Fashion Marketing: Contemporary Issues, Second edition - Pr School

110 Fashion Marketing
territory a little better. As profits came under pressure and the accountants
and consultants moved in, it was not surprising that not only many Retail
Marketing Directors, but entire departments moved out.
These trends have been well recognized by the marketing profession itself
(ironically, whose leading individual practitioners were, in the summer of
1998, awarded ‘chartered’ status). In 1997, the Marketing Society surveyed
its members, and under the title ‘The Profession Keeping its Grip’, published a
review of members’ opinions, from which some of the preceding thoughts
have been drawn (Marketing Society, 1997). It concluded with an impassioned
plea for ‘where marketing should be’ essentially a filter or interface between
key organizational functions and the customer (Figure 6.1). What this role
should involve or how it should be executed was not made clear. Can we justify
this view in the context of the retail sector?
Where marketing was
Production
Personnel
Marketing
Finance
Where marketing is
Production
Personnel
Customer
Finance
Marketing
Where marketing
should be
Production
marketing
Customer
Personnel
Finance
Figure 6.1 Marketing – as seen by the Marketing Society (1997).
The new consumer
The existence of a mass market of homogeneous consumers was always something
of a myth. However, in the early years of the ‘consumer society’, people
were more than willing to trade off their individual preferences and personal
service for a share of the cheap, high quality products coming on to the market.
They needed to be informed about the products, have their features
explained and be reassured about their appropriateness for their needs. No
more. Except in a few specialist sectors, today’s consumer is very different. The
pace of social change is faster than it has ever been. UK society today is characterized
by: a stagnant, ageing but healthier population; more but smaller families;
more women working, but often part time; couples marrying later, and