5.1 Research and Marketing Implications
This research shows that collaborating with designers can overall make positive effect to product sales, the image of the designer also has to fit the brand so they can collaborate gracefully, famous and popular is also a key, because the more customer attention you draw the better chances. Companies nowadays tend to make the customer feel like they are buying luxury designer brand products with a normal price and use limited product as there prior marketing strategy to promote, it is an efficient way and the cost is also low. On the other hand it might have negative effects on the brand and designer’s brand image if the message to consumer and product quality is not properly controlled, but we sort these kind of negative effect as company’s strategy problems, so the overall rating of collaboration with designer is a plus, but brands and designers still have to carefully find a balance in between.
In the past we can find a lot of thesis about co-branding but the different part we researched is the effect of brands collaboration with designers but not the stereo type brand-brand relationship, the collaboration type is different so it might face different types of difficulties and choices throughout the program and it shows that collaboration between designer and brands needs a well-planned marketing strategy to burst its efficiency to the highest. Another important contribution of this research is that it makes
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us rethink that what next we can collaborate with to make better effect because nowadays collaboration are not limited in only the brand-brand area.
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5.2 Limitations and Future Recommendations
This research was done solely on basic level employees; therefore the response of this research is limited to a smaller point of view, we might not be able to get the actual sales number due to the limits of the interviewee, only one sort of dimension is used in this research to analyze the collaboration event, and we get our information mainly based on the customer’s response the clerks provide us, which also limited the width of this research. After the whole interview, I totally realized that Setting up the questions is another point I have to improve, some of the answers provided by the three clerks were too similar which limited the answer’s diversity, an interview with a larger question base in different dimensions will solve this problem, and questions with more subtitles can make us dig the answers deeper.
Therefore for future recommendation, interviews on manager level employees and another interview about customers thoughts would widen the response diversity, if able, shopping at the store when the event is going and experience the whole process to gain further knowledge about the event is a recommended way to make us have the inspiration of setting the interview question in a much completed angle.
Another task we want to complete in the future is to conclude with the numbers of sales and cost by getting the information from manager level and use the cost benefit analysis to make further plans for the brand on how to invest the designer
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collaboration and set up an advice procedure for future companies to consult, this will also make the research more accurate based on numbers.
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Interview with Uniqlo clerk(who participated the ines designer collaboration event) :
1. What is the Target market the designer cooperation aim for? And why do you think this kind of customer section will fit?
A: Female around 25-35years old that are interested in fashion, because this range of age tends to buy fashion designed products with an affordable price, and the ines collaboration products are much more cheaper than the standard ines designed product.
2. What kind of marketing plan did you use to promote the products cooperation with the designer?
A: Saled in limited stores and limited amount of product available is the main way we promote the event, we also advertise the event on facebook fanpage and our official website .
3.What is the customer’s response to this designer-product cooperation event? Did the customers maintain the same as the target market?
A: The customer’s response was crazy, they were fighting for ines product like people who don’t have clothes. Yes the main target market maintained the same but there were also a lot of customers aged above our target range who came because of the price.
4. Do you think collaborating with famous designers will make better sales revenue than normal designers?
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A: With the experience of ines collaboration and the response, Yes. I think that collaborating with a well-known and popular designer will definitely make better revenue because you can draw more customer attention.
5. Do you think customers tend to have more purchasing desire on limited products?
A: As a shopper myself, yes limited products can definitely create the purchasing desire and most importantly make consumers want to buy the product now because they will think that they might not have the second chance.
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Interview with GAP clerk (who participated with NSF, STAMPD, The hillside and David Hart designer collaboration):
1. What is the Target market the designer cooperation aim for? And why do you think this kind of customer section will fit?
A: The designer crew this time are all men so the target market is also on men that loves and cares about fashion, which also wants to buy fashion clothing with an affordable price.
2. What kind of marketing plan did you use to promote the products cooperation with the designer?
A: products are only available on the official website and limited stores , we also use facebook fanpage to let more customers notice this event.
3. What is the customer’s response to this designer-product cooperation event? Did the customers maintain the same as the target market?
A: The products were sold out immediately and there was also a lot of complaint from branch stores in other areas of Taiwan for not participating in selling the collaboration product, and yes the target market remained the same.
4. Do you think collaborating with famous designers will make better sales revenue than normal designers?
A: Gap collaborated with GQ designers for four times, and I think that famous designers is definitely one key factor to impact good customer response but fitting with the image
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of the brand and how they promote the event also plays an important role, I don’t think the GQ designers will have an advantage collaborating with sports brand like Nike compared to pro-athletes.
5. Do you think customers tend to have more purchasing desire on limited products?
A: Definitely, everyone wants to be unique and doesn't want to wear clothes that other people are also wearing.
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Interview with H&M clerk (who participated with the Balmain designer collaboration event ):
1. What is the Target market the designer cooperation aim for? And why do you think this kind of customer section will fit?
A: Anybody who loves fashion and loves Balmain’s design, who wants to buy Balmain’s product with a much more reasonable price.
2. What kind of marketing plan did you use to promote the products cooperation with the designer?
A: Products were only available in one H&M store with limited amount, so customers who were interested had to line up early, we also had several TV news report a month before the event started to draw everybody’s attention.
3.What is the customer’s response to this designer-product cooperation event? Did the customers maintain the same as the target market?
A: The target market was basically the same but we didn't limit the amount of people that could line up and it ended up that the stock was not enough and only 10% of the people in the line would be able to buy them, so we received several complaint about not making the rules clear and wasting customers time, I think that this will lower the brand image.
4. Do you think collaborating with famous designers will make better sales revenue than normal designers?
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A: Yes, collaborating with famous designers is like collaboration with famous brands, if you collaborate with a designer that is popular and well known in the target market group it will definitely create better chances, actually I don't think the collaboration products look really good this time but the response was still good, I feel like customers nowadays care about the brand more than the real thing, I also think collaborating with fast fashion brands will lower the image of a designer if the products weren’t as good as it should be.
5. Do you think customers tend to have more purchasing desire on limited products?
A: This is a strategy often used in fashion brand clothing industry because limited product is never a minus.
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訪談 Uniqlo 店面員工（參與了 Ines 設計師的合作活動）
1. 這次設計師合作活動目標客群是？為何認為這樣的客群符合目標？
Ａ：主要是年紀 25-35 歲對時尚有興趣的女性，因為在這個範圍的女性會想要以較 可負擔的價格購買時尚產品，這次和 Ines 合作的產品也比一般 Ines 的產品價格低 的許多。
2. 本次的設計師合作活動是用哪種行銷計畫來推動的？
Ａ：限定店鋪以及限量銷售是主要的手法，另外活動的廣告是以 Facebook 還有官 方網站來宣傳的。
3.對於這次設計師合作活動顧客回應方面是？目標客群和原定的相符嗎？
A:顧客的回應非常瘋狂，像是沒衣服穿的人一樣把Ines的產品一掃而空。目標客群 和原訂的大致相同不過也有不少年紀比較大的客人因為覺得便宜而來購買。
4.你認為和知名的設計師合作帶來的銷售額會比一般設計師來得高嗎？
Ａ：經過這次和Ines合作的顧客回應，我認為會。和一個受歡迎且知名的設計師合 作推出產品絕對會有更好的銷售因為能吸引更多顧客的關注。
5.你認為消費者對於限量的商品有更大的購買慾望嗎？
Ａ：我本身也喜歡購物，而我也認為限量產品的確能提升消費者的購買慾望而且最 重要的是讓消費者有種現在不把握可能就沒有機會的感覺。
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訪談 GAP 店面員工（參與了ＮＳＦ，ＳＴＡＭＰＤ，The hillside, David Hart 設計 師的合作活動）
1. 這次設計師合作活動目標客群是？為何認為這樣的客群符合目標？
Ａ：這次的設計師團隊都是男性，目標客群也鎖定在喜愛時尚並且想要以較低價格 購買時尚服飾的男性。
2. 本次的設計師合作活動是用哪種行銷計畫來推動的？
Ａ：主要為商品限定只有在官方網站還有限定店舖販售，另外也有以社群網頁做宣 傳。
3. 對於這次設計師合作活動顧客回應方面是？目標客群和原定的相符嗎？
Ａ：活動開始後商品迅速售完，也有許多消費者抱怨為何所在地區的ＧＡＰ店鋪沒 有參與這次活動，另外目標客群和鎖定的也是大致相同。
4. 你認為和知名的設計師合作帶來的銷售額會比一般設計師來得高嗎？
Ａ：ＧＡＰ和ＧＱ的設計團隊合作了四次，我認為和知名設計師合作絕對是造成顧 客迴響的一個關鍵，不過設計師和品牌的適合度以及如何包裝這個活動也扮演著重 要的角色，舉例來說我不認為ＮＩＫＥ和ＧＱ的設計團隊合作會帶來比和知名運動 員合作更高的效益。
Ａ：ＧＡＰ和ＧＱ的設計團隊合作了四次，我認為和知名設計師合作絕對是造成顧 客迴響的一個關鍵，不過設計師和品牌的適合度以及如何包裝這個活動也扮演著重 要的角色，舉例來說我不認為ＮＩＫＥ和ＧＱ的設計團隊合作會帶來比和知名運動 員合作更高的效益。