H&M, Louis Vuitton, Nike… These are household-name brands known around the world as some of the biggest players in the fashion industry. As consumer behaviours are changing, so are they.
Today, consumers’ expectations of a top-tier shopping experience are completely different to what they used to be. Retailers have had to move focus from building flagship stores in busy highstreets and spending marketing budget on massive billboards, to instead focus on building a presence online that caters to a younger demographic who seek out their shopping inspiration on social media first and foremost.
Companies that succeed in 2022 invest in influencer marketing to help build that online presence and can therefore keep their household status. In this article, we’re going to explore the affinity between fashion brands and influencers, as well as why fashion influencer marketing is a potent solution to achieve sustainable ROI.
The similarities between fashion brands and influencers
Think of all the qualities that (successful) fashion brands possess: uniqueness, consistency, loyal consumer bases, and strong audience understanding. All of these traits can be directly transferred to successful influencers. If you wish to achieve higher-than-ordinary levels of engagement with your customers, these are the qualities you’ll need to incorporate into your online presence.
Fashion brands’ objectives are likely to be similar or the same as those of influencers, which stems from a fundamental aim to build up a loyal following of people that love their products and/or content. For these two parties, achieving a high customer lifetime value is ideal as it is more expensive to acquire new customers than retain them – even though influencer marketing can do both.
Why do fashion brands use influencers?
With so many channels at these brands’ disposal, what has drawn them to using influencer marketing? There are plenty of reasons why fashion brands in particular use influencers to help them with brand awareness and sales.
They understand consumer behaviour
As previously discussed, we’ve seen a cross-generational shift to social media, with platforms such as Instagram and TikTok dominating the attention spans of an array of audiences, most notably Gen Z and millennials. As fashion brands are naturally drawn to the opportunity to meet their customers where they are online, social media is a no-brainer, with these younger generations of consumers spending an average of three hours (and counting) of their time on social media every day. Influencers therefore present an alternative (and we might be biased here, generally superior) avenue through which to connect with their target audience, allowing a brand to showcase their identity and USPs via an already trusted third-party.
Peer-to-peer influence
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