After 70 years of doing business, H&M is hardly a newcomer to the fashion market. Nevertheless, they have managed to establish themselves as a spearhead of the industry. H&M is not only an anchor provider of new trends at a low price, so-called fast fashion; the fashion label from Sweden also aims at being a pioneer in sustainable, fair clothing. For us, this is reason enough to have a closer look at H&M’s current marketing strategy.
Despite decades of rampant competition, H&M has managed to keep its fashion brand relevant and popular. Good quality for low prices – a creed that has made the Swedish textile behemoth a symbol for ‘fast fashion’. To make sure to meet new trends among their target group head-on, H&M goes for cutting edge marketing.
Kings of online content
Many fashion labels try to speak to their customers through online magazines and videos. At H&M’s online magazine Life, however, content truly is king, providing articles that constantly keep the varied interests of the customers in mind. Next to in-house content allowing a peek into H&M’s internal processes, designers or even competitors are the focus of their content strategy. It is customer interests first, which casts a sympathetic light on the brand, and appeals also to potential customers that H&M has not won over yet. Our learning: Keeping your focus strictly on the customer is marketing gold.
Sustainability and social responsibility
According to H&M’s strategy, fast fashion and sustainability can, at least partly, co-exist. The company has picked up on the growing demand of their target group for fair, sustainably sourced fashion and tries to adjust the brand accordingly.
Promotions such as taking back clothing for recycling, raising the the amount of recycled materials to 20% or campaigning for better working conditions at those infamous sweat shops in textile producing countries – H&M invests heavily into signalling its sense of responsibility. While this seems to contradict their actual business model of fast turning fashion, even critics do admit that, when it comes to the budding trend of sustainability, H&M is at the forefront of the whole industry. Our learning: Long-term, forward-thinking tweaking of a brand pays off.
Cooperating with influencers
For many years, H&M has collaborated with designers such as Karl Lagerfeld, offering their limited collections at an affordable price. These collaborations extend to their online strategy, where they team up with influential fashion journalists and bloggers to get their message closer to their target group. In return, they offer a bigger audience to the bloggers and journalists. Our learning: Collaborating with multipliers close to the industry is a win-win strategy.
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