Defining the Role of

Fashion Blogs:
have blogs redefined consumers
relationship with fashion brands
or do they simply offer a new
marketing tool for retailers?
Research conducted by Megan Schertler, Tessa Kreunen
and Anna Brinkmann as part of the lecture Fashion Theory held by Jos Teunissen, Hanka van der Voet and Maaike
Feitsma.
This research was commissioned by Crossmedia Lab in Utrecht en ArtEZ Hogeschool
voor Kunsten in Arnhem.

Abstract
This reports intention is discuss how fashion blogs can be of value to fashion
retailers and to discover if blogs actually shift the power of influencing consumers
away from the brands. Through exploring the various ways in which companies
use blogs as a part of their overall marketing strategies, the research aims to be
a resource for fashion retailers operating in the Netherlands to better understand
how to best incorporate blogs into their marketing strategy. This paper presents
findings from specific examples, both successful and unsuccessful, of instances
where major corporations have employed blogs in order to communicate their
visual identity.

Fashion TheoryReport written by

Megan Schertler Tessa Kreunen Anna Brinkmann

Introduction
In 2004, the Merriam-Webster dictionary declared the word blog as the
word of the year due to the fact that it was the word searched for the most by
users of the online version of the dictionary.1 The year it received this honor, the
word blog had not yet even made it into the dictionary as an official entry but its
power within contemporary jargon was inescapable. Ten years on and one official
dictionary definition later, the word blog, as both a noun and a verb, remains as
important and highly used. Often, though, how the word is defined is dictated by
the individual or industry using it.
When employed by fashion retailers, the word blog often represents a multitude of new marketing strategies through which to engage existing and potential
customers. Blogs and the individuals manning their helms have secured their
position within the fashion industry as veritable forces to be reckoned with. As
Renata Certo-Ware outlined in a recent Op-Ed piece for the website Business of
Fashion:
bloggers are a crucial part of the fashion ecosystem. [They] are some of the
hardest working...writers, photographers and critics in fashion and, collectively,
have just as much power (if not more) to generate consumer interest and drive sales
as traditional print editors.2

This is not to say, however, that blogs have completely replaced older more
established methods of fashion marketing. Rather, blogs are being incorporated
as a supportive element alongside existing marketing campaigns. The research
presented explores the various ways in which companies use blogs as a part of
their overall marketing strategies with the aim of defining what blogs mean to
fashion retailers, in particular. Commissioned by the Crossmedia Lab in Utrecht
in order to better understand the relationship between Dutch blogs and fashion
retailers operating in the Netherlands, this paper presents findings from specific
examples, both successful and unsuccessful, of instances where major corporations have employed blogs in order to communicate their visual identity. With
the Netherlands being a relatively recent convert to the expansion of the fashion
blogging industry, in comparison with America and the United Kingdom who saw
the introduction of fashion blogs at the beginning of the Twenty-first century, it
1 Lists of Merriam-Websters Words of the Year, Wikipedia, accessed 28 September 2014, http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_Merriam-Websters_Words_of_the_Year.
2 Dont Write Off Fashion Bloggers, Business of Fashion, accessed 28 September 2014, http://www.businessoffashion.com/2014/01/op-ed-dont-write-off-fashion-bloggers-just-yet.html.

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is important that these examples are mined so that communication failures and
unsuccessful campaign strategies are not repeated.3

Methodology
Blogging exists in a constantly renewing state that is intertwined with the
evolution of other digital social media applications; its history forever updated
with each blog post and each individual bloggers online social communication. It
is important to note, therefore, that academic studies dedicated to the relatively
recent emergence of the blogging phenomenon are unique in that they lack the
luxury of time through which to reflect on the topic - whether exploring its history,
implications or projections.
Further, this characteristic has largely stunted the relevance of scientific research published on blogging. Academic texts aiming to provide insight on blogs
are often out of date at their time of publishing. It is a problem not dissimilar to
those experienced in other areas within the academic canon of digital fashion,
where a qualitative approach is, perhaps, most effective but also difficult to outli4

ne due to the research designs circular, as opposed to linear, nature.

Having been given a limited amount of time through which to observe the
topic at hand, the research presented here provides a snapshot of the current relationship between blogs and fashion retailers.4 Different examples of marketing
campaigns using social media have been collated via industry forums, interviews
and through directly observing retailers digital branding efforts. This information
was then compared and contrasted in order to deduce which variables result in
valuable communication between the brand and consumer.

Theory
Social media: an overview
The present moment in the history of digital communication and the World
Wide Web is experiencing the maturation of a generation of digital natives.5 Digital natives, sometimes referred to as Generation C, are those individuals who

3 The Would-Be Outing of a Young Socialite, New York Observer, accessed 28 September 2014, http://
observer.com/2005/07/the-wouldbe-outing-of-a-young-socialite/.
4 Flick, An introduction to qualitative research. Fourth ed. (Los Angeles: SAGE, 2009).
5 To quote David L. Williams, et al., Although previous generations now recognize and appreciate the
impact technological advancements have had on the workplace and their lives in general, millennials have
always known and been immersed in technology from The use of social media: an exploratory study of
usage among digital natives. Journal Of Public Affairs volume 12, issue 2 (May 2012): 127-136.

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were born into a digital world and cannot delineate their social development between pre-online and online interactions. In addition to the larger sociological and
psychological implications the rise of digital natives may have on future generations evolution, it has been observed that the digital native presents new opportunities through which capitalistic methods can competitively adapt.6 Online retail
presence has birthed new approaches to marketing and retail management in
order to capitalize on the characteristics found to be inherent to the digital native.
In the early days following the invention of social media, organizations, both
retail and otherwise, were slow to address ways in which new online communication channels could be incorporated as part of their larger marketing strategy.7
As social media became more and more popular, eventually growing into a massculture phenomenon, companies began to understand that the new online social
technologies were not merely trends but, rather, that they represented an entirely
new model on which marketing strategies would have to be based.8 The wordof-mouth nature of social media had made it nearly impossible for companies to
have complete control over the information communicated by their visual identity
and their marketing strategies. Not only did companies have to accept that they
had lost this control, it also became increasingly hard to track and/or regulate
everything that was being said about a company, making cases of visual copyright infringement or corporate damage control much more difficult to manage.
No longer can the dissemination of brand identity be seen as a hierarchy with
Marketing and Public Relations teams positioned at the top; now all individuals
that are active online also play a leading role.
Social media platforms now provide the channels through which customers,
both existing and potential, have the power to significantly impact the reputation
of a brand, their sales and sometimes even the survival of a brand.9 Through
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other online social media platforms, every individual with access to the internet can communicate about their relationship, expe-

6 New SDL Study Shows Millenials are 56 Percent More Likely to Discover Marketing Content on Social
Networks than via Search Engines or Email, SDL, accessed 23 September 2014, http://www.sdl.com/aboutus/news/pressreleases/2014/new-sdl-study-shows-millennials-are-56-percent-more-likely-to-discover-marketing-content-on-social-networks-than-via-search-engines-or-email.html.
7 Kietzmann et. al, Social Media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media, Business Horizons 54 (2011): 241-251.
8 Ken Yeung explains how social networks, such as Facebook, turned into a social phenomenon. Originally
created as a network for Harvard Students it now, ten years later, has a significant impact upon how work is
done, the way we communicate, and our society. Ken Young, Facebook at 10: From social network to social
phenomenon, The Next Web, accessed 27 September 2014. http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2014/02/16/
facebook-10-moved-just-social-network-impact-lives/.
9 Kietzmann et al., (see footnote 7).

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rience and criticism of a brand without needing to go through formal channels.

10

Fashion companies soon discovered that the introduction of communication

channels that allowed for the creation and exchange of user-generated content
gave new and lesser known brands the possibility of reaching a worldwide audience.11 The digitalization of fashion communication, however, does not exclusively function in favour of the consumer, but has also become a crucial method of
marketing for emerging brands and styles. One successful example of this is the
recent surge in popularity of Scandinavian fashion brands.12 One can easily chart
the relationship between the increase in the number of successful fashion blogs
in Sweden and Norway and an increased global interest in Scandinavian brands
as an exponential rise. Brands like Acne Studios, Wood Wood, Nudie Jeans and
Cheap Monday, but also mass retail giant Hennes & Mauritz (better known as
H&M), have gained worldwide popularity during the past ten years. That said,
collaborations between brands and social media outlets do not always result in
an increase of sales revenue or positive brand recognition. Negative effects are
equally possible. If companies make just one ill stated campaign or produce a
6

design that is considered unfashionable, all it takes is one clever blogpost or

devastating posting on Twitter or Facebook for the mistake to go viral and for the
whole world to be able to read about it.
Kietzmann highlights one example in particular where musician Dave Carroll used social media to expose a negative experience with a major airline.13
Carroll recorded a music video about United Airlines breaking one of his musical
instruments during the course of a flight. The video about the experience was
uploaded on YouTube and has been viewed 14,2 million times since its debut.
14

The videos popularity caused the stunt to even receive press from offline me-

dia channels such as Television network CNN.15 The negative attention led to
a catastrophic brand crisis for United Airlines, specifically because the Carrolls
personal experience was validated by the sharing of an enormous number of similar stories from passengers who were equally familiar with the failures of airline
10 See the following websites for these examples: Facebook, accessed 26 September 2014, www.facebook.com. Twitter, accessed 26 September 2014, www.twitter.com. YouTube, accessed 26 September www.
youtube.com.
11 Kaplan and Haenlein define User-generated content as the various forms of media content that are publicly available and created by end-users. Andreas M. Kaplan and Michael Haenlein, Users of the world,
unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media, Business Horizons 52 (2010): 61.
12 Halvorsen et al., Can fashion blogs function as a marketing tool to influence consumer behavior? Evidence from Norway,Journal of Global Fashion Marketing volume 4 issue 3 (2013): 211-224.
13 Kietzmann et al., (see footnote 7)
14 United Breaks Guitars, YouTube, accessed 26 September 2014, https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo.
15 Kietzmann et al., (see footnote 7)

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companies.16 This particular example shows why it is so important for companies

to be well-versed in dealing with social media conversations.

The significance of Fashion Blogs

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the trajectory of fashion retail forecasting in particular, has been irrevocably intertwined with the growth of
the fashion blog industry; blogs being just one of several forms of online social
communication. Blogs employ a word-of-mouth approach when communicating
with their audience, which when combined with online retail strategies is highly
effective upon the spending habits of digital native consumers.17 While the wordof-mouth approach is in no way a new communication practice, its effectiveness
is amplified when combined with the speed at which information is disseminated through digital media sites. As explained by a research group from Southern
Cross University and Victoria University in the Journal of Hospitality Marketing
and Management in 2009:
Although it is estimated that over 85% of the top 1000 marketing firms in the
USA have some form of electronic word-of-mouth strategy..., the persuasive power
behind word-of-mouth communication comes when the reference giver has no stake
in the business he or she is discussing. The receiver often gives more credence to
these word-of-mouth messages because they are unlikely to be influenced by the
business and because the discussant has no commercial self-interest.18

According to standard sender-receiver models of communication, senders

that are perceived by the receiver as a believable source (in other words: trustworthy and credible) will have increased influence on how the information is received.19 In other words, if the audience perceives the source of a message as a
reliable one, the message will have more influence on the audiences consumption of the information presented. Bloggers are a key component in this particular
marketing strategy as they provide an unaffiliated, and therefore trusted, source
through which brand messages can be channeled through to the consumer.20
16 Ibid.
17 Clare Evans, The Rise of the Millennial and What it Means for Retailers, Retail Customer Experience,
accessed 23 September 2014, http://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/blogs/the-rise-of-the-millennialand-what-it-means-for-retail/
18 Cox et al., The role of user-generated content in tourists travel planning behavior, Journal of Hospitality
Marketing & Management volume 18 issue 8 (2009): 743764.
19 Friedman and Friedman, Endorser effectiveness by product type, Journal of Advertising Research volume 19 issue 5 (1979): 63-71.
20 Refinery29, a website that began as a fashion blog and now exists as a multi-channel online editorial
brand, profiled the evolution and subsequent sophistication of a selection of the first fashion bloggers. Connie Wang, Fashion Bloggers First Posts, Refinery29, accessed 25 September 2014, http://www.refinery29.
com/fashion-bloggers-first-posts.

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Fashion blogs are often owned by an individual who started sharing his or
her interest through photos or written articles online. This makes it easier for readers to feel connected with the blogger and build a relationship with them; bloggers are both regarded as a fashion idol but also as the voice of a friend.21 Apart
from inspiration and various forms of personal lifestyle advice, readers also visit
fashion blogs to gain behind-the-scenes access to the fashion world and to feel
more connected to the fashion industry. As New York based but internationally
acclaimed blogger Leandra Medine wrote on her blog The Man Repeller in 2010,
Reading fashion from a person like your selfs point of view is something really
special, and I think its great that fashion blogging is letting everyone feel like an
insider.22
The sheer increase in the number of fashion dedicated blogs, mixed with
the stratospheric rise in the number of fashion blog readers and subscribers, has
severely altered the way in which fashion retailers communicate to their customer base, both potential and existing. The fashion industry is a multibillion-dollar
industry stretching from high-street to haute couture.23 It is commonplace for fa8

shion retailers to spend exorbitant amounts of money on advertising; however

where most of the budget used to be devoted mainly to print advertisements,
online advertising has gained popularity within the past years. One example that
illustrates the shift from traditional print dependent marketing campaigns towards
online marketing approaches are the latest digital campaigns from the iconic
British luxury brand Burberry. Wanting a new, different and unique approach to
marketing and to enhance the brands engagement with a younger audience,
Burberrys Chief Creative Officer (CCO), Christopher Bailey initiated the Burberry
Acoustic project in 2010. For this project a series of music videos was created
with popular recording artists singing acoustic versions of a selection of their
most famous songs while head to toe dressed in the latest Burberry collection.
Burberry invested more than 60% of their total marketing budget into this and
other similar projects. The inventive campaign increased online presence and
resulted in an overall rise in sales.24
21 According to Belch and Belch, as quoted by Halvorsen et al., bloggers are seen as fashion idols, while at
the same time the readers show care for and personal engagement in the bloggers everyday lives, which
indicates that they are also considered as friends. Halvorsen et al., 215, (see footnote 12).
22 Chelsea Burcz, Fashion Blogging vs. Magazines: What does the future hold?, Independent Fashion
Bloggers, accessed 28 September 2014, http://heartifb.com/2012/09/11/fashion-blogging-vs-magazineswhat-does-the-future-hold/.
23 Halvorsen et al., (see footnote 12).
24 Brittany Dickinson, Content is the New Black: Content Marketing in the Luxury Fashion Industry, PACE,
accessed 04 October 2014, http://www.paceco.com/content-is-the-new-black-content-marketing-luxury-fashion-industry/.

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Historically, marketing strategies were designed as mere extensions of a

companys Corporate Identity guidelines and as methods for controlling how the
company was perceived by its target consumer base. This was perhaps best witnessed in fashion advertising campaigns where professional fashion photographers were employed to capture images that visually communicated the world of
the brand.25 This allowed the companies to control almost all information available about the brand, while the consumer was placed in a more passive role within
the exchange of information.26
Today these roles are shifting. Due to an ever-present cyberspace and an
interactive Web 2.0, companies now face a more than ever demanding and critical consumerbase.27 Blogs, in particular, offer brands the possibility to interact
with not only their existing audience but also offer the opportunity to target new
consumer groups. Blogs are a tool used by both companies and individual bloggers to share views and opinions with their readers. Haugstvedt showed that
fashion blogs have the ability to affect purchase decisions due to their unique
position of influence.28 Through traditional mass media one can communicate a
single message to a larger audience at once, but using interpersonal channels,
such as blogs, it is more effective to reshape attitudes and affect the decision to
either embrace or let go of new ideas, trends or products. As discussed previously, bloggers are often looked upon as friends of their audience and have the
power to influence from a personal level, which generally has more impact on
behaviour than influence from a more commercial voice.29

Examples from the intersection of fashion retailers and blogs

By its very nature, the fashion industry is in a perpetual state of reinvention.
This characteristic forces fashion retailers to constantly re-evaluate their marketing strategies. Some of the most recent ways in which brands communicate their
visual identity include design collaborations with other brands, personality endorsements, sponsorships and by also paying fashion bloggers to feature sponso25 Scott Schuman describes the effect the images out of so-called glossy magazines had on him as teenager growing up in the middle of the United States in his 2011 article Selling it on the street for American
Photomag ... I naturally assumed, that in the big city (New York City), people actually dressed the way these
models did. When I finally grew up and moved to New York, I was ready for a fashion overload, that never
came.... Scott Schuman, Selling it on the Street, American Photomag, September/October 2011.
26 Kaplan and Haenlein, (see footnote 11).
27 The term Web 2.0 generally refers to interactive and collaborative elements of the internet, specifically
in the world wide web. Within the Web 2.0 the user does not only consume the available content, but also
is able to generate his/her own content. Tim OReilly, What is Web 2.0?, OReilly Network, accessed 03
October 2014, http://www.oreilly.de/artikel/web20_trans.html.
28 Halvorsen et al., 214, (see footnote 12).
29 Ibid.

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red editorials in support of the brand. In fashion marketing, it is vital to stay up

to date with these rapidly evolving trends to ensure your brand does not lose an
opportunity that could lead to successful financial opportunities or greater brand
recognition.
The blogosphere, and social media in general, have increasingly become
an environment through which fashion consumers seek inspiration for their
purchases.30 Due to the personal and interactive approach of blogs, which differs
from the more one sided platforms found in mainstream media, it is possible for
every individual to enter into an equal playing field alongside industry leading
professionals and embark on conversations about current trends and attitudes.
Two examples of this kind of exposure can be witnessed in the production of personal blogs where the author voices their opinions about fashion and, secondly,
in the comments section of blogs, both personal and professional, where readers
can interact with the statements and images included in the individual blog posts.
The blog Style Rookie by Tavi Gevinson is a unique example of the personal
blog phenomenon.31 Tavi Gevinson was merely eleven years old when she first
10

started her online fashion blog from a small town outside of Chicago, Illinois in
the United States of America. Within a short period of time, her blog had attracted
an enormous amount of readers for her inventive blog posts and almost fan-letter
approach to writing about the fashion industry. This soon attracted the attention of
fashion industry leaders, often times the very same people she was writing about,
and lead to her becoming invited to professional fashion events all over the world.
After less than five years of operating her blog, Gevinson received financial backing to take her personal blog to a more professional another level and started
her online fashion magazine Rookie. Enabling literally every internet user to not
only participate in sharing their thoughts publicly, but to also reach a large and
influential audiences, a whole new group of fashion influencers has emerged and
redefined the historical way of communicating.32
This led to the interesting development of fashion brands starting to collabo30 Sedeke and Arora, Top ranking fashion blogs and their role in the current fashion industry, First Monday,
accessed 27 September 2014, http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4314/3739.
31 The Coolest Teenager in the World Zeit Online, accessed 04 October 2014, http://www.zeit.de/2012/32/
Internetmagazin-Tavi-Gevinson/seite-2.
32 With a new generation of fashion influencers, originally non-professional bloggers such as The Blonde
Salad are meant, that have over course of time gained importance and professionality in the field of fashion retail. They are writers with no fashion related academic background, that are invited to major fashion
events, such as the New York fashion week and have turned their blogs into businesses, off which they make
their living. Simon Broll, Blogger auf der Fashion Week - Die Lmmel von der ersten Bank, Spiegel Online,
accessed 06 September 2014, http://www.spiegel.de/karriere/ausland/new-yorks-modeblogger-haben-aufder-fashion-week-das-sagen-a-990155.html.

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rate with bloggers and even going so far as to make financial investments in blogs
a part of their digital marketing budget.33 According to Sedeke and Aurora, in spite
of the loss of control over the information spread, most companies see blogs as
not only a new method of reaching customers but also an inexpensive communication vehicle to incorporate in their larger Public Relations strategies.34 The way
fashion brands approach blogs can largely be divided into two approaches. On
the one hand, brands use blogs in more traditional ways such as the buying and
placement of professionally designed advertising banners in prominent positions
on the blogs. On the other, they also use blogs as portals through which to deliver
editorialized messages in line with their brand messages. This may take the form
of an image where the blogger wears a garment from the fashion brand or even in
a written post where the blogger writes positively about their interaction with the
brand or how the brand is incorporated into the bloggers daily life.
One way that brands secure their relationship with bloggers is through the
sending of novelty, and often expensive, give-away items, such as clothes and
accessories. The brand may not specifically ask that the blogger display or mention the item within their posts and pictures, but mentioning the new item is often
a way of showing gratitude for the gesture.35 Showing off expensive new items
that they may not be able to afford themselves is also a way of showing their
readers that they are fashionable. A recent example of a brand encouraging this
kind of interaction between bloggers and a specific product was the Calvin Klein
#MyCalvins campaign where the brand created a social media whirlwind that
encouraged people to post images of themselves in their Calvin Klein underwear
on social media platforms. With the help of several well-known bloggers that uploaded photos of themselves wearing a pair of CK underwear briefs and asking
others to show how they incorporate the same underwear garment into their lives,
the campaign quickly became popular.36 Calvin Klein was, at first, very selective
in who they sent the product to and did not randomly sent their iconic underwear
items to any blogger but, rather, specifically tapped big fashion bloggers that have
large audience numbers such as the bloggers behind The Blonde Salad (Chiara
33 Bakker and Scholten, Communicatiekaart van Nederland. Overzicht van media en communicatie. Eighth
ed. (Amsterdam: Kluwer, 2011).
34 Sedeke and Arora, (see footnote 30).
35 Marketing through blogs is considered a grey legal area due to the fact standard journalistic codes of
ethics requires editorial content to be transparent about being sponsored content. Halvorsen et al.,12, (see
footnote 12).
36 Calvin Kleins #MyCalvins Campaign Has All of Twitter Dropping Trou, Queerty, accessed 03 October 2014, http://www.queerty.com/photos-calvin-kleins-mycalvins-campaign-has-all-of-twitter-droppingtrou-20140220.

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Ferragni), Fashion Toast (Rumi Neely), The Man Repeller (Leandra Medine) and
Dutch blogger Love Aesthetics (Ivania Carpio). To encourage followers to participate in the movement, the brand decided to share the selfies with the hashtag
#MyCalvins on the official Calvin Klein blog. On the social media platform Instagram alone, this resulted in an impressive number of participants, totalling 17,362
underwear revealing selfies.37
Some companies go further and pay bloggers a sum of money in order to
confirm that the blogger will incorporate the brand into the blog in a positive and
highly visible manner.38 This kind of interaction can also be created through socalled packages, in which companies can hire the blogger for a certain amount
of time, during which he or she repeatedly advertises the brand.39 One example
of salary based interaction between a brand and a blog took place when the
blogger Bryanboy was paid to be present at the opening of a new Thai shopping
centre. He later revealed in an interview with Vogue magazine, that he had actually received a five digit amount of 40,000 dollars for the event.40
Many companies also invite well-known fashion bloggers to major events
12

they hold, as for instance runway shows at the Mercedes Benz New York Fashion
Week. Some even hold separate press events or fashion parties for bloggers in
addition to those scheduled for fashion magazines.41 In the summer of 2014, the
first blogging event held by an entire shopping street called Regent Tweet, a blogging event held by the similarly called shopping street Regent Street in London,
United Kingdom. showed that events like this can actually reach an immensely
large number of consumers in a very short period of time. On the event day alone,
a number of 2231 mentions of the event were noted on Twitter with an estimated
amount of 1.88 million readers.42
As previously stated, it has become common practice and a widely used
marketing tool for brands to interact with blogs as a way of significantly affecting
consumer behavior. But the relationship between brands and bloggers is more
complex; in addition to guiding consumer purchases and reactions, the bloggers
influence has also been witnessed in their ability to alter a brand or a companys
37 This figure was sourced on 05 October 2014 from IconoSquare via http://iconosquare.com/viewer.php#/
search/mycalvins. This website requires a user login so we have included a snapshot of the screen from
which the figure was mined here: http://bit.ly/1pDvRkq.
38 Tess van Daelen of TESSTED, Interview by ArtEZ Fashion Masters, Arnhem, 18 September 2014.
39 Simon Broll, (see footnote 32).
40 Nathalie Wouters, Blog Busters, Vogue Netherlands, September issue 2014, 86-89.
41 Tess van Daelen, (see footnote 38).
42 Elsbeth Diehl-Wobbe, Regent Street setzt auf Digital Natives, TextilWirtschaft, accessed 21 September
2014, http://www.textilwirtschaft.de/suche/show.php?ids[]=965481&a=1.

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product or visual identity directly. When American blogger Kelly Mau used social
media to comment on the sizing guidelines of Abercrombie & Fitch the impact
went so far as to trigger official statements from the brand in response to the accusations. To quote Kelly Maus post:
Abercrombie & Fitch introduces Size 000 A Triple zero madness? Girls, this
is exactly what we all have waited for so long: Size triple Zero 000. It will give us a
reason to eat even less, to work out even more, to get even more self-conscious at
an even younger age. Hallelujah!43

As TextilWirtschaft reported in July 2014, the reactions to this post grew so

strong that even the retailer himself made a statement in the affair.44 This example
shows how brands are pressured to consider the sentiments expressed via social
media and to sometimes adapt their production methods, in this case their size
range and even brand image, in line with the views expressed.45 Similar incidents
like this one experienced by Abercrombie & Fitch reinforced the initial fear felt by
fashion brands of the undesired and sometimes directly negative impact possible
through independent blog posts.46 Even while directly cooperating with the writers
themselves, the companies only have limited power over the content generated.
Therefore, many companies also started generating their own blogs and social
media accounts, through which they can directly interact with the consumer and
do not have to rely on the mediating part of a blogger.
The Paul Smith group, for example, uses the value of the personality of the
namesake designer, Paul Smith as founder of the brand himself, as one of the
defining visual identities of the company. In creating a somewhat personal blog,
where posts take the form of comments and recommendations from Paul Smith
himself (concerning cultural events, happenings in London or new purchases like
a new bike), rather than using a distant connection through a team of writers,
the customers are able to share in his life and feel a part of the brand.47 The
consumers identification with the brand is thus being taken to a whole other level.
The easy-going nature of the blog, seen in Paul Smith casually posing for pictures, makes the blog feel authentic versus authoritative. The reader feels as if they
are a part of the Paul Smith world ; as if a peer to the designer himself.
43 Kelly Mau. Abercrombie & Fitch introduces Size 000 - A Triple Zero Madness?, Kelly Mau, accessed 03
October 2014, http://kelly-mau.com/abercrombie-fitch-introduces-size-000-a-triple-zero-madness/.
44 Ulrike Howe. Abercrombie & Fitch: rger um Mini-Gre 000, TextilWirtschaft, accessed 17 September
2014, ttp://www.textilwirtschaft.de/business/Abercrombie--Fitch-Aerger-um-Mini-Groesse-000_92488.html
45 Kelly Mau, (see footnote 44).
46 Sedeke and Arora, (see footnote 30).
47 Paul Smith World Blog, accessed 03 October 2014, http://www.paulsmith.co.uk/uk-en/paul-smith-world/
blog.

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American Apparel, on the other hand, first decided to create this businessconsumer interaction in a more abstract way as entire brand. The companys
Tumblr account is used as an extension of their existing advertising campaigns
and adds to the shaping of a more defined corporate identity through the posting
of lifestyle pictures, scenes out of cult movies and pictures from certain artists.
Just like the blog from Paul Smith, American Apparels Tumblr account presents
itself as more of a lifestyle destination rather than a vehicle for informing customers about new developments and styles created by the brand itself.48 These two
brands reach out to into the clients private life and trigger interests rather than
displaying and showing a desirable world far away from that of the consumer, as
it is in a way often created through billboards and extravagant photoshoots with
perfectly styled models.
Other brands, for example English brand Topshop, have opted to use their
blog as a more obvious link to their online points of purchase. Topshops online marketing strategy includes a brand-owned Tumblr on which authentic street
style pictures are displayed. The images are then hyperlinked to similar items
14

purchasable through the brands online shop.49 All in all, present day marketing
strategies are more interactive and giving the consumer the possibility of really
finding his place closely linked to the brand.

The future for blogs and retail

Despite all of the existing successful examples of brands interacting with
bloggers and social media in general, the guidelines through which these interactions take place remain fluid and in a state of experimentation. Consultations from
professional marketing companies mainly focus on enhancing the brand identity
entirely through methods of online marketing strategies. They often state that it is
essential to make social media a top priority, with which the highest positions are
occupied and to connect a number of different online channels in order to reach
and interact with the consumer.50 Furthermore, it is seen as equally necessary to
incorporate stationary sale points with the social media strategy, such as it was
done during the Regent Tweet event. It is seen as desirable to even aim on going further in order to not to lose the client once he or she has left the store, and
to seek the connection to the client through their smart-phone in order to guide
48 American Apparel Tumblr, accessed 03 October 2014, http://americanapparel.tumblr.com/.
49 Topshop Tumblr, accessed 03 October 2014, http://topshop.tumblr.com/.
50 Anna Friedrich and Annika Mller, Strategisch ins Herz treffen, TextilWirtschaft, accessed 21 September
2014, http://www.textilwirtschaft.de/suche/show.php?ids[]=975304&a=3.

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them through the store towards items for sale that may be of specific interest to
them.51 The professional marketing agent Bodo Vincent Andrin even states in an
interview with TextilWirtschaft that in his vision, future stores function rather as a
showroom than a traditional brick and mortar operation.52 He sees them containing less products and functioning more like an event surrounding with installations and interesting shop-windows and a thoroughly planned display such as it
is done at the Uniqlo Pop-Up stores which are generally focused on one specific
item (e.g. down jackets in Berlin).53
Leading researchers recognize the importance of social theory in understanding organizations and social media.54 Kietzmann et al. created a honeycomb structure in which they present seven of the most important facets of social
media: identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputations and
groups.55 If firms successfully want to have their own social media channels or
want to use social media for advertising purposes, they have to think carefully
about the implications of these facets. Most major social media sites do not focus
solely on one but rather on three or four facets.
Based on the honeycomb, Kietzmann presents a guideline relaying how
companies should develop strategies for monitoring, understanding and responding to different social media activities.56 For companies that are interested in
getting serious about social media, the honeycomb framework will be a useful
tool. That said, retailers with a pre-existing marketing strategy and visual identity
may be at a disadvantage in comparison to emerging labels and new fashion designers. Fashion retailers with existing marketing and advertising campaigns in
place often lack the flexibility and resources (even as far as the in-house human
resources) to reorganise their efforts to include social media effectively. It is one
thing for a brand to have a blog or other social media account, but the platform
is rendered useless if the brand is not fluent in each social media platforms colloquialisms.
On the contrary, young designers and emerging brands are at an advantage
as they are able to adapt quickly to new social media platforms and marketing
51 Bodo Vincent Andrin refers in this interview to the iBeacon application that locates a clients position and
sends him specific offers and recommendations and even equips the customer with discounts, in case he
enters the store. Jelena Juric, Der Handel braucht ein digitales Gen, TextilWirtschaft, accessed 21 September 2014, http://www.textilwirtschaft.de/suche/show.php?ids[]=951245&a=2
52
Ibid.
53
Ibid.
54 Kaplan & Haenlein, (see footnote 11).
55 Kietzmann et al., (see footnote 7).
56 Kietzmann et al., 249. (see footnote 7).

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15

trends; especially fashion brands run by or employing digital natives in their marketing teams. New York based luxury womenswear brand Proenza Schouler was
started around the same time as blogs were beginning to appear and gain popularity in America. In an interview with Imran Amed from The Business of Fashion,
the designers acknowledged the crucial role blogs and social media played in the
growth of their sales. In the brands early days, social media allowed for them to
target customers across America despite the fact that the brand was only stocked
in a small number of stores and could not afford print advertising campaigns.57
In the future, brands will also have to take into consideration the rate at
which blogs themselves are becoming accepted destinations for online shopping.
In addition to hyperlinking images and text to relevant online retailers, such as
case with Topshop, bloggers are now beginning to operate their own online shops
featuring a curated selection of products they endorse. Blogs such as the Dutch
favourite afterDRK even use the shop section of the blog to sell off the bloggers
unwanted wardrobe; another way to monetise the free gifts and clothes sent to
them from brands.58 Shoppable content startup 72Lux has even recently shifted
16

their focus from enterprise-level publishers such as CondeNast to smaller operations such as blogs and publishing startups.59 Heather Marie, the founder and
chief executive of 72Lux explains that:
any publisher, even a small blogger she might make homemade candles
and she might want to sell her own products right next to a cashmere scarf from a
fashion retailer. Now, she can actually leverage the technology to do that as well, so
she can actually be both merchant and publisher.The future of retail is a uniform
way to be everywhere the consumer is. Were basically hoping to create a shoppable
layer on top of content everywhere.60

The success of 72Luxs approach to online fashion retail is a success that

standard retailers cannot ignore. At the time of the publication of the Business of
Fashion article, 72Lux was reporting that it was driving an average of $90 million
dollars in transactions per month.61
So as fashion retailers scramble to define what blogs are perhaps the
more important question to ask, going forward, is how will we define what a fa57 Proenza Schouler Says Social Media Has An Extraordinary Impact on the Business, Business of Fashion, accessed 01 October 2014, http://www.businessoffashion.com/2011/02/quotable-proenza-schoulersays-social-media-has-an-extraordinary-impact-on-the-business.html.
58 afterDRK, accessed 01 October 2014, http://afterdrk.tictail.com/.
59 72Lux Opens Content Monetisation Platform to Bloggers and Startups, Business of Fashion, accessed
01 October 2014, http://www.businessoffashion.com/2013/11/bof-exclusive-72lux-opens-content-monetisation-platform-to-bloggers-and-startups.html.
60
Ibid.
61
Ibid.

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shion retailer is? The boundary between retailer and blogger becomes increasingly interchangeable as social media technologies mature. Andy Warhols declaration, In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes almost seems
like an understatement for this generation.62 In the future, everyone could very
well be a fashion brand.

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Fashion TheoryReport written by

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