Still little-known in France, Fashion Digital Native Vertical Brands are making waves overseas. These new brands are increasingly attracting American business developers. They are designed for and aimed directly at Millennials. These new brands were born on social networks, mainly Instagram, and some are experiencing impressive virality and growth. But what does Fashion Digital Native Vertical Brand ?
Why are they called Fashion Digital Native Vertical Brand ?
The expression comes from Andy Dunn, creator of the Bonobos brand - an Internet-only clothing brand. His article "The Rise Of Digitally Native Vertical Brands first mentioned the term in 2016. This article caused quite a stir in the US fashion and luxury business.
In fact, the Fashion Digital Native Vertical Brand is built on three major foundations:
1. The business model for these brands is vertical.
This means that all intermediaries, from the manufacturing chain through to sales and distribution, are eliminated. In other words, manufactured products are sold directly to customers.
2. Fashion Digital Native Vertical Brands are, as their name suggests, "Digital Native".
In other words, they were born on the Internet, and evolve exclusively online. They have a huge presence on social networks, and particularly on Instagram. Indeed, one of the fundamentals of these brands is the customer experience. Customers' affect, emotion and sense of belonging to the brand are therefore very strong. As a result, Fashion Digital Native Vertical Brands interact extensively with their customers.
3. These are mainly start-ups, combining fashion with technology and innovation.
They are usually privately funded. Their entire operation is data-driven.
Fashion Digital Native Vertical Brands are the future of the fashion and luxury market.
Fashion Digital Native Vertical Brands are created by Millenials. This generation, born with the Internet, has built its image, and sometimes even its identity, via social networks and virtual interaction.
More than anyone else, Millennials have the ability to unite thousands of people around a community. What's more, as they're constantly connected, they know how to keep a brand going, thanks to their almost daily social networking feeds.
The market is exponential. Fashion Digital Native Vertical Brands first saw the light of day around ten years ago in the United States. Since then, many brands have been inspired by this model and have sprung up all over the world. These include Bonobos, Nasty Gal, Tom Cridland and Sézane, the French brand. Sézane, for example, is all about customer proximity and a new kind of experience (decoration, lifestyle products and fashion are blended).
What are the main strategies of Fashion Digital Native Vertical Brands?
The main strategy of these brands is to seize a niche market and elevate the brand to the heart of international markets. The brand's managers then create a new market offer, tailor-made for the target market.
The second strategy proposed by Fashion Digital Native Vertical Brands is to offer products at prohibitive prices in an almost saturated market. In other words, they target a market held by one or even two major international groups, to offer innovative products at lower prices.
If you want to become an entrepreneur and eventually create your own innovative fashion brand, we recommend a professional training course in the fashion and luxury sector. ISAL Paris offers you a bachelor Fashion and Digital Marketing which will enable you to acquire the skills in demand by today's leading fashion and luxury companies.
