Marketing Communications- Digital & Social Media

The objectives of advertising on digital and social media:

• Sell
• Serve
• Speak
• Save
• Sizzle

New Diesel campaign has been photographed by Nick Knight all on an iPhone and used the apps 'Glitché' and 'Megaphoto' to edit the photos. It is amazing to see how technology can produce such high quality images now, in the past no one would have thought to use a mobile phone to photograph a fashion shoot. 

Gamification is when brands set up games to play online to advertise their products. 

If one person likes a brand's Facebook page they spend $116 on that brand per year more than someone who has not liked the Facebook page. 

Social Media Campaign: things to think about...

• Objectives: why are you on it?
• Research audience 
• Choose platform; Twitter, Facebook
• Engage
• Reporting and measuring
• How easy the person is to understand- clear message?
• Confidence in what you are trying to say 

Lecture on Brand identity

I found learning about how a brand identifies itself very interesting. There are several key things which a brand will use to identify itself and make itself known because of that logo, colour or handwriting.

Distilling the brand:

• Brand extension- creating a new perfume or an underwear range for example. 
• Brand diffusion- having a collection of products with another brand like H&M for example. This is a sub brand. 
• Brand collaboration- Working with Coke or Converse to advertise your brand like DVF did with Evian. 

These are the components a brand could use to identify itself:

• Colour
• Pattern
• Motif
• Logo
• Crest
• Device
• Date
• Signature
• Monogram
• Place
• Iconic product

In our Photoshop seminar we learnt how to create slides which represent a brand's identity by using just four factors, I used a Logo, handwriting, a motif and three colours. 

DVF

For project two we were asked to select a brand out of five options and research the brand thoroughly by looking at the then, the now and the other. We decided to choose DVF as we knew the brand had a lot of history and we liked the products the brand sold.

We produced a presentation on powerpoint which included information about the history of the brand, the product which the brand is associated with; the wrap dress. We analysed the brand by looking at what colours they use, handwriting and logo. We included these aspects in our presentation so you could instantly tell what brand we were talking about. We also talked about how the brand is advertised on social media and created consumer profiles to see the difference between the old and the young consumer who shop at DVF. We also created a new concept which involved an app where you could create a lip charm of a mould of your own lips and attach it to DVF products.

Our presentation went really well apart from one spelling error on the handout! This has made us more aware to spell check over and over. We got a range of feedback from both the tutors and our peers. We were told that we rushed through the presentation, and we should try to speak slower and more confidently. We were also told that our consumer profiles and the information on social media was especially good. Our peers like the handouts as it interacted the audience and kept them alert to the presentation.

London Trip

We went to London to gather research about our chosen brands. My team's was Diane Von Furstenburg and I chose Dries Van Noten. We went to stores such as Harrods and Selfridges to find concessions as well as visiting the DVF store in Mayfair. We managed to collect a lot of information by talking to the head of visual merchandising and by taking photographs of the store.

We also went to the V&A museum to see an exhibition called 'Club to Catwalk' which gave us information about fashion in London in the 1980's. I also managed to find some of Dries Van Noten's work in the museum and managed to take some photos.

Analysing articles

In this seminar we learnt how to analyse an article. The particular article we were given to analyse was called 'Fast Love' from the popular newspaper, The Times. The main point of the article was discussing how many women have very busy lifestyles now, they have important jobs, children, social events and to top that off they are expected to always look their best. This article promotes a new idea to help women always look their best but still give them the time to complete their daily tasks. The idea is to have a beauty salon, where the customer is not paying for the experience, they are paying simply for the service they have asked for. These salons will offer hard working women to have their hair done or makeup, meaning they can look their best all the time in a fast 30 minute service from the salon.

In the seminar we had to read the article carefully and break the writing into sections so we could analyse it critically. We found that in the second paragraph the writer gives other examples which could help women look good all the time, but none as successful as the main proposed idea in the article. We suggested that the tone of voice of the article is quite forceful due to the language used and the writer is trying to relate to the reader. The quotes the writer has used are all quite persuasive which again shows that the tone of voice is quite forceful due to the fact they are trying to get new customers to the salon.

I found this seminar very interesting as I did not take English at A Level, and felt learning how to properly analyse an article very useful to know.

Mulberry Mood Board

Having to produce a mood board for the brand Mulberry meant I had to research the designer brand in a lot of detail. This meant understanding the brand's DNA, what colours they use, images, logo and handwriting... I had to research all of this information so I could produce a mood board which represented Mulberry and described what type of consumer will shop at this brand. After researching Mulberry, I carefully selected 10 images which I thought represented the brand well. I created my mood board in Photoshop and also created a colour palette to suggest the colours which Mulberry are currently using. 

I then had to present my mood board and talk about the brand in detail. I received a great deal of feedback which will help me produce a better mood board for Mulberry.  

• Use more 'old photos' to represent the past of Mulberry.
• Have more space on my mood board to make it easy to understand.
• Made in Chelsea image- Mulberry would not want to be related to the people on that show. Remove image from board. 
• Main image of Cara in centre of the board is not suited to the colour palette.
• I could use more PS effects, eg: fade or multiply. 
• Leaf shapes add depth to the board which creates an interesting effect.