Introduction
Design firms are constantly in a continuous endeavor because of increased competitiveness that continuously threaten their existence. In particular, the luxury fashion industry may be difficult to manage because the sector is often characterized by customers who are quite particular about their needs. The research proposal will look into the luxury fashion brand sector and unravel the success tips that the design firms can employ in the course of their operation. Further, this proposal will seek to identify the areas where design companies may be going wrong and how they can address the issues to make positive returns. It will further adopt various research approaches which will include having questionnaires, observations, Interviews, case study and even random surveys. The interviews will be conducted on fashion conscious individuals and various designers.
Marketers have over time come to appreciate the benefits that arise from aligning one’s products to the consumer’s tastes and preferences. Time is gone when companies would only start the hierarchy from the management flowing down to the customers. Nowadays, the board of directors appreciates that customer’s expectations must be met at every level and thus should rank top in the hierarchy. The luxury fashion sector is fast rising as customers would desire to be identified with certain brands that evidently ooze class (Gardetti & Muthu 2015, p. 36). This proposal seeks to establish whether various design firms use different strategies to capture the attention of the customers. However, it is essential to acknowledge that it is unfortunate to note that some of the companies have learned very little if anything about customer retention. Customer loyalty, in this case, refers to the desire of a client to repeatedly make purchases or rather prefer an individual brand over the rest (Lent& Lent, 2009, p. 103). Further, this research proposal notes that several factors come into play when it comes to attaining customer loyalty. Customer loyalty also arises when the clients can connect emotionally with the services being offered by an individual company (Gardetti & Muthu, 2015, p. 26). This research proposal seeks to unravel customer loyalty and how it might affect the luxury brand sector.
Research Questions
• What age group is likely to purchase the high luxury fashion products?
• What drives people into buying the luxury fashion?
• What can companies do to retain customers in the long run?
• What value proposition do they expect from the high-end products?
• What can companies do to align the client’s tastes and preferences to their innovation?
Objectives
Establish the age group that is likely to purchase luxury products
Determine the factors that drive people into purchasing luxury products
Establish factors that create loyalty of customers in the long run.
Establish the value propositions and expectation of clients concerning high end products.
Determine the measures that companies can adopt to align the preferences and tastes of luxury products with their innovation and product development
Significance
The importance of this study is to help the various stakeholders in the fashion industry and understand how they can enforce customer loyalty among their clients. Further, the study will be of assistance to different marketers because they establish new approaches to apply their learned skills to acquire and even retain customers. The positive thing about this is that creating customer loyalty will inevitably translate to positive returns for the fashion industry and hence good return on capital. Lastly, the research proposal will aid the proprietors in choosing their market segment well and avoid making investments in places where they would least likely make good returns.
Limitation
The research may fail to consider that trends change over time, and hence the marketing strategies need to be flexible. Additionally, the study may not consider other factors in marketing by only focusing on customer loyalty thus not benefiting the market in the long run.
Literature Review
The luxury market presents a unique challenge in comparison to the contemporary marketing because the clientele displays varying behaviors. For instance, in marketing a luxury product, price is not a factor, which is a major selling point in contemporary marketing. Developing loyalty among the clients plays an imperative role in driving sales in this sector. It is essential to consider the cultural aspects because cultural factors differ across regions and societies and what is deemed fashionable in one culture might not be fashionable in another culture (Gardetti, & Muthu, 2015). Innovation, constant and consistent market research plays an imperative role because consumers of luxury products are in constant search of new trends in the market.
Jackson & Shaw, (2009, p. 52) seek to intertwine contemporary marketing and fashion, noting that people buy luxury fashion for various reasons. For instance, luxury buying customers are particular about the making of certain products which may lead them into being selective. The authors illustrate that for some, the high-end fashion goods are an indicator of a higher social standing in the society, and they thus give someone a sense of being. The top fashion brands messages the clients’ ego and that is why they keep coming back for the goods. The authors also note them when it comes to purchasing the high fashion brand, what the society perceives the brand may be the biggest motivator regardless of the price. For businesses, enforcing customer loyalty must be a top priority of any enterprise if they are to survive in the industry (53). The authors are also keen at illustrating using case studies that would help a marketer choose the right approach while dealing with a potential client.
Kapferer and Bastien, (2009, p. 23) identified strategies that can assist business people make successful luxury brands. They provide insights on how top luxury brands came into existence and how they have even managed to survive amidst the stiff competition. As such, it is important for the managers to facilitate the conduct of a market segmentation and understand their clients if they are to remain popular and make significant sales from their businesses. Since the majority of the international brands operate as franchises, they should seek to understand their individual customers, which will then help the drive good sales and maintain their popularity among the consumers. According to Kotler & Keller, (2012, p. 126) understanding individual customers enables the franchise to tailor make their products to meet specific customer needs. Customers who in this case get their expectations fulfilled become loyal. As such, entrepreneurs should not focus on making massive sales, but rather, capture the few customers who are worth the ride (125). Further, the book illustrated how small family businesses used different strategies to achieve a mass market, something that would have seemed impossible looking at first due to their small size.
While promising a certain unique feature to the client, for instance, it is advisable to be particular of its functionality. For luxury products selling luxury fashion may not, in essence, require factors like heritage and time, but frequent updating because it would be termed obsolete. Manrai and Manrai (2001, p. 9) agree with the concept that selling luxury fashion requires the marketing executive to invent a business model that would persuade the clients to pay more for the services they are offering. The authors are keen to note that positioning does not play out well in luxury Fashion selling. In essence, the luxury fashion is meant to be unique. Trying to leverage it against the market standards only end up lowering its value and its price. As such, it is important that the assumed price of the luxury product is higher than the actual price, with the goal of separating the buyers from the non-buyers.
Evans (2009, p. 11) illustrates that customer trends keep on changing and businesses should adopt the innovation theory to enhance their sustainability in the market. When a new fashion comes up, people quickly adapt to it, and it becomes the new style in the market among people (13). Further, Chandran (2014) posits that the designers should be keen on the different cultural values and affiliations because what is considered fashionable in one culture would seem inappropriate and unacceptable in a different culture. The same theory applies when it comes with colors as people have over time developed different understanding. A luxury attire that is colored red may seem beautiful in one state but signify danger in a different nation. As such, there is a need to have constant innovation and look into the untapped market. The Muslim community is fast growing, and they have also begun to be more fashion conscious. In that regard, realizing that the Muslim fraternity can also be real customers is a sound basis for making exclusive designs and work at ensuring customer loyalty.
According to Lent, Tour, & Lent (2009, p. 153), the market should not define the price, but instead, the luxury should. Moreover, companies that seek to concentrate on the loyal customers should market to them more. Selling luxury fashion also highlights that advertisements should not merely focus on selling the product, but instead, the prestige that comes with it. Unlike the mainstream strategies of being customer oriented, selling luxury fashion requires one to concentrate more on building dreams and not on meeting specific client needs.
The literature review is a good background on what marketers should utilize to sell their prestige brands. A luxury brand can indeed sell if the designers focused their energy on understanding the customer trends and their culture. As such, tailoring the designs to customer’s tastes would end up saving on costs for the designers which would, in the end, translate to more profits. Various researchers and marketing enthusiast have outlined the particular processes that one must follow to sell their luxury fashion successfully, despite facing so much competition. For instance, the use of major celebrities, in this case, should be limited and only applied in instances where the luxury owner wish to communicate the sense of being in the same class with them.
Methodology
Population and Sampling
The population under consideration is working class citizens from the age of eighteen to 45 years. The reason for choosing this particular group is simply because they have the finances required to purchase the brands and thus would not feel the pinch. The study group will be arranged into three groups which are the age of 18-25, 25-35 and 35-45. The study will unravel the reasons behind the young people’s purchaser and also what drives the baby boomers into making individual purchases. It is indeed true that while the baby boomers may only be looking for sustainable fashion materials, the generation Y is simply following trends. For some, the high fashion gives them an identity and thus raises their self-esteem. The study areas will be major towns across the United Kingdom, which include London, Manchester, and Liverpool. Perhaps the fact that the United Kingdom is a country that is deeply rooted in sports means that there are a lot of celebrity endorsements, a factor that drives the sales.
Data Collection
The primary tools of data collection will be interviews, case study, observations, random surveys and even the use of questionnaires. The interviews are appropriate in this case because they will enable the researcher to have a face to face conversation with the respondents and also read their attitudes. Observation as a data collection tool also seemed applicable seeing that one can quickly make assumptions by merely looking at how people make fashion choices. Having case studies will also aid in rising to certain conclusions, particularly regarding the fashion choices of the different age groups. Random surveys will be used in this research because the researcher aims at obtaining unbiased information for the research question.
Data Analysis
The data will be analyzed using correlation analysis, which involves evaluating the kind of relationship that exists between the luxury brands, customer loyalty and age or finances. Results from the data will be tabled, and ANOVA will be used to indicate different relationships. A time series will also be used to indicate the trend of the fashion choices across the various age groups, about the luxury fashion segment. A frequency distribution will also enable the data analyst to evaluate the areas that need work on and also where most consumers prefer when making their daily luxury fashion purchases. The use of a deviation will also aid in analyzing how far the luxury choices move away from the required norm. Geographical analysis of the data will also be applied to understand the different fashion choices across the United Kingdom.
Reference List
Gardetti, M. A., & Muthu, S. S. (2015). Handbook of sustainable luxury textiles and fashion. Volume 1 Volume 1. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1050539.
Jackson, T. & Shaw, D. (2009). Mastering fashion marketing. Basingstoke [England]: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kapferer, J. & Bastien, V. (2009). The luxury strategy. London: Kogan Page.
KOTLER, P., & KELLER, K. L. (2012). Marketing management. Upper Saddle River, N.J., Prentice Hall.
LENT, R., TOUR, G., & LENT, R. (2009). Selling luxury: connect with affluent customers, create unique experiences through impeccable service, and close the sale. Hoboken, N.J., Wiley. http://www.123library.org/book_details/?id=6166.
Chandran, N. (2014). This fashion sector has a huge market gap. [online] CNBC. Available at: http://www.cnbc.com/2014/12/14/this-fashion-sector-has-a-huge-market-gap.html[Accessed 31 Oct. 2015].
Evans, M. (2009). Consumer Behaviour towards Fashion. European Journal of Marketing, 23(7), pp.7-16.
Manrai, L. and Manrai, A. (2001). Current Issues in the Cross-Cultural and Cross-National Consumer Research in the New Millennium. Journal of East-West Business, 7(1), pp.1-10.
