Retail Marketing

Currently in the Teen Vogue x Parsons course we are taking a closer look at Retail Marketing/ Visual Merchandising. Instantly I knew which store to spotlight for this assignment - H&M on Bourke St, Melbourne.

H&M is well known for having affordable prices and is seen as a relatively budget friendly store. Most stores here in Australia that offer a similar price point have their budget style cross over to their overall aesthetic with a very basic store layout and cheap store fittings. However, as you can see in the featured picture, H&M has made a point of giving their store a high end feel by choosing a vintage building in the heart of Melbourne and using finishings that add a luxurious feel to the store. 

This is a very effective concept as it has a high end presence immediately upon entrance. I feel that this allows customers to think they are getting an even better deal than they actual are as most stores with this look would be charging double the price. I consider this successful marketing as often if people feel they are getting a good bargain they are more inclined to purchase more, making add-on sales more likely.

My Audience

If you want to build a successful social media profile then it is important to know your audience in order to post content that suits your demographic. Today I will be taking a closer look at my Youtube Analytics as that's the social platform I am most interested in. 

One of the simplest statistics is the age and gender of your viewers. As you can see below Youtube makes it very easy to distinguish who your biggest demographic is. Most of my subscribers are 18-24 years, so I can assume that that means I have a lot of college/university students watching me. Knowing this info allows me to produce more content that is suited to them - for example, college outfit ideas, budget fashion, internship outfits etc.

  

A very important stat is also where your demographic is from. As I live in Australia our seasons are opposite to all those in the northern hemisphere but if my main demographic is from America than I need to keep this in mind because if I keep making Summer videos in December they may lose interest.

One of the hardest things about social media is not producing the content but rather getting eyes on your content! Which is why I always like to check on my main traffic sources to get a better understanding on how my viewers are actually finding my channel. This allows me to see what my strongest points are. For example my main traffic stream comes from Youtube search, which tells me that I'm using the correct key words and titles that allows my videos to be picked up by the youtube algorithm and therefore come up on the search pages. 

Lastly, I also like to look at my most popular videos as this shows me what my subscribers are most interested in so I can recreate something similar. I've found that my channel is becoming well known for my Celebrity Look for Less Series. I try to stay up-to-date with which celebrities are trending at the time so I can align my uploads, for example Ariana Grande recently released a brand new music video so I released my Ariana Grande video the same week. 

My Product - The Signature Clutch

In my previous post you would have seen my basic mock up of a classic roll over clutch. It was made out of calico and wasn't anything to appealing, but now it's time to see the vision come to life! However as you can see this isn't the black vinyl bag I predicted as we had to work under the constraint that some sort of stripe needed to be included. I compromised and decided to use this black vinyl ribbon with a gorgeous laser cut pattern to act as my striped component. I decided to have the stripes go in opposite directions on either side of the clutch as I felt this gave it a modern twist. Ideally the base of the bag would be made from a higher quality fabric but for the purpose of this sample a white jersey knit was used. 

Once again I've put together a production costs grid so we can get a better idea of how much this product would cost if it came to fruition.

Mock Up Bag

Today I put together a mock up version of what could potentially be my signature bag. I wanted a simple design that could work for many people with differing styles and tastes as it could easily be produced in an array of different fabrics from fur to mesh! As this is only a mock up I've kept costs to a minimum using just quarter of a metre of calico - the cheapest fabric I could find at only $3.19 per metre. As calico is a very flimsy material I decided to line the clutch with some interfacing to add structure to the bag. However if a heavier material such as leather or vinyl was to be used in the actual creation then this step wouldn't be necessary. A simple velcro closure was used for this particular mock up but ideally a magnetic clasp would be the closure of choice. 

Now that I have a rough idea of what I would need to produce a final product I can put together a production cost grid;

Production Costs

In a previous assignment for Teen Vogue I was required to create a fashion accessory out of items that were easily accessible from home and therefore not the usual medium for such designs. As you can see I went for a statement necklace which was made from magazine pages. Today I am having a closer look at the production costs for this item and estimating an appropriate retail and wholesale price.

Please note that I do live in Australia, hence why my hourly rate is so much higher than other students. $17.29 is actually the minimum wage here. This really drags up my total production cost but keep in mind that $30.00 for a necklace is a price that would not shock Australians as our cost of living is much higher than other countries. 

My next production costs grid is more detailed as it shows pricing if I was to produce a large quantity of my statement necklace and sell it at a wholesale price. Obviously if I am producing more than one item I am not going to use a whole magazine and an entire ball of string for each necklace. Therefore I have divided up the costs. For example I have sourced old magazines from the thrift store to use, these cost me $1 each. However I will only use 5 pages of this magazine per necklace. If there is 105 sheets that means I can produce a total of 21 necklaces from that singular magazine. Which allows me to divide the magazine price of $1.00 by 21.

After examining the true production costs on a deeper level it would be smart to reevaluate the estimated retail price to give the necklace a more competitive price on the market and in turn hopefully be more successful.

Production Standards

A common problem for shoppers in the fashion industry is the vast difference in sizing and production standards. Personally, as a self-confessed shopaholic, I've learnt what size I need for which store but it can be a confusing process! 

I've found that my top size is fairly consistent across the market but when it comes to pants it's a whole different story! In one store I can go as low as an AU6 but others can be an AU10. I believe that pants would be the most common garment that females find hard to source the 'perfect fit' as people can be the same size but a completely different shape in the hips/thighs region. This makes it incredibly hard for stores to have one universal production standard as they may all be basing their design around completely different shaped models.

Eventually you may figure out a brand and size that works for you but that still doesn't guarantee you'll have the perfect fit every time. Production standards within the one brand can also vary slightly - of course this shouldn't make a significant impact though as this should technically be less than 1.27cm (0.5"). I found an inconsistency in the brand Riders by Lee. As you can see in the picture these are the exact same style but the width of the waist is not exactly the same. There were four size 9 jeans in-store and this was the only pair that had an inconsistency. However after trying them on I found that it didn't make a difference to the fit, this is probably because these are a stretch denim which is much more forgiving of these inconsistencies than a traditional denim would be.