My semester abroad in Florence

So basically these past 5 months, I've been living and studying at Florence, Italy. My classes are now over. I was studying at Lorenzo de' Medici, taking only fashion related courses (my passion). I loved every single class, and I also loved my teachers. They were really cool and knew everything about the fashion industry, as they have worked in it.

Florence is a beautiful city, and there are so many things to do. The nightlife is pretty descent. In this picture, I'm with my swedish friends Amanda, Angelica & Elin at Moyo.
I met so many wonderful people here, from all over the world: USA, Sweden, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, etc. I made friendships that will last a lifetime. I am a little sad that I'm leaving tomorrow to Mexico. I will miss this town and my friends.

Attention fashion marketing lovers

Fashion designers create stuff that people buy at stores, or boutiques; but how do this clothing pieces or accessories hit the stores, and what makes the consumer want something from a designer so much, well, that's basically the job of a fashion merchandiser.

Since I want to focus my career on that area of the industry, I was very interested about an article I read about how a good fashion marketing school can get you a career in fashion, and I found it very helpful. I love business management, and marketing, of which I'm getting a bachelors degree on. And I'm planning to get to a prestigious design school after I graduate to start a masters in fashion marketing or fashion merchandising; that would be like my top goal, I hope it becomes true.

A good designer is nothing without a great marketing strategy, right?

Which school would you guys recommend me?

Marc Jacobs in Mexico

This past wednesday I attended a fashion marketing panel, organized by the alumni of my major, which I enjoyed quite well, since that's the area I want to specialize on. My favorite conference was held by Selina Carlos, and Mariana Paliza representing Marc Jacobs in Mexico; where they talked about their main marketing strategies, and activities they're enroled in at the label's positioning in a new market.

Este pasado miércoles estuve presente en un evento de mercadotecnia de la moda, organizado por el alumnado de mi carrera, el cual disfruté mucho, ya que es el área en la que me quiero especializar. Mi conferencia favorita la dio Selina Carlos y Mariana Paliza, representando a Marc Jacobs de México; donde hablaron sobre sus estrategias de mercadotecnia, y las actividades que realizan en el posicionamiento de la marca en este nuevo mercado.

Selina Carlos at Fashionation

For their store oppening at Masaryk, where all the top designer boutiques are, they decided to use the daisies on MJ's perfume, sending a bucket of real daisies with a Marc Jacobs card to every socialite in Mexico, announcing the arrival of their new boutique; which I thought was a great idea for brand positioning, and generating some kind of loyalty in new potential costumers. Another amazing thing they did, was the construction of big daisies, like the ones on the perfume, and place them all along the street, so the people could see the new store, and invite them to go inside and check it out. They really know how to do their job.

Para la apertura de su tienda en Msaryk, donde todas las boutiques de diseñadores altamente reconocidos están, ellas decidieron usar las margaritas de la nueva fragancia de Marc Jacobs, mandando un ramo con margaritas reales y una tarjeta de MJ a cada socialité del DF, anunciando la llegada de la boutique; lo cual me pareció una gran idea para el posicionamiento de marca, y generar de alguna forma lealtad en clientes potenciales. Otra cosa increible que hicieron, fue la construcción de margaritas gigantes, como las del perfume, y las colocaron en toda la calle, para que la gente viera la nueva tienda, e invitarlos a conocerla. Ellas sí saben cómo hacer su trabajo.

Bloggers = free advertising

I recently read an article talking about how brands should take in consideration the big market of bloggers, in order to get to know their target market, to make business strategies. I think it is very true what is said here; bloggers are a massive source of information to costumers, and a great thing about them, is that blogs are already segmented (divided by personalities, ages, topics, etc), and the market expert has nothing to do, but search for the right ones, depending on the product.

Fashion bloggers day to day post about new clothing lines, cool accesories, new brands, about designers, runways, trends, etc. Letting the blog reader appreciate the brand or designer shown on the blog; and for instance, keeping that information for future buying. Blog readers tend to believe more in a blog, than a magazine ad, or t.v. ... So brands get all the advertising without paying a penny.

So what brands should do is focus their attention in bloggers, and find the most popular ones, or the ones that reach their target market, and contact them, show their products, give them some samples, and the blogger will most likely post about it, and a really big audience will see it and will make an impact on them and the brand.

So, if you want to give me some samples, I'll post for sure about them ;)

Fashion Merchandising: Steve Madden

This past friday, I was in this marketing symposium, that the alumni of my major organized, and it was really interesting all of the speakers, I thought they knew exactly what sells and what people wants. A part of this symposium, was a visit to a store or business establishment to know how they operate. I decided to go to Steve Madden, here in Monterrey, Mexico. Before going there, I thought it would be like any other Steve Madden store in the US, very simple... I was wrong, the place was really pretty, like no other common shoe store, the details were very delicate and feminine, as you can see in the pictures.

Two girls talked to us about the fashion merchandising they use in the store. First, they try to create a whole buying experience, since you put a step into the store, to the minute you leave. Then they do the "one to one" marketing strategy, to offer what the costumer wants. The store is structured in a specific way, you can enter and see first the new arrivals, then the seasonal shoes, and at last, the products on sale.

I loved this visit, because I had never really thought about the structure inside a store, and how important is the design and visible elements, like decoration, it's what invites you in, what makes this desire to go inside and explore it.

Fashion meets Marketing

Last friday, I went to a conference leaded by Elena Osuna, she is an image fashion consultant and works for Conceptos, a mexican company dedicated to supervise fashion oriented businesses. This conference was specially about what goes through everyone's minds when we desire to get some piece of clothing or accessories.

The reasons why we buy fashion are:

• Beauty
• Identity
• Acceptance
• Status
• Attention
• Security
• Exclusivity

Although we don't see it, it is true, we find in fashion a friend who's always there, and it gives you power, power to feel superior, or better. Fashion is something everyone should appreciate, because it's the way you express your personality.

Here are some of the points that Elena made:

1. Fashion unifies, and it can bring you to a group you would like to belong to.
2. Emotions and design is the ideal combination.
3. "Fashion goes beyond embarrassment"
4. There's no thing as costumer satisfaction, the has to be more than just satisfaction.

What are your thoughts?