Fashion Industry: Marketing Strategy Will Have To Be Reconsidered.

In 2020, the fashion industry was already a global industry. Travel was an indispensable part of the industry's daily operation: executives flew over continents to attend business meetings and visited factories on the other side of the world; the editors and buyers of the other side of the ocean came to the fashion show; the Brand Company flew all over the Internet with red bloggers and bloggers to foreign countries to shoot blockbusters. Hold activities?

But the new crown virus changed everything in the short term. In order to protect the health of employees, many enterprises have suspended international travel, and governments have implemented travel ban. Now, the industry is still thinking about how to conduct business without face to face contact. A debate that is heating up even before the outbreak is accelerating: with the development of technology such as distance work and the increasingly stringent examination of carbon emissions by the society, is it really necessary for the fashion industry to travel and travel frequently?

"The current environment tells us that video can do a lot of things, especially in today's technology environment," said Sarah Willersdorf, the global director of luxury goods at Boston Consulting Group, Boston consulting. In fact, we need to reflect on such matters as taking part in a one-off meeting or short-term meeting. "

A Armani group spokesman said the group began reducing unnecessary travel more than a month ago, and is currently relying on videophone conferences to communicate with its overseas teams.

The spokesman said: "obviously, the direct effect of the travel ban is to save travel expenses, but the impact of the epidemic will be very serious. It is too early to say how much the industry will be affected."

It's one thing to replace a face-to-face meeting with video conferencing. In recent years, the number of fashion shows produced by international fashion brands in different places has increased significantly. Editors, buyers and net red people will be flying to these cities. For example, Chanel held fashion shows in Havana, Venice and Singapore. Louis Vuitton hosted fashion shows in Seoul and Kyoto, while Dior hosted fashion shows in Marrakech, Losangeles, Tokyo and Oxford counties.

Bureau Betak estimates that the average carbon emissions of a big show are equivalent to about 700 tons of carbon dioxide, of which about 500 tons come from the air travel of guests.

But these activities are also important marketing moments for brands. In rapidly changing social media, brands must now strive harder to attract consumers' attention than ever before. Now, these activities have been shelved. Herm s, Armani, Gucci, Dior, Max Mara and other brands have cancelled the Spring Festival show outside the fashion season. However, once the epidemic subsided, the brand still has sufficient motivation to restart from where they stop.

Before the outbreak of the new crown virus, the luxury experience held by the brand also showed no signs of slowing up. For example, H&M held an immersive drama experience for media and red net last year in Sedona, Arizona, while Net-a-Porter hosted hospitality from the world in its popular luxury resorts during its annual "Jet-a-Porter" marketing campaign.

In the near future, the brand will have to reconsider marketing strategy and innovate the new series of display methods.

Shanghai fashion week, which was originally planned to be postponed, is changing rapidly. Now it is going to broadcast the fashion show on the Tmall platform of Alibaba. The Tokyo fashion week, which was cancelled earlier this month, is experimenting with similar moves, and the Giorgio Armani's 2020 autumn and winter fashion show was also broadcast live in Milan fashion week last month.

Live fashion shows are not new. KCD, a public relations firm, pioneered the concept in 2013, and launched the digital fashion show streaming media platform. Although it did not cause too much noise at that time, short-term demand may promote long-term popularity.

Looking forward to the future, the major brands will also try to hold these eye catching activities closer to home. In June last year, Jacquemus launched a viral epidemic in Provence fashion show. The case proved that regional activities that do not need a lot of travel can still exert great impact. Less than 1/4 of the audience is net red or reporters, who are specially designed for this exhibition. Many other spectators are from Paris and do not need international travel. According to data from the global fashion search platform Lyst, the number of social media mentioned by Jacquemus increased by 1343% in the third quarter of 2019.

But the market cycle of the fashion industry can hardly be transferred online, because buyers from all over the world want to meet with brands, see new series, and choose the products to buy next season.

Masuda Shin, a buyer of United Arrows & Sons, a multi brand chain store in Japan, said: "as a buyer, I need to see the real cloth, hear the real voice of the fabric, and meet the people who really participate in the brand."

Like the US digital purchasing platform Joor established in 2010 and the virtual exhibition hall platform Ordre set up in 2012, the start-up company is trying to digitize the wholesale experience of digital purchasing platform and virtual exhibition hall. The performance of both companies has improved since the outbreak of the new crown virus. Joor said that the average value of wholesale orders during the Paris fashion week was 4 times that of a year ago. Ordre said that with the popular brands such as Gucci and Bottega Veneta accelerating the virtual exhibition hall on its platform to serve the buyers who could not come, its interaction increased by 375% this quarter.

"The crisis, including the epidemic, can promote the adoption of new business models in the industry and accelerate the adoption of new technologies," said Willersdorf of Boston consulting. She pointed out that the outbreak of SARS (SARS) in 2003, to a certain extent, promoted the acceleration of Chinese consumers' acceptance of the electricity supplier.

Nevertheless, some other sectors of the industry can hardly wait to return to the normal schedule.

Sabrina Finlay is the chief executive of Otabo. The company is a footwear and garment manufacturer. Its headquarters is located in Minneapolis, USA. It has development plants in Guangzhou, China, and has factory partners all over the world. The global team used digital technology before, such as teleconferencing and high quality photography, as a supplement to its travel, but since the new crown pandemic, they can only rely more on these tools.

She said: "no travel can be unfortunate, but if we can not be in the same place, but not the reason why we slow down, we just need to change the way we communicate and cooperate."

However, in the era of the new crown virus outbreak, the situation will return to normal.

"Once we can travel and let our team work together, we will do so," she said.