She’s busy preparing for London Fashion Week, styling shows for Romeo Pires and William Tempest, but fashion stylist and blogger Rebekah Roy recently found time to catch up with me at Vapiano in Soho, London.

I was surprised to read on Rebekah’s blog that she too is a fan of Paris Hilton and her ITV2 show Paris Hilton’s British Best Friend. It probably won’t go down in the history books as classic TV, but it certainly fills my current quota for celebrity/reality/is-this-what-our-culture-has-really-come-to television.

Rebekah wrote about how Paris wore a dress by online fashion store Lipsy because she liked it, as she does with much of her clothes, not because (as many people think) she gets paid to.

I am more intrigued as to what impact she had on sales at Lipsy.

Having a celebrity like Paris wear one of your creations is like having your book being featured on Richard & Judy.

Apparently Lipsy sent Paris their entire collection after she wore the dress meaning the online store is probably now her Best British Online Shop.

Speaking of online shops, Rebekah and I chatted about online retailers placing more importance on their visual layouts.

A/B testing and usability studies are already prevalent in online fashion but there is still more retailers, affiliate sites and aggregators can do to lay out product better – it really is in the detail and the intricacies of colour use, styling and hierarchy of products on pages.

Comment on this article ...

I recently received a 50% off voucher for The Avalon, a restaurant in Clapham, which led me to think about how restaurants could use local content to market themselves online.

Many are using 2 for 1 offers and 50% discounts to encourage people to visit their restaurants, with the main advantage of such promotions being to capture data, primarily email addresses, for future communication.

It can also be an opportunity for restaurateurs to find out where their diners are coming from – just by asking customers for their home town they can find out how far people travel to get to their eatery. It all helps to build up a profile of the customer.

Restaurateurs may rely on regulars and people who happen to be passing, but that’s not true of other local attractions which people research before visiting.

That’s why it’s important for restaurant websites to include local content, particularly landmarks and attractions of interest, which people may search for in Google.

To get that local content seen and rated by the search engines, restaurants will need to attract links to their websites from websites and blogs.

One way to do this would be to invite bloggers to the restaurant to review it – they may have smaller audiences but they would be more likely to get an SEO friendly link from a blog than a larger website.

Comment on this article ...

Here are my top tips for Tesco’s online fashion store which is expected to launch this autumn.

1. Remember the motivations
The motivations for buying online are very different to that of offline.

The latter is impulse, whereas online is normally more calculated.

Customers will need a reason to visit the website, as they won’t be passing through for groceries like they are in store.

2. Do your own delivery
Tesco has a big network of drivers which will allow them to offer flexible delivery options which many online stores will find difficult to replicate.

They already offer a great service, including evening deliveries, with Tesco Direct.

3. Use www.tesco.com/clothing
Tesco can reap great SEO benefits if the website sits on www.tesco.com/clothing.

They can promote a different URL such as their current www.clothingattesco.com, but the site will need to sit and function on www.tesco.com/clothing.

4. Get the hero image right
To be an online fashion store they’ll need to look like one. And that means investing in strong hero images, particularly for the home page, which show off products.

5. Produce a blog or video
Tesco Fashion will need to produce some sort of content to differentiate itself from the core online Tesco brands, and to attract links to the website.

6. Affiliate campaign
Affiliates would promote Tesco like there’s no tomorrow. The commission rates will have to be favourable though as the price points (I assume) will be low.

7. Embrace multi channel
Do an Argos, and let people see what’s in stock in their local store. Make sure items can be returned to ANY Tesco store. Arrange for pick-ups of heavy items such as boots using the Tesco network of drivers.

8. Take adverts
ASOS and Amazon place ads around their online stores; the positives outweigh the negatives.

9. The easy stuff – promoting it
Get the URL out everywhere.

Stick it in clothing labels, the back of receipts, target Clubcard members who buy clothes – whatever it takes!

10. Have fun
Online fashion retail is a good place to be right now, so have fun!

Comment on this article ...

This week I interviewed Turi Munthe of Demotix, a citizen-journalism website and photo agency.

Firstly, well done with the launch and the coverage you have achieved so far. How do you intend to keep the momentum going?

We’ve only just really started on getting the word out that we exist, and are happy that the process is slow and gentle.

In this first phase, the kind of contributors we’re bringing on is more important than the number. It means we pretty much only have interesting content.

But to answer more broadly, I - as CEO - will be spending the next year running round the globe meeting with journalists, photographers, newspapers and citizen activists to tell them that we exist and can really help them.

I’m off to Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan in the first couple of weeks of Feb, then Russia, and then Zimbabwe.

For quality purposes you check all submissions before they appear on the website. How many moderators do you have, and what measures are in place to ensure Demotix is politically neutral?

We have a rotating group of about 7 moderators, but on neutrality we’re a citizen space. We have no politics. No editorial.

If the community sways more one way on a political issue, then we’ll make a concerted effort to bring on the other demographic but can’t guarantee anything.

On Gaza, for example, we’ve had infinitely more pro-Gaza material than we have pro-Israel, and that’s despite contacting the media organisations of Sderot and the IDF. But that’s a pretty good gauge, it turns out, of global opinion on the Gaza offensive.

You make your revenue (50% of the selling fee) when a publisher buys a photo or video. Are you going to look into generating revenue from people who simply browse the photos?

Possibly, but later down the line.

When will you allow people to send photos via Text/MMS?

As soon as humanly possible!

There are tech challenges here, and costs associated to this, but obviously this is exactly where we want to go, as quickly as possible.

Comment on this article ...

Entrepreneurs (or Mumtrepreneurs as they’d like to be known) Abby Wood and Zoe Bywater have launched Beansprog, an online marketplace where you can buy and sell baby and kid stuff.

The website may be in a focused and specialist vertical but it is still competing with the mighty eBay.

Sellers (or bringers in Beansprog language) want to get the best price for their item, and they’re more likely to get it if there’s a larger audience, and that’s something you can guarantee at eBay.

Abby and Zoe are in the difficult position in that any sellers or buyers will want to see a website full of other sellers and buyers before they use the service.

I think they should consider changing the business model and build up the Beansprog brand offline through bring and buy events, and franchises.

The website could act as a portal which supports local Beansprog groups by allowing people to register to attend groups, featuring editorial content and even linking to eBay listings by members of the group.

Revenue could be generated through memberships and advertising online stores.

Beansprog groups would build trust in the brand and grow it organically through word of mouth.

Once they have that, they could possibly have the audience to make the website successful as a vertical online marketplace.

Comments (1)

Having looked at many trainers on various online footwear stores (research purposes) I was overwhelmed with the amount of shoe technology jargon.

I never knew so much technology was involved in designing trainers.

It all sounds so good, and I’m sure most of the technology in the trainers produces the desired effect of increased performance.

When you Google most of these technologies there are few results which are related.

Which kind of leads me to think – if this technology is real and exists, why isn’t anybody talking about it?

The And1 Strapped Mid Basketball trainer (pictured above) has built in Harmonix technology. Can you find any mention/discussion/wiki about Harmonix technology in the trainer sense?

Comment on this article ...

Already hailed by Vogue and InStyle Online fashion accessories store Lily and Lionel launched two weeks ago.

I am confident Lily and Lionel is a luxury brand to watch out for - the concept is borne out of Alice Stone’s true passion for fashion and love of travel, all inspired by her late grandparents; the real Lily and Lionel.

Only until you get to the About Us section and delve into The Real Lily And Lionel, do you realise where the name came from - I like this as it tells a story of discovery, which bleeds into the website’s ethos of discovering that special piece of fashion.

www.lilyandlionel.com

Comment on this article ...

”A pound invested online is far more effective than one spent offline” say Martha Lane Fox - Read my take on Martha’s comment on the Market Sentinel blog.

Comment on this article ...

Behind every new look, new launch or new advert there has been thought as to how it will affect the industry, press and most importantly the end consumer.

Rebrands get planned months, if not years ahead. To make sure they’re right.

What does our new brand need to reflect? How will our current consumers/customers feel about it? Who are we trying to speak to with our rebrand? 

Product launches take years to master. To make sure they’re right.

Who would buy this? Why would they buy it? Where would they buy it?

And a lot of effort, by a lot of people goes into creating TV adverts, to make sure they’re right too.

How can we make impact? What times and which channels will it be on? Do we need a celeb in it?

Many will present a rebrand, product launch or advert and tell those in charge of their online – “this is what we’re doing, make our online fit”.

The wrong way round? I think so.

Nobody at Pizza Hut thought about registering or acquiring www.pastahut.net or www.pastahut.com

Vodafone has an exclusive deal to launch BlackBerry Storm in the UK – utilising online PR should have seen them rank #1 organically for ‘blackberry storm’, instead they’re bidding and paying per click.

Love Bingo could’ve made sure they ranked #1 for their name before advertising on TV – they rank #3 for ‘love bingo’ but I am sure JackpotJoy and ilovebingo.com, who rank #1 and #2 respectively, are the main benefactors of searches for ‘love bingo’ from Love Bingo’s TV advertising campaign.

Comment on this article ...

According to consultancy firm Intangible Business the value of Bernard Matthews has dropped £20m in the past year.

Unsurprising news after the Jamie Oliver led Turkey Twizzler bashings and the uncontrollable Avian Flu disaster.

But when a brand is down, the only way is down even further or up, up and up.

Bernard Matthews has chosen the up path, with a new name in tow, adding Farms to the brand name to become Bernard Matthews Farms.

£3m spent on TV, press and outdoor advertising should get the new name out there.

But what happens when such a campaign is successful? What if the ads are so intriguing people want more info? What happens when you reach out to people willing to learn more about the brand?

They Google you.

A couple of headlines a googler (is that a new word?) would see…

“Bernard Matthews worker caught playing football with turkeys “

“The H5N1 bird flu outbreak at Bernard Matthews Holton Suffolk 2007”

Methinks Bernard Matthews, sorry Bernard Matthews Farms, could do with spending some of the £3m budget on online PR to encourage some good news articles to spread the web, and subsequently rank in Google.

Comment on this article ...

Amazon has been with many of us since our internet lives began.

The brand is a constant. Always reliable, always selling books cheaper than Waterstone’s and generally always there.

By there, I mean our email inboxes. Amazon likes to keep in touch.

We invite them to keep in touch by buying from them, and agreeing to receive emails.

No matter how irrelevant or random we may find the product suggestions many of us still stay subscribed – but why?

Because as a brand Amazon is a constant and has earned the right to bombard with offers, discounts and (sometimes) miscalculated suggestions to our tastes.

Comment on this article ...

Economic downturn = offline advertising (unmeasurable) spend down, online marketing (measurable) spend up?

That’s what a lot of people seem to be saying [here and here]. But not me.

Not entirely anyway. I can see online marketing spend increasing in line with the already forecasted increases, but in terms of a higher jump because of the downturn no.

A downturn should not necessarily lead to an increase spend in measurable online marketing tactics such as PPC and email, instead the growth area will be social media monitoring.

So the majority of spend moved to online in theory should be spent on monitoring services (analysing brand conversations on blogs, forums, social networks etc.) rather than spending on pay per click.

That’s my crystal ball view at least, only time will tell what will really happen.

If you subscribe to the idea that businesses that brand build through traditional advertising, such as TV, during an economic downturn benefit greatly when the economy picks up, then you’ll agree the best thing big brands can do is to push spend to monitoring their brand online. They can use this insight to increase the effectiveness of their brand building activities.

It would be nonsensical to conclude from this that direct response isn’t the way to go. For many businesses budget restraints and aggressive targets there isn’t a choice.

What I am saying is that any business that is thinking of moving spend away because they assume it is the thing to do in the short term should consider the benefits of continuing with awareness building and how social media monitoring can help.

A fair criticism that marketers can point at this analysis is that brand building doesn’t bring in the sales like direct response, but after the downturn you will have to keep selling. When people have more cash they’ll be choosier, and they’ll buy into a brand, not into what suited their pocket the year before.

Comments (3)

Internet business has changed to meet the demands and expectations of the growing numbers of online shoppers, shifting their pounds from the high street to the internet.

But with many high street stores now offering the same prices as their online counterparts, the internet is no longer always cheaper.

Let’s take a look at how online stores can launch an offline presence to continue the trend of growing numbers of online shoppers, now that price is no longer a stark differentiator.

Web to high street
Taking a successful online operation to the high street seems to be a key move for fashion websites. Other sectors must follow surely?

Recently at the Drapers Online Fashion Retailing Conference Nick Robertson of ASOS said he would consider launching a flagship store for the online brand.

Fashion website Lipsy is too opening a store in London’s Brent Cross.

Old media partnerships
Old media brands and online retailers partnering – like OK! Magazine and Glasses Direct - is something we’re definitely going to see a lot more of in the future.

It gives the online retailer the ability to capture an audience offline.

Interactive TV
This is definitely an area with a lot of potential for online stores that hit the demographic of TV shoppers.

Comment on this article ...

You’ve just embarked on a marketing campaign for your website, the visitor numbers are going up but you want these users to engage with you in the future too. So how do you sign up visitors to register on your site or newsletter?

See my article on the Enterprise Nation website.

Comment on this article ...

This is round two of marketing the L’Oreal brand to black women, who spend three times more on beauty products than their white counterparts – and with a growing black middle class on both sides of the Atlantic, it’s a target group not to be ignored.

Any number of entities could have been the target of vitriol after the release of the advert; Beyonce, the creative director of the advert or even the magazines which published it could have taken the hatred, but L’Oreal picked up this unfortunate tab.

The reason I think it’s a chance for L’Oreal to communicate its brand values to black women, whom supposedly feel like they have been slapped in the face, is because deep down we all know what would really drive the behaviour of lightening dark skin. And we don’t like it.

The L’Oreal brand is damaged if it is true that blacks really believe L’Oreal dislikes black women.

The L’Oreal brand isn’t damaged if it’s true that blacks believed whites subconsciously dislike, or are put off by, products with adverts featuring black people.

If the latter statement is true the outrage would be towards those whites rather than L’Oreal as a brand.
It’s all about understanding the player and the game.

The offended [blacks] will understand – not necessarily tolerate – the alleged offender [L’Oreal], if the offender is a player who was simply adhering to rules of a game [black doesn’t sell].

Comment on this article ...