Abstract

Fashion is everywhere! It transcends domains and applies to almost any kind of product (e.g., apparel, cars, digital devices, food, literature, travel, music, house decoration, and personal wellness). Fashion greatly influences public interest, media coverage, and product success. In this global industry, many actors interact, including designers, suppliers, and retailers, who collaborate to sell apparel and accessories. In addition, the global fashion industry is among the most important in terms of investments, trade, and employment, despite its dependence on unpredictable demand.

Thus, fashion companies face a dilemma: On the one hand, they repeatedly create ephemeral products that must seduce customers each time; whereas on the other hand, the products need to provide continual profits. A key challenge for fashion managers is to design and launch new fashion products that will achieve success with customers during their very short life spans, in which setting they also affect consumers’ personal seductiveness, desire, and appearance. For example, will the long skirt have the same success than the skinny jean, or will the high heel prevail over the flats? A fashion dress is more than just a dress—it can change people’s appearance and reveal consumers’ identity. Consequently, fashion managers are responsible for not just their product lines but also the self-images they help customers convey.

This book focuses on the fashion apparel and accessories industry in an attempt to help managers answer the following questions: Why and how do fashion products appeal to consumers, despite their constantly varying attributes? What specific elements and benefits of fashion influence consumers, and how can companies exploit them and gain from these? Which marketing strategies and tactics should companies use to increase fashion products’ success while communicating and managing customers’ image? How can companies maintain customers’ loyalty and generate higher profits with fashion products? By undertaking deep analyses of manufacturers and retailers’ best practices, interviewing customers and companies, and reviewing recent academic research on fashion marketing, this book answers such questions and thus helps managers leverage the value that fashion adds to products while creating loyal customers in truly competitive fashion markets.

Keywords

customer loyalty, fashion, fashion equity, fashion marketing, social ­influence, symbolic influence