Time is fleeting so fast. Especially now, in the era of new technologies, information accessibility and open opportunities. Every day new companies, new brands, new technologies appear that make a market more and more saturated and competitive. How to make your fashion brand stronger, create a unique one, spread it out to different markets, and make it last a lifetime? With these questions we address Ana Varava, ex Editor-in-Chief of L&rsquo;Officiel Ukraine, who launched L&rsquo;Officiel in Austria and has been working with fashion, personal and media brands worldwide for more than 17 years.

L&rsquo;Officiel Baltic: Could you tell a little bit about your experience in fashion and media world? And which changes did you notice?
AV: I&rsquo;ve been working with L&rsquo;Officiel for 15 years in different countries, also with all high-end luxury fashion and lifestyle brands, with top-models, celebrities, photographers worldwide. I finished fashion schools and universities in UK, Milan, NYC to get the best knowledge and experience, and be able to work in the field at a very high level.
Before only professionals knew each other, and to gain some kind of popularity you needed to go long way, thus your name and reputation became strong and trustworthy. With the emergency of IG, TikTok, other social networks things became more accessible, easier, but also more blurred. Lots of &lsquo;experts&rsquo; appeared, people don&rsquo;t need to finish universities, get a degree to be able to work in some fields. That&rsquo;s what dilutes the industry a little. I&rsquo;m still sure that good education is a basis for professionalism. Besides that fact, openness and accessibility of possibilities give more people chances to show themselves and their talents. Nowadays, brands can become popular thanks to Instagram or TikTok only. Brands can choose ambassadors, guests, influencers by their social media presence.

L'Off: How then to create a strong fashion brand nowadays?
AV: First of all, we need to understand that brand &lsquo;lives&rsquo; in the mind of consumers, it&rsquo;s a strong emotion connected with certain product or services which enhance one&rsquo;s natural beauty, create a specific sartorial aesthetics and establish carefully curated status. Every strong brand has its personality, culture, identity, image, character, reputation, and essence. When all those features work together, they set up a basis for established and expensive brands. Thus, it also forms brand value, and make brands attractive for future financial operations, investments etc. Strong brands have loyal customers and maintaining that connection is also important part of their business. You can see a Hermes example: once you become a client, with every next purchase you become more and more loyal customer and the brand opens more privileges for you. That&rsquo;s also a part of fashion business strategy which is a core element nowadays.

L&rsquo;Off: So why it&rsquo;s important to become a brand in the fashion world?
AV: It&rsquo;s a guarantee of a long-term perspective of the business development, gives possibilities for the owner to sell business profitably in a while, attract investments if it&rsquo;s needed for scaling up the business or spread into other markets. It also ensures returned customers, and their loyalty to the brand; you can also increase your margins when your brand became popular. I often mention a modern business case of Balenciaga, a well-known luxury non-conformist brand, that sells its version of crocs for 995 euro, while their manufacture require approximately 9$. The rest is only an amazing fashion business and marketing strategy of the brand, correct work with their target audience, and ability to take risks at the beginning of brand&rsquo;s transformation.

L'Off: What&rsquo;s important for brands today to be successful?
AV: There are three core elements which work together &ndash; promise, positioning and performance. Of course, a product becomes a brand when the promise is fulfilled. When you buy Hermes bag, you know it will be of excellent quality, will serve you forever, and you will always be able to sell it, so you can consider it as an investment. Next question is what&rsquo;s your positioning, who is your audience and how do you want to approach them? Of course, all modern tools - online, offline -need to be taken into account. Lots of brands don&rsquo;t even have their physical boutiques or point of sales, operating and selling only online. When others, like Chanel, Dior, Hermes etc consider their boutiques as main places of communication, and still value personal ties with the customers, but at the same time they also don&rsquo;t neglect modern trends and build their marketing and communication strategy using social networks, even printed media in some countries. Brand becomes a brand when there is something unique about it, has its DNA. It&rsquo;s also very important to understand your audience, which countries you want to work with and build up a corresponding strategy.

L'Off: How do fashion brands communicate with their clients? Any new tools which can be used to reach out to the audience?
AV: Communication strategies differ from country to country, from brand to brand, and from target audience to target audience. For instance, I&rsquo;ve been working recently with German-based fine jewelry brand, operating on the market for 30 years, and focusing on 2 main markets &ndash; DACH and the USA. It&rsquo;s same brand, but communication strategies for DACH differs to US one, and Marbella one, for instance. In DACH, people still read printed media and it&rsquo;s of great authority for them. If you want to underline a certain level of your brand, printed media collaborations are rather on demand and appreciated. When you consider Marbella market, there is only events side which can be beneficial for the brand. In the USA you must take into consideration millennials who make money in a different way, follow celebrities, and emulate their style and way of living. Anyway, media value is very important for any brand&rsquo;s visibility and popularity, but this media strategy must be customized in every case.

L'Off: There is so big competition in every niche nowadays, how is possible to create a unique brand?
AV: You need to understand and build, first of all, your brand&rsquo;s DNA, a story around your brand, your audience, take into account fashion industry trends, demands of the market etc. Of course, quality plays a great role. Any brand won&rsquo;t last without quality point. And price point is also an essential part. Brand is like a constructor, where all small details are united harmonically together in one system that works perfectly well. It&rsquo;s a small world with its own universe, where to the customers would like to get. And I&rsquo;ll repeat that once again, but it&rsquo;s all about the strategy. Let&rsquo;s take an example of Dolce &amp; Gabbana. After scandal in 2018 the company got troubles and tried to revive for several years in a row. Then they created a collaborative project with Kim Kardashian #ciaoKim , and a focus on Alta Moda, and gained big success and their clients and popularity back. Several days of celebrating Alta Moda in Italy with all top celebrities around the world got them media value of hundreds of millions in social media coverage (more than 640ml of followers had an ability to know about the show via celebrities attended it) and returned desire of fashion crowd to be among the guests. Again, Kim Kardashian as a face, and campaign shot by Met &amp; Marcus.

Puglia 2023: Alta Moda Live Event

AV: Another current example is Pharrell Williams - a newly appointed creative director of Louis Vuitton Hommes. The show was visited by top Hollywood media celebrities including Rihanna, Naomi Campbell, Beyonce, and Jay-Z, and so on. Most likely, the focus of the brand is now pointed at American market.

Louis Vuitton Men’s Spring-Summer 2024 Fashion Show by Pharrell Williams in Paris | LOUIS VUITTON

L&rsquo;Off: What would you advise to small and medium-size brands? How to succeed in this industry?
AV: I&rsquo;m always for professionals. I&rsquo;d suggest not to waste time and money but work with professionals who can structure your brand, set up your business and figure out the most beneficial strategy. Designer must be creative in creating products, and care about their quality, while businessperson has to be dedicated to the business side, and it&rsquo;s almost never can be the same person.
For instance, working with brands I analyze their business first, get to know their goals &ndash; those could be personal ambitions to become popular by creating a fashion brand, or make it as a business meeting exact demand of the market, or it could be some esoteric ideas even. It all depends on a goal, target market, scale of business, ambitions, and possibilities. And based on that I can figure out the right strategy, most effective and time consuming, and help to implement it using needed modern tools.
Some brands need to re-think their business if they want to enter new markets, because industry trends, regulations, consumers behavior and taste differ from market to market. I&rsquo;ve been working with L&rsquo;Officiel as a brand in Ukraine for 15 years, and I developed it in all possible ways, even making educational seminars in cooperation with L&rsquo;Officiel. But when I launched it in Austrian market in 2019, I had to change the strategy completely, because the market works by totally different unwritten laws, and mentality plays its huge role in business.
If you want to work and expend your brand in Europe, you have to consider exact country&rsquo;s market peculiarities and taste, its climate, mentality, way to the market specifications etc. In the US it might be completely different strategy, and you might need to work via agencies or use local connections.
All need to be customized in order to get the best and fastest results for the brand, and definitely I can help with that.
IG @<a href="https://www.instagram.com/Ana_varava_official" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ana_varava_official</a> Email: <a href="mailto:info@fashionconsultingroup.com">info@fashionconsultingroup.com</a> LinkedIN: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-varava-a213bb10/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ana Varava</a>

Fashion business in modern realia, or How to create a strong fashion brand nowadays

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