Creative Digital Report – Stella McCartney House of Fashion

Creative Digital Report – Stella McCartney House of Fashion

Stella McCartney House of Fashion

Background of Chosen Brand

The Stella McCartney brand is a high-end woman apparel fashion brand that is based in the United Kingdom. The owner of the brand is English fashion designer Stella McCartney. Stella is daughter to former Beatle sir Paul McCartney and animal activist Linda McCartney. The Stella McCartney brand is a unique brand that is famously recognized as a leading sustainable fashion brand. Sustainability is deeply entrenched in the brand’s ethos, which advocates for responsibility and consciousness in the production process (Winifred, 2019). All the products included in the brand are made free of leather or animal fur. This is primarily attributed to Stella, who, like her parents, is also an animal rights activist. The Stella McCartney brand is a well-known brand with stores in 77 countries around the world. The brand also operates an online shopping platform with shipping available to over 300 countries.

Justification for Chosen Brand Concept

The Stella McCartney brand has been chosen due to its commitment to sustainability. This commitment makes the brand stand out from other popular brands around the world. It is this commitment that has attracted grand collaborations with famous celebrities for the brand. An excellent example of such a partnership is with Meghan Markle, wife to prince harry and duchess of Sussex (Green, 2019).  Markle is a champion for sustainable fashion and was therefore delighted to partner with the Stella McCartney brand. This partnership resulted in the fashion brand being selected to design the wedding dress for Meghan’s royal wedding. This collaboration has gone farther as Stella has announced the launch of a bridal line of apparel, which will feature a similar dress worn by Meghan on her royal wedding (Goldstone, 2019). The commitment to sustainability, therefore, makes Stella McCartney brand a unique fashion brand and thus justifies its selection as the preferred brand concept. 

Launch Strategy

The selected launch strategy for the brand is a cover photoshoot for vogue magazine, which will feature Meghan Markle as the cover model. This will be an offline campaign that is targeted to have extensive coverage of the target market. This is because Vogue is the world’s leading fashion magazine with quite a vast audience. This global audience generally includes the brand’s target demographic of middle and high-class women between the ages of 25-50.  The success of this launch strategy will be pegged on the partnership with Megan Markle as this will be Meghan’s first-ever cover shoot for Vogue magazine. This campaign will generate a lot of hype as Meghan is a well-known actor and now part of the royal family while the Stella McCartney brand is well known as the top sustainable fashion brand around the world. The campaign will also be a huge hit in the United Kingdom as both Meghan and Stella have a large following who will be looking forward to the release of the new products.

Competition and Past Campaigns

Like any significant business brand, the Stella McCartney brand gets completion from other leading brands in the fashion market. The biggest rival to the McCartney brand is the alexander McQueen fashion brand, which is also located in England. The Alexander McQueen is, however, the complete opposite of the McCartney brand as it deals with leather goods (Owler). Other notable competitors to the McCartney fashion brand in the UK are the Paul Smith and Vivienne Westwood fashion brands. To compete with its rivals effectively, the McCartney brand has, in the past, carried out various forms of launch campaigns for their different lines of apparel. A common trend notable with the brand’s past launch campaigns involves partnerships and collaborations with celebrities.  Some examples of previous campaigns include the ready-to-wear and accessories collection with Taylor swift (Yotka, 2019), a capsule collection with Gwyneth Paltrow (Lidbury, 2013), and lingerie collection with Sofia Vergara.

Key Performance Indicators

The key performance indicators for the McCartney brand and its launch strategies can be evaluated in terms of distribution and collaborations. Distribution is a key performance indicator as it is directly related to the number of sales for a product. Fortunately, the Stella McCartney brand has excelled in these aspects as it includes over 50 freestanding stores around the world. The collection is also distributed in significant stores in over 77 countries around the globe and also consists of an online presence with shipping available to the customer in over 300 countries. This extensive distribution chain will prove vital for the new launch campaign as the collection will be available to many of the brand’s customers. The success of the Stella McCartney brand has also attracted partnerships with significant players in the fashion industry. The prime examples of these partnerships are those with Adidas and LVMH (Stella McCartney). The brand recently announced a new partnership with the famous French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH to further develop the Stella McCartney house of fashion (LVMH, 2019). In the collaboration with Adidas, Stella was appointed as the creative director for team Great Britain for the summer 2012 Olympics.

Consideration of Target Demographic

The target demographic for the new campaign featuring Meghan Markle includes women between the ages of 26-40. The campaign also targets Stella’s usual customers, who include women from the middle and upper classes. The inclusion of Meghan Markle in the launch campaign for the new collection will primarily target the higher class women as it will feature elegant high-end apparel for the modern women. The target demographic, especially within the UK, are expected to be drawn to the fact that the ambassador for the new collection is a duchess of the royal family. The inclusion of Meghan Markle in the launch campaign is also aimed at attracting more American customers as well as women from other parts of the world. This is because Meghan is very popular and will, therefore, appeal more to the target demographic.

Customer Profile and Retention Strategies

The customer profile for the Stella McCartney brand typically comprises of women with a high income from the middle and upper classes. Stella’s customers include high-income earners as the brand’s products are a bit pricy. The price for the brads products is high as they are made from sustainable materials and processes which produce high-quality products. A typical McCartney customer is also someone who is highly environmentally conscious and a proponent for sustainability (Stella McCartney). This means that Stella’s customers also conform to her activist nature and believe that animals should not be harmed in the production of fashion products. These customers, therefore, enjoy the no leather or fur products available in the stela McCartney brand. As the success of the business is pegged on the retention of existing customers as well as the attraction of new customers, the brand is continually coming up with new and improved sustainable products to suit their customers. The retention strategies involve the innovation of new sustainable processes and materials such as the newly launched biodegradable denim for women and the production of new fashion collections for specific trendy seasons.

Evaluation and Recommendations

The selected launch campaign featuring Meghan Markle and vogue magazine is an offline campaign aimed at the brand’s target customers. This launch campaign has the potential of massive success as the magazine will reach many high-income women who are the target demographic. The vogue article and spread will also feature information on where to get the products in the latest collection, making it efficient and effective. The brand should, however, also strive to reach younger customers to increase the effectiveness of the launch campaign. This is because the younger population, especially millennials, are now more environmentally conscious and may form a new market for the brand. The selected launch campaign may, however, not be suitable for reaching this potentially new target customer base. The Stella McCartney brand should, therefore, consider carrying out an online launch campaign through social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

References

Business Matters. (2019, September 7). How fashion brands can benefit from Instagram. Retrieved from Business Matters: https://www.bmmagazine.co.uk/marketing/how-fashion-brands-can-benefit-from-instagram/

Goldstone, P. (2019, June 24). Stella McCartney is launching a bridal line, and yes, it includes Meghan’s dress. Retrieved from Marie Claire: https://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/fashion-news/stella-mccartney-wedding-dresses-627459

Green, K. (2019, March 18). How Duchess Of Sussex Meghan Markle Became A Sustainable Fashion Champion. Retrieved from Eco-Age: https://eco-age.com/news/how-duchess-sussex-meghan-markle-became-sustainable-fashion-champion

Lidbury, O. (2013, September 14). Gwyneth Paltrow and Stella McCartney collaborate on a capsule collection. Retrieved from Telegraph: http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG10288109/Gwyneth-Paltrow-and-Stella-McCartney-collaborate-on-capsule-collection.html

LVMH. (2019, July 15). Stella McCartney and LVMH announce a new partnership to further develop the Stella McCartney House. Retrieved from LVMH: https://www.lvmh.com/news-documents/press-releases/stella-mccartney-and-lvmh-announce-a-new-partnership-to-further-develop-the-stella-mccartney-house/

Owler. (n.d.). Stella McCartney’s Competitors, Revenue, Number of Employees, Funding, and Acquisitions. Retrieved from Owler: https://www.owler.com/company/stellamccartney

Stella McCartney. (n.d.). Collaborations. Retrieved from Stella McCartney: https://www.stellamccartney.com/experience/en/sustainability/collaborations/

Winifred, D. (2019, October 12). The Ethical Fashion Brands Meghan Markle Supports and Loves. Retrieved from Showbiz Cheatsheet: https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/the-ethical-fashion-brands-meghan-markle-supports-and-loves.html/

Yotka, S. (2019, August 20). Taylor Swift and Stella McCartney Reveal Their Lover Fashion Collaboration. Retrieved from Vogue: https://www.vogue.com/article/taylor-swift-and-stella-mccartney-reveal-their-lover-fashion-collaboration