#hot!mess

https://www.divatmarkak.hu/marka/hotmess/

Hot!Mess

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I am writing a niche report on the clothing brand My HOT!MESS which is still quite a fresh up and coming brand that I have an interest in. In 2013, Tayla Blue decided to start up her own fashion business at the youthful age of 19.

“I don’t have a fashion background – my dream was to be a singer. But after leaving school at 17, I started working in the marketing department of my dad’s sportswear firm to fund studio time.”

She had aways been interested in fashion and she always had a unique sense of style that stands out from everyone else. Looking at other designers work inspired her to want to do what they do and her idea to start up the brand HOT! MESS actually came to her whilst looking through her grandmothers wardrobe. Her nan was a massive hoarder and kept lots of bright aerobic wear from the 80’s and 90’s. There were tons of unitards, leggings and leotards which had not been worn for years, and Tayla had always been into vintage fashion so she decided to ask her friend who’s a model to wear her grandmothers old clothes for her to photograph and put on instagram. Since the response was so good this is when she decided she wanted to make this into a proper fashion business as she realized there was a real gap in the market for the retro sporty look.

Her Father does fashion marketing so she asked him to fund her and help her start out which he was cynical about until they wrote out a business plan and he decided to take the leap. He loaned her space in his factory, a member of his design team and his manufacturing contacts. Overall he had invested £10,000 in the business to start it up and since then Tayla has managed to pay him back.

  It is possible to conclusively show that it is true that starting up a business like this, it is crucial to have a big enough investment to make it successful especially because costs such as materials and machinary are pricy. Not only that but as Tayla has no fashion experience in things like sewing so she needed to have money to hire a team to do jobs like that for her; as her main job was designing the clothes and promoting her brand. This also establishes that in the fashion industry it is all about having the right contacts; and for Tayla her best contact is her dad who not only works in the industry but also specialises in marketing which is one of the key components to making a business successful.  Therefore her dad could give her guidance on how to market her brand well.

Market Research SWOT Analysis Strengths -Has a dad who is in fashion marketing to support her.

-Uses low quality material therefore the garments are cheaper to make so she gets a decent profit. The prices of her clothing ranges from £10 - £45. This is cheaper than most high street stores, therefore young people will more likely shop online at HOT!MESS to get their clothing.

-Celebrities wear her clothes and get photographed in them which then gets her brand more well known.

-Good at promoting her collections through social media. Target customer are teenagers and young adults, and this is the age range that most likely use social media platforms such as instagram.

-5% of her profits go to the UK Youth charity. People may be more willing to spend money if they know some of it will go to charity.

-HOT!MESS have expanded to having more brands such as ‘Baziic’ which is sportswear, ‘Toyshades’ which is sunglasses and also ‘Aquatizer’ which is a random brand not very relevant to HOT!MESS but this is selling water bottles with cooler bags. The fact that they now sell sports wear and water bottles may perhaps open up her target consumer to sporty people who also like fashion. 

To summarise she has a good set up for her business with good experience in her team. The fact that her brand is big over social media and she supports the UK Youth charity, goes together very well for the fact that she can post about that online so that customers who also support charities such as UK Youth will see and may be more interested in buying her products. The fact that celebrities wear her clothing also spreads the name of her brand massively as celebrities such as Cara Delevigne have 26 million followers on instagram. Also because celebrities like Cara and Pixie Lott have been photographed wearing HOT!MESS this has lead to the brand being featured in magazines such as the Daily Star. This has been good brand exposure for the brand.

Weaknesses -The brand is very specific on the style of clothes they sell, so if you did not like 80’s/ 90’s fashion then this brand would not appeal to you.

-Small target customer. Age 15-24.

-Tayla has no past experience in fashion, so she spends money employing people for her design team.

Analysis of the evidence has highlighted that her brand is very niche targeting a small group of people. However within this group of people her designs are very popular.

Opportunities -Recently Selfridges in Birmingham launched her label and if it becomes successful it will also be stocked in London and Manchester.

-Aims to have a boutique in London within the next 3 years.

-Alexandra Burke’s manager rang her a few months ago asking if she can design her outfit for her next single.

Overall I think she has a lot of opportunities to branch out her brand to become international. In 5 years time I expect HOT!MESS to be featured in many stores similar to Selfridges and for her followers to carry on increasing. I also think she will start designing more acssesories such as bags and jewelry.

Threats -Her business relies on social media, so if platforms such as instagram or twitter start failing then her business might too.

-Lots of new up and coming brands such as lemon lunar which are very similar are around now giving competition.

-One might say that as there are so many other similar brands newly emerging into the market people may lose interest in HOT!MESS. This means to keep up her brand reputation she will need to keep up with the media constantly adding to her designs and posting them online to compete with other brands.

Research on main competitor In this section the report will examine who their main competitor is and compare the two brands.

-‘My Mum Made It’ is a similar fashion brand which is also a very new up and coming business with low prices and good deals. This brand is also advertised all through social media; mainly through Instagram. 

-The difference between ‘My Mum Made It’ and ‘My HOT!MESS’ is that HOT!MESS has a 80’s, 90’s style and My Mum Made It has a minimalistic style with a basic colour scheme. However they both sell clothing for the same target consumer which is aged 15-24.

-Both brands are sold online, but My HOT!MESS is also now sold in shops such as Topshop and Selfridges whereas My Mum Made It can only be bought online.

http://mymummadeit.goodsie.com/

Brand Analysis and Objectives

In this next section close attention will be paid to the Hot!Mess mission statement and their goals as a company.

The whole point of buying from My Hot!Mess is that having your own style and looking unique is important. For this reason they only make around 60 of each style so people aren’t going around wearing the same thing. Tayla doesn’t want her brand to be like Topshop where everyone ends up all having the same clothes in their wardrobe. This means that the kind of customers who will want to be buying from HOT!MESS  are people who like wearing one off pieces so they can stand out from the crowd.

Product They sell a wide range of products from dresses, tops, skirts, swimwear, sunglasses to lingerie or shoes. 

Communication Strategies The examination in the following section will reveal how HOT!MESS market their brand, which is one of the main aspects in starting up a business as to make a business grow it must build strong customer relationships.

Advertising http://hot-mess.co.uk/about_hotmess https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bVE0qKzj0w

Social Media Social media is a really important way of advertising your brand, especially in this day and age where almost everything is done online. Social media marketing is important as it increases brand recognition and it makes you more accessible for new customers and more familiar and recognizable for existing customers. It can also improve brand loyalty as social media is basically a tool to connect with the customers. Each time you post an image, video or comment on a platform such as twitter or a blog it gives someone a chance to react, and a reaction can lead to a site visit. This is how the brands name gets spread.

For a brand like My HOT!MESS social media is extremely important as its a new brand that has not been around for very long, therefore she needs to get her brands name well known through posting pictures of her collections on instagram. Many celebrities such as Cara Delevingne, Ellie Goulding and Alexandra Burke now wear her clothes and when they are seen on instagram or pictured in online newspapers a large audience will see it and therefore fans and people who follow that celebrities style may go and buy the same outfit. Tayla also sends out free clothes to ‘insta famous’ people so that they can promote her clothing to a wide audience. This way of marketing is becoming increasingly popular for small boutiques. 

My HOT!MESS has 5,250 likes on their facebook page and were last actively posting 2 hours ago which goes to show just how much the brand use social media to promote their brand. One of her first facebook posts was back in December 2013 and she posted about a competition where people have to post a picture of themselves wearing her clothes to get a chance to win a £40 voucher. This is a clever way to get people to see her designs and make people want to buy them as people love to follow trends and what other people are wearing. 

You might think that 5,250 is a lot of likes on facebook for a niche brand that’s only been around for 2 years; but when you look on their instagram page it’s a whopping 278,000 followers. As you can see from these figures, instagram is the platform she uses most to promote her brand.

Customer Profile

The typical customer for this brand is a young adult who may be still in education studying at university so living off a low budget, and but can afford designer brands such as hot mess to get unique, one of a kind clothing that only around 60 other girls in the world will be wearing as only limited numbers of a garment are produced. She has her own style influenced by the 80’s/90’s era and likes to dress differently to everyone else. Discovering the clothing brand through seeing her favourite celebrity Cara Delevigne post a picture of her wearing My HOT!MESS on Instagram.