MissGuided Research

 

Information for shoppers-

"We are Missguided. We are an empowering, bold and forward thinking online fashion brand, inspired by real life. We design and create product informed by you, our customers, our friends and global influences: Catwalk, celebrity, social media, bloggers and street style, creating an online fashion destination that encompasses and celebrates everything it means to be a girl in a digitally immersed world today......we believe shopping is a right, not a luxury, so we aim to deliver the biggest trends at the most affordable prices, on a global scale."

Target Market

Missguided have a clearly defined target audience within their brand. The independent retailer is primarily aimed towards females aged 16-25, but this can extend up to the age 30. Their demographic are described as fashion-conscious, confident and connected.

Costumer Profile

• Creative, confident, fresh, and fashionable young women who have a strong sense of style
• Style conscious and on a budget
• Have a low to mid income
• Students at University, or have a fashion, design or beauty related career
• In spare time, they regularly like to go shopping for the latest trends
• Have a care-free social life
• Attends parties, events, and constantly needs a new dress for every occasion
• Owns a blog and a Instagram profile
• Social media plays a big part in their life
• Into Street style, and follows bloggers; Zoella and Tanya Burr
• Inspired by celebrity style and lifestyle
• The Kardashians, Beyoncé, Rita Ora, and Rihanna are their style idols
• Reads the latest fashion magazines, such as Glamour, Grazier, Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire
• Listens to popular music, and goes to concerts and festivals with friends

I created a moodboard of who I believe is the exact profile reader of Missguided

Competitors

To produce a successful outcome from this project, I will identity what makes this brand and compare it to its competitors.

Missguided has a strong competition with high street stores and e-commerce sites. There is over 160 fashion online retailers that all target young, fashion forward women of a similar age group.
These are the top fashion competitors who attract the same costumers that shop at Missguided.

All these fashion retailers market a similar sense of style, and sell on trend fashionable clothing with a fairly equal price range. In comparison with these competitors, Missguided has a advantage with its fast reaction to trends. Which allows the brand to give the costumers what they want as soon as possible. With a fresh line of products every day. The Missguided brand outlook for fun fashion forward design is curated through weekly visuals that are updated on a frequent basis. They keep ahead of other retailers to maintain their engaged relationship they have with their target audience. Inspiring Lookbooks paired with graphics is the sites unique signature style. As wells as its established social community with its clientele allows the brand to thrive against its competitors.

Unique selling point: Rapid, trend aware, innovative fashion design at affordable prices

Marketing & PR

Social media promo videos on YouTube reinforce their unique selling point to stay connected with their costumers. The idea of fast affordable fashion is promoted in a array of graphic digital imagery and videos through many social media apps and sites. Which aligns with the brands target audience, who is "women living in a digitally immersed world".


 YouTube Subscribers: 10,222
  Instagram followers: 1.5 million
  Instagram posts: 7,036
  Twitter followers: 366,000
  Facebook likes: 885,447
  Pinterest followers: 28,000

Brand Ethos

The ethos of Missguided is to develop brand loyalty, by delivering great value on the latest fashions.
Designs inspired by catwalks, and celebrity style icons to deliver to the needs and cater to the tastes of young women of todays society. Meeting the high demand of fast affordable, & cutting-edge products.

Digital marketing strategies and a quick reaction to the market demand is the key growth of the brands success. They join forces with popular bloggers to increase the Missguided brand profile to a larger audience. They influence young girls to make fashion statements through their accessible web design, social networking platforms, and their eye-catching online fashion features.

They did a recent collaboration with Nicole Scherzinger which highlighted the brands link with celebrity style. A 30 piece going out dress collection to celebrate five years of trading. Using the faces of celebrities enhances the costumers trust and loyalty in the brand. Therefore increases more sales of the brand.

Brand Values

The brands message and personality can be characterised in these keywords;
Edgy, confident, fresh, fun, flirty, creative, and stylish.
The overall graphics of these celebrity fashion images conveys a flirty, stylish, edgy and youthful personality which link well with their ethos and target audience.

Figure 1

Missguided Website Analysis

Missguided invest heavily into their website design and advertising for their target audience. Using a variety of pop-ups, banners, gifs, and videos.



Figure 2 screenshot

The landing page has a simple layout, with the banner image as the main focus on top of the website page. This is to entice the costumer to look further into the leading fashion feature. The banner image automatically moves in a sequence, as it moves onto the next banner image of another fashion editorial to give the costumer a choice. They use a traditional black font and white background which makes it easier to navigate around the site, and also makes the costumer feel they can trust the brand. They use a font called 'Georgia' in capitals, making their logo look bold and easily recognisable. It also doesn't take attention away from the colourful and eye-catching editorial banner images.

Other than the landing page, the site is made up of 8 other pages that are shown in tabs along the top. Tabs drop down a menu with different categories, allowing the costumer to shop in a certain trend, or for a certain style of dress.

Figure 3 screenshot

Both editorial banner images on the landing page in figure 2 & 3 both use the same colour scheme, models, theme, and styling. Its is clear to see they both promote the nude trend for their party wear collection, hence the titles "out tonight?" and "dress up to get down" which appeals to their target audience well. Colours used for the banner images are nudes, candy pinks, bold ocean blues and touches of soft grey and lilac tones. The colours are associated with the brands identity; feminine, flirty, fun, youthful, and edgy. Suiting the young girly target market. The model in the banner images matches the brands audience, as she is in her early 20's and looks like a glamour model more than a catwalk model. The choice of model aligns with the brands identity and conveys who their costumers are. The model poses are seductive, fierce, and confident, portraying an almost arrogant attitude in the image. Her facial expressions are moody, and serious communicating confidence to the costumers. In turn making costumers feel like they should buy the clothing the model is wearing to be confident like her.

With her tanned dark skin tone, dark hair and brown eyes suggests she could be  from an Italian Mediterranean ethnic background. This shows diversity in the Misguided brand, to enable it to appeal to a wider range of ethnicity. Her make up is very over the top and glamourous, and her hair is styled into a modern, young shape. With the long length and curled into soft waves. Her facial features and body shape is quite petite and slender, making her look like an normal every day girl that the costumer can relate to.

The location looks like its been shot in a VIP area of a nightclub, with the velvet or suede textured couch and cotton curtains draped around the wall. The location makes the model look like a 'party girl' and 'sociable' which also appeals to the costumers lifestyle. The use of the blue backdrop makes the pink dressed model stand out and engages the costumers eye. The composition of the model is centre stage to make her the main focus of the image. In figure 2, the photography composition is shot looking up at the model, making look tall, superior and intimidating. Images are shot in landscape form to fit the websites layout design and in figure 3 the image is cropped for graphics to be put next to it. Graphics and text are also placed over the image, and a pink border is used to frame the banner.

Figure 4 screenshot

As I scroll down the page I notice there is a same colour scheme throughout each image and some images are gifs. The layout of each editorial image is neatly displayed in columns so costumer can easily read without getting bombarded with too much information. The links to each department are obvious and easy to navigate onto new pages. Some images have a pink border and simple graphics to advertise different departments that you can click and view. The clear presentation and flare makes it more appealing to the costumer. The headlines for each department is fun, and witty giving the overall website a charismatic feel. It also relates to the dialogue of their young target audience. The editorial images are shot professionally in a studio, with similar pastel, soft colours to compliment each other. This highlights the brands identity and makes the products look feminine, sleek, flirty and chic. 


What this site doesn't have that other competitors have, is a magazine or a link to the Misguided blog. Topshop has a clear tab on their website that sends the costumer to its online magazine. Missguided have a beauty brand as well but its is not advertised on the homepage, whereas Topshop have it clearly stated above the banner imagery.

Figure 5 screenshot

Editorial Site Design



Figure 6 screenshot

 

 

 

I followed the link 'Shop Feature' from the homepage that took me to a look-book of editorial images promoting key must-have trends. Again the feminine pastel colour scheme continued onto this new page and the layout of images is simply displayed in rows in a storyboard manner. Some images larger than others and spaced out from each other to led the costumer as they scroll down the page. Photography is shot in a studio with professional lighting to enhance the colours of the garments. The model is in her early 20's, with pink and blonde short hair wearing heavy glamorous make up that suits the brands edgy identity and young costumers. Her fair skin tone and blue eyes suggests she is of British ethnicity. With fierce, sassy, and confident posing gives a seductive feeling in the images. Moody and flirty facial expressions further communicates the brands message of fun fashionable clothing.

 

The site design of the fashion feature is accessible. The fluorescent borders on images create a playful feeling. The graphics and subheadings are quirky and easy to navigate. The 'Georgia' font is used throughout the site and is in white low capitals for subheadings and for product descriptions. Although there isn't any roll over on the images; images don't fade when clicking on image. There is a 50% of black shading when hovering the mouse over the font links such as 'shop new season'. To editorial images aren't interactive when you click on them.

 

Company Profile

• It ships to over 160 countries
• Launched websites in Europe, UK and US
• This retailer offers catwalk looks and celebrity inspired fashion
• It is endorsed by former Pussycat Doll and X Factor judge Nicole Scherzinger
• More than 2.7m customers have registered their details with the Salford-headquartered company since it was founded by Nitin Passi, 32, five years ago.
• Missguided has attributed annual sales of £51m partly to its ability to list 200 new products a week.     

 3yr sale growth- 191.17% pa 

2014 sales - £51.0m pa 2011 sales - £2.1m pa 2014 staff - 443 Founded - 2009 Location of HQ - Manchester

 

 

 

 

Missguided Proposal

Research and development:

Proposal

After conducting a research file for my chosen brand Missguided, I will design a website that suits the young, fashionable, and creative readers that the brand targets. My editorial concept will be relevant to the industry as I will direct and style an editorial story that I feel is appropriate for the target audience of Missguided. My concept will also be relevant now, as I will highlight the brands ethos of delivering innovative, edgy, fashion forward style.

Layout design:

After analysing the Missguided website layout, I’m aware of what is included, and why it’s important to have a landing page for the brand. On the landing page I will feature an editorial story that will link to a separate page showing the full fashion lookbook. This will spread down the page and include additional graphics to the images. I intend to design my layout in the same style as the Missguided landing/editorial pages that I analysed on my blog. I plan to do a landscape banner image for my editorial story with a link and font related to the fashion feature. This will be my main image, so it must be appealing and most inviting to the costumer of Missguided.

Landing page- My banner image, with a link to view fashion story. The title will relate to the theme of the feature

Feature page-

I will display 5-6 more images on the feature page, with witty quotes and captions that relate to the editorial images. I will also add graphics, such as borders around some images to add character. 

I intend to create a selection of close up, full and mid length images that highlight the same theme throughout. Using a similar colour scheme in all images to make the feature link together like a collection. I want to use soft subtle pastel colours and nudes to make the editorial look feminine and appealing to the costumers of Missguided.

Costumers:

From researching into the brands reader profile and age of costumers, I aim to target my project concept towards a young clientele between the ages of 18 – 25. My target market are young, fashion-conscious, trendy and feminine women. Who like to be on trend, girly, edgy, and slightly daring with their fashion choices. They are creative individuals, who are students of a fashion course or fashion career, with a low to mid budget on clothing per month. Sociable and confident outgoing people who attend parties and events weekly, and therefore in high demand for new on trend dresses to wear.

Trend:

I plan to base my fashion feature on a Spring/Summer 2016 trend. From my trend research I have chosen to style editorial images on the ‘Slip dressing’ trend. This trend consists of lingerie and boudoir inspired dresses with silk, satin, sheer fabrics, lace and a feminine quality. I wish to present this trend using soft nudes and pastel colours to give a glamorous and demure feeling to the fashion feature. I believe that this trend is relevant and will suit the Missguided brand, as well as appeal to my target audience. My editorial story will present this trend as an eveningwear collection which is appropriate for the sociable lifestyle of the costumers. 

 

Styling, Make-up and Hair Direction:

Moodboard of overall styling, make-up and hair ideas for my fashion feature promoting my chosen trend.

The textures I intend to use in my styling will be silk, satin, lace, feathers, and a mix of soft cashmere and cotton. My styling characteristics will be kept quite elegant and delicate but to make it more interesting I plan to pair lace camisole tops under evening blazers and jackets to make the clothing look more appropriate as evening wear. I also want to use some tailoring to make the trend look smarter and easier to wear for my target audience. Colours will be kept subtle and soft, for the femininity to show through. For make-up and hair design I plan to create an evening look, using the latest beauty trends for Spring/Summer 2016 to make my feature look current and on trend. Face charts below are created by Mac make-up artists, which inspired me to use blue tones for a smokey eye and nude pinks for lips to create a girly, flirty look on my model. The hair will be styled with a soft wave to look youthful and understated.

 

Models:

The models used for Missguided are in their early 20s and tend to be of 5’5” – 6”, slim with athletic body shapes. Glamorous make-up and wavy hair is the signature look of a Missguided model. So I wish to cast a model that match the brands existing look. Below is the style of model I want to use in my shoot.

Blonde hair, fair-lightly tanned skin will work well with the girly feminine looks I want to portray

Poses:

For my banner image on the landing page I want my model to pose horizontally for a landscape shot. Below is some example poses for the banner image and the portrait images on the feature page. For props I may use a retro telephone for my model to pose with and create a story with my chosen trend.

  

Location:

For location I plan to shoot in the studio with a team. Using pastel colour backgrounds, keeping within the photographic style of Missguided past and present editorial images. Below is a Missguided fashion feature that I want to use as inspiration.
 

 

Influences:
I’m inspired by the photographic style of Jessie Lily Adams, who does fashion editorials and magazine covers for Lula magazine.  I’m inspired by the compositions and graphics she uses and feel it would be appropriate for Missguided website.  
 

 

Gif Proposal:

 

Below is an inspiration moodboard of gifs and still life images that I want to use as references for my own gif shoot. I plan to create an animated gif based on shoes, preferably high heels which I believe would work well on the Missguided website and appeal to the brands costumer. I want to create a gif where the shoes will be either dancing, walking or kicking. Using geometric patterns on the background to give the gif an eye catching abstract look. The colours I intend to use will be pastel tones, to blend in with the brands feminine aesthetic.

 

Production Analysis:

For the production of the overall project, I plan to collaborate with a photographer and make-up artist student. My strengths that will help the production of this project is the fact I am able to organise a plan for the day of shoot and gather props and garments for my model. However my weaknesses is the hair and make-up, which is the reason I plan to collaborate with other students. The potential problems that occur is that the make-up artist will not turn up, but to resolve that problem I will make sure I bring my own make-up kit and referencing images.

Production Scheme:

 

 

Budget:

(An estimate idea of what I think this shoot would cost Missguided in the Industry)

Using a low budget: £2000

Clothing, and accessories: £500

Props: £150 (some homemade)

Small studio for the day: £150

Photography equipment: £ 200

Model for the day: £150

Make-up and hair artist for the day: £150

Photographer for the day: £200

Assistant fees: £80

Gif products and props: £200

Left over/back up: £220