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Teenage Fashionwear Market Assessment

DateJan, 2000
Pages0
Price / format€878 / Hard Copy
€878 / Electronic

€878 

Report Information | Custom-Tailored Research | Product Trade Lead


Abstract:
 A Society IN Transformation
With the beginning of the 21st century, as the world enters the information age, society is going through changes that will have far-reaching effects. The lifestyles of the young, their attitudes, behaviour patterns and expectations are all being remodelled.

The demographic changes in all industrial countries, including the UK, are showing a move towards an older population. In the 15 to 24 age band there has been a drop of 14% in the last 10 years. When broken down further, it is apparent that 15 to 19 year-olds decreased in number by 5.1% and 20 to 24 year-olds showed an even worse drop of 21.6%.

The shrinking youth population will, in the long run, have an impact on markets aimed at this group. Measured by personal disposable income (PDI) and consumption of consumer durables, however, today's youth is rich. Therefore, their buying power compensates for the limitations in numbers. They have benefited from the disposable income of their parents, and a high percentage have some kind of employment to facilitate their expensive buying habits.

Social institutions such as the family are showing signs of breaking down, and single-parent households have trebled in number since 1972. Divorce rates in England and Wales are among the highest in Europe, with approximately 30% of marriages ending in divorce within 20 years.

Employment in the UK has been showing positive trends over the last decade. Unemployment has been decreasing and is projected to decrease further by 2002. The number of males in employment is showing an overall decline, and in contrast the number of females in employment is showing a substantial rise. Again, this is having an enormous impact on lifestyles.

The economic success and higher disposable income currently enjoyed by the population, and the high cost of living, have had their price on family life. The parents of the majority of the young face the dilemma of balancing careers and a family and social life outside work, while maintaining a high standard of living. More and more parents are faced with time pressure and children have been at the receiving end of it. This has had an isolating effect on the young.

Young people today are increasingly facing adult decisions early in their lives and they are deeply resentful of it. Research shows that, for today's young people, factors such as education and personal relationships are more important than a lack of money or physical well-being. In spite of the affluence enjoyed, young people are confronted with worries such as job instability, the cost of study and cutthroat competition in the job market. From 2002, the higher education debts of graduates may increase to a total of Ј3bn and students will have average debts of around Ј11,000 each.

Young People'S Priorities
There is a growing tendency for young people to leave marriage to a later age. Living arrangements among the young are moving either towards single households or staying at home with their parents for longer. There are signs that most of them give priority to further education and exploring the career opportunities open to them before settling down. The reluctance to give up a comfortable single life, the high cost of living and worries about job prospects are other factors.

According to research, fashion and clothing are a high priority for the young, along with saving, enjoying leisure activities and buying cars. Owing to the affluence they enjoy, and the purchasing power this generates, young people are in a position to choose and decide for themselves. They utilise their spending power with care and are no slaves to industry- or media-created trends.

The main factor that separates the present younger generation from earlier generations is independence from financial and social restrictions. It is a generation geared to consumerism and does not spare costs when it comes to leisure activities. It is status conscious and hedonistic - although it is also evident that a counter-consciousness is growing among the young, with an awareness of the environment and other related issues.

As socialising is one of the priorities in the lives of the young, fashion and clothing have become of vital importance. The young regard fashion as an expression of their individual identity. They will not be satisfied with dressing according to the social `rules' of age and status their consumption patterns and modes are sophisticated and different from what is understood at present in terms of life stages.

Influences IN Teenage Fashion
The media plays a major part in the promotion of `body culture' or `body consciousness' in society, especially among the young. Tabloid newspapers, television and specialised magazines which target this group are constantly sending messages about creating and maintaining the perfect body. Images of pop stars and supermodels contribute to this myth of perfection.

In the UK, `street fashions' is a category that plays a significant role in youth apparel and has evolved as a result of the imaginative talents concentrated in this group. Bars, discos and clubs and all other places around the country where the young congregate are highly creative ground. Designers and stylists have long drawn inspiration from these trends and utilise them in their creations, which leave a strong imprint on the youth apparel sold in the High Street.

Sports and athletics, being an important factor in the lives of the young, have also contributed to street fashion trends. For instance, snowboarding, skating and extreme sports are the current favourites, and their influence has spilled over to all types of apparel for men of all ages.

Young consumers utilise the designs, products and styles seen in active sports and integrate them into non-active casualwear. The term `athleisure' is used to describe the type of apparel where sportswear and casualwear merge. There has been a long-term trend towards casualwear in teenage fashion, and even at the workplace there is a tendency towards casual and informal clothing.

As electronic games penetrate into the upper youth age categories, the clothing worn by the characters in the games also influences street fashions. The distinction between films and games is disappearing, and product placement is playing a vital role in marketing.

TheImportance of Brands
Brands are a vital feature of the young fashion sector and have replaced traditional institutions such as class structures and related dress codes. Until recently, the men's branded apparel sector was the major source of growth, but this sector is now showing signs of saturation and the industry is turning instead to womenswear and childrenswear to create new interest in this area of merchandise.

Peer pressure, particularly in schools, is a vital influencing factor. It is considered `cool' to wear branded clothes, and there is huge pressure among the 9 to 16 age group to conform to this tendency. Independent research conducted by Market Assessment shows that this expensive trend is generally financed by the teenagers themselves from their own money.

TheChallenges Facing Retailers
Fashion is increasingly seen as a lifestyle trend and its importance and influence are not restricted to clothes. It is difficult to separate fashions in clothes from those in the rest of the lifestyle-associated products that have sprung up, and marketers will have to take this development into account. These new industries mainly target the young, and the designs, colours, forms and shapes of the merchandise have a spill-over effect on apparel fashions and vice versa. Increasingly, retailers see fashion as a package rather than individual items, and they tend to offer a wider choice of merchandise, including items such as mobile phones and accessories, which add value to an existing range.

Teenagers are fickle and critical shoppers, and trends in this sector have a very short lifespan. Catering to this sector involves predicting trends accurately, reading the teenage mind and creating fashions that capture the teenage imagination. The high fashion consciousness and frequent purchasing habits of the teenager make this market extremely attractive in monetary terms, but second-guessing fashion trends is risky. Teenagers are selective about where they shop and will ignore stores that they perceive as old-fashioned or babyish.

The large assortment of sizes among this group, even within the same age, is also a problem. This makes it even more difficult to target and label merchandise - especially as fashion trends can have a lifespan of only a few weeks.

Market Segmentation
There is a visible difference in the approach to fashion between teenage girls and teenage boys. Boys are more brand orientated, whereas girls pay attention to the design of garments and are satisfied with stores that cater specifically to them. This makes a dual store a difficult proposition. Many companies have therefore established parallel stores, such as Top Shop and Top Man, or have established clearly separate departments.

Although this report looks mainly at fashion trends in the 15 to 24 age group, the importance of the 9 to 14 age group cannot be ignored. This younger age group is adopting the behaviour of young adults at an early age as a result of exposure to films and television programmes aimed at an adult population, and because children are being given responsibilities at home and are being encouraged to make decisions at an early age. They often have some or all of the money spent on clothes under their control.

Although a huge industry, worth over Ј4bn, the childrenswear market has been growing at a pace of only 1% to 2% in recent times. In comparison, the 5 to 14 age group grew in size by 9.3% over the last decade. Increasingly, therefore, companies are targeting adult brands at the 12 year-old age group. Retailers claim that the market for grown-up clothes in girls' sizes is increasing and that most of the big cities have large enough demand to establish a specialist store.

The biggest problem is the variety of needs and tastes within this small group. Retailers have approached this problem by creating separate areas within the store for the 10 to 16 age band and the 3 to 9 group.

Stores aiming at the younger age group endeavour to produce a shopping environment which is grown-up in order to win the approval of parents and to appeal to the 8 to 14 age group, who do not relish shopping in a children's shop. Retailers which seem to aim at the 18 to 28 age group are in fact targeting 12 to 20 year-olds.

Retailer Strategies
Many retailers have avoided the perils of catering to the hyper-trendy teenager and aim instead at the everyday needs of young customers. Retailers claim that the most successful styles in this sector are those that are similar to items from the more mature women's collections. Retailers find it easier to work down from an established aspirational brand than to work up from childrenswear. As teenagewear offers added value to merchandise for older groups, many retailers have established a separate teenwear section in stores.

Among the many factors necessary to be successful in this sector, one of the major ones is image: there must be a strong product or brand identity with which the young can identify. The image- and status-conscious young consumer is very interested in the finer details and added value of the product. Most of the successful companies catering to this market, such as Gap and French Connection, have built their operations on this understanding. Their market strategies and advertising campaigns are shaped to develop and deliver a particular identity and image.

Innovation is high on the agenda of the young. To attract teenagers into a shop more often and to get them to spend a longer period of time in the shop, retailers have to replenish their stock frequently and offer a diversity of colour and design, with visually imaginative merchandising.

Young customers value convenience and the store location is of utmost importance. For the retailer, this means striking a balance between being present at important shopping locations and resisting the temptation of over-expansion, which has proved a costly mistake for many.

Changes IN Approach
To be successful in the teenagewear market, retailers have had to re-invent most of the traditional marketing methods. They have had to develop a more cost-effective and efficient supplier chain and a new approach to retailing, using marketing from the inception of a product rather than turning to it as a last-minute solution.

To meet this need, most of the successful retailers have established special marketing divisions to keep track of marketing trends, to develop new merchandise according to these trends, and to develop new marketing channels.

Market research plays an important role in this task, but the traditional methods are proving to be insufficient. Therefore, new research methods, such as filming the activities of the young, have been developed. Differentiating lasting trends from those which have a short life span is very important.

Because trends in fashion are changing constantly, it is only at the last moment that most retailers can confirm design details, demanding great flexibility from their suppliers. To achieve this, retailers are concentrating on efficient brand management. Retailers occasionally own the majority of their supplier base and source fabrics directly, but alternative methods can be developed to suit a company's needs, with suppliers sometimes having full control over production or joint responsibility for it.

Suppliers and retailers are recognising that there needs to be a partnership and mutual trust in order to achieve their long-term goals. The need for a quick response has required the adoption of advanced production methods, using technology such as CAD/CAM links and electronic data interchange. Traditionally, an average period of 9 months has been needed in the fashion industry from the planning stage to selling products in stores. With this new approach, some retailers have reduced the timescale to around a month, or even a week in some cases, revolutionising fashion retailing.

Many retailers influence the design of the products they sell, either by employing their own design teams or using high-profile outside designers. The suppliers' design teams are now expected to work together with those of the retailers. Only those suppliers which can adapt to these new requirements will be able to survive the current changes in the market.

A Changing Market
The fashion apparel market shows signs of polarisation, with the upper end consisting of `power brands' marketed by global retailers such as Gap and the lower end made up of retailers' own brands such as George from Asda. The middle market, consisting of retailers targeting the mass market with middle-priced apparel with a weak image, is losing out.

The UK fashion industry, which was valued at an estimated Ј27bn in 1999, has been shedding jobs for some time. The UK can no longer compete on price alone and has had to develop strategies and expertise to compete in other areas, such as design, innovation and speed of delivery, as well as catering to niche markets.

In recent years, retailing in general has shifted towards larger businesses. Fashion retailing remains fragmented, but smaller, independent retailers are on the decline and the multiples have increased their market share, especially in womenswear and adult jeans. Retailers are increasingly turning to new channels such as e-commerce and direct selling as the best methods of reaching the young population.

The young consumer of the future will be even more informed and careful with his or her purchasing power, price comparison and bargain hunting having been made easier with fast access to the Internet and other forms of new technology. In the future, the buying power will shift even more towards the consumer. To be successful, the industry will need to be efficient, innovative, flexible and creative.




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