Fashion profiles - The Fashionista

Continuing the first part of a series of articles that explores fashion magazines in Japan and how to use them for marketing and media strategy.

Consumer clusters based on magazine readership - How to define ideal customer types and understand opinion leaders
http://fashionpost.jp/posts/16615?lang=en

【女性ファッション誌分析】雑誌の読者層から切り取る消費者層 – 理想の顧客の明確化とオピニオンリーダーを理解する方法
http://fashionpost.jp/posts/16615  

One of the most interesting clusters for marketers to understand and ultimately access is the Fashionista. From all the clusters, she is the most interested in fashion as a lifestyle tool. The keyword is lifestyle, not just living. For girls like this their life is like a piece of art, and this means more than just following some fashion authority. It is understanding fashion, knowing trends, and using this knowledge to create the perfectly stylish life.

Fashionista girls read Post-Gyaru titles in combination with High Fashion and the Attitude category titles. They are still interested to follow the trends that are popular among their Japanese networks, thus they read Post-Gyaru titles, especially Sweet, Glamorous (well, they used to) and ViVi. YET - they are not just content in developing their own style, they are competitive. The Attitude magazine category shows the desire to stand out, showing some guts and not really caring for the maisntream. Yet combining this with Post-Gyaru shows that these girls care after all for Japanese trends. 

You could say that belonging to the Fashionista cluster is the Japanese version of not caring and showing individuality and lifestyle in fashion choices. These girls focus their attention on "it-girls" that are featured in magazines such as Nylon and Vogue Girl, and combine this with the Japanese desire to win a social game where the rules are basically set by the network. 

The typical fashionista girl is a fashion-crazy university students, 3rd or 4th year, age 20-25, with overseas experience. She uses clothes and knowledge of fashion as a weapon in order to get social power within her network. She is an opinion leader, has many friends and a strong and internationally-minded personality. She is interested in the creative side of fashion and her dream job is working for the industry, both in Japan and internationally, in the PR or marketing department of a popular brand.

Magazines. 74% of this type read Vogue, and 80% read Elle, the high fashion title with the highest focus on covering celebrity styles.  Yet—Celebrities are not so much important in their role as authorities, but as a source of inspiration. Most girls read two titles from the Attitude category, such as Nylon and Vogue Girl. On the Post-Gyaru side, Glamorous beats ViVi. These girls like a little bit more grown-up styles, and they consider themselves as different from the crowd, more in the know, more connected to the international fashion world. Ginza is a coming magazine among these girls, with the change in editor and contents clearly being recognized by them. The readership distrubution of the magazine Ginza is clearly changing into more Fashionistas, away from the Mainstream and Pure High Fashion readers.
 
Shopping profile. These girls are highly influenced by women they see on the streets, their own friends and magazines. They are heavily influenced by celebrity styles in general without looking at individual famous people to imitate their style completely. Design and personality of a brand are most important to them. They consider themselves creative and cosmopolitan, as well as highly individualistic. Chanel, YSL, Louboutin, Prada—their favorite brands show their sophistication. Louis Vuitton does not even make it into the top 20, and the general favorites of girls 2 years ago (Chloé, Marc Jacobs and miu miu) only make it to rank 7, 12 and 13 respectively. Shibuya, Shiunjuku with Lumine, and Harajuku are the most frequented districts. Omotesando is strong and Daikanyama appears on the scene on rank 6, which always shows clear sophistication. They love Topshop (seriously, they do!), H&M and Zara.
 
Models. Mizuhara Kiko almost reaches the all time popular Hasegawa Jun in the ranking. The models they like have to show attitude and personality. They never only akogare their looks, but also their lifestyle.

Internet sites and mobile services. The Satorialist, The Fashion Post, vogue.co.jp, @cosme, elle online, fashionwalker, zozotown, fashionsnap.com, pinterest, instagram, tumblr. Most have iPhones which for them contain their complete social lives.
 
Lifestyle and interests. Fashion Design, shopping, movies (The Devil Wears Prada, The September Issue, Mean Girls, He's Just Not That Into You, The Notebook), Gossip Girl, The O.C., Art & Design, foreign magazines (like American Vogue, W), Starbucks, going out and drinking, brands such as Michael Kors, Kate Spade New York, Marc Jacobs, American Apparel, and the whole lifestyle these brands represent.

How well do we know consumers? Wrong question. Why should we even care?

An article in the Luxury Society called "How Well Do We Really Know the Chinese Luxury Consumer?" http://luxurysociety.com/articles/2013/02/how-well-do-we-really-know-the-chinese-luxury-consumer

I was wondering ... where are those research results coming from. The BCG has conducted a research, the exact wording is "BCG research confirmed ..." - no mention of the research design, the sample size, the way the online panel (and I am sure that its was online) has been constructed. As if it would matter when a big name such as BCG is behind the research.

Well, it does. If any experiences from Japan would show only a glimpse of what we could expect in China, where the concept of luxury is much younger, if underdeveloped and overly status focused (and no, they do not aim at individualism, the same way that Japanese do not even after 40 years), then China can be expected to be much less transparent when it comes to validating the relevance and representativeness of a sample. Validation and representative samples, relevance. Yes these words matter when it comes to research design. If they do not matter anymore, then research becomes a meaningless reproduction of signs, a simulation of meaning. Something that marketing departments do to confirm what they have done so far, do get KPIs (key performance indicators, .... how this word has distorted so many minds that were once able to think logically and with reason), to make sure budgets are approved, to make sure that no one finds out that the decision makers approving a research design are in no way able to judge the validity of the data, nor the vendors, nor able to judge the complexity of the issue.

There is an issue. Explanations and a deep analysis would be too much. Let us just recapture some of my favorite "symptoms", things that are far too common to be ignored, yet no one is doing anything about them, as the KPIs are in order.

- Online research panels in China where hordes of Chinese middle class consumers are faking IP-addresses using special software to fill out survey forms of research companies to be sold to major luxury companies. Faking their location, faking results, "yes, of course we buy 5 LV bags a year, yes our income is above this, yes we love this brand, yes we live in Shanghai (in truth deep country side, no money, sitting in front of a laptop)." 

- Research companies that are painfully aware of the fact, yet do not care, as it enables them to come up with the right cost/survey sheet ratio. not one thought about the quality or the reasonable doubt "would a person with this high an income really spend their times on online surveys?", or the more apparent doubt "If I know I can make money with faking results, why would I not?"

- Research companies in Japan that research topics such as fashion and luxury that they know nothing about, asking the wrong questions, interpreting the answers in the wrong way, yet never questioning their own ability to do so.

- Research budgets that are limited and ask each vendor to come up with solutions fitting the budget that is decided already, without knowing if the budget is enough to produce any quality results. It is like going to Louis Vuitton and H& M asking each to come with a proposal for a handbag, and telling both, the budget was approved, we have 100 Euros. What we want is a high quality bag that holds for 10 years, made out of leather. LV's response is, sorry guys, we have what you want, but at 700 Euros and above, and we doubt anyone can produce what you are asking for at that price. The gross thing is to EXPECT that LV might somehow magically provide better quality at the same price.

- And to conclude the very short list (that could go one endlessly), my personal favorite. Taking what the consumer says in online research at face value. Asking very creative questions such as "What is the reason you bought this handbag?" - options: price, design, quality, brand recognition ... how about giving this option for a change: "I bought this handbag from Chloé because I like the brand since high school after I realized that it is higher in reputation than LV that almost everyone has in high school and in university, but only if they are not too oshare. I realized that office ladies with taste have the brand, but basically it was because all my friends have been talking about the brand for years, and because I see it in advertorials for the last 3 years in ViVi, Sweet and also in Vogue Girl, and my favorite models have featured it on their blogs. I feel safe with the choice and no one will criticize me for choosing the bag. Also, everyone at my school had See by Chloé and I thought that by buying the real thing, they would respect me and look up to me a little." - please cross:  I somewhat agree, I agree, totally agree, not agree, not agree at all??? How can I somewhat agree with this? How about giving choices like social anxiety, safety of choices, reputation of the brand to be associated with a style group that reads certain magazines. Well, they did not teach these questions at business school. They did not mention during the MBA that in Asia consumption is more about social conformity, social values, social pressure, anxiety of making choices that one is critcized for, than about presonal preference.

the list goes on.
What you need is expertise. Expertise in the subject matter and involvement with actual consumers. Its like investigating a crime scene. You need an expertise in criminology to understand the problems coming with the research. You need expertise, experience, knowing how to ask the right questions and why. How to we judge bias? How can we check the quality of research in Japan. There are ways. There are simple principles. In the next weeks we will introduce them, breaking down the complex market into simple arguments, that make sense. Research is not complocated. All you have to do is use your brain and ask simple questions such as "Do I really believe this?" "What if she is lying?" "How do I know she is telling the truth?" or the most important thing: "Does her answer matter? Is she the one that we should ask this question?" - Think, does asking the shop staff of a convenient store in Yokohama who fills out a survey at night, faking her income and location, and who fills out the survey with 30 questions in 2 minutes or less, does this really interest me? Do I want to pay money for that?"

If it does not, why pay for it?

A research company should be able to prove and validate each data point, and explain how the sample was constructed in detail, meaning, publishing the incentives given to the consumers filling out the survey, and how the incentives might bias 1) their inclination to tell the truth and 2) the bias in selecting the sample, meaning, do certain groups NOT participate because of the missing incentives or missing access to them, and how does this distort the sample, the answers, and most of all, the value for the company commissioning the research.

Test your research agency. Ask them how they keep this from happening. As the BCG, McKinsey, and all the other big names, how they make sure. And ask them what they think about this problem in the first place. Ask for transparency and for their own assessment of the QUALITY of the data.

What a difference two years make ...

2.5 years ago we asked students and young professionals age 18-25 what models they look up to (akogare) and idolize. Strongly linked to magazine readership, often associated with magazines (such as Hasegawa Jun with Glamorous or Kiko-Chan with Nylon and Vogue Girl), the popularity of models is a clear indicator of market trends and changes in the main narratives. In the year 2005, Ebihara Yuri would have lead this statistic, as the epitome of the royal road to mote-kei, the queen of CanCam.

These years, the time of the Post-Gyaru style and celebrity fashion, Topshop and American Apparel, we see a completely different landscape. Without further comment we publish two statistics, one from 2,5 years ago, one from 2 months ago. Next week I want to comment myself on these results, until then I will let the numbers speak, bias included.

Who is reading me? - Cluster Analysis of female fashion magazines

In the last weeks Japan Access has gathered and analyzed new data on magazine readership among young female consumers (age 18-25). Using a new analysis method and the new clusters that we have defined for magazine readership, we will uncover fine differences in readership and consumer preferences. This allows for strategic decisions on media strategy and branding. More to come within the next days.

Profiling HNWIs - Professional Rich _WH0054

The HNWI travel report takes a deep look on how HNWIs (富裕層) in Japan travel, and at their images of hotel brands. This report offers a different perspective on HNWIs and their travel behavior in Japan. The difference lies in the amount of detail, its relevance and closeness to the consumer group analyzed, and in the way to access this information. Through continuous interaction with Japanese millionaires over the course of over 10 years, we acquired access to their networks and permanent exposure to trends and changes in their consumer behaviour and mind-sets. 

Great care was taken in analyzing the results, and due to the enormous amount of data—nearly 700 pages of hand-written answers—we spent 3 months entering and formatting the material. All materials gathered are the voice of HNWIs, with all contents derived directly from their opinions, their accounts, the essays that they wrote for us. Each survey sheet was filled out by the HNWIs that are all personally known to us. Throughout the report we inserted complete lifestyle profiles of selected HNWIs which will give a more complete picture of who these affluent Japanese are.

The graphic shows one of the 97 profiles that form the basis of the report. She is an example of the professional rich—doctors, lawyers, financial dealers, fund managers, and also successful bureaucrats, and are characterized by one common attribute: they are caught up in a routine of their jobs and have high earnings they generate through a steady work-life. They use consumption and travel as a way of rewarding themselves for their hard work over the years and often have high demands when it comes to products and services and very personal preferences. 

In Japan, being a member of the professions mentioned above almost guarantees a well-to-do lifestyle. The individuals analyzed here were the more successful ones from a class of affluent professionals, they made it to become millionaires. From all the analyzed groups they are the most busy and are used to a fierce and clearly defined competitive environment. Socializing with their clients is part of their lifestyle and defines in many ways the way they travel and spend their leisure time. 


Over the next weeks we will publish more sample profiles that allow a glimpse into the real world of HNWIs in Japan. The results are as fascinating as they are often unexpected. Did you know that Daikanyama is one of the most popular shopping districts for rich Japanese or that Japanese affluent travelers spend in average 20 days per year traveling, spending an average over 27,000 US$ per year on travel? Or were you aware of the fact that 42% of rich Japanese have never used concierge services even though most have the opinion that they could enhance their travel experience if they would offer more precise information?

Shopping districts for HNWIs - visualized

Shopping districts of HNWIs, n=97

HNWIs in Japan show very distinct shopping patterns when it comes to choices of shopping districts. We have visualized the results from our HNWI survey executed among 97 HNWIs and show the difference to young consumers from elite universities. What surprised even us is the prominence of Daikanyama among HNWIs, with 26% shopping in that district, reaching the level of Roppongi Hills and Midtown. The very bad image that Shinjuku commands among HNWIs was confirmed by our statistics.

Shopping districts of female university students of Elite
private universities (Keio, Waseda), 18-25 years, n=342

Magazine Survey 2012 being executed

The magazine market in Japan is in constant flux and current developments are a proof of this. Western celebrity styles emanating from LA and foreign blogger sites, magazines such as Gisele, Glitter, lately also Post-Gyaru titles such as ViVi and Sweet, and of course the popular gossip magazines (with Gossips as the most popular choice) are keen on keeping their readers up to date on who wear what, with Gossip Girl stars making the front pages of many publications. And of course there are Vogue Girl, Elle Girl, and the more complex reasoning behind Nylon and why it fits neatly into the fashionista narrative among Japanese young female consumers.

We wanted to know more. So we started to back up our data that we have gathered in over 100 deep interviews with concrete statistics that will show us how the magazine market has developed since 2010 when we conducted our first large-scale survey among Japanese elite university students. Back then we gathered 1,483 responses, with 890+ female respondents. 

Now we are on campus again and will go to to the core of what, how, and who. Expect updates on our insights within the next weeks. I am back to reading Tokyo ViVi now, one of the interesting "hybrids" that are the result of the recent developments, with a yet to become clearer concept, somwhere between ViVi and Nylon from the design, with a sort of "grunge/blogger-esque/top shop/american apparel" style but basically unchanged brand selection when compared to ViVI. Even though the name would imply, there is no overly focus on Tokyo in this magazine.