An Approach Towards Teenage Fashionwear Market

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Teenage Fashionwear Market Assessment Report ( http://www.bharatbook.com/Market-Research-Reports/Teenage-Fashionwear-Market-Assessment.html ) provides information of Teenage Fashionwere Market.

The market for youth fashion, which is analysed in this report, is estimated to be worth £9.93bn at retail selling prices (rsp) at the end of 2008, an overall growth of 14.9% since 2004. Defines this market as clothing, footwear and accessories for male and female consumers between the ages of 13 and 24. This is quite a long age span, but takes the view that the so-called `teenage' years have somewhat expanded, particularly at the lower end of the spectrum, since this report was last written in 2000 (when the market was defined as those aged 15 to 24).

Interest in fashion begins at a young age — and, as this report makes clear, boundaries are blurred between what is actually manufactured for teenagers, and similar fashions that are produced for so-called `tweenagers', i.e. younger consumers. At the older end of the spectrum, as well, it is perhaps difficult to ascertain a true demarcation between youth fashion ...
... and that targeted at older generations.

However, youth fashion does have its own identity, in the sense that it springs from the tastes and concerns of a highly ommunications-orientated generational group. Peer identity is strong, and the promulgation of cultural ideas and influences through the media and technology in the 21st century means that no teenager is left isolated in terms of understanding what his or her age group thinks and how it defines itself — and, most importantly, what it is necessary to buy in order to feel connected with other teenagers. Influences from music, sport and politics, to some extent, all feed into the designs and styles that clothing brands promote to young buyers, particularly young male consumers. Icons from the music and fashion worlds, as well as the celebrity circles, are highly influential as fashion role models, to young women in particular. Young people now have their own social network sites online, and a large majority regularly log on to these in order to connect with and chat to other users. The sense of a shared youth community is powerfully conveyed via sites such as Bebo and MySpace.

Young consumers who are still living at home often have quite high levels of personal disposable income to use to express themselves through their choice of consumer goods — not least through fashion. Thus, there is a thriving target consumer base here of highly impressionable and demanding young men and women.

Although the youth market for clothing remains a separate fashion segment in the sense of defining taste and responding to challenging fashion trends, it also sets the pace of change for older sectors, and affects designs in product ranges in the mainstream market. As already stated, the blurring between youth and adult fashion is often the result, but the youth market adds excitement to the whole clothing market.

Young women, in particular, are also benefiting from the growth in discount retailing. Retailers such as Primark and New Look operate on a fast turnover of cheap clothing, affording young women the opportunity to change their wardrobes with much greater frequency. This enables them to think about fashion much more in terms of self-expression than previous generations may have been able to. The accessories market, for instance, is extremely strong at the current time (November 2008). The idea of dressing up basic clothing with items such as belts, scarves and jewellery is particularly appealing to young people as a form of self-expression.

As with the clothing market in general, however, the teenage clothing market (especially the female sector) has been very susceptible to falling prices. Value growth has not been strong — and, in 2007/2008 in particular, some retailers have not shown their typical strong sales. Examples of this are Next (which is popular with young buyers but has experienced a slower rate of growth than previously) and French Connection. Other retailers, such as the Arcadia Group of fashion chains (Miss Selfridge, Topshop and Topman), continue to succeed in driving demand for challenging and trendy ideas in fashion and have been rewarded with relatively healthy growth rates considering the current economic slowdown.

The challenge for both retailers and brands is to align themselves with the emotional aspirations of young men and women. Many brands make this the cornerstone of their marketing and designs. Perhaps the most salient example of this is Diesel, which pioneers unusual marketing and sponsorship investment in the art and music world. Many brands also seek to make connections between technology and fashion. Some attempt to extend their product ranges into areas such as mobile telephones, or else to use mobile technology — particularly third-generation (3G) technology — as a channel for marketing and trend discussion. Others follow the trend set by the network providers such as Virgin and Orange, in sponsoring music events and thus aligning themselves even more closely with the fashion style of icons in the music world.

If the fashion industry is to continue growing, these strategies are likely to become even more sophisticated and cross-media. Advertising beyond traditional print and television media is likely to expand further — with increased and more effective use of the Internet, in particular, in order to tap into youth concerns and to affect choices.

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