Case study: Superga vs Converse

Mythic Superga were forgotten deep down in our wardrobe since Alexa Chung appeared on scene. It seems that everything she touches becomes shiny gold. In fact, Superga is now the hottest choice for this season. What has happened with Converse then?

Well, Alexa Chung seems the best choice when it comes to brand ambassadors. Nowadays she is the “it girl”, a fashion icon trusted by press and fashion addicts, who has a great power of influence all over the fashion industry. And this is something really important to consider. While Superga is trying to appeal ELLE and VOGUE readers, Converse is driving to a narrower niche with Dazed & Confused.

Superga advertising campaign with Alexa Chung. Images from Superga.co.uk

With her election, Supega is trying to appeal a more fashionable market: professional men and women, who value elegance, sobriety and style when it comes to choose confortable footwear.

Converse instead is now tapping into underground music and art, targeting urban tribes who look to reaffirm their identity through an exclusive pair of shoes.

In their website, Converse offers different ideas to inspire the creation of your own and only pair of shoes. Among other strategies, they have teamed up with Dazed & Confused to support the Converse Dazed 2012 emerging artist award and they have chosen skateboarding ambassador Raymond Molinar to promote the newly redesigned Sea Star LS.

Image from Converse.co.uk

On the other hand, Superga has pushed a celebrity endorsement strategy that has brought their brand up to be the top choice for this season. Celebrities such as Katy Holmes, Fearne Cotton, Kelly Brook, Guy Ritchie, Sienna Miller or Kristen Stewart, are now Superga fans.

From the press section of their website, you can directly buy Superga’s shoes featured in fashion & lifestyle magazines, you just need to choose your size. In addition to this, you can also give yourself a red carpet treatment by buying directly from their celeb section the shoes that “it girls are wearing now”.

Images from Superga.co.uk

Images from Superga.co.uk

Converse has always tried to appeal niche markets but they were once the comfy shoes for fashionable girls too. Now, even though both brands have the same price range and cover exactly the same need, when it comes to choose one or the other, Superga seems to be their answer.

Graduate Fashion Week in pictures

Visit our Pinterest profile to see more

Visit our Pinterest profile to see more

Fashion & Lifestyle App Selection

In November last year the New York Times launched “The Collection”, an iPad app dedicated to style and fashion content, as part of an experimental strategy to build app around niche topics. Challenging. First of all because providing interesting an innovative content to cover all platforms is not a piece of cake. Secondly, how many app about fashion have we got? Apps were something new a while ago but nowadays the market is so crowded. Despite of the challenge, niche app always appeal large advertisers that want to reach an specific audience, so if you do it all right, there is money behind.

So far the result has been quite positive: their latest version has a customer rating of 420 overall at App Store, with customer reviews such as “Beautiful App, very sophisticated, yet easy and newsworthy”.

“The Collection” app, image from App Store

Another innovative app that has already been quite successful is from Topshop; within four weeks of launch “the app saw 28,000 downloads, an average of 4.5 star rating at app store and a positive response on SM channels”, Figaro digital reports. The same gazette, reassures that a significant percentage of their online sales come from a mobile device. Well, to be honest, I use this app quite often from my iPhone and it is really helpful. The agency Red Ant has developed this app in partnership with Topshop digital team in order to create a new channel for sales and engagement. The app, which includes scanning, sharing and favourites in addition to provide exclusive implementation via the existing e-commerce set up, delivers a bespoke customer experience, which defines its great success.

TOPSHOP app, image from App Store

Another interesting app comes from Watchfinder.co.uk, the largest online retailer of pre-owned fine watches in the UK. The challenge was turning the support of nearly 30,000 readers from an online blog to an interactive free bi-monthly magazine available for download from iTunes.

The magazine has a selection of the top finest brands and it aims their audience to translate their passion for owning the latest model from a brand into building a watch collection. With lots of information from the pre-owned market, this slow-fashion app is insightful and enables readers to justify a purchase. There is a story and a reason why behind it and that is what makes it powerful. The Figaro Digital reports that “The Watch magazine has reached number 11 in the TOP Newstand Free iPad Apps and number 30 in the Top Lifestyle Free iPad Apps”.

“The Watch” app, image from Figaro Digital

On the other hand, New Look’s latest app it is such a communication disaster…their app, recently updated in April, has really bad customer reviews. It is labelled in App Store as “rubbish”, “truly disappointing”, “difficult to upload”…”by the time it works you have already lost interest”.

NEW LOOK app, image from App Store

The idea of delivering a bespoke service tailored for niche audience seems to be the key of success for fashion a lifestyle app. Even though providing innovative content might be quite challenging, the niche created appeals advertisers and it can actually push sales. In fact, a great app linked to point of sale, enriches the in-store experience and enables the brand to engage easily via social media. However, a strong idea behind, it is not the only answer. The technology needs to work perfectly, otherwise your audience will leave or provide bad reviews, which is even more damaging for a brand.

Calzedonia Press Day

Press days season is now ending and all magazines already have AW12-13 collections in their hands. Last week, I had the opportunity to visit Calzedonia group press day at Wolf & Badger and The Dover Street Gallery and I had such a great time. PR girls on the door were delightful and collections looked amazing in a white space only interrupted by a projection of Calzedonia´s 25^th anniversary party. Little bowls with different kinds of Mediterranean food and a range of light refreshments were the perfect company for a rainy-sunny day that was starting to drive us crazy.

On this occasion, Brian Morel PR presented all Calzedonia group brands: Calzedonia, Intimissimi and Tezenis.

I have to say I was impressed by all collections but one of the most exciting was their leather capsule collection for Intimissimi. It is the first time that the brand uses leather for their creations and even though I am not a great fan of using leather in fashion, objectively I have to say that the whole collection is really well curated.

Calzedonia Press Day. Picture by House of PR.

Calzedonia Press Day. Picture by House of PR.

Alongside the collections, we had a look at the “Perfect Bra” catalogue for Intimissimi, a guide to different styles, effects and shapes designed to adapt to every woman´s figure. Choosing the right bra means choosing your own way to seduce, feel confortable and feminine at the same time and they have named each piece with a women’s name to make it even more special.

Calzedonia Press Day. Picture by House of PR.

Their press pack included a gift card for swimwear, which I redeemed yesterday at Calzedonia´s flagship store in Oxford Circus. I have to admit I was like an hour in the store trying to choose one, they have got really nice bikinis and it was really difficult to decide!

Oh! Another interesting thing, Intimissimi has just launched a unique initiative to join the eco-sustainability cause: the scrapping and recycling of old bras. The “Recycling your Bras” project aims to collect old brands, no matter what the brand, in order to manufacture sound proof insulating board thereby helping to reduce waste and alleviate noise pollution. I never knew that my old bras could ever be so useful!

Christian Louboutin & The Art of Communication

It is a sunny Sunday morning and I am looking for an exciting plan to enjoy my day off. What is on in London? Oh my God! Christian Louboutin has opened an art exhibition at Design Museum! I had an amazing lunch with friends nearby the River Thames and then we all decided to enjoy the art of shoes. The perfect plan, right? A few years ago pop up stores or 4D projections were top trends for fashion communication but today, tapping into consumer’s cultural consciousness is the new black when it comes to brand promotion. The fashion exhibition has become the hottest tool of the art of communication.

Christian Louboutin exhibition at Design Museum, London

I have to say I have never seen the Design Museum so crowded, with lots of people queuing from the outside. Different accents could be heard along the line, Americans, Italians, Frenchs, all waiting to enjoy the hotttest London attraction: a fashion brand exhibition!

Curated by Donna Loveday, this exhibition celebrates two decades of the French designer’s work since the label’s launch in the 1991. As soon as you step in, the exhibition transports you to the Parisian Moulin Rouge: shiny luxurious shoes all over a red velvet space only interrupted by an stylish Dita Von Teese hologram.

The space, that has been designed by Household, shows the truly brand essence of the fashion house, leaving a red footprint on visitor’s mind.

Alongside Christian Louboutin exhibition, another French fashion house is now showing in Paris. The Louis Vuitton-Marc Jacobs’s exhibition at Paris Musée des Arts Décoratifs shows a story of two iconic names, Mr Vuitton and the brand’s current creative director, Marc Jacobs. The exhibition, that has already got press coverage all over the world, runs until 16 September 2012.

Louis Vuitton-Marc Jacobs’s exhibition at Paris Musée des Arts Décoratifs

The fashion exhibition is definitely a long lasting communication tool that helps to raise brand awareness. It might not be the cheapest strategy but it actually works. In 2011 the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York had over 650, 000 visitors to “Savage Beauty” an exhibition about Alexander McQueen’s hottest designs. Fashion’s Collective reports that that was one of the Met’s most visited shows ever, “pitting iconic fashion pieces against blockbuster art exhibitions such as Tutankhamun’s Treasures and the Mona Lisa.”

Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty exhibition at the Metropolitan museum, New York.

Yohji Yamamoto’s exhibition at the Victoria & Albert museum was another greatest hit in 2011 as well as “Culture Chanel” at The Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai.

Culture Chanel exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai.

The truth is that this communication tactic is a useful educational tool. Perhaps consumers in newer markets cannot afford their luxury goods but the price of an exhibition ticket provides aspirational access to the high-end products.

New free fashion magazine lands on the media landscape

aMUSE, a new free monthly fashion lifestyle glossy magazine exclusively for London, will launch on 30 April. Londoners were waiting for a posh version of the Stylist and it seems that aMUSE could cover the niche quite well. A group of editors and journalists from Condé Nast, Hearst and News International have worked together to launch this new magazine, which will offer a mixture of arts & culture, fashion & beauty, shopping & lifestyle. aMUSE publisher, Stephen Murphy, said ” Free magazines are a major part of the evolving media landscape” and I wonder if that will be the future of printed fashion magazines…

Well, in most of the cases, the price is just a symbol of exclusivity. Could you imagine a free copy of VOGUE? It wouldn’t be VOGUE then. The huge number of adverts covers all printing costs, editors, photo shoots, celebrities and even the lunch from Itsu around the corner. The price is just a symbol that reinforces the status of VOGUE and a great part of its readership buys it for aspiration purposes.

However, the financial storms have troubled the larger magazine houses lately and the customer behaviour is changing. Perhaps in the years to come, more free printed fashion magazines will appear in the media landscape.

How can PR prove its value ?

Evaluation might not be the most exciting topic when talking about Public Relations but the truth is that it is the only way to show that we are not building sand castles in the sky. In fact, evaluation not only shows PR effectiveness in terms of ROI or impact on business objectives, it also helps to focus our efforts, understand what worked and what did not so we can improve our practice for future campaigns.

There are different technics and traditional methods that can be used in the evaluation process but most of them are divided by outputs, outtakes and outcomes. Focusing on the topic, the outputs basically measure what has been done by PR practitioners and consider things like media coverage or web hits. The outtakes measure changes on the audience’s understanding or awareness by using focus groups, opinion poll, etc. And the outcomes measure the impact on the business, like product sales or changes on the behaviour.

Although all three levels of analysis are important to the evaluation process, the Barcelona Principles for PR Measurement prioritise measuring the outcomes because it truly shows the effectiveness of PR within the communications strategy.

In this context, it is really important to consider that evaluation is not only a bunch of tables, graphs and charts but also the ability to turn this information into something meaningful. For example, there are PR agencies like Cognito that use their own evaluation methods so they can offer a full package to their clients. Other companies such as Media Evaluation Research specialise only on the evaluation bit. However, this kind of analysis can increase the costs of PR and some clients do not see evaluation as a necessary investment.

Last semester the PRSA offered a webinar to explore the evaluation process and they stated that at least 5% of a budget should go to evaluation in order to prove the effectiveness of PR campaigns.

The AMEC, the Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication, states on its guide to media evaluation that good management requires good measurement, which is a common view between PR practitioners at manager level.  For example, Andrew Marshall, Cognito’s EMEA MD, highlights the importance of measurement tools: “Cognito, rather uniquely, combines deep sector specialisation together with strong international reach, innovative approaches to social media and market-leading measurement and evaluation tools, such as Cognito Analytics.”

By combining meticulous research methods with expert analysis, evaluation can provide comprehensive reports that can help managers to understand the current status of their brands and make decisions that can affect PR planning.

In the end, evaluation is not a tool to prove that we have been working but  a unique method to improve our practice.

References:

Cognitomedia, Cognitomedia online, retrieved 14th April 2012, <www.cognitomedia.com>
CIPR, Media Evaluation Research, CIPR online, retrieved 14th April 2012, <www.cipr.co.uk>
Media Evaluation Research, retrieved 14th April 2012, <www.meresearch.co.uk>
CIPR, Barcelona Principles the end of AVE, CIPR online,  retrieved 14th April 2012, <www.cipr.co.uk>
PR Week, Andrew Marshall joins Cognito after Finshburn Hedges departure, PR week online, retrieved 14th April 2012, <www.prweek.com>
PRSA Evaluation Webinar