Fashion Marketing Assignment: Strategies to Influence Consumers Psychology

Question

Task:
Write a fashion marketing assignment on the topic “Marketing techniques consumed by brands to appeal to consumer psychology by making them obsessed with the brand.”

Answer

1. Introduction
It is seen in this fashion marketing assignment that marketing by various brands primarily targets the consumer's psychology with an ethical, legal, and honest approach. Studies related to the marketing approach makes psychological and emotional impact rather than only featuring the products. Especially in the fashion market, consumers become obsessed with some specific brands that they think worth trusting for a long time. Besides emotional appeal, honest representation, exclusivity, brand repositioning, and motivation also makes a brand affecting the psychology of a human being.

2. Background Overview
Marketing psychologists are a real thing that works with advertising agencies closely for extensive consultation on how a particular brand will work on specific demographics. They work on diverse planning in selling merchandise with a broad study on whether the advertisement will fail or achieve success. One of the unique marketing techniques that work directly on the consumer's psychology is self-persuasion. Studies have explained that self-persuasion is way more effective than direct persuasion or no persuasion by a brand. It enhances generosity and efficiency among the customers, where persuasion is completely dependable on their involvement in a brand (Bernritter et al., 2017).

Self-persuasion makes the persuasive approach limitless and transparent to the consumers that they change their mind on their own. On the other hand, fashion consumers most of the time influenced by sustainable product choice. Luxury brands in the fashion industry target this technique in providing sustainable fashion products that can last their wardrobe for a longer time than the regular brands (Han et al., 2017). However, most of the time it is dependable on the psychology of the consumer who believes in buying expensive brands for assessing sustainable products.

3. Rationale Behind Contemporary Branding Practices
Currently, the fashion industry is facing huge competition in providing exceptional, sustainable, and attractive products to consumers. Both luxury and mid-range brands are targeting the comparatively young consumers who are easily influenced by certain parameters. Studies have identified the free markets in the fashion industry that make an impact on consumer psychology by creating a delusional effect with the name of freedom (Szocik et al., 2018). In the current situation, sustainable fashion promotion is capturing the fashion industry to influence the customers on environmental and social responsibilities.

The luxury brands enhance their branding on their multidimensional products and emotional aspect of the buyer’s purchase behavior with the help of audio branding (Malenkaya & Andreyeva, 2016). Music lasts longer than visual appearance, so the luxury brands promote high-end music to make their consumers remember the brand's name. The contemporary fashion industry is always targeting modern designs for young consumers. The luxury brands are mainly targeting women, who have the potential to spend a huge amount of money to add clothes to their collection. While mid-range brand targets more of global consumers who can sustain their market with regular or occasional purchases.

4. Impact of Product Features and Marketing Strategies in Enhancing Brand Value

In the hugely competitive market of the fashion industry, product feature often provides an opportunity for the brands to differentiate themselves from other brands. New product features can easily attract consumers to trying or buying new products based on the brand's influence. For example, most global brands release seasonal clothes which makes the consumer's purchase on a seasonal basis to acquire new designs. Fashion brands are employing more emotional branding besides effective product features, attributes, and facts to shape the brand's evaluation in expanding their consumer range (Kim & Sullivan, 2019). Marketing strategy on the other hand creates demand for a certain product by disseminating awareness and marketing programs among the consumers. It is based on a particular company goal, demography, profit, and consumer satisfaction. Enhancing the beneficial aspect of a product can easily motivate a consumer rather than encouraging them with a vague advertisement, which most of the time does not even feature the actual product.

Digital marketing has influenced long-term marketing growth in various sectors as well as in the fashion industry. Various luxury brands have adopted the revolution of digital marketing which helped them in expanding their market easily even in global markets (Rios, 2016). In the traditional market, the four distinct marketing strategies are related to the 4Ps – product, price, place, and promotion. While the product meets its integrity and quality, the price justifies its selling point to the audience. The actual psychological part is place and promotion, which divides the potential customers from others. Brand value always generates both rational values to the business and emotional value to the consumers. The efficient product quality, price, design aspect, and market position generate value for a particular brand. Most importantly, the application of undeniable marketing strategies and genuine product features eventually increase brand value in enhancing more revenue.

5. Impact of Brand Value in Appealing Human Psychology

Consumers are the main aspect when building a brand. Consumers give brands value by developing the perception and expectations of a particular brand. Human psychology affects building the brand on a large scale. The brand should keep in mind what the customers need and what they don't need. Customers always seek out brands that meet their expectations and by striking memory or story they identified with. Company brands along with the product feature selling the lifestyle and emotions to the consumers. The brand stirs the emotion of the customers. The brand should design strategies to motivate their customers which will make their business grow more.

Marketing professionals should make the brand, which will give customers satisfaction with the product. The brand value also falls to impact the consumers. It constructs an idea in the brain of the customers, it makes them customers loyal to the specific brand (Hayat et al., 2020). Perfect advertising of the brand; set an impact on the consumer’s brain. It builds a close relationship between the brand and the consumers.

Brand communities' fall impacts on the psychological aspect of the consumers. Giving what the customers want and give importance to the customer’s psychological process make the brand more successful in the communities of the brand (Lin et al., 2019). The brand value is attached to the customers emotionally. It makes them buy the product repeatedly from the same brand and also recommend the brand to the others as well.

6. Impact on Human Status, Rank and Privilege
Fashion psychology is defined as the impact of the clothing choices of the customers. For fashion marketers, it is important to understand the factors that are adopted by the group of consumers and what kind of product they want. Fashion marketers focus on what kind of product consumers want most, that product will stay in fashion for a long time. Like, classic fashion is extremely long acceptance fashion, whereas fad is short-lived fashion. Generation Y consumers are mostly into diverse fashion-statement (Valaei & Nikhashemi, 2017). They either dress to fit in into their groups or to maintain self-identity in society. A survey shows that Gen-Y spent 70% of their money on fashion apparel.

Sustainable fashion is common in the fashion industry today. Consumers nowadays not only follow trends of fashion but also maintain the economical balance. Consumers are also into products that are eco-friendly. Consumers have now educated about the fashion products they are wearing, which help to make the choices while updating their wardrobe with a value tag (Khandual & Pradhan, 2019). New and old fashion brands are also developing to attract consumers globally. People nowadays become responsible for sustainable fashion. Customers are now more approachable towards ethical shopping choices. They approach custom made apparel, sustainable design technique. They are also attracted to fashion products that have fair pricing and are made ethically.

Prices of clothing in the fashion industry are the main aspect of marketing. Prices of sustainable brands exclude many people who cannot sacrifice their money. As able to use beautiful clothes is a privilege, but buying luxury brands is not everyone can afford. Ethical fashion helps to minimize the negative impact on the environment, work exploitation and it is beneficial for all. But minority groups are already struggling to shop in the mass-market, so it is tough for them to decide whether they should buy ethical brands or not. High-class people can always afford high-quality products (Roncha & Montecchi, 2017). The luxury brands have premium quality, fine craftsmanship, and recognizable style and premium price and unique. To attract the people of the market, luxury brands are changing continuously, which increases their value in the market.

7. Successful Branding and Sub-branding
Consistency and value generation makes branding successful for a brand. It is consisting of innovative and unique design, market position, personal gesture towards the consumers, and keeping their promise. For example, Apple Inc. is one of the most successful brands with its high-end products and disruptive innovations which makes the consumers invest in their product whenever they hit the market. Various mid-range and fast brands, such as H&M co-branding luxury projects that make a significant impact on the brand's loyalty and revenue generation (Shen et al., 2017). Many brands conduct collaborative programs with famous personalities, celebrities, and sportspersons that attracts a wide range of consumers. It changes human psychology in acquiring products with only the brand's name or for the people behind the collection.

Sub-branding is another way to expand subsidiary brands aside from the name of its parent company. For example, Converse, Hurley International, Jumpman, Tinker Hatfield, etcetera is running under the Nike brand as its sub-brands. These brands have established their identification aside from their main brand name which enhanced individual brand value. The brand value associated with the parent brand does not always transfer to its sub-brands. However, it can disseminate its brand popularity and loyalty and can lead the consumers of the parent brand in making a purchase decision (He et al., 2016). Thus, it generates a psychological impact on succeeding in attracting new consumers with the name of its popular parent brand.

8. Positive and Negative Impact of Active Branding on Human Psychology

Active branding is a process that helps connect consumers with brand messages. Most of the fashion marketing sectors are dependable on branding the product. Good branding can help the business to grow in the market. The positive effects of active branding are, to influence the customers to get the product of that particular brand. The customers are more willing to pay more for the brand, which they know and trust easily. It will help to grow the business as well as help the fashion industry equally. Positive branding can also make loyal towards the brand (Shen et al., 2017). It also improves the performance of the brand, which will attract customers further.

Negative branding can also affect the fashion industry. It has shown that a particular brand has done good advertising for the product; the customers also get influenced and buy the product from the brand. But the qualities of the products don't meet the expectations of the customers. It gives a negative impact on the brand as well as the customers (Davvetas & Diamantopoulos, 2017). Negative branding can also give an inappropriate presentation of the brand. It can lose the face of the fashion industry.

9. Designs Are Configurational Concepts: What Does It Mean?

Apparel designers usually use the term “design concept” which basically the inspiration and beginning idea of any fashion product. Configuration in design has an approach which can be logically embedded with the design approach of the product (Verstegen et al., 2019). To develop designing concepts in the fashion industry, digital tools are used. It will make the process innovative. Conceptual design can make a particular change in the design world.

10. Conclusion
Marketing is a real thing in the world. In the fashion industry, the right advertising of the brand can help to elevate the business. The brand has a great impact on the mind of the people. Good branding can influence consumers to get attracted to a particular brand. Good quality product of a particular brand can make customer loyalty towards the brand, as well as it also attracts new customers to it. People nowadays approach towards sustainable fashion. It makes the fashion industry economically available to everyone. In fashion, industry branding is an important aspect to grow business in the fashion market.

11. References
Bernritter, S.F., van Ooijen, I. and Müller, B.C.N. (2017), "Self-persuasion as marketing technique: the role of consumers’ involvement", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 51 No. 5/6, pp. 1075-1090.

Davvetas, V., & Diamantopoulos, A. (2017). “Regretting your brand-self?” The moderating role of consumer-brand identification on consumer responses to purchase regret. Journal of Business Research, 80, 218–227.

Han, J., Seo, Y., & Ko, E. (2017). Staging luxury experiences for understanding sustainable fashion consumption: A balance theory application. Journal of Business Research, 74, 162–167.

Hayat, Z., Hayat, S., Hayat, S., & Awan, H. M. (2020). A Framework for Assessing Impact of Brand Personality on Customer Satisfaction: The Moderating Role of Gender and Age. Journal of Business and Social Review in Emerging Economies, 6(3), 999–1014.

He, Y., Chen, Q., Tam, L., & Lee, R. P. (2016). Managing sub-branding affect transfer: the role of consideration set size and brand loyalty. Marketing Letters, 27(1), 103–113.

Khandual, A., & Pradhan, S. (2019). Fashion brands and consumers approach towards sustainable fashion. In Fast fashion, fashion brands and sustainable consumption (pp. 37–54). Springer.

Kim, Y.-K., & Sullivan, P. (2019). Emotional branding speaks to consumers’ heart: The case of fashion brands. Fashion and Textiles, 6(1), 1–16.

Lin, C.-W., Wang, K.-Y., Chang, S.-H., & Lin, J.-A. (2019). Investigating the development of brand loyalty in brand communities from a positive psychology perspective. Journal of Business Research, 99, 446–455.

Malenkaya, Y., & Andreyeva, A. (2016). Fashion and audio branding: The analysis and interpretation of luxury fashion marketing concepts. Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 7(4), 291–304.

Rios, A. E. (2016). The impact of the digital revolution in the development of market and communication strategies for the luxury sector (fashion luxury). Central European Business Review, 5(2), 17–36.

Roncha, A., & Montecchi, M. (2017). The underpinning strategies leading to high value perception of luxury fashion brands. IUP Journal of Brand Management, 14(3), 7–21.

Shen, B., Choi, T.-M., & Chow, P.-S. (2017). Brand loyalties in designer luxury and fast fashion co-branding alliances. Journal of Business Research, 81, 173–180.

Szocik, K., Gemzik-Salwach, A., Cywinski, ?., & Inglot-BrzeRk, E. (2018). Fashion effects: self-limitations of the free will caused by degeneration of the free market. Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, 31(1), 2100–2115.

Naser Valaei, S.R. Nikhashemi, (2017) "Generation Y consumers’ buying behaviour in fashion apparel industry: a moderation analysis", Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, Vol. 21 Issue: 4, pp.523-543

Verstegen, L., Houkes, W., & Reymen, I. (2019). Configuring collective digital-technology usage in dynamic and complex design practices. Research Policy, 48(8), 103696.