Picturing the State of the Apparel Business

Fashion is a complex phenomenon that intertwines art and business in value creation, aiming for a balance between creative disruption and established sales. Each fashion brand builds its brand identity around a uniquely defined persona, dressed and envisioned by the designer. For example, Chanel dresses the character of an elegant, modern yet classic woman, who exudes independence and timeless sophistication. The storytelling is embedded within the entire collection and all of the brand's detailed complexities. The online space has unlocked new ways to amplify these narratives, revisit past trends with new perspectives, e-meet customers more directly, as well as transform the whole fashion experience.

Today, short creative director cycles, digital transformation, and innovative design trends make the state-of-the-art, dictating the industry dynamics. But how will these shifts impact the future of major fashion houses? Can elevated luxury experiences be replicated by fast fashion brands, as being the 'Runway 2.0' – where high fashion collections are quickly adapted and made accessible to the mass market? Or perhaps aspirational sports brands find themselves walking a fine line between mainstream appeal and 'one-of-a-kind'?

One thing is certain: today’s customer generation has reshaped the industry, prompting all fashion segments to adapt. Just as we, as individuals, evolve through different life stages in style, so too must fashion brands evolve – with the core elements and inspirational sources of their identity remaining intact.

Drop 1: the Strategic Overview

The analysed brands represent diverse segments – luxury, premium sportswear, and fast fashion – each aligning with distinct portfolio focuses and consumer behaviour characteristics. However, their high brand value, legacy, and ability to make a statement ultimately bind them together as competitors in this dynamic market.

Key strategic points:

• Nike & Adidas
  
  • Nike and Adidas are competing not only in athletic performance but also in brand and digital popularity. Nike leads in revenue and social media followers and also boasts a strong brand name search volume, ranking third in digital popularity for 2024. Adidas holds the highest digital popularity for 2024. Though a major contender, it trails behind Nike, especially in terms of social media reach and search volume. While currently outpaced by Nike, Adidas has the potential to improve its digital presence.

• Louis Vuitton & Dior
  
  • Louis Vuitton and Dior are under the LVMH umbrella, within the Fashion & Leather Goods category, which saw a revenue of 42 billion in 2023. While both luxury brands have strong digital popularity, Dior slightly lags behind Louis Vuitton in search volume and social media following. This suggests untapped potential for improving digital strategies in these areas.

• Chanel & Gucci
  
  • Chanel and Gucci are mid-tier performers in overall digital popularity, with a strong focus on their social media presence, particularly on Instagram. While they need more enhanced strategies in other areas, their focus on visual platforms keeps them highly influential with digital audiences.

• Rolex, Cartier & Hermes: Niche luxury
  
  • Hermès, Cartier, and Rolex are key representatives of niche luxury, each with distinct areas of focus within the luxury market: Hermès represents high-end fashion, Cartier stands for fine jewellery, and Rolex is the luxury watchmaker.
  • However, all three brands present significant opportunities to improve their digital presence and engagement strategies. While Hermès and Cartier show strong levels of digital interest in 2024, their overall digital footprint remains relatively low. Rolex, in turn, is experiencing a decline in digital interest for 2024, ranking eighth in both social media followers and brand name search volume.

• Zara
  
  • Zara is a key actor in fast fashion, emerging as the most searched brand in 2024. With a strong revenue position and third highest social media following, the brand maintains a solid balance between financial strength and digital presence.

Drop 2: follow for more, the Social Media Overview

Taking a glimpse separately at the social media presence, all analysed brands have over 20 million followers, with an average of 103.2 million. This demonstrates strong global popularity, rich legacy, and well-conceptualised brand communication strategies.

Nike leads in follower counts, with Instagram accounting for a large share of its social portfolio of over 302 million followers.

Apparel brands primarily engage with their audiences on Instagram, which is understandable given the platform's capability for providing highly aesthetic visual content and expressing brand identity. Every brand curates highly aesthetic content that reflects its unique brand identity. Facebook is the second most consistent channel, led by Adidas with 42 million followers.

Among video platforms, TikTok represents a rapidly growing channel, with brands like Louis Vuitton, Zara, and Adidas having the largest follower count here. X and LinkedIn are minor players for most brands, with niche utilities.

Drop 3: the journey of user experience, the Webpage Performance Overview

Seamless user experience is an essential element in digital marketing, especially for brands with high visual representation. The average desktop and mobile performance scores for the analysed apparel brands’ webpages are 79 out of 100, indicating moderately fast loading times based on PageSpeed Insight results.

Louis Vuitton delivers the best performance, with scores of 96 on desktop and 86 on mobile.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) scores are strong for all brands, indicating that brands emphasize effective organic optimisation practices, with Hermès and Dior achieving a maximum score of 100.