Developing a methodology/methods plan Arts Research Paper

Interested topic

-          The rise of social influencer

-          The impact of fashion bloggers on the society

-          Lives of social media influencers

-          The future of fashion bloggers/influencer

Perceived problem

-          How influencers have changed the fashion community both positively and negatively

-          Are they fostering a healthy community?

(fast fashion consumption/impulse buy/fake advertisement/scam)

Why important?

-          Important for social platform users/audience like us to be informed about what we are looking at on there

-          Many people unfamiliar with the current fashion market aimlessly want to be a part of it, they need to be more prepared and acquainted

-          The younger generation are obsessed with internet celebs (“cool youtuber”)

Who benefits?

-          Fashionistas

-          People who want to become a social influencer

-          Anybody who pays attention to the fashion community

Research question

-          What are the ways influencers make money, which is most profitable for them?

-          How does the rise of social influencer change the fashion industry?

-          What does it take to become a fashion influencer?

-          (self-discipline/creativity/personality/support system/public image/editing skills)

-          Is fashion influencer an ideal job for fashion enthusiasts trying to start a career

-          Does the emergent of fashion influencers better the fashion community?

-          How have fashion influencers changed over the years compare to when they first appeared?

• Is social media influencer as a job profitable and sustainable in the long run and is it a fit choice for fashion graduates who wants to start careers in the fashion industry?

As social media influence is still a relatively newer research topic, most of what I could find are not research paper but articles or news pieces. So, I collect 5 papers on the topic of fashion & social media to write my annotated bibliography and another 2 articles on fashion influencers to add insight.

Themes and how they relate to my RQ

Common themes among the 5 papers are: social media as a powerful and influential tool, the convenience and benefits social media brings to us, and how efficient and accessible social media is. The first paper talked about how private labels are able to gain exposure and recognition when presented with more established and well-known brands. Social media platforms (SMP) plays vital role in spreading these products and company names to the public which ties into how important and influential social media can be for new influencers. The second paper focused on 3 brands advancement with the aid of social media. Consequently, influencers are able to take SMP’s full advantage and progress their careers. The third paper explained ways luxury brands could operate their social platforms to better customers relationships. Similarly, influencers should learn how to best manage their internet accounts to get more followers and likes. The fourth paper talked about how social media motivates desires to purchase and that people’s buying decisions are often influenced by SMP. Knowing how powerful social media can be makes influencers jobs easier, with excellent contents and friendly personas, crowd are guaranteed to follow. The last paper dove into the negative sentiments SMP can help foster. On the other hand, influencers need to have clear goals before stepping into the industry. They need to be very careful of the content they put up on the internet, beware of scams, and be prepared to accept constructive criticism.

1.      Hsiao, S., Wang, Y., Wang, T., & Kao, T. (2019). How social media shapes the fashion industry: The spillover effects between private labels and national brands. Industrial Marketing Management, 

doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2019.02.022

Social media has become a popular and effective marketing tool for many enterprises. Managed properly, social media marketing can create strong branding effect and enhance brand image. This paper explores the interactions between private and national brands in fashion industry and analyze how private label sales are influenced by these interactions. All information gathered for the study is from Lookbook.nu, the largest online fashion community within a one-year period. It is a global website where content creators post pictures and tag the brand names. This allows the joint presence of both private and national brands. Furthermore, this quantitative study collected from 1395 content creators ranging from 15 to 65 years old from 40 countries. The result of the study found that the presence of private and national brands together increased private label owner’s post popularity and enhanced private label sales greatly. Therefore, the presence of large national brand positively impacts private labels in the fashion market and this result reinforced our understanding of brand competition of business-to-business social media marketing.

2.      Kontu, H., & Vecchi, A. (2014). Why all that noise - assessing the strategic value of social media for fashion brands. Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 5(3), 235-250. doi:10.1080/20932685.2014.912443

Fashion brands have been coping with new challenges brought forth by the rise of social media. Unlike before when many are still reluctant to develop new strategy to engage social platforms, digital and media are changing the entire fashion system in today’s society. This paper provides critical evaluation of the use of social media among three fashion brands to identify their marketing strategies: Burberry, Calvin Klein, and DKNY. The study utilized comparative case study to assess the companies’ social media performances. Information are mostly from secondary sources like company reports and statistics. Burberry was the first fashion brand to broadcast its catwalk show live in 2010 and received substantial feedback. Its online project “The Art of the Trench” was prized for digital innovation. CK rejuvenated itself by approaching the younger generation via social media. Its blogger collaboration with model Mustaparta in 2012 demonstrated how CK identified popular celebrity and engaged her to advocate for the brand. Lastly, DKNY used social platforms to create genuine conversations rather than company promotions. The anonymous twitter persona DKNY PR girl created by the brand won the best twitter award fourth year in a row. This is an example of how fashion brand leveraged social platforms to increase popularity and loyalty.

3.      Kim, A. J., & Ko, E. (2010). Impacts of luxury fashion Brand’s social media marketing on customer relationship and purchase intention. Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 1(3), 164-171. doi:10.1080/20932685.2010.10593068

Luxury fashion brands are always looking for new ways to boost up popularity, increase sales and secure reputation. To keep up with current market needs, luxury brands have turned to social media which has been evaluated to be an effective take-off tool for many businesses. Using social platforms, brands are able to strengthen relationship with its customers, introduce products and interact causally with large audiences. This paper examines the impact social media marketing (SSM) has on luxury fashion brand’s customer relationship and purchase intention. The research adopted quantitative method using survey questionnaire (150 participants) and an additional fifteen preliminary test participants to draw a starter sample from.  The finding for the study indicated five properties: entertainment, customization, interaction, word of mouth, and trend which all had significant impact on customer relationship improvement and purchase intentions enhancement. The use of social media focusing on these five properties will build friendly affections and stimulate interests and desires from potential customers.

4.      Nash, J. (2019). Exploring how social media platforms influence fashion consumer decisions in the UK retail sector. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 23(1), 82-103. doi:10.1108/JFMM-01-2018-0012

The presence of web 2.0 and internet have activated the development of social media and online shopping in today’s society. To keep up with rapid technology advancement, traditional retail stores have to adapt and rethink their communication and marketing strategies to make them digital friendly. This paper explores how social media platforms influence consumer decision making process specifically for generation X and Y in the retail environment. The study utilized an exploratory approach by conducting a qualitative research including eight face-to-face interviews and two focus groups to gain knowledge into participants’ opinion, motivation, and ideas. The result explained that a variety of internal and external factors could influence how consumers make their decisions and many of which are facilitated by the use of social media. However, social media was not the only source of motivation. Furthermore, with the increasing number of social media users, these platforms will continue to have more impact on consumer decision making. Participants admitted using social platforms for inspiration and ideas, but their purchasing decision were not as heavily influenced by them as researchers have expected.

5.      Cooper, T., Stavros, C., & Dobele, A. R. (2019). Domains of influence: Exploring negative sentiment in social media. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 28(5), 684-699. doi:10.1108/JPBM-03-2018-1820

As consumer progressively turn to social media to express their opinion about brands, companies become vulnerable to harsh commentaries delivered via the internet. These negative online feedbacks often create severe consequences and damage customer relationship for the companies. This paper examines how fashion retail companies manage and deal with negative comments in social medias. A qualitative mythology was used by conducting six case studies over an eight months period. They are face-to-face interviews with open-ended questions meant to uncover explicit and implicit actins firms take to mediate social media interactions. Finding of the study focused on explaining five interconnected themes emerged from data collection: company philosophies, company operations, customer relationships, internal relationships, and other stakeholder relationship. It is important for firms to have strong beliefs in its philosophy, manage the complexity and sophistication of its operation, care for its stakeholders, understand customer relationship, maintain great internal organizational relationship and learn how to best satisfy its target market.

 Additional Articles

6.      Luvaas, B. (2017). What does a fashion influencer look like? portraits of the instafamous. Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, 4(3), 341-363. doi:10.1386/fspc.4.3.341_7

Author Brent Luvaas as a street style photographer has been taking photos of fashion influencers and models during fashion week for the past five years. He expressed concerns about the evolution of fashion bloggers to influencers. He talked about influencer as the “microcelebrity” and how many forges a media persona to achieve lucrative careers. Brands loan or gift clothes to influencers so that they can be photographed wearing them when they attend shows. In addition, brands only focus on the number of followers and demographic when choosing who to “collaborate and partner” with. Because of that, influencers have become a career where people can earn thousands with a single sponsored post if they have a large follower. Luvaas also talked about instagram surpassing other social platforms like Tumblr or Facebook in terms of spreading fashion influences because it emphasizes visuality more than textuality. The act of people who dress up for selfies is identified as “glamour labor” and if the post goes viral, they become instafamous. The online fame is directly transferred to real word income. The author ended the article with questions on the market value behind influencers and what will determine success in this Instagram craze. He argues that inequality hinders many to become popular influencers and that blonde European, heteronormative are overrepresented by media.

7.      TREBAY, G. (2016). Luka sabbat, the 18-year-old fashion influencer. New York: New York Times Company.

The article discusses how Luka Sabbat, 18-year-old teenager brings influence to the fashion industry and the connection between social media and brands. The article talks about Luka’s experience and story with fashion and social media. Luka is a normal New Yorker, like every teenager he loves hip-hop and is really into video games. However, he is involved in something more enthralling, a “fashion influencer”. Social media is playing a major role in the fashion industry nowadays with tons of videos and pictures posted on YouTube and Instagram. Therefore, Brands started to hunt their own image ambassadors from the internet., For instance, an anonymous guy posted a selfie in bubble bath caught the attention of Calvin Klein and a collaboration between them benefited both parties. Influencer like Luka, Mike the Ruler and other teenager fashion fanatics are striving to build a better social platform between consumers and the fashion industry.

Conclusion

As stated above, with social media prevailing, influencer as a job have great chance to flourish if joined for the right reason. In the age of innovation, influencers seem to have countless undiscovered opportunities to mature. The future is uncertain as to where SMP are taking us, but they are definitely powerful enough to have revolutionized the fashion industry.

 FSN 707 – Research Methods, Assignment #2 (Value 10%) Developing a methodology/methods plan Due November 18th to discuss with your tutorial instructor by appointment (in person or via Google Hangout).  In this assignment you will describe, define and defend your research.  Point form is acceptable. Use section headings to organize your work.  2 page maximum, single spaced.  State your research question and why your research is important.  Identify your approach (quantitative/qualitative/mixed methods), describe reasoning for this (define the approach and describe advantages and disadvantages, include 2-3 citations.  Identify the specific methods you plan to use, describe them, state advantages and disadvantages, include 2-3 citations.  Create a chart that outlines your methods and guiding questions. Describe the kind of information your will collect and how it contributes to the larger research question (see below for chart example)  Discuss the types of data you will collect and how your research is triangulated.  Describe participant recruitment/sample collection & inclusion criteria.  Create a diagram to outline your methods, include graphic icons rather than words to illustrate (see below).  Your research proposal will also include how you will analyze your data, you must include 2-3 citations. However, we do not cover this topic in class until Weeks 10 & 11, so this will not be included in this assignment but this section must be in your final proposal.  Describe the contributions of your research, who will benefit from the information derived from your research study? Diagram Example Chart Example - Summary of Methods and Guiding Approaches to Inquiry (note – your chart will likely have 2-3 methods) Phase Method Detail Guiding approaches to inquiry 1 Observation & go-along interviews Watch OTs/OTAs & PTs/PTAs working with patients in hospital during RT sessions. Understand the dressing taskscape, specifically the environment/garment/person interface. See what people DO.  What is the range of functional limitations in people enrolled in hospital rehabilitation programs?  How do OTs/OTAs train people to return to independent dressing?  How do adaptive dressing methods and use of assistive devices promote independent dressing?  What types of clothing and footwear are patients wearing?  Do patients use or wear specialized functional clothing? If yes, where have patients purchased these garments?  What are the connections/disconnections happening between people and their clothing? How do these able/disable? 2 Observation & go-along interviews Watch PSWs during their early morning and early evening routines as they care for patients.  How do PSWs assist people across the clothing taskscape (shopping, selection, don/doff, toileting, bathing, eating, exercising, sleeping, laundering and storing)?  What clothing attributes assist independent dressing?  How does clothing support and/or enhance personal self-image after a disabling event?  What clothing interventions might help people across the clothing taskscape. 3 Precedent analysis Visual content analysis Clothing probes Review specialized literature, websites and print catalogues of ready-to-wear retailers that focus on clothing designed for people with functional limitations and disability.  What is currently available to purchase/on the market that supports or assists people with functional limitations? What design detailing is present in these garments (e.g., closures, fasteners, silhouettes, fabrics)?  What are the functional, expressive and aesthetic (FEA) attributes in clothing designed for people with functional limitations and disability?  Which garment concepts might be used as artifact probes to engage stakeholder opinion during interviews? 4 Interviews Patients  What types of clothing and footwear are patients wearing?  Do patients use or wear specialized functional clothing? If yes, where have patients purchased these garments?  What are patient needs across the clothing taskscape (selection, don/doff, toileting, care and storage).  How does clothing support and/or enhance self-image after a disabling event? 5 Interviews OTs/OTAs, PTs/PTAs & PSWs Request patient stories of success, adaptation and challenges related to rehabilitation and a return to dressing independently.  What clothing attributes assist independent dressing?  What are the demands of the use environment while exercising?  How does clothing support and/or enhance personal self-image after a disabling event?  What clothing interventions might help people across the clothing taskscape? FSN 707 2019 Assignment #2 10 - excellent 8 - good 7 – approaching the standard <6 – not there yet

 Discuss the types of data you will collect and how your research is triangulated.
Describe participant recruitment/sample collection & inclusion criteria.
Create a diagram to outline your methods, include graphic icons rather than words to illustrate (see below).