City Fashion Guide (more about this project in a next post) has realised its first Fashion Trip! Journalists, editors and bloggers have visited local fashion and jewellery shops and studios and, as they said, they had a great time. Many thanks to all the participants, designers and shop managers.
If you want to plan a Fashion Trip for you and your friends, colleagues or business partners, please write to
lenka@cityfashionguide.eu.
Adam Sýkora Wines
Designer Marcel Holubec W. in the M.ONA Fashion Store
M.ONA Fashion Store
Cosmic Beauty (Krása Vesmírna) by Renáta Ormandíková
Carte Blanche Studio
Cakes by The Hedonist Klub
Designer Jana Kuzmová in the Carte Blanche Studio
Veronika Hložníková
Dana Kleinert
This May, Chanel admitted that their most famous fragrance, Chanel No.5, will be for the first time in the history of the perfume represented by a man. By Brad Pitt.
Now still several days remain until Pitt’s TV commercial start airing - it is planned for October 15th, but the campaign has already begun. With the words FOR THE FIRST TIME. Chanel released a beautiful four-minute video (worth a click) which shows the history of the perfume with it’s unique for-the-first-time moments. Chanel presents itself as an innovative brand and the choice of Mr. instead of Mrs. nicely fits into their concept.
Yesterday Chanel began to publish short teasers with long-haired Brad. These videos aren’t so cool as the historic one, but I’m waiting for their official TV commercial. So on October 15th maybe I’ll buy my own Chanel No.5 and wear just a few drops of it to bed… For the first time.
Lady Gaga made a nice marketing step to show all her non american fans it is sooo easy to order her new fragrance FAME from America. She ordered it to Estonia and took a picture with her new arrival.
And what about fame of her FAME in America? Yes, in the United States this first ever black eau de parfum became the number 1 fragrance.
Check out the youtube channel of Haus Laboratories for FAME commercials (it’s not everything yet - the worldwide campaign film will be released on September 13th at the Guggenheim museum). I like this french one - Formulation. And you?
The day when I go to the Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Ball is fast approaching. I’m looking forward not only to the show but also to Gaga’s audience.
Last year, when I was struggling through a crowd at her concert, I noticed that she has an extremely diverse fans. There were young girls with parents, teenagers, grandfathers, couples of every age, families, gays, groups of friends. Some of them looked pretty strange, some very stylish, and some totally normal. Gaga has made a few very clever steps to get so many target groups. She wants to be the world’s most famous star and she can’t do it with only one target group. If you have big plans for your brand, you should look not only at groups that are likely to buy your products, but also at groups that you haven’t previously considered. But, be aware, when you do target them, you have to talk to them in ways they understand.
Gaga has reached many target groups in many different ways. Here are two examples of how she has approached her targets:
- Homosexuals - homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals make up a large part of Gaga’s fans. They fell in love with her and it didn’t happen only by chance. As Maureen Callahan writes, in the beginnings of Lady Gaga, Interscope hired a PR agency that specialized in homosexual target groups. With their help, Gaga was able to perform in the best gay clubs, at best gay parties and she started to support them. Getting this community, she earned a dedicated core of economically strong consumers, passionate fans that love to buy. And moreover she earned the status of an outsider artist, which works well for teenage outsiders.
- Fashionistas - There are many people who love and admire fashion and then there is Lady Gaga who is well known for her unique fashion creations. She loves to talk about what she is wearing and all fashionistas love to hear it. Few years ago she started to work with famous stylist Nicola Formichetti, who helped her to break into the fashion industry. A survey from my final thesis says that more people can describe her fashion creations than they can say names of her songs. Fashionistas make up a very large group and are also a very love-to-buy audience. In return Lady Gaga loves them and she speaks to them very often. On her shows, in her music videos, in TV shows, … and throughout her column in V magazine. (Yes, besides everything she does, she is an occasional columnist.)
When you search for your next target set of groups, talk to someone who belongs to them or who works with them. Hire PR agency specialized on a gay audience, or get an opinion leader on your side. Because, your desired target groups will let you in only if you know how to speak to them.
The fashion show of eleven new fashion design graduates, which I organized, was held on Thursday, June 7th in Bratislava. The audience would surely agree that The Academy of Fine Arts produced some very talented designers this year. In my first post on this fashion show you can see a preview of their collections.
Mgr. Mirka Ferklová created a collection for a modern slovak gentleman:
Mgr. Libor Komosný with the Vertical collection inspired by architecture:
Mgr. Martin Hrča succeeded to grab a shadow:
Mgr. Lucie Králová was inspired by statues with souls:
Mgr. Veronika Kostková and her unisex collection It:
Mgr. Lenka Tatárová and her fashion reaction to Audi A1:
Bc. Lena Rypáková and her Rorschach test:
Bc. Maja Božovič created a very black collection full of layers:
Bc. Andrea Ganoczy with a sporty collection No-way:
Bc. Emma Korpová was inspired by clothes of mentally ill people and ballet dancers:
Bc. Henrieta Kurčíková created a collection of head covers based on traditional Slovak hats:
Thanks to all our partners…
In this day and age, with all the SOPA and ACTA hoopla, the use of free samples is really noteworthy. Convincing people to buy is a great issue for any artist whose work can be stolen on the Internet. One way Lady Gaga sells her music is by giving it away for free. And obviously it’s working.
Before Little Monsters start to pay for their Mother Monster, they can receive something for free. Gaga puts all her videos on the Internet, encourages her fans to take pictures and film her during her shows. And when they share it on YouTube, where everyone can see how the whole show looks, well, it’s just great for her popularity. Even if your work can’t be downloaded, offering free samples can be very good PR for you.
Gaga knows, having a good relationship with her fans is great for business. When she released Born this way in May 2011, on iTunes it became the fastest selling song of all time. Even though it’s been viewed millions of times for free.
Another great (and funny) example of this free-content strategy is the Monty Python YouTube channel. They launched it three years ago with the witty video in which they pretend to be really disappointed by the fact that on YouTube nobody has to pay. After that, sales of their DVDs increased by 23 000 percent!!!
Let’s watch it for free and have fun (and than maybe you will buy it).
