With a staggering 35% of the total French population using Facebook representing 23.4 Million users (1), of which 72% using on their mobile phones or tablets (2), and with at least half of them daily (3), it is no brainer to understand the increasingly important role of social media in the daily life of French consumers. It is foreseeable that French consumers are influenced by, and can influence other consumers, on their fashion purchase decisions. Using published sources of information; this paper aims to highlight the four main trends of social media that have an impact on fashion marketing in France.

The first trend is about instant messaging from consumers to consumers. It is how consumers frequently and easily talk one to another about brands, products, opinions, likes and dislikes, etc. hence influencing any potential purchase decision of self or others. The second trend is about interactions between consumers and brands via social media such as Facebook or Twitter. Brands can communicate directly to consumers and consumers directly to brands, hence it is very time efficient for brands to know what consumers think, like or dislike about their products or marketing communications. For consumers, it is also satisfying to be able to voice one’s opinion and may contribute to the future success, or failure, of new products. The third trend is about brands collaborating with online communities to co-create new products. In this instant, brands will let online consumers express their desires, for example through mood boards, and then create a few samples of new products based on those desires. Online consumers can then vote for their preferred ones that will later be produced and sold online to the consumers. Such example can be found from a partnership between “La Boutonniere” website (which collects information from online communities) and “Anne Studio” (a woman fashion brand) (4). This technique can ensure a higher successful rate of new product launches. The fourth trend is about disguised advertising campaigns on social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter or YouTube. These platforms are offering to conceive and design online marketing communication campaigns for brands that fit with their target consumers’ environments on those same platforms. The aim is to communicate to the right audience without being intrusive and to blend in. These campaigns often mention the words “sponsored by…” to reveal their sources. In summary, these four social media trends illustrate the increasing important of social media in brand communications and brand building, not only from brand-to-consumer-to-brand, but also from consumer-to-consumer-to-consumer.

• Michel Phan(EMLYON Business School)