New Zealand fashion and lifestyle blog

Brand Awareness

For a fashion designer, hearing what to do from those further along the road, or inside tips from industry experts, is invaluable, and often impossible to come by. That’s something that Fashion Industry of New Zealand…

For a fashion designer, hearing what to do from those further along the road, or inside tips from industry experts, is invaluable, and often impossible to come by. That’s something that Fashion Industry of New Zealand, FINZ, seeks to rectify, with its series of DHL Express Apparel Export Series seminars.

I joined them early for a coffee and croissant today at the New Zealand Trade & Enterprise building for the first of the series, entitled PR + Media: Building Your Brand In Export Markets.

The event was also streamed live at locations in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

The panel of industry experts included Patty Huntington [Frockwriter], Dan Gosling [Stolen Girlfriends Club], Murray Bevan [Showroom 22], and Rae Begley [Little Hero], discussing brand; new media; engaging with international media; engaging with international consumers; integrating the brand experience and commerce; and controlling your brand in the marketplace.

It took place thanks to the help of Auckland Tourism, Events & Economic Development, DHL Express, New Zealand Trade & Enterprise | Path to Market and of course, the fantastic FINZ.

So, what were some of the key points we got out of it? (Note: I’ve summarised, rather than used direct quotes.)

First up: Discussing "Brand."

Dan – Brand is everything now. It determines price, and how the public perceives you.
Murray – The word ‘brand’ is bandied around too early in a label’s career. It won’t become a branded product until later.
Patty – An exception is Ksubi; brilliant marketers, "All brand and no business!". They did the stunt with rats on the fashion week catwalk in Australia timed to get press coverage in the next day’s papers. They got the brand out there, built their business, lost it, and restructured!
Dan – Stolen Girlfriends Club had our brand before we had any product. We shipped out the iconic ‘Stolen Girlfriends Club Says Relax’ tee-shirt to magazines before we had any product to sell. On the international stage though, compared to here in NZ, scrutiny is horrendous.
Murray – Brands aren’t just doing clothing, it’s more of an emotional response.
Patty – Note that the world IS watching what happens here; Prada are doing a flame shoe after Kate Sylvester did hers; images from NZ Fashion Week are online, circulated around the world.
Patty – Someone brilliant at branding herself, is Kim Kardashian.

Narrator (Mapihi Opai of FINZ) – New Zealanders are not very good at self-promoting …

Murray – We don’t have a celebrity culture here; when you’re too visible, the knives are out. e.g. Charlotte Dawson and Nicky Watson. We’re too modest.
Patty – But there are exceptions to that! (Laughter)

Marketing overseas…
Rae – An issue with marketing NZ brands to overseas, is pricing; it often ends up triple what it sells for here. NZ is very nurturing of our own brands (Buy NZ Made, support local labels etc) but there is lots of nit-picking overseas. Having a unique signature is vital.
Rae – Perhaps moving into producing a trans-seasonal collection to sell simultaneously to both Northern and Southern hemispheres at the same time. It would mean producing less heavy coats and knitwear, though.
Murray – Brands do well here (such as Juliette Hogan and Kathryn Wilson and many more) but do also need to learn to translate success into selling in international markets.
Dan – Mark-ups differ.The UK is 2.8 to 3.2 times (retail over wholesale price) and NZ is 2.3 to 2.4 mark-up. Therefore, make sure your pricing is consistent around the world. (i.e. when pricing garments, take international prices into account.)
Rae – Some brands get a great shot at a store then lose it due to poor infrastructure i.e. can’t fund the order or deliver it on time.
Dan – Slow, steady growth is important. Get a really good agent. Get your distrubution right. e.g. a big department store effectively does your marketing for you.
Patty – The onus should be on fashion school to encourage designers to have a 5 year plan.
Dan – They DO drum that in…
Murray – Many successful NZ brands are partnerships, combining both the creative and the back-end e.g. Wayne and Kate (Sylvester), Mikhail and Karen (Walker), the two Zambesis (Findlays.)

Top Tips for NZ Exporters: Ask Yourself…

Are you ready?
What’s my point of difference?
Have I researched into where I’m going? This includes competitors, the celebrities there, the country’s climate and the fabrics you use, make sure you’re not copying others sold there but are distinct, look into the PR and media.

New Media Landscape: How Has Media Changed?

Patty – Everyone’s a reporter. Reporters aren’t reporting, and everyone else is!
Facebook, Twitter, live streaming of shows. NZFW should be on 24/7.
Murray – The democritization of media.
Dan – It’s important to follow a blog where you respect their opinion.
Murray – You can skew your views through a certain person you follow, as opposed to the past where there was more unbiased news reporting i.e. newspapers.
Patty – You can go the way of Tom Ford, who chucks all the photographers out of shows, or the opposite such as Burberry where they sell clothes off the runway. At Australian Fashion Week some labels were going to look at selling a capsule collection immediately after FW. Ruby did that here, after NZFW.
Rae – At first, we let all the bloggers in to our shows. There’s only a few quality bloggers. We create stories just for online media, in order to get the immediate response.
Patty – Everyone talks about numbers (traffic stats of websites) but it’s about the dedicated audience. You only need 1000 true fans to make a living. (See 1000TrueFans website.)
Rae – It’s important to know WHERE you want to tell the story, to get to your audience. Gen Y are so actively engaged.
Patty – Deal WELL with your criticism. And fast.
Murray – Listen to the feedback carefully (e.g. Adidas backlash over the price of their All Blacks jerseys at the Rugby World Cup.) They adapted and the sentiment improved.

To enrol in the next of the FINZ series, go to www.finz.co.nz for details.

Megan Robinson 7 November 2011
Photos by Hannah McArdle of Aychblog.com


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