Communication Strategy For Miss Shanghai

Communication Strategy for Miss ShangHai

Introduction

Clothing and fashion have become significant areas of study within the social sciences with a central assumption and analysis dealing with how clothing is used as a tool in expressing people's desires, social status and self esteem (Niessen & Brydon, 1998). As a consequence of the development of a modern system of retailing fashion clothing has become a product linked with economic, political, technological conditions as well as one shaped by social and cultural ideas. Particularly branded fashion goods are widely used by people as an expression of identity communicating with others their status or beliefs in the same society as well as others (Entwistle, 2000). There are significant implications arising from these concepts in marketing fashion products in that brands as visible symbols are an integrated part of modern marketing communications.

Miss Shanghai Design House is an international designer company which design a wide range of luxury fashion product ranges include women's wear and men's wear under the brand name Miss Shanghai. The design draws upon images and symbols originating from traditional Chinese culture especially historical Shanghai styles . The company is located in London where the majority of management and financial functions are located while raw materials and labour mainly sourced from China. China is also where the majority of the company's production site is situated.

The Brand Model

A variety of brand models are suggested within the literature and the brand strategy doctrine process model defined by Knapp (2000) will be used in this case. The first stage in brand planning is a Brand Assessment which aims to investigate existing brands in the same market segment and consumer preferences in terms of attributes and qualities desired in a product/brand. This first stage will allow a positioning of the brand successfully in the marketplace based on informed market research. Secondly it is important to clarify what is held to be the essence of the brand or namely this can entail the benefits that customers can expect from experiencing/purchasing this brand's products. The Brand Blueprint stage refers to the actual creation of the brand by determining which messages are used in communicating to customers in order to convey the brand's imagies. The Brand Culturalization stage focuses on how employees internalized the beliefs of the brand creating an organisational culture which enhances and leverages brand strengths. Finally Creating Brand Advantage involves actual communication strategies, tools and processes used to complement the brand planning process and refine brand image.

Brand Assessment

Fashion essentially is about creating in response to rapidly changing trends , thus fashion business depends on short term trends reflecting designers' creative ideas as well as customer demands, tastes and preferences. It is suggested that women's wear is viewed as the largest segment in clothing retailing, and this continuously demonstrates growth yet emergent consumer pressures towards products are related to wider social trends and in particular the role of women in the modern world such as increased participation in the labour force (Willams, 2002). Therefore for Miss Shanghai women are suggested as constituting its biggest class of consumers yet changing characteristics of female customers such as changing clothing tastes and less time available for purchasing products result in difficulties in maintaining consumer loyalty (Domosh, 1996).

The UK fashion retailing industry is one which is highly concentrated in that a number of retailers possess the majority the market. However while larger retailers such as Marks and Spencer and Primark tend to dominate middle market segments and value market segments in the luxury market they are less dominant. Reasons for this include high consumer sensitivity to brand names within luxury products markets leading to strong niche markets for stores such as Selfridges and Co. Famous English brands include Burberry, Vivienne Westwood and Paul Smith and there are also a wide range of French, Italian and American brands such as Chanel, Versace and Alexander McQueen. However there are few Chinese based luxury fashion brands which are focused on delivering styles fashion products in the marketplace. Therefore there is room for Miss Shanghai in developing a luxury Chinese brand in the high fashion segment.

Miniard and Engel (2000) define the first step of the consumption process as the recognition of needs which can be influenced by various factors such as reference group, self esteem and value systems. In terms of clothing purchasing activities, brand name, price, style as well as quality have important influences on the decision making process in consumers purchasing certain products. According to Entwistle (2000) clothing is not merely a product consisting of textiles but has a deeper more complex connotation in that many individuals and groups use fashion in negotiating their social and cultural identities. It is clear that there are several stages prior to the final action of purchasing a product therefore a communication strategy is used to build up effective customer relationships and communicate brand image at various stages by Miss Shanghai particular during the early stages of need recognition (Foxall, Goldsmith and Brown, 1998).

Additionally a determinant of the degree to which customers evaluate brands is the level of involvement or that high involvement means extensive evaluation (Hawkins, Best and Coney, 1989). This evaluation can be similar like-for-like brands or alternatives. In purchasing clothing products research has illustrated that involvement typically ranges from medium to high (Breward, 2000). With this attribute of involvement brand names have substantial influences within the evaluation process. Linked to brand images culture, which stands for effects that are imposed on a consumer by other individuals in the same society, has a significant impact on consumers through mediums such as peer/reference groups, celebrities etc. Thus where images, concepts and signals communicated by celebrities through the media are disseminated and accepted by the general public in turn they can lead to particular fashion cultures creating consumer demands (Mowen & Minor, 2003). Secondly, people are social beings and acquire a rich body of information from others by teaching, imitation, and other forms of social learning. According to Solomon et al (2002) the desire to 'fit in' through identifying desirable