Since the beginning of 2020, the world has been impacted by Covid-19 and it has dramatically affected the majority of fashion, luxury, and beauty industries, forcing them to make widespread changes. Retail took a hit from temporarily closed stores and consumer behavior has changed as concerns turned to health and wellbeing rather than physical and online shopping.
As we begin to enter a new normal, the fashion, luxury, and beauty industries have also had to adapt and re-connect to their customers, maintaining a sense of community through their key channels across social and online platforms.
In our report, Marketing Reset: The Voices Impacting Brand Performance During COVID 19, we have analyzed the data across the first trimesters of 2019 and 2020, to understand how the global pandemic has impacted the value of different marketing activities and their overall brand performance. Looking at a cross-industry and cross-Voice comparison, we study how specific marketing strategies have driven value for brands, as well as how they have evolved before and during COVID with the shifting demands and concerns of their customers.
In this article, we take a look at the top premium fashion brands that were agile during this period and evolved their marketing strategy to maintain and sustain brand relevance to their customers and increase community engagement via their Media Voice.
How Premium Fashion Brands have Adjusted Their Marketing Strategy During and After COVID-19
Ganni
In the first quarter of 2020 Ganni’s Media Voice increased by 10% in comparison to 2019. Looking at the data, we see that in the months of February and March the brand’s MIV® continued to evolve against last year’s numbers. In February 2020, Ganni garnered $9.27 M in MIV® as compared to last year’s February MIV® of $5.3 MIV®. A key driver for this increase was the fact that they were featured in mass publications such as Refinery 29 and Vogue US in relation to the latest style trends.
Ganni was also featured in global publications in March 2020; not only did the brand launch a new collection, they additionally activated a global campaign called ‘Home Is Where The Heart Is’ to encourage everyone at home during quarantine to stay creative and practice self-care. This campaign successfully caught the attention of their customers but also tapped into new audiences by launching a challenge that anyone could be a part of. They encouraged their followers to submit a creative image that fits in line with the overall campaign theme giving them a chance to win up to $1,609 in Ganni gift vouchers as well as being featured at their next pop-up during Copenhagen fashion week in August.
This campaign is an indication of the brand performance growth Ganni experienced in March 2020, representing a 53% increase compared to March 2o19, generating $8.7M in MIV® for the brand. This is an interesting strategy executed by Ganni, who leveraged the Media Voice to amplify their campaign message to a wider audience. This helped activate a creative challenge for the brand as well as amplify Ganni’s positive editorial contribution during uncertain times, additionally building brand relevancy to its customer.
Aspinal of London
Aspinal of London is another premium brand that has leveraged its Media Voice during Covid-19 in order to drum up MIV®. In the peak months of the first quarter in 2020, Aspinal of London’s Media Voice increased by 18% compared to the Media MIV® generated in 2019. Looking closely at their activity during this time, the brand started off with high brand value in January, generating $1.46M in MIV®, which is a significant increase from the $894K in MIV® that the brand generated in January 2019.
As the Covid-19 pandemic spread within the UK, we did see a decline in the brand’s overall MIV®, which was to be expected. What is interesting and important to highlight is how the brand utilized its accessories range to engage with its customers and gain features in publications. In April they were featured in GQ with their Aerodrome backpack. Being that this publication received an MIV® of over $2.3M, this feature is a great strategic placement for the brand to help engage with their customer and offer a suitable product at this time as well as build momentum with its customers.
Not only did they diversify the product ranges that were featured in the press, but they were also in support to help those in need during COVID-19, and were mentioned as one of the British designers supporting local communities and relief funds, as featured in 2LUXURY2.com, a leading digital magazine for luxury enthusiasts.
It is clear that premium brands have amplified their Media Voice to stay agile and have shared relevant products or creative campaigns that resonate with their core customer. The Marketing Reset report has highlighted that in uncertain times it is important for brands to be reactive in order to understand what the reality of their customer’s core concerns is, to ensure their product is reflective of their customers’ well-being, long-lasting connection to the brand and not just pure consumption.
The significant shift in the value generated by different Voices shows that understanding your overall brand voice and the channels in which you share stories is key. This helps premium fashion brands retain customers and set the foundations for their marketing strategy as the industry adjusts to a ‘new normal’.
