools such as public relations, advertising,
personal selling, direct market etc. advertising is defined as an audio or visual form of
marketing communication in which a non- personal message is used for promoting or
selling a product. It can be through traditional media, radio, television, online, print etc.
For LFW, the promotion takes place through strategies such as online and print
advertisement. Based on the demographic profile of the target audience, suitable methods
of promotion are chosen (Bowdin and et.al., 2012). For example, the target audience of
LFW would be active on social media sites. Therefore, social media marketing forms a
prominent strategy through which people are attracted towards the event. The top
designers are informed about the event through emails. As majority of the audience are
the fashion designers, the promotion is also done through famous fashion magazines.
 Programming: This is defined as the flow of the event or the sequence of the various
activities that take place in an event. LFW comprises of catwalk shows followed by
exhibitions.
4

 People- This comprises of the interactions between designers, customers and staff of
British Fashion council. This part of the event is concerned with the hospitality that the
event provides.
4 (A) MARKETING STRATEGY INFLUENCED BY
Segmentation
Segmentation is defined as dividing the market place into pars or segments. Segmentation
is of different types such a demographic, psychographic, behavioral and geographic.
Segmentation influences the marketing strategy used by London fashion week. Through
segmentation, the target audience are divided into various segments. Depending on the segments,
marketing strategy is to be tailored (Crowther and Donlan, 2011). For example, the demographic
segmentation can be done by gender as well as by age during LFW by using demographic
segmentation criteria. Hence, marketing strategy is to be adopted separately for male and female
segments. For example, marketing being done for the female segment on Instagram would use
different hashtags and celebrities. Similarly for male segment, these would be different. Further,
psychographic segmentation can be done which would yield segments such as jewelry lovers,
fashion forward women, celebrity lovers etc.
Targeting and positioning
Targeting is defined as making decisions regarding the customer segment that should be
focused by the organization. The marketing strategies used by London Fashion Week are
influenced by targeting and positioning. The marketing strategy needs to be shaped according to
the specific age group at which the event is targeted. As there are a number of segments that
LFW wants to target, a differentiated targeting strategy would be adopted. This would alter the
marketing strategy of the chosen event and would be needed to create campaigns that attract the
various segments.
Positioning is defined as the position at which a particular product will stand in
comparison to other similar products and services. Similarly, the marketing strategy used by
organizers of London Fashion Week will be influenced by the ways in which it wants to position
itself before its customers. London Fashion Week positions itself within a particular category.
This would determine the marketing strategy to be used.
5

(B) RISK MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS
Risk management is defined as the process that identifies, assesses and controls the risks of an
organization (Laing and Frost, 2010). There are various risk management considerations that
need to be taken into account while planning this event:
 Risks present at the site: This is an important consideration as the site at which the event
is to be organized needs to be assessed for the presence of risks (Laing and Frost, 2010).
There should not be anything on the site that poses danger due to weather conditions.
Further, if the site contains the material that is flammable, then it needs to be managed.
 Electrical safety: A fashion show requires proper arrangement of lights. However, as the
event is being organized at a different site, there needs to be safe lighting arrangement to
manage the risks of visitors getting injured by electric shock.
 Manual handling risks: This is another consideration that needs to be taken into account
while planning LFW. During the work of event installation, various manual handling
operations would be involved. However, the need for moving materials should be
reduced to be minimum to decrease the manual handling risks. Also, adequate space
arrangement need to be done in order to manage the risks associated with manual
handling.
 Entry and exit pathways: Defining clear entry and exit pathways is an important risk
consideration that need to be taken into account while planning London Fashion Week.
As the event is attended by a number of people including press, fashion designers and
other customers, there should be clear and well defined entry and exit pathways that
provide adequate space to people to enter the event and leave it in a safe manner (Moeran
and Pedersen, 2011).
CONCLUSION
From the report, it can be concluded that special events are classified on the basis of their
impact on the community. In this regard, they are of four types, namely, major, local, mega and
hallmark events. British Fashion Council undertakes marketing activities through digital
marketing, social media sits and events. Marketing strategies used by the organizers of LFW are
influenced by segmentation, targeting and positioning. Security and health and safety are
6

important aspects that need to be considered before organizations events such as London Fashion
Week.
7

REFERENCES
Journals and books
Crowther, P. and Donlan, L., 2011. Value-creation space: The role of events in a service-
dominant marketing paradigm. Journal of Marketing Management. 27(13-14). pp.1444-
1463.
Jackson, N., 2013. Promoting and marketing events: Theory and practice. Routledge.
Kim, A. J. and Ko, E., 2010. Impacts of luxury fashion brand’s social media marketing on
customer relationship and purchase intention. Journal of Global Fashion Marketing. 1(3).
pp.164-171.
Kim, A. J. and Ko, E., 2012. Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? An
empirical study of luxury fashion brand. Journal of Business Research. 65(10). pp.1480-
1486.
Laing, J. and Frost, W., 2010. How green was my festival: Exploring challenges and
opportunities associated with staging green events. International Journal of Hospitality
Management. 29(2). pp.261-267.
Lea-Greenwood, G., 2013. Fashion marketing communications. John Wiley & Sons.
Moeran, B. and Pedersen, J. S. eds., 2011. Negotiating values in the creative industries: Fairs,
festivals and competitive events. Cambridge University Press.
Rogers, T. and Davidson, R., 2015. Marketing destinations and venues for conferences,
conventions and business events (Vol. 14). Routledge.
Ross, J. and Harradine, R., 2011. Fashion value brands: the relationship between identity and
image. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal. 15(3).
pp.306-325.
Bowdin, G. and et.al., 2012. Events Management. 3rd edition. Routledge.
Online
History of the BFC. 2017. [Online]. Available Through:
<http://www.britishfashioncouncil.co.uk/About/History>
Key events. 2017. [Online]. Available Through:
<http://www.britishfashioncouncil.com/About#RL>
History of London Fashion Week. 2017. [Online]. Available Through: <
http://burnshotel.co.uk/2016/02/03/history-of-london-fashion-week/>
8