Profit pillar

Introduce the pillar

According to the report from Jennifer, The foundation of the profit aspect lies in a company’s effective and conscientious utilization of resources, which ultimately results in sustained profitability. When applied to the fashion industry, clothing companies that implement sustainability measures can enhance their efficiency and long-term financial returns. (Jennifer, 2022) As an important pillar of sustainable fashion, profit pillar makes obvious sense. “Only in the UK, the sustainable fashion market revenue reached about 70 million in 2020.” (Certilogo, 2022)

What is the size of the fashion industry?

“Fashion is one of the world’s most important industries,  driving a significant part of the global economy. It is one of the key value-creating industries for the world economy.  If it were ranked alongside individual countries’ GDP the global fashion industry would represent the seventh-largest economy in the world,’’ stated McKinsey in its State of Fashion 2017 report. (McKinsey, 2017) 

According to Euromonitor, the global apparel and footwear industry grew by 18.1% at current prices in 2020-2021, to $1.71 billion dollars in market size (retail value USD million) in 2021.

The world’s apparel retail market is expected to enjoy a 7.5% growth in 2021-2022 to $1.84 billion dollars in 2022 and a 6.1% growth in 2022-2023 to $1.95 billion dollars in 2023. (Fashion united, no date)

How are the various sectors of the industry performing?

The topic of sustainability in the fashion industry is gaining more and more attention. The once-great fast fashion trend is facing increased scrutiny not only from the fashion industry and consumers, but also from people who are increasingly concerned about whether the fashion products themselves are harmful to the environment. With the increasing popularity of electronic products in the world, the end of covid-19, global warming and other issues, more and more consumers begin to shop online, which makes the fashion industry begin to enter another era, digital fashion. Consumers pay more attention to the meta-universe and online shopping. Almost all luxury brands have entered the meta-universe market, and most mass brands have also developed their own digital fashion projects.

How can a brand remain competitive in uncertain economic times?

According to the report from Eric:

1. Concentrate intently on the current customer base, clients, and partners.
2. Reiterate to the management that during an economic downturn, it’s not a time to withdraw from marketing efforts. As Henry Ford once said, “A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time.” When recessions hit, marketing is often among the first budget cuts. Doing so could potentially cause long-term damage to the brand and allow  smaller or weaker competitors to steal market share. There are countless studies going back more than a decade showing  that brands maintaining or increasing advertising during a recession gain market share over time.
3. Remain flexible and receptive to emerging technologies, tools, and platforms.
4. Use the time to focus on strategy, build content and analyze customers’ behaviors.
5. Use the time going into a tougher economy to build assets, materials and programs while you have access to resources.
6. Provide certainty when people are overwhelmed with uncertainty. (Eric, 2020)

How do creative directors bridge the gap between creativity and commerce?

Mitterfellner once mentioned the case of YSL and Chanel. Although Miss COCO Chanel was a very excellent designer and led the Chanel era, fashion trends are very important in the fashion industry, and not all designers can keenly capture the fashion trends. Coco Chanel did not like jeans and mini skirts, she was not even willing to consider designing this style of products, which more or less led to Chanel in that era almost end. But during Lagerfeld’s tenure, he saved the brand by merging the fashion trends of the time with Chanel’s brand philosophy. (Mitterfellner, 2023, p137) “The product life cycle is more restrictive than the brand life cycle. This is because a brand is more resilient than a single product, and management should apply the right technology and appropriate marketing strategies at the mature stage to ensure that the brand continues to stay healthy and fresh.” (Mitterfellner, 2023, p133) Therefore, to sum up, the creative director of a brand should design products in combination with the trends of contemporary fashion captured by the creative director and the concept of the brand itself. Not all consumers like the products of the creative director, and all the purpose is to cater to consumers and make profits.

Reference list:

Certilogo (2022) A sustainable Fashion business model (Online). Available at: https://discover.certilogo.com/blogs/insights/sustainable-fashion-business-model (Accessed 21/10/23)

Erik,C (2020) Marketing Rules To Follow During Uncertain Economic Times. (Online) Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurendebter/2023/10/20/how-struggling-college-bookstores-found-a-way-to-beat-amazon/? (Accessed 22/10/23)

Fashionunited. (no date) Global Fashion Industry Statistics (Online). Available at: https://fashionunited.com/global-fashion-industry-statistics (Accessed 20/10/23)

Imran,A (2022) (Online). The State of Fashion 2023: Holding onto growth as global clouds gather. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/state-of-fashion (Accessed 20/10/23)

Jennifer,S. (2022) Pillars Of Sustainable Fashion (Online). Available at: https://www.thesewingroomalameda.com/fashion-studies-blog/2022/7/15/pillars-of-sustainable-fashion (Accessed 21/10/23)

Mitterfellner,O. (2023) Luxury fashion brand management (electronic resource): unifying fashion with sustainability / Olga Mitterfellner. London : Routledge. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/reader.action?docID=7260416. (Accessed 21/10/23)