What differentiates a good fashion brand from an amazing brand? Innovation.
Apple, Steve Jobs, Hewlett Packard, Sony, Gucci, Coco Chanel all realized that in order to be on top, you must be willing to innovate to stay competitive. If a brand is not innovative, it will fail to deliver value to its audience. Without innovation, a brand will unconsciously steer customers to the competition. Innovation in the 21st century is one of the biggest factors that separate the notable brands, the brands that make you want to come back for more, from the mediocre. Brands must be willing to consistently innovate and change in various ways from social media to style.i
The fashion industry as we know it today is hardly recognizable from what it was a decade ago. With the emergence of advanced technologies and the rising popularity of eCommerce, the fashion and luxury brand sector has been overhauled, defining a whole new caliber of business.
Innovation takes place at the intersection of fashion and technology and is profoundly shaping the way fashion and luxury business is operated today. True fashion and luxury brands like Prada and Giorgio Armani, among an array of many others, have a lasting legacy of being design innovators and trend setters.
How do they stay at the head of fashion, style, and demand? This is a topic that has been topping the charts at luxury and fashion conferences worldwide. How do you be the "It Girl," that everyone wants to be or have, in the fashion and luxury brand sector?
1. Product
Traditional designers know that they must be edgy, setting the standard even before the market knows there is one. Companies and brands have to be willing to constantly improve the core product offering and set new trends. These forward-thinking businesses are changemakers and lead the industry in new, sometimes uncanny, directions.
2. Communication
Companies have to always be searching for new ways to connect and communicate to their audience, the consumer. It is not just about magazine ads and billboards anymore, brands need to be ahead of the times, looking for new ways to convey their message to the masses through innovative audio visuals, videos, and smart technology.
3. Marketing
This dynamic field is always changing and adapting to the latest and greatest tools. A good brand marketing team will be searching for innovative channels to reach their target customer base, always trying to expand its influence.
4. Customer Service
Make a mark. Customer service is more important than ever, and there are so many creative ways to standout ahead of brand competitors. Trying something new, surprising the customer, making a memorable experience will not only be spread by word of mouth, but these touching moments that connect the customer to the brand have the potential of going viral.
Legendary businessman, Peter Drucker once said, "Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window."ii It is nearly impossible, but fashion and luxury brands are reinventing the standard every day without knowing what the future holds in store. It is pretty amazing.
Conferences that explore new trends and innovation in fashion are popular, just like learning the latest gadgets and functions of new applications, industry professionals want to be at the forefront of fashion and luxury business trends and be among the icons continually making waves. In order to be amongst the elite, you have to follow their lead, well not entirely. It requires calculated risk.
It is no longer a matter of knowing SEO techniques, social media marketing, or analytics. It is about stepping out of comfort and into the great unknown, facing the fear of failure head on. Great brands stand apart from the rest because somewhere along the way, they understood the importance of innovation, it just might not have been called that back then.
Creating a platform for industry professionals to convene on, conferences that focus on business, trends, and innovation serve as a round table bringing the wise, well-established brands that are still leading the way together with young, up-and-coming brands. Sharing knowledge, experience, and insight propels the industry as a whole into the next generation. Exploring new ways of doing business, demonstrates how to persistently challenge the status-quo, and create an open-mindedness to be inventive and transformational.iii Technology and innovation will make everything that we know today obsolete in 10 years and that is what makes the fashion and luxury sector so remarkable!
Written by Emily Dawn Szajda, GBSB Global Content Manager
[i] Rastogi, Pulkit. 5 April 2014. Be the Ultimate Work in Progress: Importance of Innovation in Fashion Retail. ILOVEFASHION +RETAIL. Retrieved from ilovefashionretail.com/fundamentals/be-the-ultimate-work-in-progress-importance-of-innovation-in-fashion-retail
[ii] 25 March 2014. 5 Technology Trends Transforming the Fashion Industry. LAUNCHMETRICS. Retrieved from www.launchmetrics.com/resources/blog/5-technology-trends-transforming-the-fashion-industry
[iii] Benoualid, Charles. 23 January 2017. Next is Now Conference: The Next Generation of Fast Fashion Innovation. Retrieved from www.linkedin.com/pulse/next-now-conference-generation-fashion-innovation-charles-benoualid
