Impact of learning process in fashion students: link with industry, social media and websites

The Portuguese fashion industry (textile, apparel and footwear) shows an excellent economic performance in the last years. With own brands, own collections and own products, the quality, the innovation and international image of the Portuguese clothes, accessories and shoes is increasing year by year. University of Minho has the Bachelor in Fashion Design and Marketing (BFDM). The young students came from different schools and places, with different backgrounds and links with fashion issues. The fashion industry needs good professionals to design and marketing functions, but these skills have to be worked in the university. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media are opportunities that the companies want to grab to promote and sell their products to the new global consumer. The Bachelor in Fashion Design and Marketing applies time and resources to increase the use and knowledge in these new tools. But remains an important question: does it works? To answer this question was designed this investigation. It is a qualitative research and the methods were "focus group" and longitudinal analysis. During January and February a focus group with ten young students from BFDM first year participated in two sessions. After an individual analysis of three different fashion brands (with presence in websites, facebook and Instagram), according a matrix designed to the investigation, the researchers made a discussion with the group. The results are very interesting and they will be used to evaluate the changes in the skills of the future fashion designers, before and after the bachelor degree in Fashion Design and Marketing. But they are preliminary results. In the future, we are planning to compare the results with students in BFDM and other bachelor degrees (without any link with fashion issues or interests). The fashion industry is ready to get inside this new, global and social world. The skills of the new professionals need to be prepared to reply these new demands.This work is financed by FEDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Program me - COMPETE and by national funds through FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-00713

Social networking as tool for global communication for fashion brands

The emergence of new information technologies, development and exploration of the digital platforms and social networks in recent decades, have caused major changes in lives of individuals, as well as in the business sphere, opening up new opportunities and challenges, and changing consumption behaviours on a global scale. This paper presents a research of customer participation to the footwear brands community network, depending on the brands involvement level, since footwear sector places its importance to the Portuguese economy, through significant and stable growth within this recent decade. With the increasing use of digital platforms, such as social networks and website, as communication channels used in marketing strategies for fashion brands, it became necessary to empirically analyse the impact of these digital platforms to the brands. The major findings of this longitudinal research showed that brands, that are new to market, have a better performance in social media, with rapid growth of its communities and already surpassing the established companies.EDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Programme - COMPETE and by national funds through FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-00713

Importance of digital brand presence in the Portuguese footwear companies with different types of market retails

Este artigo apresenta e analisa a importância da presença digital nas empresas portuguesas de calçado. Notou-se que as marcas portuguesas de calçado têm desempenhos distintos quando se trata dos seus interfaces de utilizador do site e da comunicação com os seus clientes através das várias plataformas digitais, o que causou a necessidade de investigar as causas dessas diferenças. O objectivo foi identificar as causas e a necessidade de adaptação das estratégias de marketing digital de marcas com diferentes mercados e modelos de negócio. Para realizar a investigação foi utilizada uma abordagem de estudo qualitativo. Múltiplos estudos de caso foram conduzidos nas empresas de calçado para recolher informações detalhadas. O estudo demostrou que as marcas emergentes, de nicho de mercado, têm uma necessidade maior, uma adaptação mais fácil e um melhor desempenho em plataformas digitais do que as empresas estabelecidas com mercado de massas.This article presents and analyzes the importance of digital presence in the Portuguese footwear companies. It was noticed that Portuguese footwear brands have diverse performances when it comes to its websites user interface and communication with their customers through various digital platforms, causing the need to investigate the causes. The objective was to identify these causes and the need for adoption of brands digital marketing strategies with different business models and market retails. To address this investigation a qualitative study approach was used. Multiple case studies were conducted within footwear companies to collect detailed information. The study showed that emerging, niche market companies have a greater need, easier adoption and better performance in digital platforms than well-established companies

Learning process in fashion design students: link with industry and social media

Portugal is today an important player in the European fashion industry. The Portuguese footwear industry, “low-tech”, mature and traditional, dominated by SMEs, is also a success case in the Portuguese economy. With own brands, own collections and own products, the quality, innovation and international image of the Portuguese clothes, accessories and shoes is increasing year by year in the most sophisticated markets worldwide. The new information economy and social media presents a new set of opportunities and threats to established companies, new challenges and new markets, and demanding to all the companies to rethink their strategy and to prepare new business plans. Portuguese companies in the fashion industry are starting to perceive that the brand’s transition to social media means a transformation of the customer relationship, wherein social media and the community members is an ally of the brand and not an “audience”. Also the universities are preparing new professionals to the fashion industry and the learning process has to be managed according these new challenges. And the University of Minho has the Bachelor in Fashion Design and Marketing, an excellent course to prepare new skills to these fashion companies: textile, clothing and footwear industries.FCT -Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia(POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007136)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Own brands and private label in the portuguese fashion industry

There are many similarities between the footwear industry and the textile/apparel industries (ITV) in Portugal. Both industries are traditional, “low-tech” and with an important performance in the Portuguese economy. They export more than other Portuguese labour intensive industries and contribute to a very positive trade balance. The Portuguese footwear industry shows an excellent performance in several indicators in the last five years. In two decades, the footwear companies in Portugal made a strategic change in the business model and they started do develop own products and own brands. This performance wasn’t achieved yet by the textile and clothing industry in Portugal. Innovation and cooperation are very important factors in these achievements by the footwear sector and the evolution from private label to own brand has also importance to these results.This work is financed by FEDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Programme - COMPETE and by national funds through FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-00713

A inovação, as marcas próprias e o private label no setor do calçado em Portugal

O sector do calçado português apresenta excelentes indicadores económicos e um desempenho competitivo assinalável. Os últimos quatro anos foram particularmente fortes, tendo Portugal atingido o 11º lugar entre os 15 maiores exportadores mundiais, com o segundo preço mais elevado por par de sapato vendido, superado apenas pela Itália. O artigo analisa o tipo de inovação realizada pelas empresas consideradas inovadoras dentro do sector do calçado em Portugal, de acordo com o manual de Oslo, e analisa a evolução que as empresas fizeram ao passarem de um regime dominado pelo private label para o desenvolvimento de produtos, de coleções e de marcas próprias. A pesquisa foi de natureza qualitativa, envolvendo sete empresas com inovação, sendo realizado estudos de caso através de entrevistas semi-estruturadas, análise de documentos e visitas às empresas e aos seus processos produtivos e de criação. Os resultados obtidos na investigação evidenciam uma relação entre os indicadores económicos e de desempenho e a existência de determinadas categorias de inovação. Evidencia ainda a relação existente entre o regime de produção e os indicadores económicos das empresas.The Portuguese footwear industry shows excellent economic indicators and a remarkable competitive performance. The last four years were fantastic and Portugal reached the 11th position among the top 15 world exporters, with the second highest price per pair of shoe produced (just behind Italy). This paper analyses the type of innovation followed by the innovative Portuguese footwear companies, according Oslo Manual, and analyses the processes adopted by the companies when they upgrade the production regime from private label to own products, own collections and own brands. The research was qualitative and the methodology was case studies. Seven innovative companies built the sample, and the researcher made interviews, read internal documents and visited the production lines and design departments. Research results show relationships between economic and competitive performance, type of innovation (according Oslo Manual) and the production regime: private label versus own brand and own products

Innovation in the portuguese footwear industry

Proceedings da AUTEX 2015, Bucareste, Roménia.The Portuguese footwear industry had in the last five years a remarkable performance in several economic indicators (e.g. exportation values) and is a success case in the Portuguese industry. The economic results of the footwear companies studied by the authors shows differences between all of them and these differences are related with the innovation strategy adopted. The companies focused in product innovation, oriented to their target market, have higher ratios “turnover per worker” than the companies focused in process innovation. A systemic model of innovation is proposed for the innovation in the seven companies analysed. The research methodology was qualitative and the strategy for data collection was the case study

“Learning-by-producing” in the fashion value chain

Proceedings da AUTEX 2015, Bucareste, Roménia.The know-how and experience (“learning-by-doing and learning-by-producing”) is critical in the traditional industries. The Portuguese fashion industry has many SMEs with a long experience working in private label regime to other European companies. The process followed by Procalçado shows the importance of the “CEO vision” and “corporate strategy” to acquire new equipment and technology, qualifying the workers to develop new products based in these new investments, and prepare the resources to launch the concept and the brands to the right market. Procalçado owns the brands For Ever, WOCK and Lemmon Jelly. The methodology followed is qualitative using the single case study

Open innovation in the fashion industry: portuguese footwear industry

ISSN-L 2285-5378The Portuguese footwear industry had in the last five years a remarkable performance in the exportation values, trade balance, quality and product design, and international image. The forecasts for 2016 are very positive, with a higher exportation growth than other Portuguese industries during this period [1]. After a long period of difficulties and with a strong reduction of companies and employees since 1994, nowadays the Portuguese footwear industry is a success case in the Portuguese industry. There are several innovative companies in this traditional and mature sector in Portugal, some of them leaders and important players in the international/global context. This paper analyses the innovation category followed by the companies, according Oslo Manual classification, developed by seven innovative companies (two are leaders in the Portuguese footwear industry) and shows the linkage that the partners have in the innovation processes, where open innovation is clearly identified as critical for these excellent performance achieved.This work is financed by FEDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Programme - COMPETE and by national funds through FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-00713

How innovation creates value in the Portuguese fashion value chain

The Portuguese footwear industry had in the last five years a remarkable performance in the exportation values, the trade balance and others economic indicators. After a long period of difficulties and with a strong reduction of companies and employees since 1994 until 2009, the Portuguese footwear industry changed the strategy and is now a success case between the international players of footwear. The 2015 exportation values confirm this situation.These results are linked with the strategy in innovation followed and with the type of innovation adopted by the footwear companies. The research methodology was qualitative and the strategy for data collection was the case study.The model “Ace of Diamonds” proposed by the authors explains the way how this performance was reached by the seven companies that participate in the study and if this model can be used in others traditional and low-tech industries as they are the fashion industries (apparel and textile).FEDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Programme-COMPETE and by national funds through FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-00713