Think Fashion! Do Fashion! Sell Fashion!

Fashion is a fascinating subject which stimulates a great many questions, an essential requirement for its marketing endeavor.  In many sectors with creative output, it has long been noted that designers need to know about marketing and marketers need to know about design. This is what makes the business of fashion meets targets.

Fashion is about creating in order for the change which is intrinsic to fashion to take place, the industry must continually create new products. Used in another sense, the term fashion means to construct, mold or make. Fashion, therefore, also involves a strong creative and design component. Design skill is essential and can be seen in all products from the made-to-measure suit to the elaborate embroidery on a cardigan.

Although the level of design can vary considerably from a basic item such as a T-shirt to the artistic creations of Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Yves St Laurent or, in more recent times, Gucci,  The majority of garments sold do not come into this category, but the inspiration for the design of many of those garments may have come from works of art.

Versace, Puma, Nike. To some the design of fashion garments can be viewed as an art in its own right, though this is a notion supported more in countries such as France and Italy and some African countries such as Nigeria than in Britain, US.

However Fashion  and  marketing; The continual change, i.e. fashion, involves the exercise of creative design skills which result in products that range from the basic to the rare and elaborate. The creative design personnel provide part of the mechanism by which the industry responds to the need for change. At the same time the ability to identify products that the customer needs and will buy is also essential to the industry. Marketing can help to provide this additional knowledge and the skills needed to ensure that the creative component is used to best advantage, allowing businesses to succeed and grow.

Fashion marketing is an application of a range of techniques and a business philosophy, centered upon the customer and potential customer of garments and related services in order to meet the long-term goals of the organization. In the very nature of fashion, where change is intrinsic, gives different emphasis to marketing activities. Furthermore, the role of fashion product development in both leading and reflecting consumer demand results in a variety of approaches for fashion marketing.

As the most important work from product development to target market, fashion marketing can help to provide the knowledge and skills needed to ensure that the creative component is used in the best way, allowing the business to succeed and further develop. However, the process of this work is always influenced by the human perception of fashion products, which is a dominant uncertain problem existing in the total apparel supply chain from manufacturers to consumers.

Furthermore, with the development of human-centered design for fashion mass customization, the impact of human perception has been emphasized for supporting decision making in target market management.