Jiaxin Lin

In the history of human development, the impact of the economic crisis is not limited to the economic scope but indirectly affects the extension of human social civilization through the economy, such as fashion culture and clothing brands. Under normal circumstances, the fashion industry will be affected by the economic crisis, which will bring blows and setbacks to sales, such as shrinking sales channels, declining customer numbers and transaction rates, and reducing the consumption rate of customer groups. But in addition to the negative impact of the economic crisis on the fashion industry, it also provides opportunities for new clothing brands. For example, the decline of old traditional clothing brands has redistributed the fashion market and brought space for the development of emerging fashion enterprises.

The clothing industry is generally divided into two types: one is the world’s top luxury brands, such as Chanel, LV, Versace, etc. These brands have brand value, and the core of enterprise development is also its brand value, which requires the highest quality design team and forward-looking fashion orientation, and enterprise products must have distinctive characteristics. In better economic times, people generally reduce the need for functional clothing. Clothing is more the embodiment of psychological needs.
The other category is what can be called fast consumer brands, which are built based on low prices, large volume, a small profit, and a quick sales business model to grow. Because the price is cheap, people will only produce the most basic functional needs for it, the public can afford to buy, and the quality of the product is not high, once the product is damaged, it can be bought again. This kind of clothing has very little sensitivity to fashion, most of the basic products, the management focus on large-scale production, and the product design requirements are less.
In today’s market where only innovation can be based, only continuous creation can retain customer loyalty and preference. Those fashion brands that go against the current are using the economic crisis to generate huge energy to establish a brand marketing model under the new situation, and gradually expand the brand influence with an innovative brand management model to sweep the world. When the economic situation is not optimistic if people can make fashionable and inexpensive items, that is, “look beautiful”, it will certainly be sought after by the public. What kind of clothes consumers want is the real reference target of fast fashion brands.
Compared with the above two types of clothing enterprises, it can be seen that fast fashion brands have broken the opposition between the two and formed a new brand model. The typical model of innovative brand marketing during the economic crisis is the current popular fast fashion brand, which is also an example of enterprises growing against The Times. Fast fashion is the concept of these brands, in fact, on the other hand can also be called affordable fashion. The reason why they are called fast fashion brands is that their fashion consumption mode is like fast food. The combination of speed and price makes the superiority of this kind of brand emerge.

Clausen, E. (2020) Council post: Marketing rules to follow during Uncertain Economic Times, Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/04/03/marketing-rules-to-follow-during-uncertain-economic-times/?sh=6be441c34a36#:~:text=Use%20the%20time%20to%20focus,marketing%20to%20be%20there%20waiting. (Accessed: 19 October 2023).

Emily,R. (2022) How Fashion Can Weather Economic Turbulence. Available at: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/global-markets/the-state-of-fashion-2023-report-mckinsey-inflation-prices-costs/. (Accessed: 19 October 2023).

Guangdou, L. (2009) Who became the richest person in Japan after the economic crisis . Beijing. China’s mechanical and electrical industry.