Wednesday, September 29, 2010

7 Reasons African Fashion Brands should be Nice to Bloggers

Let’s face it, fashion bloggers are not few or far between, and are fast rising in prominence. One word of advice to African fashion brands: do not mess with a fashion blogger, no matter how unimportant you think they may be.
Word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing, and a fashion bloggers opinion could make or break a brand. According to the article from Tashkaya's blog “African and South African fashion brands in particular still seem to treat them as second class citizens”. And this is why…..
1. Over 40% of the press at New York Fashion Week is bloggers.
This means that of the 3, 600 members of press present, nearly 40% are fashion bloggers.
2. Major fashion brands are inviting them to shows.
Designers like Carl Lagerfeld and John Galliano are inviting bloggers to their shows, sometimes all expenses paid. Perhaps it may be time to follow the top designers lead and be nice to the local bloggers!
3. In the USA fashion bloggers are becoming very popular.
Blogs like Style Bubble are getting up to 25 000 hits a day. While some bloggers have tens of thousands of twitter followers. If this isn’t enough to make you sit up and notice then I don’t know what is.
4. Bloggers are now judges for CFDA
For the first time ever bloggers have been invited to be judges for the Council of Fashion Designers of America This is a landmark event for the fashion blogging industry. It is an indicator of the power and influence that is moving into the hands of fashion bloggers.
5. Traditional fashion editors are losing control
Just like the film and music industry is struggling to come to grips with the fact that the internet has made them largely irrelevant; the fashion editorial industry is losing much of its power. In the good (or bad depending on your point of view) old days fashion editors could control what and who the public sees. With the advent of the internet and growth of fashion blogs this power is now gone.
6. Enthusiasm = Influence
Everybody knows that the thing that sells clothes is enthusiasm and passion; not knowledge. The average person out there doesn’t care about technical details and high-brow descriptions of the “silhouette” and “architectural lines” of a garment. On the other hand, having somebody who clearly loves clothes recommend an item they love carries much more weight. Bloggers mostly do this because they love clothes and fashion, yes some of them make money from their blogs, but they only make money because they are passionate about what they do.
7. The rest of the world lags behind the USA
This might be the most important reason to start building relationships with local bloggers. The developing world runs 3-4 years behind the states when it comes to the adoption of internet trends. This means that before long all the major local brands will be beating a path to the door of your favorite blogger. Shouldn’t you be there first?
Take a look at Tashkaya's Blog, I found it a very interesting read.
x

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