The Synergy Between Fashion And Brands

One of the latest rising values in Turkey is brand and fashion collaborations. Due to media’s craving for what is visual, it is an acceptable development that fashion and design are becoming popular through media... Besides, design is quite good material for marketing communications when one considers the extraordinary visual stories of distinguished objects that are offered for consumption.

Instead of information economics, there is now the economics of design and innovation crowned with tales. Brands take new steps to add value to themselves by differentiating through the effect of design in many different fields from automotive to food or real estate sector. Companies include design investments within the allocated R&D budgets and obtain positive results from these investments in the short and long run. The artistic touches in designs by famous names create a multiplier effect in the brand’s positioning and allow the perception on the consumers’ minds to be established on stronger rationale grounds.

Brands mostly lean towards products and services that bear the signature of famous artists or emerging talents when they come together with fashion. For instance, the Coca Cola bottle appears in brand new looks at certain intervals with the special designs of world-famous designers. Up until now, Coca Cola worked with different famous names for different occasions - such as Manolo Blahnik, Jonathan Saunders, Matthew Williamson, and Patricia Field.

The Şişecam Group, one of the world-wide leading groups in the glass household goods industry, worked with world-wide leading designers and brought a breath of fresh air to the industry with their first global design brand, Nude. They address their customers with collections of specially designed products by world-wide known designers like Ron Arad, Rony Plesl, and Alev Ebüzziya. Thanks to design products that defy the limits in glass mastery, they carry themselves to the Blue Ocean* at once by differentiating in the strong competition environment...

The industry was livened with the launch of Uludağ Premium in the bottles which were designed by Ece Ege and Ayşe Ege sisters, the creators of the world-famous brand Dicle Kayek. Uludağ Premium aims to be a part of the lives of consumers’ who strive to live a joyful life, who care about the choices they make, and who are always after capturing new value. It is one of the brands that is inspired by fashion in accordance with its own essence.

Coming together with fashion allows positioning the brand with more premium codes. In a country like Turkey where luxury and premium products are used more for showiness, it is inevitable to ignore the gain obtained out of owning abstract values originating from fashion. Concepts like freedom, prestige, ease, and repugnance that originate from the synergy that forms with fashion, symbolize a life style by penetrating the brand. And brands that adopt a life style muscle up much faster.

5 KEY POINTS ON FASHION FOR BRANDS:

When we look at the common characteristics of successful brands that are in touch with fashion, the secrets for the beginning can be summed up in five titles:

1. Make them follow you.

WOM has a very important place in the world of fashion. A brand that would like to stand out with its designs, must be able to attract attention via influencers that appeal to the target consumer group. Brands  which get together with the right names and pursue this relation consistently, will be more successful in trailing their consumers.

2. Own grand events.

Event management has become much more important than before for new designs to reach their goal. One of the keys to success in this field is selecting the right events to sponsor and achieve the multiplier effect. Lately, we witness brands in very different sectors stand out with fashion events. Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is  good example of how fashion can be claimed.

3. Take your place in the blog world.

We wouldn’t be too far off if we said that nowadays one of the most important legs of fashion communication is the blog area. From a small start-up to the biggest giants in the world, examples of players from the design world entering that of bloggers’ one way or the other multiply by day. A collection that cannot benefit from the blessings of this world where visuality is key, will come short in one aspect.

4. Get your brand to wander in the streets with your customers.

In fact, the soul of design originates from the streets. Therefore, without doubt, a lot of added value is to be gained from having your brand’s designs live and wander in the streets. Many brands in the fashion world use their specially designed bags as icons. They make them into an accessory that the customers stroll around with. No matter what the sector or the product is, it must be able to live in the streets.

  

5. Stand out in media with PR activities.

Correct communication is an indispensable necessity in order to obtain return from collaboration projects realized with high costs. This is in deed a totally separate topic. However, in order to be able to communicate the carefully crafted special-design products and their underlying philosophy to the customers, they need to be supported with different activities. It is necessary to be in contact with fashion journalists and opinion leaders and to tell the story of the designs through these channels creating WoM and long-lasting solid relations.