Keni
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Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
hello vonnie
The Bowery Presents
bliss lane
izzy's playlists!
Aqua Utopia｜海の底で記憶を紡ぐ
Origami Around
pixel skylines
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Not today Justin
Sade Olutola
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Andulka
Color Me Curious
Cosimo Galluzzi
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸
shark vs the universe
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@globalsourcingbethan-blog
Evaluation of the project
Overall I’ve really enjoyed this project, I’ve learnt a lot combining business and fashion together. I’ve learnt that before setting up a business it requires a lot of research into it to see whether it will work or be successful. It also requires a lot of development of ideas before you decide your final outcome. This project has made me consider possibly doing software design as a career, especially after our positive feedback.
Group work task to Read more about designers, garments, competitions, platform, universities and menswear.
This is a link to our Zine where you can read about our brandwagon app. I think that the layout looks professional and futuristic which is the style we were going for.
This is the final week of the global sourcing unit before assessment and today we had to present our work to a panel as a group. I made the presentation with help from Jess and Caitlin. I wanted the presentation to be simple but also have a lot of information about our app, what its about and include sections of our business plan. We later added a lot more visuals at the end of the powerpoint.
I think our presentation included all the right information that the panel would want to see, however listening to the feedback today we should have put less writing in and just talk about it instead and make the presentation mostly pictures and mood boards. Overall they really liked our business idea and commented on how we have researched a lot into the figures and costs however presenting it could be improved.
These are the final prototype designs which we made improving on the last ones.
Hamza designed the logo’s for our brand. We have two logos for our brand. One which is Logotype/Wordmark which is a simple word logo which will be used on our packaging and social media accounts. The other is just the first letter of the wordmark which will be used for our app icon along side the logo.
Our Business Stratergy
When the we wrote the business plan for bandwagon we had to write about our business strategy in detail. This is a breakdown of what we will do as a business to make brandwagon as successful as possible:
•We will go to universities and give talks to fashion students about how they need to start thinking about how they are going to brand themselves.
•Show students our app will be an easy way to do this and sell their garments when they graduate.
•Target self motivated people who want to get their work out there, and people who want to buy unique garments.
•The prices are up to the designer, we have no input on this.
•All designers on our app we will meet first to make sure all work is their own and good quality.
•We take pictures of each garment ourselves.
•Contract for when the designers garments are in our possession.
•App will offer a monthly subscription to our magazine which gives opportunities to win prizes in our competitions.
We decided to change the customer profile moodboard that I made so that it fitted our black and white colour scheme. This is the updated version.
Our customer profile are people who want to dress uniquely to everyone else, they want to stand out from the crowd. They will want to buy from us because we offer one off pieces with an unusual style. They will be between the ages of 20-45 which is quite a big range, but designers featured on our app will be designing for a variety of ages. They will have a career in place, perhaps working in fashion, which makes them want to keep up with the latest trends. They will have a fair bit of money in order to afford garments sold on our app, as designer clothing can be quite pricey as the garments are a one of a kind piece of art. The customer likes to go out and socialise, making an effort on how they dress.
This is a moodboard for our consumer profile. They are young driven fashion entrepreneurs who love designing clothes and want to get their work out there and expand their brand. They will be fashion graduates between the ages of 18-25. They are creative and self motivated.
HOT!MESS Niche Report
I am writing a niche report on the clothing brand My HOT!MESS which is still quite a fresh up and coming brand that I have an interest in. In 2013, Tayla Blue decided to start up her own fashion business at the youthful age of 19.
“I don’t have a fashion background – my dream was to be a singer. But after leaving school at 17, I started working in the marketing department of my dad’s sportswear firm to fund studio time.”
She had aways been interested in fashion and she always had a unique sense of style that stands out from everyone else. Looking at other designers work inspired her to want to do what they do and her idea to start up the brand HOT! MESS actually came to her whilst looking through her grandmothers wardrobe. Her nan was a massive hoarder and kept lots of bright aerobic wear from the 80’s and 90’s. There were tons of unitards, leggings and leotards which had not been worn for years, and Tayla had always been into vintage fashion so she decided to ask her friend who’s a model to wear her grandmothers old clothes for her to photograph and put on instagram. Since the response was so good this is when she decided she wanted to make this into a proper fashion business as she realized there was a real gap in the market for the retro sporty look.
Her Father does fashion marketing so she asked him to fund her and help her start out which he was cynical about until they wrote out a business plan and he decided to take the leap. He loaned her space in his factory, a member of his design team and his manufacturing contacts. Overall he had invested £10,000 in the business to start it up and since then Tayla has managed to pay him back.
It is possible to conclusively show that it is true that starting up a business like this, it is crucial to have a big enough investment to make it successful especially because costs such as materials and machinary are pricy. Not only that but as Tayla has no fashion experience in things like sewing so she needed to have money to hire a team to do jobs like that for her; as her main job was designing the clothes and promoting her brand. This also establishes that in the fashion industry it is all about having the right contacts; and for Tayla her best contact is her dad who not only works in the industry but also specialises in marketing which is one of the key components to making a business successful. Therefore her dad could give her guidance on how to market her brand well.
Market Research SWOT Analysis Strengths -Has a dad who is in fashion marketing to support her.
-Uses low quality material therefore the garments are cheaper to make so she gets a decent profit. The prices of her clothing ranges from £10 - £45. This is cheaper than most high street stores, therefore young people will more likely shop online at HOT!MESS to get their clothing.
-Celebrities wear her clothes and get photographed in them which then gets her brand more well known.
-Good at promoting her collections through social media. Target customer are teenagers and young adults, and this is the age range that most likely use social media platforms such as instagram.
-5% of her profits go to the UK Youth charity. People may be more willing to spend money if they know some of it will go to charity.
-HOT!MESS have expanded to having more brands such as ‘Baziic’ which is sportswear, ‘Toyshades’ which is sunglasses and also ‘Aquatizer’ which is a random brand not very relevant to HOT!MESS but this is selling water bottles with cooler bags. The fact that they now sell sports wear and water bottles may perhaps open up her target consumer to sporty people who also like fashion.
To summarise she has a good set up for her business with good experience in her team. The fact that her brand is big over social media and she supports the UK Youth charity, goes together very well for the fact that she can post about that online so that customers who also support charities such as UK Youth will see and may be more interested in buying her products. The fact that celebrities wear her clothing also spreads the name of her brand massively as celebrities such as Cara Delevigne have 26 million followers on instagram. Also because celebrities like Cara and Pixie Lott have been photographed wearing HOT!MESS this has lead to the brand being featured in magazines such as the Daily Star. This has been good brand exposure for the brand.
Weaknesses -The brand is very specific on the style of clothes they sell, so if you did not like 80’s/ 90’s fashion then this brand would not appeal to you.
-Small target customer. Age 15-24.
-Tayla has no past experience in fashion, so she spends money employing people for her design team.
Analysis of the evidence has highlighted that her brand is very niche targeting a small group of people. However within this group of people her designs are very popular.
Opportunities -Recently Selfridges in Birmingham launched her label and if it becomes successful it will also be stocked in London and Manchester.
-Aims to have a boutique in London within the next 3 years.
-Alexandra Burke’s manager rang her a few months ago asking if she can design her outfit for her next single.
Overall I think she has a lot of opportunities to branch out her brand to become international. In 5 years time I expect HOT!MESS to be featured in many stores similar to Selfridges and for her followers to carry on increasing. I also think she will start designing more acssesories such as bags and jewelry.
Threats -Her business relies on social media, so if platforms such as instagram or twitter start failing then her business might too.
-Lots of new up and coming brands such as lemon lunar which are very similar are around now giving competition.
-One might say that as there are so many other similar brands newly emerging into the market people may lose interest in HOT!MESS. This means to keep up her brand reputation she will need to keep up with the media constantly adding to her designs and posting them online to compete with other brands.
Research on main competitor In this section the report will examine who their main competitor is and compare the two brands.
-‘My Mum Made It’ is a similar fashion brand which is also a very new up and coming business with low prices and good deals. This brand is also advertised all through social media; mainly through Instagram.
-The difference between ‘My Mum Made It’ and ‘My HOT!MESS’ is that HOT!MESS has a 80’s, 90’s style and My Mum Made It has a minimalistic style with a basic colour scheme. However they both sell clothing for the same target consumer which is aged 15-24.
-Both brands are sold online, but My HOT!MESS is also now sold in shops such as Topshop and Selfridges whereas My Mum Made It can only be bought online.
http://mymummadeit.goodsie.com/
Brand Analysis and Objectives
In this next section close attention will be paid to the Hot!Mess mission statement and their goals as a company.
The whole point of buying from My Hot!Mess is that having your own style and looking unique is important. For this reason they only make around 60 of each style so people aren’t going around wearing the same thing. Tayla doesn’t want her brand to be like Topshop where everyone ends up all having the same clothes in their wardrobe. This means that the kind of customers who will want to be buying from HOT!MESS are people who like wearing one off pieces so they can stand out from the crowd.
Product They sell a wide range of products from dresses, tops, skirts, swimwear, sunglasses to lingerie or shoes.
Communication Strategies The examination in the following section will reveal how HOT!MESS market their brand, which is one of the main aspects in starting up a business as to make a business grow it must build strong customer relationships.
Advertising http://hot-mess.co.uk/about_hotmess https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bVE0qKzj0w
Social Media Social media is a really important way of advertising your brand, especially in this day and age where almost everything is done online. Social media marketing is important as it increases brand recognition and it makes you more accessible for new customers and more familiar and recognizable for existing customers. It can also improve brand loyalty as social media is basically a tool to connect with the customers. Each time you post an image, video or comment on a platform such as twitter or a blog it gives someone a chance to react, and a reaction can lead to a site visit. This is how the brands name gets spread.
For a brand like My HOT!MESS social media is extremely important as its a new brand that has not been around for very long, therefore she needs to get her brands name well known through posting pictures of her collections on instagram. Many celebrities such as Cara Delevingne, Ellie Goulding and Alexandra Burke now wear her clothes and when they are seen on instagram or pictured in online newspapers a large audience will see it and therefore fans and people who follow that celebrities style may go and buy the same outfit. Tayla also sends out free clothes to ‘insta famous’ people so that they can promote her clothing to a wide audience. This way of marketing is becoming increasingly popular for small boutiques.
My HOT!MESS has 5,250 likes on their facebook page and were last actively posting 2 hours ago which goes to show just how much the brand use social media to promote their brand. One of her first facebook posts was back in December 2013 and she posted about a competition where people have to post a picture of themselves wearing her clothes to get a chance to win a £40 voucher. This is a clever way to get people to see her designs and make people want to buy them as people love to follow trends and what other people are wearing.
You might think that 5,250 is a lot of likes on facebook for a niche brand that’s only been around for 2 years; but when you look on their instagram page it’s a whopping 278,000 followers. As you can see from these figures, instagram is the platform she uses most to promote her brand.
Customer Profile
The typical customer for this brand is a young adult who may be still in education studying at university so living off a low budget, and but can afford designer brands such as hot mess to get unique, one of a kind clothing that only around 60 other girls in the world will be wearing as only limited numbers of a garment are produced. She has her own style influenced by the 80’s/90’s era and likes to dress differently to everyone else. Discovering the clothing brand through seeing her favourite celebrity Cara Delevigne post a picture of her wearing My HOT!MESS on Instagram.
Conclusion I think that My Hot Mess has done extremeley well to get their brand so well known when it was only founded two years ago by a young girl with support fro her dad. It has a very specific target customer which makes it a good successful niche brand as she just focuses her designs on pleasing her target consumer. I think the brand needs to carry on branching out to stores similar to selfridges where they sell boutiques, however they also need to keep the collections as exclusive as possible as that is one of the main objectives in Tayla’s business plan.
I am designing the business plan layout so I decided to look on pinterest for inspiration and I really liked this first layout as it looks slick and more visually pleasing to the eye with pictures along side the writing rather than overcrowding the page with writing. I also like the second layout with the diagrams and charts showing the figures clearly. When im designing our business plan I will take into consideration both these layouts to create my own design.
Fashion Entrepreneur Budgets
Today we had a lecture of how to budget as a Fashion Entrepreneur.
Budgets:
A budget may be defined as the funds allocated to pay for the estimated costs of making the product, or incurred to carry out the work.
1. Set up costs - the activities and costs required to set up a new business.
2. Production costs - relate to the design, manufacture and production of your fashion products.
3. Overhead costs - relate to the activities and costs that are required to run the business on a day to day basis.
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Direct Costs - are the costs that can be specifically identified and assigned to a job.
Indirect Costs - are the overhead type costs that cannot be directly attributed to any particular job but they are required to keep the company functioning.
Labour Costs - what the customer pays as a rate per hour
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Breakeven Analysis:
The breakeven pointis an important calculation which will show you your ventures risk and uncertainty. It calculates the number of units your company must sell to cover the set up costs.
This is our brandwagon app icon design and what it looks like on the iphone software.
We used invision to mock up our app design to see what it would look like on a phone and so that people could look at it and give us feedback on how we can improve it. I like the outcome of it; it looks unique and proffesional.
Sustainability
Today we had a lecture on branding sustainability. Fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world and us designers should learn about how we can make things more sustainable. Brands like Rapanui have already started to promote more sustainable business models and they choose to use organic recycled fabrics, and low carbon manufacture. Patagonia is another brand that choose to promote sustainability, for example their marketing slogans are “do not buy this jacket” because they want the consumer to only buy it if its really needed. They stand for good quality products that don’t cause much harm and they are also willing to recycle their old products or even repair them. Larger brands such as H&M have H&M concious which is a small line within the brand and they publicise this line the most as it makes the brand look good, however they are not as sustainable as they say they are as it is for fast fashion. There is some emerging sustainable brands with new types of business models that are recently appearing.
There are 8 C’s which are always good to know:
Core Co operative Credible Consumer benefits Controversial Consistency Commitment Continuity
To make our brand ‘brandwagon’ sustainable we could think about advertising less via posters and more on social media. We can also think about using less packaging to use to but the clothing that was bought in.
Social Media Marketing
Today we had a lecture about how social media is used as a marketing tool. Social media has changed the way people communicate and interact with eachother. Brands can communicate their values and it gives them an opportunity to get brands to talk about what they think of the brand or their experience with it. It also gives them an opportunity to grow business partnerships, gain new followers who would potentially be customers. The key thing to using social media as a marketing tool is that because it’s so fast paced you have to keep up with it. For example if your brand hadnt posted for a few weeks people may soon lose interest as the audience always crave news and innovation.
- One of our main competitors for our app is ‘Vinted’ and they use social media a lot posting once or twice a day on instagram and facebook.
- Our customer profile is someone who works in fashion and obviously has an interest in fashion, likes to wear one off unique pieces and has a decent amount of money. This type of person use social media a lot to keep up to date with the latest trends and get fashion inspiration.
- Social Media Statistics:
“There are just over 3 billion active Internet users (45% of the world’s internet users) Nearly 2.1 billion people have social media accounts 3.65 billion mobile users have access to the internet via smartphones and tablets Close to 1.7 billion people have active social media accounts”
- I think that for brandwagon using instagram will be the best platform to use to market as it is all about selling clothing and our app is very visual showing different designers garments they’ve made and want to sell.
Our customer profile would be someone who is interested in fashion and likes wearing unique one off pieces that no one else has. They have a job in the fashion industry, perhaps as a fashion editor for a magazine. They are at a stage in their lives where they have their career sorted and are earning a fair bit of money to be able to afford clothing on our app. They are social and like to go out and make an effort on their appearance.
I made a moodboard on app competitors. Depop is an obvious app competitor as it is a platform to enable people to sell clothes; whereas our app is a platform for graduates to sell clothes. Our app is more of a niche brand than depop. The other competitor I chose was Spring which is an app to enable people to shop for brands that they love all in one place; and our app is very similar to this in the way that you can shop all the new graduate collection brands in one place.