Communication Takeaways for Emerging Fashion Brands during a Pandemic
By: Gia Kuan
Tags: Pr, Fashion, Marketing, Communication, Co Vid

I own a namesake consultancy, Gia Kuan Consulting based in New York City and work with a range of lifestyle brands encompassing everything from fashion, to hospitality, to the arts. Much of my scope focuses on cultural programming, conceptualizing and producing large scale events and crafting and delivering press initiatives. With all of these efforts, the ultimate goal is to build a narrative around the brand story and to align with the right audience, in the right context — encouraging affinity and, eventually, a loyal base of consumers who buy. This end goal will never change: but as we see our normal consumption cycles disrupted and disordered during this time of crisis, we must reconsider our process and intention around standard practices for the future.

Pivot current and planned messaging

We are in the midst of an unprecedented (in the digital age) pandemic. Communication and brand specialists and their respective brands must think quickly and audit their current messaging, working around a different consumer mindset, and the shifted practical landscape of cancelled events and delayed launches. We must develop contingency plans that are not a short-sighted solution but rolled out for the long haul, as the later quarters of the year still hold a large amount of uncertainty. In your messaging, it’s important to lead with empathy, and manage brand and audience expectations along the way — understand that coverage may be drowned out or delayed as a result.

2. Communicate with transparency

As communication professionals and strategists, helping your brand open the lines of communication across various channels is vital — be transparent, but also be positive. This is inbound and outbound, both to the brand’s internal team by putting the health and safety of employees first, and externally to the audience and customer. People crave information and silence creates doubt — the way your company responds to the coronavirus will have a lasting impact on your brand. Many small brands are suffering a slump in revenue — utilizing direct channels of digital marketing, via CRM and earned social is important right now. Last, use communication tools wisely: don’t simply give updates, but listen and engage with your team and audience. Communicate with compassion and empathy; this is a time to thank them and give back. As an upturn, great ideas may come during this time to further inspire your audience in the future.

3. Work backwards

Over the years, I recognize a lot of younger talents, New York-based and beyond, who have limited resources and means to grow a small business, yet exhibit a strong point of view. These brands, crucially, also have a small, creative and niche community that supports them — and, most importantly, a unique product and brand offering. In light of these authentic foundations and pure talent, my goal is to help these emerging voices articulate their narrative and reach the right audience, regardless of resources.

Only a fraction of brands possess these unicorn traits. The other small brands who are just launching or building their brand presence need to understand that press does not magically happen through tireless pitches and the right connections. Sometimes we have to work backwards, and develop the brand prior to bringing it to the outside world. This is even more crucial in times where most businesses are at a standstill. It’s important for us to analyze and workshop the brand in its entirety, from a 360 perspective. First of all, assess your product and service. This is the most crucial. Then, play the brand’s lifecycle out a bit. What is the potential and longevity in the market — who, how, and when — will people consume? Consider the construct you are putting out into the universe. Is the narrative that sets the brand apart from the rest of the market strong enough? Pressure test this internally and with a broad range of people (who don’t care about you personally!) until you are sure that even the haters can see the logic. There are a lot of ways the stars can NOT align — sometimes a good product may lack the right written and visual branding constructs to support it, the right community to give it life, or simply, the right cultural context to make an impact. Ensure that your starting point is authentic and strong, your message is differentiated, and your audience not only exists, but is a match with your product.

4. Reassess marketing spend

Now is the time to completely reassess how you are spending your money. Cut unnecessary costs and redirect digital marketing efforts that are 100% commercial (display, retargeting, etc.). Rethink what, from among your offering, is most relevant right now — from e-newsletters, to social media posts (paid ads or not), and press outreach (if even necessary, and if so when) — if e-commerce serves a large component of your business, assess your digital marketing needs to increase traffic and searches for your site. As communication and marketing professionals, it’s not our jobs to only push outwards when we’re told to, but to advise on the opportune times are to create noise with an authentic voice that comes from within; we work with brands on that is an educational process where we can optimize or conserve portions of their resources yet still achieve thoughtful, targeted impact.

5. A more sustainable way forward — the digital future

Fashion shows, a large bulk of my work, is traditionally exciting in terms of creating immediate and long-lasting impact, yet can put an incredible straining on brand resources — especially in a climate of retail and economic downturn. Industry professionals are increasingly recognizing that this can no longer be the only solution: to be cramped in a calendar of noise with any and all brands that want to make their mark, jumping from city to city.

The age of print editorials is also on a decline and most small brands do not have enough transportation budgets, or the demand to traffic their samples back and forth to shoots. Therefore why the need for a third party showroom (an extra rent to pay)? A strenuous, often emotional, wasteful process (think the plastic hangers and garment bags, high messenger and shipping costs, long and angry FedEx and Worldnet phone exchanges, human resources wasted) that has proven to have a increasingly declining conversion rate, as more DTC brands that saturate the market are on the rise. I believe in the image makers, the photographers, set designers, stylists that have created visually captivating editorials in our time, yet simultaneously hope for a more controlled and sustainable approach to editorial formats going forward. As a small agency format myself, I have actively omitted such third-party services, not only for the ethical consideration for the industry but also to consider a smarter way to conserve my brands’s resources. Times like now, where the world is on a pause and both physical events and magazine editorials are halted, pushes us all to nimbly pivot towards virtual ways of connectivity and cleverly self created content. More so than ever, community is key — everyone is tuning in, a lot. They are seeing, listening, and engaging in confinement. From Tiktok dance-offs, to Zoom book clubs, Google Hangout happy hours, Twittering thoughts of movie nights, broadcasting DJ sets, virtual showrooms, to workout (HIIT, Yoga) streaming — quarantine socializing is changing ways in which we see, play and learn on a collective level: a seemingly short-term solution that may be in for the long run. A lesson learnt here and a testament for the future to brands is the power of quality virtual content creation and the ability to create a genuine dialogue directly with your audience, small to large — come fashion week in the fall, could we perhaps then see an increase in virtual format shows and brands recover from the economic downturn?