Profit

The four pillars of a fashion business are Planet, People, Profit and Purpose. Profit is the most important factor for every fashion brand, and all their efforts are aimed at achieving one ultimate purpose: maximising profit. Profit is one of the factors that a brand is bound to consider before making decisions and planning.

 As can be seen from the data, the fashion industry is huge, and the global apparel market is expected to reach $1.53 trillion in revenue by 2022. This is a very large number and shows that the impact of the fashion industry on society will also be huge, and conversely, the impact of external factors on the fashion industry is unavoidable. The fashion industry is now slowly becoming one of the biggest industries in the world, and before the global outbreak, their annual revenue could even reach the frightening figure of $2.5 trillion, so this has led to a lot of people being unemployed or facing financial difficulties during the outbreak. As for the UK, as a globally developed country, the fashion industry has always been a big industry in the UK as well. Currently, 800,000 jobs in the UK are provided by the fashion industry, providing employment opportunities for a large portion of the population.

 The fashion industry, one of the largest and most fragmented industries in the world, is made up of several levels: the production of raw materials, mainly fibres and textiles, as well as furs and skins; fashion design, where designers provide the inspiration to create fashionable items and assemble the garments; and retail sales, where various forms of advertisement and promotions are used to achieve a purpose, enabling brands to satisfy consumer demand for clothing at a profit. retail sales, through various forms of advertising and promotion, with the aim of enabling the brand to satisfy consumer demand for clothing at a profit. In fashion marketing, where the goal is to maximise the sales and profitability of the brand, success depends on understanding consumer needs and responding with appropriate products. So on another level, the success of these sectors is measured using economic profit.

 In a period of economic instability, consumers’ psychological activities and behaviours will change. What brands should do is adapt to and accept this change in a very short period of time, analyse it, and then make adjustments to the brand’s design, marketing strategy, and tactics to maintain the brand’s competitiveness. Because of the rise of digital media, the current market trend is gradually moving towards digitalization, and more consumers are shopping online, which means that consumer preferences and habits are slowly changing. The priority for brands is to increase their digital efforts and focus more on the feedback from this segment. And since, according to the survey, H&M and Adidas have been able to grow their sales despite the economic uncertainty because of better solutions than rival brands through cost reductions and efficient investments, brands should also consider the need for better distribution channels and in-store experiences, as well as investing in and upgrading their customer relationship management systems.

 The most important thing for a brand is to create an image in the mind of the customer. They will then need a representative adjective, which is the brand’s market position, which also allows consumers to categorise and position them. There is always a need for trust between art and business. When designing and creating a new collection for a brand, the creative director must not erode the brand’s iconic symbols and characteristics but rather build on them to innovate, which requires the brand to have complete trust in the creative director. To bridge the gap between creativity and business, it is important to focus on consumer feedback and preferences. Creativity is important, but consumer behaviour, habits, and preferences are equally important to brands, which need consumers to buy their products. On another level, the creative director of a brand is the soul of the brand, and to a certain extent, it dominates the direction of the brand, so it is necessary to listen to the needs of the consumer, to understand what makes the consumer disgusted and what makes the consumer excited, because the consumer has its own opinion, and the brand’s design is not only to innovate but also to be able to be accepted by the consumer.

To conclude, for fashion brands, the most important thing is that they need to understand the current fashion situation and adapt to some changes, including changes in customer preferences and external factors that may affect customers and change the customer’s consumption psychology. They also need to prepare in advance in order to ensure that profits are maximised.

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Niinimäki, K. (2017) ‘Fashion in a Circular Economy’, in C.E. Henninger et al. (eds) Sustainability in Fashion. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 151–169. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51253-2_8.

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Overdiek, A. (2016) ‘Fashion designers and their business partners: juggling creativity and commerce’, International Journal of Fashion Studies, 3(1), pp. 27–47.