Marketing in the fashion industry is the action or business of promoting and selling products or services.  In the classroom students are taught  the 4P’s of marketing; product, place, price, and promotion.  How these different parts intersect forms the marketing plan for a brand.  Having a marketing plan saves you time and money.
Marketing planning helps you develop products and services in your business that meet the needs of your target market. Good marketing helps your customers understand why your product or service is better than, or different from, the competition.  It also brings brand awareness to your ideal customer.
Product positioning is the process marketers use to determine how to best communicate their products’ attributes to their target customers based on customer needs, competition, available communication channels and carefully crafted key messages. Effective product positioning ensures that marketing messages resonate with target consumers and compel them to take action.  In other words what is the USP (unique selling proposition).

Place stands for the method you use to get your product or service through various distribution channels to the ultimate purchaser or end-user – in other words, how and where the consumer buys your product or service.  It could be traditional brick and mortar, website, trunk shows, and/or many other methods.

Pricing contributes to how customers perceive a product or a service.  Adjusting the price has a profound impact on the marketing strategy, and depending on the price elasticity of the product, it will often affect the demand and sales as well.  Price value is an important component.

Promotion is the method you use to spread the word about your product or service to customers, stakeholders and the broader public.  Ir can consist of advertising, pr, social media, and more.

 
The next 4 blogs will address each part of the marketing process in more depth.