OUGD603: Womenswear Brand Research

Competition/Inspiration


Many womenswear brands which target a younger female demographic use instagram as an effective marketing platform to increase brand recongintion and sales. Some brands tend to use celebrity endorsements to entice potential customers to buy into their products. The association between a celebrity and brand can significantly increase consumer awareness of a product, add credibility to a service and help to establish a trust and affinity that would otherwise take years to build. Examples below. 

Deciding on the brands tone of voice (Tounge n' cheek with a hint of sophistication and hella lot of style.) enabled me to think further into the style of clothing and products the brand would be selling as well are starting to consider the name. Research was conducted further into already existing brands which were successful and shared similar brand values. 

Missguided

• Logo is simplistic yet effective and easily legible, without looking cheap and tacky. 

• Misguided pride themselves on their mission to empower females globally to be confident in themselves to empower females globally to be confident in themselves and be who they want to be. Missguided is a bold, straight talking and forward thinking fashion brand inspired by real life that aims to do exactly that. Everything they create is informed by their customer along with global influences like social media, street style, and popular culture, creating a destination that delivers and encompasses everything it means to be a girl on the go in the world today.

• The products they create are designed by in-house ttalent that's made to equip millennial women with the fashion they need for all elements of their life. And since their aim is all about empowerment, they make it easy for everyone by making our product affordable. Its not just fast fashion - its rapid fashion. They drop over 50 brand new styles every single day, working constantly to bring their "babes" the freshest pieces, put together in wearable ready-to-go outfits.

• Nitin Passi is the man behind Missguided, starting his career in the New York fashion industry he set up on his own in 2009. With a loan of £50k, a passion for product and endless ambition, fast forward to present day, Passi runs a global multi platform brand and strives to continuously better what they do in every aspect. 

• Babe power is at the heart of their brand. They believe in championing young talent and real women, inspiring a new generation of unstoppable females to be themselves and achieve whatever they want. Their babes are the dreamers, believers and doers who represent our customers, brand advocates and iconic women from all shades of life and creative expression.

• They do all this and as much as they can to ensure we source ethically and to avoid acts that constitute modern slavery. To this end they have a team that is dedicated to understanding our supply chains, ask them about their operations, ensure they understand what supplying ethically means and provide guidance, training and assistance where necessary. 

Encourages social sharing IRL

• From its Tinder-inspired app to its Instagram feed, everything Missguided does online is inspired by a social-media-obsessed generation.

• The physical store is an extension of this, clearly designed to be ‘Instagrammable’ in its own right.

• With signs prompting customers to download the app and follow the brand on Snapchat, it cleverly fuses the online and offline experience.

Reinforces brand tone of voice

• Missguided is quite clever in how it speaks to its target audience, using slang and pop culture references to create a tongue-in-cheek brand voice.

• With slogan light boxes dotted about everywhere, this is another aspect that stands out in-store.

• It is used to great effect, with slogans like ‘mermaid party this way’ replacing the expected ‘more clothing upstairs’.

Although Misguided is a massive inspiration to the new brand, it would be difficult to initially compete with such a hugely successful global business straight away. So some things taken from this research such as store designs etc could be discarded as the new brand will initially just start online.

Hot!mess

• Logo uses exclamation mark to make an impact, the type is spacious yet thin and sophisticated.

• Owner states that she had a vision to make clothing that you couldn't find on the high street. That she admires girls that like to stand out from the crowd. Hot!mess is for girls that aren't afraid to break the rules. She'd like to think shes created everything for everyone all in one place.

•  One of fastest growing online multi brand retailers in the youth fashion market. 

• Combined social reach of over 670,000 followers. Hot!mess has dressed global style icons including Kylie Jenner, Miley Cyrus and Liam Payne. 

• Their four in house brands individually aim to empower the Hot!Mess woman and allow her to transform herself into whoever she wants to be that day.

In The Style UK

• Slogan says "Keeping you in style since 2013."

• In The Style offers trend led fashion at reasonable prices. Adored and adorned by celebrities, they are a brand that never shies away from the spotlight.

• They aim to redefine ‘fast fashion’, empowering women to feel good about themselves and how they look - to have the confidence to take on the world. 

• With new styles added daily, global shipping, and easy returns, staying in style has never been so easy!

Boohoo

• By the looks of things, and personal aesthetic preference Boohoo defiantly needs a refresh on their logo. The two colours pink and black promote cheap and tackiness as well as the contrasting typeface's not really being in complimentary with one another as one is square and thin and the other being bold and round. This aesthetic style for me does not promote sophistication or luxury which is something I am aiming to achieve with my brand. However I do agree with their brand values stated below.

• From Manchester’s best kept fashion secret to one of the fastest growing international retailers, boohoo.com has quickly evolved into a global fashion leader of its generation.

• Combining cutting-edge design with an affordable price tag, they've been pushing boundaries for the past eight years to bring you all the latest looks for less.

• Their philosophy is pretty simple: we don’t take fashion or life too seriously. Whether you like to keep one step ahead of the trends, or if subtle style is more your thing, we’re sure we’ve got something you’ll love. And with up to 100 pieces hitting site every day and a new collection each week, they never stop - it’s 24/7 fashion at its best.

Oh Polly

• Oh Pollys logo is similar to missguided however it promotes the same simplistic sophistication without looking cheap, the light link is feminine and cheeky.

Mars The Label

The serif typeface used here promotes luxury and class. However also adds a hint of uniqueness as some of the A is taken away.

Pretty Little Thing

Although the name works perfectly in terms of flattering the customer. Although seeming to be effective the logos typefaces is far too similar to Oh Polly and Missguided's logo. This style of type seems to work to be recognisable and easily legible however I wouldn't want my brand to be to be instantly recognisable based on it being similar to another.