The Future of Fashion Marketing: A Perfect PB&J Sandwich

Around the 2010s, the advent of the online world revolutionized the entire marketing industry, switching the strategy in fashion from brand marketing to performance marketing. Performance marketing shifted the focus away from “telling a story” to a more data-driven approach, only paying partners when buyers take pre-defined actions. This new analytical approach was lauded as a way to promote maximum effectiveness in marketing, a notoriously unpredictable field, and has had widespread impacts on consumer engagement, brand perception, trendsetting, and overall business success. However, the future of fashion marketing announces itself to shift away from simple performance marketing, mixing past strategies and new trends to achieve brand goals.

(P) What is Performance Marketing?

Performance marketing is a data-driven digital advertising strategy where advertisers pay based on specific actions or results rather than just ad impressions or reach. It is primarily based on KPIs – key performance indicators. A brand’s marketing strategy changes accordingly based on results given by these KPIs, which may include the number of times a product was clicked on, which products were most clicked on, how much time a customer spent on the brand’s site, and so on. Other than brand websites, it also ranges to tracking on social media platforms. For example, on Pinterest, brands will note which Pinterest “pin” directed the most people to a website. Collecting data on the consumers themselves, brands can note what kinds of customers are attracted to specific products. Influencer collaborations and affiliate marketing are key to this approach. Brands partner with fashion influencers and those with a large following to offer commission-based incentives for sales generated through their referrals.

Since performance marketing relies on clicks, leads, sales, or other measurable conversions, it is highly data-centric and cost efficient. Advertisers only pay when a specific goal is met. We can observe it through the most common pricing models:

Cost Per Click (CPC) – advertisers pay based on the number of clicks the ad receives
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) – measures the total cost of a customer completing a specific action
Cost Per Lead (CPL) – advertiser pays for an explicit sign-up from a consumer interested in the advertiser’s offer
Cost Per Mille (CPM) – advertisers pay the publisher a fixed price for 1,000 impressions of their ad

These models help businesses optimize their spending by focusing on what directly contributes to their growth, allowing brands to tailor products to consumers, and to get to know their audience in-depth. Specifically in the fashion and luxury sector, brands rely on personalized, data-driven campaigns to reach their ideal customers.

(B) What is Brand Marketing?

Let’s now go back in time, before performance marketing became such a central part of today’s world. We are now in the late 90s and early 2000s when brand marketing was at the forefront of fashion. Brand marketing is the discipline which promotes a brand by defining it apart from others, anchoring it sustainably in the minds of its consumers by creating its singular identity. Brands focused on creating a story behind their products and styles through traditional media dominance, limited digital presence, no real-time performance tracking, and the influence of culture and celebrities.

Luxury and fashion brands invested in glossy magazine ads (Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle), high-budget TV commercials, and celebrity endorsements to maintain exclusivity. Runway shows and fashion weeks (Paris, Milan, New York) were primary platforms for brand storytelling, and their buzz reached news outlets across the world. Billboards were major tools for visibility and engagement; ad campaigns were singular to each brand and iconic in their own ways, sometimes even becoming problematic. We can note Benetton or Calvin Klein. The success of a brand or popularity of a product was not defined by the number of clicks, sales, or engagement rates, but by PR coverage, prestige and word-of-mouth. On top of that, E-commerce was still emerging, and most luxury brands hesitated to sell online. They often feared it would dilute their exclusivity, so websites were primarily for branding, not conversion-driven sales.

At this time, Top Models were also often the “face” of a brand, becoming a marketing strategy themselves. Kate Moss, for example, was the face of Calvin Klein, and Gisele Bündchen appeared in every ad campaign for Dolce & Gabbana from the end of the 90s to the beginnings of the 2000s. These models created such a buzz that their outfits, both on and off the runway, became inspiration for the public. Some examples are the Heroin Chic epidemic or admired Model Off Duty looks. Supermodels also appeared in magazines. As examples, Kate Moss and Gisele Bündchen averaged around 130 Vogue covers each.

Their authenticity and relationships with brands were a primary technique to give products more visibility. To wrap it up, fashion trends and how brands were perceived was something often dictated by Hollywood celebrities, supermodels, and magazine editors, rather than data-driven social media influencers.

The future of fashion marketing: The PB&J Sandwich

Time to explain this PB&J sandwich. Before the rise of social media and advancements in technology, brand marketing was at the center of fashion, and although it did not disappear in the 2010s, performance marketing did become the key focus for many brands. In the past few years however, brands have noticed performance marketing alone does not provide for a fully successful marketing campaign. It is useful, but not complete. On top of that, the rise of pressures on discretionary spend, sharpened consumer appetite for entertaining brand storytelling, and new data privacy regulations restricting customer targeting, has shown brands will require new marketing strategies. Hence, we will most likely observe a shift from performance marketing back to brand marketing. The two strategies will have to share the stage, prioritizing marketing spend, and focusing on showcasing brand stories – bold ad campaigns or the display of brands’ unique qualities once again key elements of fashion marketing.

By Maë Panzani

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