Mediaboss Marketing

Indian apparel brands are finally getting up close and personal with consumers through social media.

Its Fashion Week all year round for some apparel brands, with social networking sites turning out to be the new age marketing tools that designers are now delving into to advertise and retail their collections.

Apparel majors have realised that no other medium provides room for such an up close and personal relationship with consumers on a mass scale. Though consumers need to like what they are going to buy and wear, and design and style is ever important in this category, brand is all important when it comes to establishing a real emotional connect with the customer.

Brand importance has increased tenfold for fashion consumers. And apparel manufacturers, who were once relegated to only receiving feedback from retailers, now have the power to engage directly with customers.

With social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube and even Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest, apparel brands are hosting a Fashion Week round the clock, 365 days a year.

Adapting to the medium has helped prospective clients become aware about the latest happenings and launches regarding the designers brand, said Mahesh Solanki, social media artist, who consults at leading apparel houses in Mumbai.

He went on to add that creating a successful apparel line is very difficult as it is. Keeping it consistent and evolving with the audience over the long haul is more challenging.

Brands are not individual products. It is all about the products and marketing and multi channel experience and service and corporate identity, all sewn up together that bring on a greater deliverable to the consumer. Getting the right elements in place is not an easy task for many, said Solanki.

Fashion, he added, is discretionary. The promise of a brand must tug at a consumer's emotions to make a sale, for consumers express who they are or want to be by the brands they choose.

Tracking real-time social activity, which caters to audience growth, engagement, advocacy, and message propagation, is a tough task. However, with massive competition among fashion apparel brands, brands are in dire need of understanding what is in the minds of their consumers and which factors have influenced their shopping behaviour.

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Fashion Week, all year through