METHODOLOGY

BRIEF

The Brand Development and Promotion element will work in collaboration with BA (Hons) Fashion Design.
You should assume the role of a Brand Marketing Consultant, the Fashion Design student is your client.
You are developing a new brand for your designer and you can either focus solely on the outfit and ideas the designer has created or you can take a holistic view.
You are required to develop visionary ideas in order to create the identity of the brand and anticipate future insights that allow you to gain a foothold in the competitive landscape.
You will present strategic, integrated and creative brand marketing and promotion solutions to bring your designer’s concepts to market.
Emphasis will be placed on the concept of an integrated communications plan to create compelling key messages that seduce and engage your consumer.

PRIMARY RESEARCH

Various primary research methods were used to inform this project, providing qualitative and quantitative perspectives. The first form of primary research conducted was the initial meeting with the designer. A multitude of questions were asked to gain a solid understanding of the designer's motivations and overall vision for the brand development. This meeting set the project off on a great start. However, it was slightly overwhelming and a lot to take in and think about at this early stage.

The second method was online surveys. The first was conducted to gain insight into thoughts and opinions surrounding brand names, logos and meanings etc. to aid the brand development strategy for a new, luxury, womenswear brand. It contained open and closed questions and had a total of 48 respondents. This was disadvantageously not enough respondents to completely validate conclusions. Personal feedback from respondents also stated that they found a few of the questions difficult and the purpose of the survey hard to grasp; this confusion and lack of clarity from respondent perspectives potentially being the reason for lack of respondents. The second survey was conducted to gain insight into luxury consumer behaviours to aid a communication plan for this new, luxury fashion brand. This was a successful survey which had potential to develop key insights and it had the good intention of getting results from relevant people. However this survey also lacked respondents. The reach for luxury consumers was limited and therefore the number of respondents was not particularly high.

Another form of primary research was the use of Instagram polls. Two Instagram polls were used to help confirm logo ideas and to see the external public's thought of logo fonts. The first poll displayed the word/brand name ‘Fortitude’ written in four different fonts; any potentially appropriate for a luxury womenswear brand logo. The poll asked people to pick which they thought best suited a statement, colourful, womenswear brand that is also high-end/luxury. To further consolidate this, the font that had the most votes was posted on a second Instagram poll, asking people if they thought upper or lower case would be best. In hindsight, the collaborative Instagram would have been a good platform to use to ask these questions as the respondents would have been more suitable/relevant and it might have increased engagement and interaction on the platform. This reflection was acted upon and the FMBe Creative platform was used to conduct a final Instagram poll towards the end of the project. The poll asked FMBe Creative's followers to choose which username they thought would be best appropriate for Fortitude's social media platforms. Deciding to eventually utilise the platform for polls was successful as such respondents have a genuine interest in the purpose of the platform; they follow the page to see the progression and development of the brands and value that their input is being taken into consideration.

SECONDARY RESEARCH

A variety of resources was used for secondary research. Online reports and articles provided valuable insights and statistics regarding consumer behaviour and trends, as well the project’s concept surrounding plastic ocean pollution. Databases such as Mintel and Passport provided relevant information to further enhance the project’s findings, being particularly useful for trend identification and analysis. Competitor websites and social media platforms yielded brand-specific information to help understand and confirm the market positioning of the Fortitude brand. Particularly when researching for the press release and identifying a magazine that would best suit Fortitude, utilising the magazines' websites and ethnographically observing social media platforms aided such decision. Ethnographic observations of influencers was also highly valuable. Advantageously there was a wide range of accessible secondary data. However, some resources were over a year or two old, meaning the information may be outdated, therefore reducing validity.

Another form of secondary research was watching the Netflix documentary ‘Seaspiracy’. This was a recently aired documentary film about the environmental impact of fishing and examines various human impacts on marine life. This was a great form of secondary research that allowed for multiple senses to be used for maximum affect. It was valuable to gain a deep understanding of the raw and awful impacts that human actions are having on wildlife, which therefore allowed for a better understanding of the inspirations and values behind the Fortitude brand.