Fashion Nova: The Power of Influencer Marketing
Influencers have transformed the fashion industry and become the new Anna Wintour.
2018 is most definitely the year of influencer marketing. The industry that particularly reaps the benefit the most of the rising power of these influencers is fashion industry. Unlike in the pre-internet era, fashion industry has undergone massive transformation thanks to the birth of online personal stylists and editors who basically steer where the trends are going. It is a fact now that influencers are the new Anna Wintour.
In particular, Fashion Nova and Off-White are two of the fashion brands that successfully implement influencer marketing campaigns in 2018, even topping luxury legacy brands such as Gucci and Balenciaga. Here are some things marketers could learn from these two brands.
Fashion Nova
Fashion Nova doesn’t exist before 2006, but it managed to become one of the top most-searched brands in 2017 alongside other old players such as Chanel and Louis Vuitton. What caused the sudden spurt of growth? The answer is none other than influencers.
The accessories, apparel, and beauty brand was established by founder and CEO Richard Saghian who started to notice the influential power of users wearing his products and posted selfies on Instagram as early as 2013. He approached these users to promote the brand in exchange for free products. As a result, he successfully sold every single item within the first week of going live with his website.
Fashion Nova’s success in influencer marketing comes from its ability to identify its market audience early on as well as its efficient customer management strategy. Their main target audiences? Women with body measurements that don’t always fit with the standard sizing. But unlike most big-size clothing labels, Fashion Nova focused on trendier, fitted, yet still affordable pieces that attracted customers who want to look fashionable regardless their body shapes or sizes.
The brand has also successfully transformed the fast-fashion business into ultra fast-fashion. Fashion Nova’s ability to stay on top of their online order is the key to its e-commerce success. This strategy works because the brand chose to partner up with local manufacturers. Fashion Nova also focuses on easy naming in their posts, from “Sexy and Chic” to “Walk in the Park” and actively perusing social media users wearing their products to honor them with its own #NovaStars and #NovaBabes titles.
Fashion Nova currently has more than 14 million followers on Instagram and posts every 30 minutes daily. The brand plans to become a one-stop shop for its influencers. The key here is to treat every single customer as if they are your potential future influencers/brand advocates.
Prospects of Influencer Marketing in the Future
This 2019, the prospect of influencer marketing looks brighter. For fashion brands, in particular, working with influencers has become a necessity as the majority of the potential buyers are in social media.
But as the pool of influencers become more saturated, 2019 can also be the cornerstone for micro-influencers with smaller, more niche audiences to shine. With mega-influencers demanding bigger payment, working with micro-influencers who have cultivate intimate relationships with their peers could be the option for startups or brands with smaller capital. But the best part is since micro-influencers’ fees are often smaller, brands can work with 10–20 of them for the price of one mega-influencer, which also means an increase in audience diversity!
