Analysis of Fast Fashion Brand Marketing Strategy in China Based on The STEPPS: Taking Brandy Melville as an example

Abstract

Despite an overall downtrend in the expansion of the fast fashion industry, Brandy Melville (BM), an Italian clothing brand that attracted most of its popularity in California, opened its first offline location in 2019 in Shanghai, China. With its revolutionary and novel marketing strategies like social media-only or one-size-fits-all, the brand and its clothing style immediately went viral, sweeping social media channels, winning the favor of young women, and bringing pronounced attention across the country. How did BM succeed in China? This study is an exploratory research that aims to use three key components of the STEPPS framework to explain this question. It points out the positive and negative effects of BM’s strategies and potential problems that BM could face, providing a chance for BM and similar brands to use STEPPS to reflect and better their existing marketing strategies. Using Social Currency, BM found its inner remarkability and created exclusivity through its one-size-fits-all product, generated scarcity through a limitation of offline stores and the number of clothes supplied, and applied game mechanics through discriminatory hiring practices. These practices were also implemented by applying strategies of highly arousal emotions like excitement, anger, and anxiety to boost the brand’s word of mouth. By narrowing the target market, BM established and emphasized a unique style for their clothes, making their brand publicly visible. Though the current policies are the reasons for BM’s success, in a world with a growing emphasis on diversity, these strategies might eventually backfire, risking the brand’s reputation.