Analyzing the Effectiveness of Instagram Marketing for Fashion Brands

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes social media's impact on fashion marketing.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IN THE
WORLD OF THE FASHION AND LUXURY
INDUSTRY
1

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 RESEARCH BACKGROUND
The marketing environment of the fashion industry is considered among the most innovative
and compelling in terms of strategies it uses to attract and target customers. In today's world,
they, fashion and luxury industry have social media as their most powerful marketing tool
which can not only address a large amount of highly targeted customers at once but can also
take the unique selling prepositions of fashion industries to customer’s very personal space.
Impact of social media marketing on people’s mind is evident from its popularity which is
rapidly increasing (Sashi, 2012). The fully-fledged inception of social media in marketing
environment can be traced back in 2011 and the following years after that when Facebook and
Instagram brought their business proposals for marketing. The amount of interaction people
have with these social media platforms is staggering and there are no other platforms like
Facebook and Instagram in the world which have potential to provide such reach to a brand in
just a day (Tuten and Solomon, 2017). This all has been made possible by the development of
digital platforms of marketing and increase connectivity of people via the internet. Where, the
conventional marketing mediums such as newspapers, TV ads, radio, hoarding, pamphlets and
word of mouth are on down slop in the marketing world, social media and search engine
marketing platforms are making new growth records every month (Laurell, 2014).
The platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and YouTube have enabled fashion
designers and experts to provide a visual and real-time feel and exposed to their designs and
unique products. This has changed the picture of marketing in this sector since these social
media platforms have provided the most desired characteristics needed in the marketing of
fashion products. The access to these visuals and compelling graphical designs through a
smartphone which people keep with them all the time have improved efficiency to many folds
and achieving high ROI has become easier than ever. Looking at some stats, the famous
women’s undergarment brand Victoria’s Secret has nearly 15 Million followers on Facebook
and according to recent news, Louis Vuitton has started to provide pre-order service on its
2

social media pages. Dedicated campaigns under supervision of experts are being run by these
brands to generate more and more sales through their social media platforms (Sashi, 2012).
Since the growth of marketing environment in terms of social media marketing is on fire and
fashion industry is among the top user of these marketing technologies, there is a need of a
research study to understand the main driving forces of this growth and future aspects that
they have. This research is a similar attempt and aimed to create a cogent understanding of the
fashion world and social media and how are they fostering each other’s growth.
1.2 RESEARCH PROBLEM
The social media marketing paradigm has hundreds of influencing elements and targeting and
segmentation criteria available for companies for their approaching their customers. This
characteristics of social media which are a subset of a larger entity called digital marketing,
make the strategy formation, a typical or complex task (Tuten and Solomon, 2017). Also, the
fashion industry has broadened in almost every aspect since its inception as a multinational
industry. It is understood that fashion sense differs from country to country and significantly
impacted by culture and religious beliefs of that region. Hence the marketing strategies also
need to be focused on this distinctness.
The impact that social media has on choice and preference of its users is relative and it highly
depends on the type of content that is being presented by the brand and taste of people
towards such content (Laurell, 2014). Also, the group of people targeted based on age, gender,
location, ethnicity and body type have their own impression on creating a marketing strategy.
These all problems and characteristics that social media marketing has in the context of the
fashion industry require the attention of experts and scholars to conduct thorough research on
each and every element of such marketing environment for a particular need. The research
problem can be seen as a lack of understanding towards application and gaining an expected
response from the marketing strategy so devised.
3

1.3 PROJECT SCOPE
Digital marketing has already covered a large share in the marketing world and its most
influential and effective subset is social media marketing. Apart from direct advertisement and
promotional campaign social media, the fashion industry has been putting lots of efforts on
other online marketing strategies too which are working in synchronisation with their social
media campaign. One of such strategies is fashion blogging, which is the most read type of
content on the internet after health, lifestyle and tech blogs (Wolny and Mueller, 2013).
Although they all are advertised and promoted on social media and by search engine marketing
they also have their own following called organic traffic. The scope is tremendous if these
marketing strategies other than social media, work in collaboration with social media and
together provide the right customer, the right information at the right time. Some of the major
social media platforms are Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest which are used to share information
using content and images, then there are microblogging websites such as Twitter and tumbler
which offers to share of small and focused content with others, and then finally there is
YouTube which is a video sharing platform and provide more creative freedom to fashion
industries to present their content (Laurell, 2014).
The discussion in this report, however, will be focused on the use of Instagram for fashion
marketing and how can it influence customer's choice and perception towards a brand. Using
all of these platforms at once has evolved into a new form called Omnichannel marketing
where they look on social media and all other online platforms. So this is also a phenomenon to
look upon once this study has been concluded since there is a need for basic understanding of
social media marketing platforms before dwelling into Omnichannel marketing. As of
September 2017, Instagram has reached more than 800 Million active users which is a huge
number, not only this; reports have claimed that Instagram users have the highest level of
engagement than Facebook and Twitter. Instagram is becoming the first love of fashion brands
for approaching their targeted customers and it has the potential to become the most favoured
marketing platform especially for fashion and luxury industry (Tuten and Solomon, 2017). The
future prospects of Instagram and fashion industry’s marketing strategies with it are huge and
bright. The records of reach and spent on social media marketing by different industries are
4

breaking every day and the growth rate is more than 14%. This research study will conduct a
literature review on the paradigm shift in marketing environment of the fashion industry and
how social media made its place in this shift. The recommendations provided at the end of this
research has enabled fashion industries who use social media as their main marketing tool, to
utilise these marketing platforms particularly Instagram, more effectively and efficiently so that
they could gain high return on their marketing investments.
1.4 AIMS & OBJECTIVES
AIMS OF THE RESEARCH:
Aim of this research study is to provide extracted insights into the role and impact of social
media on the marketing environment of the fashion and luxury industry. The research study
will cover various aspects of social media as a marketing instrument and how does it supports
all-inclusive growth and heightened reach of the fashion industry.
OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH STUDY:
 To determine the role of social media in the fashion industry marketing and its benefits.
 To establish a data-based understanding of how social media is impacting people's
personal decision and purchase intent.
 To focus on a particular social media platforms (Instagram) and discuss how it suits the
needs and promotional demands of the industry successfully.
 To provide clear insights on what customer's perception is towards the impact of a
social media advertising campaign on their buying decisions
 This research study will provide recommendations on how to use the capabilities of
Instagram and how it is the most suitable social media platform for marketing needs of
the fashion industry.
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following are the research questions for this study:
5

1. What roles do social media play in the marketing environment of the fashion and luxury
industry?
2. Why social media is gaining popularity as a marketing medium in the fashion industry?
3. How social media is impacting people’s buying decisions and their perception towards a
brand altogether?
4. Why Instagram is a suitable platform for the marketing needs of fashion industries?
5. How social media marketing supports the growth of the fashion and luxury industry?
1.6 CHAPTER OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION: The introductory chapter of the research thesis, it includes research
background and research scope where the discussion has been made on previous growth and
impacts of social media and its future aspects in the fashion industry as a major marketing tool.
The introduction has also covered research aim and objectives along with research questions
which summarises the whole research activities and assessments done.
LITERATURE REVIEW: In this part, an in-depth literature review has been conducted. The
literature review began with the introduction of the marketing environment in the fashion
industry and moved on to social media as an emerging marketing concept in the fashion
industry. It has further discussed on impacts of social media on consumer's purchase intent and
behaviour ultimately changing their perception towards a particular brand.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: This part has discussed methodology for the research which has
been decided as a survey questionnaire and short interview with marketing in-charge of Louise
Vuitton and Calvin Kline.
FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS: In this chapter, the data collected from the survey questionnaire and
literature review has been analysed and evaluated on standard statistical methods and tools.
Findings of every questionnaire have been analysed and discussed to create a conclusive
remark on the research conducted.
CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION: Conclusion has been made of all activities done during the
research study and based on data collection and analysis and findings strategic
6

recommendations have been made for fashion industries regarding use of social media as a
primary marketing tool and how can it sustain their business needs and sales demand.
REFERENCES: Reference list of every cited work throughout the research study in Harvard style.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 INTRODUCTION
There was a time when social media was only meant to connect people and share their daily
happenings and activities they do with their friends and family and also a great platform to
make new friends from throughout the world (Fuchs, 2017). Once the base of people who were
regularly involved and engaged with social media grew, it caught the eyes of the business world
and they saw great potential in it as a marketing instrument, to bring people to know about
their brand and buy their products. The situation has changed a lot since and now social media
is majorly used as marketing platforms. The growth and portion in business operations of
digital marketing platforms like social media could be estimated from the fact that in 2016, the
total spending by companies on their digital ads campaign was $100 Billion. However, the
fashion and luxury industry have not gained the speed that was expected from it in terms of its
marketing involvement and investment in digital technology. Still, 72% of overall marketing
spending by the fashion industry is attributed to print media. It has been analysed by experts in
fashion industries that this scene is about to change and the marketing scenario of the fashion
world will be led by digital marketing techniques like social media and search engine marketing.
2.2 MARKETING IN FASHION INDUSTRY
A study done by Wolny and Mueller (2013) suggests that the fashion industry has a distinct
demand in marketing in comparison to other industrial sectors. This distinctness in marketing
demand is about the visuals and graphical representation of designs and products in a pleasing
and compelling format. A product in the fashion industry for example apparel can be best
advertised and marketed if a potential customer can have visuals of it in the form of a coloured
7

image in some magazine, newspaper, hoarding and TV advertisement. This is the reason that
majority investments by these industries are still being spent on print media for marketing
purposes. However, this pace has been observed to be changing rapidly as the digital marketing
platforms are showing more and more promise of delivering better efficiency delivery (Tuten
and Solomon, 2017, Fuchs, 2017 and Laurell, 2014). Digital marketing social media platforms
such as Instagram are based on sharing of information, values and daily activities by users in
the form of image and small video clips, which fulfils the basic marketing needs for the fashion
industry. Although these social media marketing tools have huge advantages over conventional
marketing techniques, they are also very typical to manage and require highly skilled
manpower to run such campaigns. Evidently, the user base of these platforms is staggering and
there have not been any of such platforms seen till now in the history of mankind where there
are more than 800 million active users available at once.
2.3 ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING
Nowadays social media is playing major roles in the marketing environment of almost every
industrial sector. Social Media Marketing (SMM) is a distinct term used for marketing activities
and campaigns run on social media by various commercial brands and social and political
organisations. According to Couldry (2012), the potential of social media is that it directly
speaks to the customers and that too in an audio-visual format providing complete creative
freedom to companies to present their views.
8

REFERENCES
 Couldry, N., 2012. Media, society, world: Social theory and digital media practice. Polity.
 Fuchs, C., 2017. Social media: A critical introduction. Sage.
 Van Dijck, J. and Powell, T., 2013. Understanding social media logic. Media and
communication, 1(1), pp.2-14.
 Sashi, C.M., 2012. Customer engagement, buyer-seller relationships, and social
media. Management decision, 50(2), pp.253-272.
 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.
 Wolny, J. and Mueller, C., 2013. Analysis of fashion consumers’ motives to engage in
electronic word-of-mouth communication through social media platforms. Journal of
marketing management, 29(5-6), pp.562-583.
 Laurell, C., 2014. Commercialising social media: a study of fashion (blogo)
spheres (Doctoral dissertation, School of Business, Stockholm University).
 Bergquist, M., Ljungberg, J., Zaffar, F.O. and Stenmark, D., 2013. Social Media As
Management Fashion-A Discourse Perspective. In ECIS (p. 209).
 Tuten, T.L. and Solomon, M.R., 2017. Social media marketing. Sage.
 Sajid, S.I., 2016. Social media and its role in marketing.
 Godey, B., Manthiou, A., Pederzoli, D., Rokka, J., Aiello, G., Donvito, R. and Singh, R.,
2016. Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and
consumer behavior. Journal of business research, 69(12), pp.5833-5841.
 Stephen, A.T., 2016. The role of digital and social media marketing in consumer
behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology, 10, pp.17-21.
 Dahl, S., 2018. Social media marketing: Theories and applications. Sage.
 Scuotto, V., Del Giudice, M., della Peruta, M.R. and Tarba, S., 2017. The performance
implications of leveraging internal innovation through social media networks: an
9

empirical verification of the smart fashion industry. Technological Forecasting and Social
Change, 120, pp.184-194.
 Çukul, D., 2015. Fashion marketing in social media: using Instagram for fashion
branding (No. 2304324). International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
 Ngai, E.W., Tao, S.S. and Moon, K.K., 2015. Social media research: Theories, constructs,
and conceptual frameworks. International Journal of Information Management, 35(1),
pp.33-44.
 Esteban-Santos, L., García Medina, I., Carey, L. and Bellido-Pérez, E., 2018. Fashion
bloggers: communication tools for the fashion industry. Journal of Fashion Marketing
and Management: An International Journal, 22(3), pp.420-437.
 Park, J., Ciampaglia, G.L. and Ferrara, E., 2016, February. Style in the age of Instagram:
predicting success within the fashion industry using social media. In Proceedings of the
19th ACM conference on computer-supported cooperative work & social computing (pp.
64-73). ACM.
 Loureiro, S.M.C., Serra, J. and Guerreiro, J., 2019. How Fashion Brands Engage on Social
Media: A Netnography Approach. Journal of Promotion Management, pp.1-12.
10