FASHION COMMUNICATION

ARTD 2086

ILLUSTRATED REPORT

COSTANZA SOFIA MASET - ID 27086666

BA FASHION MARKETING
LEVEL 2
CONTENTS

INTRO ......................................................................................................................................................... 2

MEGA TRENDS .......................................................................................................................................... 3

WANDERLUST ........................................................................................................................................... 6

MACRO TRENDS ....................................................................................................................................... 10

EXPERIENCING NATURE ........................................................................................................................ 11

EQUALITY BY TOPSHOP SS16 ................................................................................................................ 14

BRAND ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................................... 15

THE CAMPAIGN ........................................................................................................................................ 23

MEASURING SUCCESS ............................................................................................................................ 33

CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................................................... 34

1
INTRO

The aim of this report is to elaborate a new communication campaign for the new Top-
shop collection “Equality”, starting from the earliest investigation with mega trends
forecasting to end with the proper strategy and the evaluation of its effectiveness. The
research will be carried on through different research tools such as core text, academic
journals, articles, websites and social media.

2
MEGA TRENDS

To talk about mega trend it’s necessary to define first of all what a “trend” actually is: in this sense, what
Martin Raymond (2010) underlines is that this term doesn’t have to be exclusively associated with the fa-
shion field but it can be basically defined as “the direction in which something tends to move and which has
a consequential impact on the culture, society or business sector through which it moves” (Raymond, 2010);
because of this, it’s safe to say that a trend is all about changing and as such it can be predicted.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF TRENDS

MEGA TRENDS

- they’re about product

- tendencies in colour,
shape, fabric, detail
- they’re about inspiring
the design team

MACRO TRENDS MICRO TRENDS

- lifestyle trends - very specific trends

- longer life cycle regarding product
- used to anticipate - eg. botton-down denim
change skirts

3
People who investigate these shifts are called futurologists (or forecasters) and, as Raymond(2010)
explains, they can be considered proper “lifestyle detectives” with the aim of intercept any relevant chan-
ge or anomaly in terms of attitudes, lifestyle possibilities and mindsets that are likely to influence the way
people think, dress, behave, communicate etc.. To do this, they need to be scrupulous observers of what’s
surrounding them and most of all, they must identify what generates these shifts; in this sense, there’s
an extremely wide range of drivers of fashion change [1] such as music, culture, movies and trade shows;
however to see if something’s going to have a real impact on consumers, forecasters have first of all to look
at people: in their help comes Roger’s diffusion of innovation theory (2003) [2].

4
Another helpful notion to understand the diffusion process of a trend comes from George Simmel (1904) :
according to him, there’s a relationship between product adoption and class structure; Solomon and Rabolt
(2004) explain that subordinate groups, feeling the need of climbing up the social ladder, tend to emulate
the groups above by adopting their status symbols (eg common people trying to copycat what they see on
catwalks or celebrities). The other way round, Trickle-Up Theory states that “current fashions often origina-
te with subcultural groups or the lower classes and trickle-up to higher classes. […]” (Solomon and Rabolt,
2004) (eg blue jeans used formerly by workers).

As learnt in week one then, mega trends are predictions made 18 months in advance on the selling season
that trend forecasters or forecasting agencies like WGSN and LSN Global can offer their clients (brands and
product strategists) to give them a view on what’s going to be the next big thing in terms of colour, style,
fabric, shape and detail choices, helping them offering the right product to the right costumer at the right
time; this kind of short-lasting trends (6 months) are mainly intended to inspire and influence the design
teams [3].

The David Carlson study case (Raymond, 2010), is a good example of how brands use and interpret the in-
formation gathered: after the delivery of a mega trend in fact, forecasting agencies are likely to keep wor-
king with their clients to help them translate the cultural shifts into tangible and saleable products, appea-
ling towards the consumers they are targeting; therefore, to measure the effectiveness of a mega trend, one
of the things a brand could do is simply counting the amount of sales done.

5
WANDERLUST SS16
This mega trend comes out from an initial gut feeling about people increasingly needing to move from whe-
re they live and travel as much as they can, always looking for the next exciting experience, with no limits.
This concept has been subsequently reinforced researching in different fields (drivers of fashion change):
from art, to music, catwalks, magazines and technology innovations [4], what has come to light is a new
image of traveller with far more sophisticate needs that have to be satisfied.

6
WANDERLUST:
“Travel is useful, it exercises the imagination.
All the rest is disappointment and fatigue.
Our journey is enirely imaginary.
That is its strengh.”
Louis-Ferdinand Céline, 1932 7
 WANDERLUST SUBPLOTS
With festival culture becoming more and more saturated, its inhabitants are constantly looking for the
next big thing. The next destination. They have an insatiable need to experience, and so rely on travel in
order to ‘find themselves’. Wanderlust caters for every need. It is practical, innovative and most impor-
tantly, stylish.

THE BACKPACKER NEW DESTINATIONS NO BOUNDARIES

- tailored/chic-er take - the Balkans - unisex

on the usual
traveller-attire - Croatia, Serbia, - comfort-centric
Prague, Budapest,
- it could be reflected Berlin - no limitation to mo-
through graphics, vement
extension on Axtech/ -influx in bloggers’
tribal theme travels

- geometrics, clean cut

HI-FLY TECH WET SUMMER NEW GREENISM

- convenient clothing - trans-seasonal - as people travel, they

fabrics use more and more
- tech on the go disposable products.
- tactile/waterproof This subplot reinfor-
- mobile-centric ces the importance of
- interchangable recycling and ma-
globally kes it easier for the
wanderlust seeker to
- juxtaposition of do so.
seasons

8
The relevance of this trend lies in the visibly growing attention that people and media are giving to the the-
me of travel itself (e.g. Chanel Catwalk, Tank Magazine Winter15 issue); nowadays, travelling is much more
cheaper than it’s ever been and for this reason always more people can afford to do it. It’s safe to say that in
a moment like this, where people can quite easily have everything they want, travelling represents a way to
experience something different every time. Moreover, travel is now more than ever, a way to give people the
idea of a particular lifestyle or social position just as fashion has always done. For this reasons it’s vital to
any fashion retailer to consider this growing and demanding consumers group in the next future.

This trend lends itself to be interpreted in different ways: sustainable clothing, tech-clothing, unisex
clothing, active wear,[…]

9
MACRO TRENDS

As learnt in week 4 [5], macro trends are extremely different from mega trends; in particular in terms
of aim and lasting: while mega trends are quite short predictions influencing most of all the design teams
(they’re about product), macro trends are predicted three years in advance and have a much longer life
cycle (up to 20 years); they are lifestyle trends and display in which way society’s moving. They’re used
by businesses, marketing and product strategists to anticipate change and keep growing and progressing
through an offer repositioning or the extension of executives’ team horizons rather than being encouraged
in terms of creative thinking. These forecasts are made by futurologists as well and, as the other trends,
they follow the rules of Trickle-Up/Trickle-Down Theories together with Roger’s Diffusion of Innovations
scheme mentioned earlier.

Just like the other trends, macro trends are influenced by specific drivers of change: demographic change,
market structure, consumers’ motivation, technology breakthroughs, changes in the economic picture and
in the political and economic alliances in the world; to investigate this field, always referring to week 4 [6] ,
a PEST(L)E analysis becomes a key tool to organise this kind of broad research.
To measure the success of a macro trend, being a really long-term prediction, brands can only wait to see if
it will actually come true.

10
EXPERIENCING NATURE
“Experiencing nature” is a trend that originated from these years’ ethical and sustainable lifestyle trends;
watching around, reading magazines and articles on the internet, something that strikes the eye is the ap-
parent willingness of people to get more in touch with nature as a means to escape their extremely busy and
complicated lives.
The drivers of this change can be summarised, as previously explained, with a PEST(L)E analysis [7] :

POLITICAL

- Green Party
- “Green Forest-Green
Poland”

ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMIC

- National Geographic - increment in

purposes for eco-tourism travel
eco-advetures - WWOOF initiatives
- today’s possibility EXPERIENCING
to experience many NATURE
different natural
environments
SOCIAL

TECHNOLOGICAL - UO Instagram
- Topshop SS15 cam-
paign
- “Living Symphonies”
- “Unplug To connect
project by Firth and
with the outdoor”
Szymanska
- “Oh Comely” maga-
11
zine
EXPERIENCING NATURE:
“Experiencing nature” is a trend that originated from these
years’ ethical and sustainable lifestyle trends; watching around,
reading magazines and articles on the internet, something that
strikes the eye is the apparent willingness of people to get more
in touch with nature as a means to escape their extremely busy
and complicated lives.
12
This trend will be relevant from now on because it’s based on an inevitable people need for a more down-to-hearth
life; unplugging from their always more chaotic everyday life to find theirselves again.
It will be relevant for any field, from fashion, to tourism, to the food industry and many more and it could be inter-
preted in many different ways, offering new customer services and experiences, products for travelling etc.

13
EQUALITY BY TOPSHOP SS16
Equality by Topshop is a new collection designed to supply a well studied and fashionable selection of clothes sui-
table for a wide range of sizes (ideally from UK size 6 to 24 against the usual 6 to 16) at the affordable prices already
offered by the brand; another competitive feature characterisig the line, lies in the sustainable material chosen to
make clothes: bamboo fabric; according to Kennedy (2016) in fact, bamboo it’s the perfect substitute of cotton and
it’s also a lot cheaper since it doesn’t need any kind of assistance. Chen, Zhouand Tang (2014), explain how bamboo
fabric is improving its wearability and durability properties as opposite to the common cotton, becoming a conside-
rable substitute of it.

The communication strategy behind this new offer will be a domestic one and will have the aims of informing the au-
dience about new Topshop collection to gain new customers from the plus size market, reinforcing the brand image
and increasing customers’ loyalty and attachment to the brand.

14
BRAND ONION
From the graphic below it’s clear that the strength of the brand lies in its being fashionable and affordable at the
same time; moreover, in their website they claim to “strive for integrity, dialogue, transparency, excellence and
innovation” (Topshop, 2015). These characteristics, together with their extremely up to date customer service (e.g.
personal shopping experiences) and the exciting collaborations with the coolest celebrities of the moment (e.g. Gigi
Hadid and Jenner sisters) make this brand really stand out from the crowd.

Nevertheless, with nowadays increasing attention towards plus size people (and women in particular) the fact that
brand’s sizes offer is so limited (UK6-16) starts to look like a missed opportunity of growth.

15
COMPETITORS ANALYSIS
As first thing it’s fundamental to have a look at what the plus size market is offering at the moment in terms of com-
munication strategies. Below are listed some of Topshop possible competitors in the field.

From the chart we can easily see that huge brands like
asos and H&M are not giving any particular attention to
the communication strategy behind their plus size col-
lection, probably because they’re still mainly relying on
regular consumers. In terms of communication strategy
in fact, as Peters(2014) underlines, nowadays, brands
offering plus size lines, often relegate them into tiny cor-
ners of the stores and don’t even give them any space on
high fashion magazines; moreover, she adds “Amongst
consumers and arbiters of fashion, garments designed
for fat bodies have traditionally been regarded as less
than fashionable” (Peters, 2014).

On the other hand, Plus size brands like Eloquii and Ash-
ley Stewart (both american like the majority of them),
although they’re trying to keep up with latest communi-
cation tools, seem not able to gain high level of attention
and popularity.

What Topshop could do in term of competition is using its huge amount of followers and media exposure to give more
visibility to its new line; in addition, it should give it much more importance on the website (as opposite to Asos and
H&M) and look out for the right endorsement with celebrities with whom the new customers may identify with.

16
OPPORTUNITIES: SWOT ANALYSIS

As shown on the graphic, Topshop possesses a wide range of strengths which are going to be fundamental in facing
weaknesses to meet the new opportunities; in particular, the brand’s already using a varied number of communica-
tion tools that are already giving fairly good results: an example is the AW13 fashion show transmitted live on the
web with the result of 200,00 social media shares in the first 5 minutes (Robb, 2013); with its weaknesses being a
still limited audience (the other competitors are already offering plus size lines) and a weak credibility in terms of
ethic, their new aims should be to expand their number of customers (with a consequent growth in sales) and to
clean out their ethical image in order to reinforce the brand identity and credibility (the new sustainable approach
would represent a good start in this sense).

17
TARGET MARKET AND CUSTOMER PEN PORTRAIT
Although Equality is intended for the widest range of sizes possible, Topshop new actual target are plus size girls
aged 16-24. (moodboard)
These girls are part of the generation Z that, according to Solomon and Rabolt (2004) includes people born after
1988 characterised by being born and raised in the era of technology with open access to any kind of information
and a great interest for fashion; Therefore, using technology in this communication campaign will be key for its suc-
cess.
Moreover, as Kim and Martinez (2013) explain, fashion behaviours are always driven by emotional and psycholo-
gical motivations: one utilitarian and one hedonic; in this term this customer group is driven to sale by the need of
clothes of their size (as it will be shown later, the range it’s quite limited) and the want for fashionable clothes that
make them feel good with theirselves and society.

18
 GEN Z
PLUS SIZE GIRLS

PURCHASING
DRIVERS
ICONS

PSYCHOLOGIC
MOTIVATION
Feeling pretty, cool and
sexy as all the other girls
wearing something that
makes them feel good
with their body.
19
To trace a customer pen-portrait of this “new” Topshop customer, it’s important to un-
derstand that the only thing that differs between a regular Topshop customer and a plus
size one is the size; these girls don’t want to be treated in a different way, they just want
to get the same consideration as the others.

20
 LIZA, 20
living in London
sharing a student flat
studying economics at University
also shopping at Asos and H&M
likes going out for lunch with friends
works out at the gym twice a week
listens to Rhianna, Beyoncè and J-Z
has a huge number on followers on
Instagram
doesn’t like cooking
21
CHLOE, 23
living in Manchester
sharing a warehouse
sales assistant in a fashion store
also shopping at Zara, H&M and
Urban Outfitters
enjoys eating out with friends
goes to yoga classes once a week
listens to indie music
has a subscription to Tank Magazine
has different books on vegan cusine
PRODUCT POSITIONING
As it appears from the graphic, on the high street a good variety of brands offering plus size lines already exist, but
at the same time it’s clear that a good part of them offer good prices on the product but lack on being fashionable and
up-to-date; speaking of this, Rutter (2015), argues about her disappointment in what brands seem to think when
they create clothes for plus size women, in particular she admits “ I buy a lot of clothes and try a lot of different
looks, but more often than not, my fashion life is spent craving things I can’t have. And why can’t I have it? Because
plus-size fashion retailers think I won’t buy it, won’t wear it, or don’t deserve it.” (Rutter, 2015); Mason (2015) in
fact, talks about a sort of elitism regarding fashion which seems to still have not understood what the high financial
potential of these consumers is.

high fashionability

low high
prices prices

low fashionability
22
THE CAMPAIGN

Before building up a communication strategy, it’s important to identify which competitiveness strategy has been
adopted by the brand to grow its business: according to Ansoff’s Diversifications Theory (1965) there’s a range of 4
methods that can be used by brands to measure the profit potential of alternative product-market strategies; these
are strictly linked to market or product re-positioning choices. As a consequence of the considerations made before,
Topshop has chosen the market developing strategy which points to offer an existing product (slightly modified to
meet customers’ needs) to a whole new market.

The next steps, as suggested by Jackson and Shaw (2009), refer to Kotler and his stages of communication process
[8]: following them, the message of the campaign will be defined and carried out through different channels suitable
for the selected target market.

All these steps are directly under the brand control, however the next ones have to do with the environment in whi-
ch they’re sent: the noise is represented by the high number of competitors who might create an interference betwe-
en the message and the receiver (target customers) who should be able to decode the message and respond to it, for
example buying the new products.

23
 Fashionable
=
Sustainable

SIZE has Fashionable

nothing to do with =
STYLE CONCEPTS Affordable
BEHIND
THE
MESSAGE

EQUALITY YOUNG
&
COOL

24
 COMMUNICATION STRATEGY IN ACTION

#stylehasnoshape
Distorting mirrors
Bloggers/Vloggers with the hastag in
Hauls dressing rooms
[9]

Social Media CAMPAIGN

Ambassador Look Book

Press Release Branded Video

25
LOOK BOOK

Equality lookbook has been designed to reflect the messages of the campaign; for this reason items are presented wi-
thout a model; putting someone in these garments would have meant to create a preconception on the type of person
who can wear the line while ideally Equality is designed for an extremely varied range of girls: the focus is on clothes
and girls personality. Moreover the layout offer a subtile but clear idea of the sustainable approach chosen to produ-
ce the collection in line with its colour palette.

26
EQUALITY SS16

27
BRANDED VIDEO

According to Trimble (2015) “video is the future of content marketing” (Trimble, 2015); this because, as he reports
by 2017 the 69% of all consumers internet traffic will consist on video (data by Cisco). In this direction, Trimble an-
nounces that, according to Nielsen, 64% of marketeers expect a predominance in video usage for their strategies in
the next future. Moreover “If a picture paints 1,000 words then one minute of video is worth 1.8 million” (Trimble,
2015).
The video to promote Equality tells the story of three girls, very different one from each other but who live together
in London. They have different jobs, different looks, different ideas but they share the need of feeling good with
themselves and their body through fashion.
The aim of the video is to inform people about the new line but without giving real information about it; it’s more
about communicating a concept and intrigue people in finding out more about it.
Furthermore, it launches the new hastag #stylehasnoshape.
The video will be finally uploaded on Topshop Youtube channel and shared on all social media platforms.

28
PRESS RELEASE

Another fundamental tool to spread information about the new line is a press release. As explained by Greenwood
(2013), this works on a B2B basis and being addressed to professional figures of the communication field, it’s going
to present a quite technical language.
The press release will be than sent by the PR manager to five relevant fashion bloggers and vloggers (plus size and
not) together with some pieces picked from the collection (to engage the extremely tech-and-socialmedia-savvy cu-
stomer group they’re targeting); the other channels will include Topshop official blog, online and independent pres-
ses like I-D Magazine, Dazed and Tank and forecasting agencies like WGSN.

29
 announces new SS16
collection for ALL women: Equality
Released on: February 20, 2016
Press Release Author: Topshop Press Office
Industry: Apparel & Fashion

EQUALITY SS16
Press Release Summary: Topshop announces its new fashion
collection for Spring/Summer 2016 intended for a wide range of
sizes and made sustainable by using for the first time an innovative fabric
made out of bamboo.

Press Release Body: Topshop, a leading women’s fashion brand with more than 300
stores in the UK, has announced details from its new fashion collection for Spring/Summer
2016.
Equality - New Topshop line for Spring/Summer will present the key trends scouted for the
season in an extremely wide range of sizes (UK 6-24).
The concept behind Equality lies in Topshop belief that fashion and style are not related to a
particular body shape but rather to value the body and personality of the individual.
The focus of the collection is the accurately designed wearability that makes this line wea-
rable by a wide number of women of different shapes: in particular it’s characterised by
high-wasted-cut trousers and skirts, flowing jumpsuits and jackets, embroidered dresses and
fringed crop-tops inspired by summer festivals mood.
The accessories comprehend a wide range of ankle boots and laced up sandals in eco-leather
and suede materials; the bags are going to be small and across body to be perfect and comfor-
table for any occasion.
vertical stripes and floral are the key patterns of the collection and are presented in the hot
colours of the season.
The colour palette features warm and natural shades of green, ocher, red and ivory paired
with touches of blue denim.

In addition, for the first time, bamboo fabric has been introduced as a prominent part of the
collection making it super eco other than cool and comfortable; this fabric in fact has resulted
to be a far more sustainable substitute of the common cotton.

New social media ambassador for the collection will be the american model Ashley Graham;
the model in fact is known for her being a body image activist.
30
SOCIAL MEDIA AMBASSADOR
The new social media ambassador will be Ashley Graham; the american top model has nearly 90.000 followers on
Instagram but McGuire (2014) reports that since she started modelling at 15 she’s been called fat by many people in
and out the industry; although this sometimes’ still happening she’s managed to appear on the covers of most fashio-
nable magazines and she’s become a strong supporter of the curvy cause. The model represent a positive and strong
example for girls who may suffer for their physical shape and they’re likely to get inspiration and be engaged by her
character.

31
 BRAND ALLIGNMENT

BRAND

Topshop new target consumer The campaign takes advantage of

reflects the same basic the communicative strenghs of the
characteristics of its usual consu- brand and reinforces its image
mer; however it possess new needs
that Topshop is responding to.

CONSUMER COMMUNICATION
(PLUS + REGULAR) CAMPAIGN

The campaign is designed to ena-

gage these tech-savvy new custo-
mers (and regular ones) respon-
ding to their need for equalitye

32
MEASURING SUCCESS

Lea-Greenwood (2013) explains that there are several methods of strategy assessments based on the channels used.
Firstly He talks about a factor hard to control but that might affect the success of a campaign in terms of sales: the
possible misunderstanding of the campaign message from consumers; advertising messages are usually enclosed
and elaborated through a creative process and because of that people may appreciate an advert but not necessarily
get its meaning with a consequent purchase.
For this reason, according to Lea-Greenwood (2013), to measure the effectiveness of the communication campaign
it’s fundamental to do researches before and after the campaign launch; this can be done through market reports
published by specialist agencies or trade magazines or through external research consultancies or the brand’s own
marketing department. She then explains that post-campaign evaluation aims to measure the results against the
objectives set at the beginning. Pratically, talking about traditional media (such as magazines) the effectiveness is
measured on coverage, day-after recall and brand awareness; Audit Bureau of Circulations for example (as sugge-
sted by Lea-Greenwood (2013)), offers the possibility to check the circulation data on daily, weekly and monthly
publications.
Being a digital campaign, another important thing would be web analytics and social media monitoring: in particu-
lar “marketers can track blogs, Youtube and Facebook to get feedback on what consumers are saying about their
brand.” (Lea-Greenwood, 2013).

33
CONCLUSIONS

To conclude, the objectives of the campaign were to reinforce the brand image and increase brand awareness to-
gether with presenting this new Topshop line that has the peculiarity of not being a plus size line but a line that
“everybody can wear”; these objectives have been met covering all the channels preferred by the target customers
and introducing a different way of thinking about fashion and style (plus sizes don’t have to feel different from
others about fashion and being stylish; in addition fashion can actually be sustainable).

34
APPENDIX

[1] slide fromfashion promotion lecture, week 2

35
[2] Roger’s Diffusion of Innovations Model

Roger’s Diffusion of innovations model reports the different stages of adoption of a trend: while innovators and
early adopters are relevant to locate the birth and spread of a new trend, late majority and laggards are the ones
defining its imminent death; the first are the ones who take risks and don’t conform to the mass, the others are, as
Raymond (2010) suggests, more conservative and reluctant when it comes to trying something new.

36
[3] Personal notes from week 2 lecture

37
[4] Drivers of fashion change for WANDERLUST SS16

Music - Festivals
One of the factors that influenced most this trend is the music festivals phenomenon that, as Baker (2015) specifies,
it’s not only about Britain but it’s spread allover the world and has always more devotees all around together with a
huge number of influent bloggers and celebrities. These events take always more people to travel all around Europe
and USA to see their favourite bands but also to experience the festivals unique atmosphere.
Moreover, these places can be an extraordinary resource to detect new fashion trends; Mendoza(2013), from Los
Angeles Daily News, in fact, highlights how in the last years fashion brands has been affected by this phenomenon
referring to Forever 21’s marketing director Linda Chang who said: “Music festivals have influenced the fashion
industry by reinventing popular styles of past decades of music and pop culture […] Fashion has been influenced by
many iconic musicians like The Rolling Stones and Madonna to newcomers like Sky Ferreira”; examples of this, as
Mendoza explains, are powerful houses like Lacoste, Guess or H&M that are taking the best from it and this festi-
vals mania doesn’t seem likely to end soon.

Catwalks
Another driver comes directly from Paris Fashion Week with SS16 Chanel and Moncler fashion shows both tra-
vel-themed: Chanel in particular has set the runway like an airport and what Karl Lagerfeld said about it was: “
This is a collection for easy travelling all over the world, in all kinds of directions. There are times when it’s cold
somewhere, times when it’s warm.” (Karl Lagerfeld, 2015); in this sentence he brought to light a key theme that
deeply influenced the Wanderlust mega trend: the need of travelling easily and feeling comfortable with any kind of
climate.

38
Art
A crucial exhibition for this trend is Joseph Cornell’s ‘Wanderlust’ that took place in London. Cornell takes you into
a magic atmosphere with his imaginary travels made of nostalgic pieces he collected from the 1930s to the 1960s in
the streets and junk shops of New York; Jones(2015), in fact, reminds, that this enigmatic artist has rarely ever left
New York City although his clear obsession with travel.

Celebrities - bloggers
The impact of fashion bloggers and influencers, when talking about travelling, has a huge relevance in terms of de-
stinations (last summer, people like Chiara Ferragni, Andy Torres, Jessica Stein and many others, spent their holi-
days in Montenegro and Croatia giving a new image of these not-so-fashionable places which seems likely to impro-
ve their desirability towards people in the next future), looks and anything related to that.

Technology -

Talking about technology, Rebecca Minkoff and Eliza Strozyk have largely contributed to reinforce this trend’s ba-
sis: the first with exciting examples of wearable technology, the other with her super innovative, eco-friendly woo-
den fabrics. Both of them respond to the new traveller need of combining the comfort of technology with an always
more sustainable way of facing life.

39
[5] Personal notes from week 2 lecture

40
[6] Personal notes from week 3 lecture

41
[7] PESTLE analysis for EXPERIENCING NATURE TREND

Political

Politics is fundamental in this process of approaching between man and nature, in fact organisations such as the
European Green Party, with its attempt to increase consciousness towards the environmental issues, play an im-
portant role in educating people to respect and appreciate our Planet. An example of how this works can be, as
reported on the European Green Party website (2015), the “Green Forest - Green Poland” Summer School which
took place last July in Poland with the support of the Green European Foundation (and a financial support from the
European Parliament) which had the aim of explaining and discussing some aspects of the green politics but also
“to sensitise participants to the world of nature through direct contact with wildlife in the last primary forest in
Europe.” (European Green Party, 2015)

Economic:

another driver of change lies in Talty’s (2015) findings about eco-tourism in 2015: from the article it emerges,
for example, that the percentage of Millenials (the consumers of the future) interested in charitable travelling is
around 80% against the 18% and 17% of Gen Xers and Babyboomers. The kind of experience that these people are
seeking to do can be, as Talty (2015) reports, the one promoted by WWOOF (World Wide Organization of Organic
Farmers) according to which “volunteers apply to organic farms throughout the world, where they learn agricul-
tural techniques, while living and working on a farm” (Talty, 2015); again, this is a clear sign of how society (and
young people in particular) is shifting its interest towards nature and still life.

42
Social:

If we have a look to social networks, it’s clear that some fashion brands have already started promoting this kind
of bonding-with-nature lifestyle; examples of this are Urban Outfitters (Instagram page) and Topshop (Summer of
Love SS15 Campaign).
Another interesting fact about this new need of experiencing nature is brought to light by Bonetto(2015) who wri-
tes that in the US, some brands are launching campaigns to encourage families to “unplug and connect with the
outdoors” (Bonetto, 2015) to reconnect with themselves, family and friends.
Finally, there are also magazines like Oh Comely that are encouraging this kind of approach to life; in their issue
21 (Aug/Sep 2014) in fact, they have an entire section dedicated to four gardeners experiences in which gardening
appears as an art, a cure for soul as well as a way to grow what you eat. (Gorjian, Durham and Lee, 2014)

Technological:

In terms of technology, the Experiencing Nature trend is driven by Firth and Szymanska(2014) that reports of a
new one-of-a-kind experience that permits to generate music from natural data. This idea comes from the compo-
sers James Bulley and Daniel James who wanted the forest to conduct their new piece of music; to do this they’ve
put four musical installations in four English forests and then translated forest activity into soundscapes thanks to
generative algorithms.

Environmental:

On the environmental side, National Geographic is leader in promoting new kind of adventures to get in touch with
nature; in December 2015 issue in particular, they advertise Trinidad as destination for eco-adventure enthusiasts
due to its extremely wide range of animal species and the variety of landscapes. Nevertheless, this is just one of the
places where people could get in touch with nature because nowadays always more and more areas of the World can
be actually visited and experienced.

43
[8] Stages of communication process, Kotler

In this case, Topshop (as the sender) will sort out some key words which are expected to appeal to the customers
they’re targeting (encoding); the next and most important step is to define the message deriving from them which, for
Equality by Topshop is that fashion has to make you feel good with yourself and your body and this is something that
can be accessible to all body shapes; Topshop will also try to communicate that fashion can be sustainable and trendy
at the same time without being expensive thanks to the adoption of fabrics entirely made out of bamboo.

44
[9] Guerilla Marketing: Distorting Mirrors

This strategy will take place in Topshop stores; the three walls of every dressing room will present a different mirror
each: a regular one and two distorting (one for excess and one for defect). The campaign hashtag #stylehasnoshape
will be printed on them.
The message should be that whatever shape you see in the mirror, you’re always the same person so, if you feel good
with yourself and what you wear that’s all you need.

45
BIBLIOGRAPHY

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