Fashion Institute of Technology
Strategic Planning
Integrated Marketing Communications Analysis
How does your chosen brand use various Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) tools to market its product, service or person, and maintain its position as the leading brand in its industry/area of commerce?
IMC Tools
Direct Marketing
Advertising
Public Relations
Social Media Marketing
Sales Promotion
Mission Statement :
The brand highlights inclusivity as its core value, and the team stays true to this in every step they take.
Direct Marketing
Telfar sends emails if you sign up for the mailing list or create an account for their website. The emails are used to communicate with consumers about pre-sales of the bags, the restocks, and additional information about various products.
Advertising
Telfar teamed up with CultureSport to create a campaign (for a TV ad) that features anime creators’ slash art that shows the aesthetics of commercial homogeneity. The key to their campaign is diversity.
In an ad displayed in the past, there were Telfars arranged in a scale of race and body type, and a certain detail is represented-- which is the brand’s very different attitude towards race and gender. There’s a clear dedication to gender fluidity/identity in his brand, trying to show its long existence in the fashion world.
Telfar uses many references from mainstream fashion that combine with his inspiration for the MoMa in the past. It’s all based upon getting a reaction from the people in love with the fashion culture.
When Telfar collaborated with UGG, they did a TV ad that is an ASMR-style video giving the message that “fashion can give us a hug.” The ad came out during the early pandemic indicating that we should feel comfortable in our fashion style, which their target audience is heading towards.
Telfar x UGG
“FEEL YOU” | 09.17.20 | Advertisement chosen for analysis
Public Relations
There are digital publications about the founder and owner of Telfer (Telfar Clemens) and his company’s fashion shows, latest product releases, news, collections, etc.
News outlets like the New York Times, Vogue, and Okay Player helped draw more attention to the brand by acknowledging the success of its sales, alongside how its products and services are changing the fashion world with its wider representation of the African and Caribbean American community as well as the LGBTQ+community.
Sales Promotion
Telfar partnered up with Klarna-- a virtual single-use card to use for shopping at any US facing online-store. You’re given a unique card number that can be used at any checkout of a store like a regular credit card. It has its own payment plan that you can pay and manage in the Klarna website or app.
Telfar informs the consumers when they should place the order.
There’s a start date to get the card when trying to buy a limited edition pre-sale bag using this method.
From the Telfar Website during the Bubblegum Pink collection release:
How does it maintain its position as the leading brand in its industry/area of commerce?
They go by their mission statement “Not for you, for everyone.” to embrace the democracy of fashion, with its unisex and genderless designs. Telfar’s logo “TC” sets as a clean visual for the consumers to remember their products, knowing what their intentions and message is.
Fashion should be unisex, accessible, and authentic.
Telfar maintains its position as the leading brand by adopting the essence of streetwear and building a level of exclusivity or rarity among its consumers with the products. The commotion created with each shade release is unmatched.
The use of keywords like “restock” or “limited quantity,” in the promotion stirs more anticipation for the consumers Playing with the urgency factor has been proven as a powerful strategy for the brand.
The Telfar x Melissa collaboration also fits within festival and concert accessory guidelines.
Using modern restrictions as inspiration for creating fashionable solutions was remarkably clever
Promotion during peak festival season is exceptional exposure.
Collaborations:
UGG, Eastpack, Moosknuckles, and Melissa were chosen as partners to target various aesthetics and or lifestyle preferences their audience includes.
The vital attention Clemens gives to consumer profiles provides Telfar a competitive advantage to use cross-promotion to its fullest potential.
Highlighting these connections strengthens brand management for the existing community and builds brand awareness for new potential consumers.
Brand Management
The brand voice is shown through the eccentric and humourous creative direction!
The highly artistic QVC digital fever dream atmospheres built within the promotional advertisements are uniquely niche to the Telfar vision and are addictingly entertaining.
@ianisiah
Strategic Planning
IMC Analysis
How has the role of IMC tools changed for your chosen brand over the past year, five years, or a decade, and what factors drive the change?
Advertising/Mobile Marketing
Public Relations
Sponsorships
Throughout the past year, There has been an increased usage of IMC tools for the Telfar brand. Telfar was sold in Opening Ceremony locations in previous years but has since been sold exclusively on the Telfar site. The three main integrated marketing communication tools used during the pandemic has put the brand in the spotlight and brought in a steady flow of recognition from media outlets and consumers.
Digital and Direct Marketing
Telfar’s team has used email newsletters, text marketing rollouts, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok to advertise their products throughout the past year.
The social platforms used by Telfar have helped accelerate brand awareness and engagement by consistently posting and informing customers about restocks and launches. The promotional memes that are used garner mass amounts of engagement and strengthens their placement in user algorithms.
Telfar advertising is bold and futuristic but still relatable to the consumer, everyday people rather than models are seen in Telfar advertisements.
To promote the pre-order of the Telfar x UGG collab Gito the spokesperson broadcasted a livestream at the new flagship store on Fifth Avenue. Viewers of the live stream were enticed by the display of the collaboration and uplifting energy in the atmosphere. With the livestream event, Telfar could sell most of the collaboration.
Direct Marketing
Telfar uses email blasts, online adverts, database marketing, text message marketing, and its website.
Recently Telfar proposed a challenge to all it’s followers in the New York Metropolitan area in lou of the restock for their pink “shopping bag”. “Gito,” a spokesperson for the brand, explained in a video posted on all social platforms that there are pink paper bags placed around the city, and that whoever finds them and makes a memorable reaction video will receive a free bag.
With creative ways of direct marketing, Telfar has inspired new ways the industry advertises to its customers.
Public Relations
Telfar maintains a strong public image by creating various forms of media, press releases, and messages that create a positive opinion of the brand. In the recent Telfar x UGG collaboration, Telfar’s presented a new form of public relations that they never did before.
To promote the pre-order of the Telfar x UGG collab Gito the spokesperson broadcasted a livestream at the new flagship store on Fifth Avenue. Viewers of the live stream were enticed by the display of the collaboration and uplifting energy in the atmosphere. With the livestream event, Telfar could sell most of the collaboration.
Social Media
Telfar uses Instagram, that is linked to their website; they use their pictures and video clips to engage with their followers (possible consumers), keeping up to date on what products they are about to release and responding to questions their followers have in the comment section. Their videos are a form of entertainment with their 3D, virtual effects that are supposed to keep the audience engaged while informing what Telfar is trying to sell.
Tik Tok videos of influencers wearing their products that Telfar is about to release. Celebrities like FKA twigs, Oprah, Solange, Kehlani, A$AP Ferg have sponsored their products, all of them would appear wearing a Telfar product either in their own personal time or wearing it for a magazine photoshoot.
Social Media
For instance, Telfar posts a picture of singer Kehlani wearing a Telfar sweater for SpinMag, this influences the audience who listens to her music and follows her style. Twitter is another social media outlet they market their products and communicate with their followers.
Instagram Content
Bold and Consistent
Technological Innovation and Societal Change
How has Telfar’s IMC plan been impacted by the technological innovations, and social changes in today’s world?
According to the GLAAD Accelerating Acceptance 2017 Survey,
“Young people appear more likely to identify outside traditional binaries such as “gay/straight” and “man/woman”
“12% of Millennials identify as transgender or gender non-conforming, meaning they do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth or their gender expression is different from conventional expectations of masculinity and femininity -- doubling the number of transgender and gender non-conforming people reported by Generation X (6%)”
A Harris Poll survey of Americans’ acceptance of LGBTQ people | 03.30.2017
With this new age of fashion comes the responsibility of true transparency and absolute visibility for ALL
This includes who the brand uses to promote and define its image, and what everyone involved in that brand stands for.
Ex: @trapselyna | Selyna Brillare
Ex: @ianisiah | (SHUGGA) Iani Siah
Telfar recognizes the importance of diversity and equality in the fashion industry and it is shown in their apparel. Telfar is 100% black owned, and genderless. The gender binary has been strictly enforced in society, and endorsed in fashion for ages.
However, ever since 2017, a greater portion of the Gen Y and Z sample size doesn't even feel as though they identify strictly on one end of the spectrum or the other when compared to other generations. This target audience wants to see themselves represented authentically in all sectors of the industry.
The safe space that fashion brands must curate for these individuals is absolutely essential. Therefore, Telfar’s collections are suited for all of their consumers regardless of their gender identity or expression, and have been strictly active about exemplifying that in their social media content and campaigns. This has affected them positively in an exponential way, and continues to do so.
New social media platforms, like Tik Tok, gave Telfar another way to create relevant and clever content to reach their target audience.
The way that social media, and digital marketing skyrocketed granted Telfar the opportunity to advertise their products and sales promotions through influencers. This has had a positive impact on their IMC plans, because even during a mass pandemic, their staggering sales have not wavered.
Telfar Clemens | Hypebeast 2020
On the account of how the brand handled its sales during the pandemic, the brand stated that
“The demand has been growing exponentially for years, what is different now is that the word has been changing faster. We want to keep it moving.”
Recognizing the way that the world has been changing has only given Telfar a leg up in formulating ways to reach its consumers.
consent obtained by @sallistarr | additional links: @telfar | Melissa x Telfar
Escapism
Understanding the escapism that social media content can give consumers, especially knowing that most of them - if not all - are quarantining with low spirits, has been serving as the backbone for their continuous successful promotion.
Therefore the use of popular influencers, and incredible artists that their audience recognizes allows them to connect with their consumers on a more personal level. A lot of the time even the consumers themselves are featured on the platforms as well, and their sounds promoting the brand go viral.
BAG SECURITY PROGRAM
BAG SECURITY PROGRAM
TELFAR BAG SECURITY PROGRAM
The bag security program was a program meant to satisfy all Telfar customers who had recently had unsatisfying shopping experiences with the brand.
Many resellers enabled bots and programs to buy large amounts of a recent collection drop, which put Telfar’s true loyal consumers at a disadvantage
Known for their swift restocks and even faster sell-outs, loyal Telfar shoppers have an understanding that bags will sell out in sixty seconds.
Bag Security Program
Telfar released the bag security program on August 19th, 2020 with one hundred and thirty-four thousand spectators of their Instagram post.
Shoppers rushed to the brand website to purchase any amount of the three sizes within eighteen colorways and had a promised delivery from December-January.
Telfar is one of the first brands to make a deliberate effort to resist bot-reselling to preserve the culture.
These were all made to order.
The bag security program allowed customers to realize that Telfar was listening to feedback and valued the opinions they held.
References
https://shop.telfar.net/pages/klarna
https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/29528/1/telfar-teams-up-with-culturesport-for-an-uncanny-campaign
https://www.okayplayer.com/culture/how-the-telfar-bag-became-the-most-popular-black-owned-accessory.html
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/03/16/telfar-clemens-mass-appeal
https://www.lofficiel.at/en/accessoires/why-the-telfar-shopping-bag-is-the-new-it-bag-and-it-comes-with-a-message
https://hypebeast.com/2020/8/telfar-bag-security-program-launch-interview
https://shop.telfar.net/pages/bag-security-program-toc
https://www.instagram.com/telfarglobal/
https://www.glaad.org/blog/new-glaad-study-reveals-twenty-percent-millennials-identify-lgbtq
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/designers/a34057219/ugg-x-telfar-collaboration-2021/