The document provides an overview of research conducted on fashion styling for millennial males. It discusses the challenges males face in seeking style advice due to stigma. Research methods included surveys, interviews with industry professionals and millennial males, and focus groups. Key findings were that while interest in fashion is rising among males, the industry remains heavily female-oriented. The summary proposes using digital platforms to provide discreet, masculine-focused style advice for millennial males.

2. PRIORITISING THE
MILLENNIAL MALE’S
GROWING INTEREST IN
FASHION
EMILY BARON
FASH30002
BA (Hons) Fashion Communication and
Promotion
Negotiated Project Stage 2
WORD COUNT : 5,436 WORDS
EXCLUDING ‘IN CONVERSATION WITH’ INTERVIEW

3. Introduction
Methodology
Primary Research
Secondary Research
The Challenge
Why now?
Rise of the Metrosexual
Survival of the fittest, literally
It’s a woman’s world
The death of the clone
Menswear Market
Digital Market
Boys and their toys
The Consumer
Consumer Research
The Big Marketing Idea
The Making of RAW
Route to Consumer
Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendix

4. 6 7
I N T R O D U C T I O N
With the experience of being the
‘go-to girls’ for fashion advice
amongst friends and family, myself
alongside my teammate decided
upon the area of fashion styling
for our implementation brief. After
concluding the fashion industry
already boasts a vast amount of
platforms offering style advice,
we felt there was one consumer
in particular that was yet to be
targeted appropriately: the male
student/graduate. Females tend
to dominate conversation about
style and body image however
experts predict men are quickly
catching up. Heather Hausenblas,
a Florida psychologist explains,
“From a historical perspective
people have focused more on
female body image because
women are perceived to have
more body image issues. But
that’s not necessarily the case”
(Dahl, 2014). As a consequence
males have been left in the
dark, dealing with their issues
themselves resulting in the
creation of a feminine stigma
in regards to ‘opening up’ and
asking for advice. This report will
use research to understand our
consumers’ behaviour, interests
and needs and determine the
most effective and appropriate
implementation strategy in order
to provide them with fashion and
style advice.

5. 8 9
M E T H O D O L O G Y
We’re sure all women would agree that understanding
the male brain can be one life’s most confusing
challenges. In order to understand our consumer most
effectively, we had to emerge ourselves within their
culture. Converse, spectate and act like them.
Email to brands
See Appendix 2
Gaining insight from professionals
within the menswear industry
was vital in adding credibility to
our idea. We contacted Valet,
a successful online magazine
website for men, to find more
information around the male who
looks online for his fashion needs.
The detailed response they gave
really helped to further shape our
knowledge of our demographic.
Contacting Valet via email was
the most practical method. With
the company being located in
America, a phone interview would
have complicated the process
due to conflicting time zones.
Online Survey
See appendix 1
We created an initial questionnaire
via survey monkey to discover if
our idea had the potential to grow.
The questions were kept to a
minimum intentionally to avoid the
likelihood of our participant losing
concentration and not completing
the survey.
Promoting the questionnaire
through social media platforms,
Facebook and Twitter, proved
to be successful in gaining the
attention of our millennial male,
as sixty-three responded in a
short period of time.
The results confirmed our intuition
of males feeling secondary in the
fashion industry and wanting a
more ‘convenient’ way of sourcing
fashion information. Despite being
brief in content, this survey gave
us the confidence we needed to
move forward and develop our
concept.
Emails to millennial male
See appendix 3
We sought qualitative research to
add depth to our understandings.
We contacted the respondents
through Facebook’s messaging
tool. This allowed us access to
a wide range of respondents
and was direct in communicating
with our target demographic, the
millennial male who are highly
active on social media.
PRIMARY
RESEARCH

6. 10 11
Interview with a menswear
personal tailor
With: James O’sullivan
See appendix 6
Visiting the Reiss store in
Nottingham, we initially entered
the store to observe male
consumers however we were
presented with the opportunity to
interview a member of staff. While
the interview was unprepared
for, we already had the aim of
discovering how males interact
in-store so the questions did have
structure.
The interview was conducted
in-store during a quiet period.
The environment may have
distracted our interviewee, James
O’Sullivan and the interview
ended abruptly when a customer
needed assistance.
Ethnographic study
With: Matt Fox and Diego
Baynes
See appendix 7
With the aim of finding how far
external factors could influence
our consumer and whether they
wanted style help, we initiated
two shopping trips and watched
their reactions when we made
passing comments about our
fashion preferences for boys.
We succeeded in being covert
with our research and the findings
have good reliability as both
participants acted similar on the
different occasions.
As with all observational research,
the validity of the findings have to
be considered as we interpreted
the study ourselves.
Focus Group
See appendix 5
Once we had created a viable
concept and marketing strategy,
we needed to test our idea with our
target consumer. The results from
our focus group were essential
to our brand development as we
used the logo name they chose
along with other important factors.
It generated a quick response,
perfect for our project time frame.
We wanted it to be informal to
encourage the participants to
freely express their thoughts,
enhancing the validity of the
research. We recorded the
participants to ensure we always
had access to the discussion.
SECONDARY
RESEARCH
Books
Themajorityofbookswereadover
the course of this project provided
us with contextual knowledge
of the male demographic and
their changing attitudes towards
fashion.
Online
As we chose to research the
menswear market, arguably a
division that is still in infancy
and the mobile market, which is
growing and adapting on a daily
basis, using the internet to source
current information ensured our
research was never dated and
formed our perceptions of what
the markets will look like in the
future.
We really valued the information
that mashable.com and WGSN.
com provided us with around
brands using social media
effectively.

7. 13
c h a l l e n g e
Men like to be right. It could be an
unidentified gene that they are born with
or date back to their upbringing in which
they are taught to take on the master role.
It is a quirk of our prehistoric past; only
the best is good enough. Either or, when
challenging a male it could escalate very
quickly ending in the tiresome phrase “I
don’t think I’m right, I am”.
The same goes in conversation about
fashion. Through primary research we
were able to conclude that the majority
of the male student/graduate cohort
generally feel emasculated asking for
style advice (see Appendix 3). They are
then left to decide what they deem to
look stylish whether they are confident
to do so or not. This research led us to
question: do men even want advice?
Pride aside men DO want help. The
TODAY/AOLBody Image survey released
this year revealed that men worry about
their appearance more than they worry
about their health, their family, their
relationships and professional success
(Dahl, 2014). In a survey we conducted,
all of our interviewees admitted that they
feel that there is a lack of advice within
our female dominated industry with one
consumer stating that he feels that if
there was a “discreet way” for men get
advice it would be “really successful”
(Kingsland, 2014).
“most men care about
how they look but they
don’t want others
(mainly other guys)
knowing how much”
Interaction with this consumer has proven
that there is a demand to make it more
accessible for the fashion-conscious
male to seek guidance and inspiration.
We aim to achieve this through an online
environment offering fashion advice with
the concern in mind of keeping it ‘cool’,
masculine and something they would feel
confident to use amongst their friends.
T H e

8. 14 15
W H Y N O W ?
Definition of METROSEXUAL
:a usually urban heterosexual male given
to enhancing his personal appearance by
fastidious grooming, beauty treatments,
and fashionable clothes
In the decades following the French
Revolution, fashion theorists observed
that men would dress in the same, dark
uniforms as a way to assure they would
not attract attention as opposed to the
women who would dress in varied,
elaborate garments portraying objects
of beauty. Cole (2000) stated how this
made a men’s interest in fashion a
primary method of identification for gay
men (see Cova, Kozinets and Shankar
2007, p. 78).
However in more recent years, a
renegotiation of what masculinity is
through mass media representations
has made it more acceptable for males
to show fashion as a priority. In 2002,
journalist Mark Simpson introduced
the ‘metrosexual’ referring to a specific
male consumer living in or around
metropolitan areas that spend a
significant amount of time and money on
their appearance (see Cova, Kozinets
and Shankar 2007, p. 79).
Celebrities such as David Beckham
and Brad Pitt are seen to be the
quintessential metrosexuals and as
role models have impacted on how the
younger generations act and speak
about fashion. Terry Betts, Buying
Manager at the online menswear
store Mr Porter reports to of detected
a “really strong fashion guy” consumer
emerging (Chilvers, 2012). The rise of
the increasingly fashion-literate male
validates the reasoning behind our idea.

9. 16 17
why now? It’s no secret that the millennial male
likes to impress. Whether it is a new
suit, new gadget or a new girl, there is a
constant competition of ‘who had it first’,
a typically masculine trait.
The increased competition within the
work industry saw an increased level of
personal appearance. In recent years
psychologists have begun to focus on
physical appearance as a potentially
biasing factor in personnel decision-
making. In several studies those who
are attractive have been shown to be
at an advantage when qualifications are
assessed and when hiring decisions are
made (Dipboye, Arvey and Terpstra,
1977; Dipboye, Fromkin and Wiback,
1975). This idea that attractiveness
had a strong perception of intelligent
competence resulted in a greater rise of
the metrosexual male.
This year HSBC Bank coined the term
‘Yummies’, meaning Young Urban
Males, as a new consumer group. These
males have aided the popularity of the
formal menswear market, as these
young shoppers are opting for a more
tailored look. Chris Scott-Gray, head of
marketing and sales at Chester Barrie,
agreed when stating “We now have a
generation which knows that wearing
a well-cut suit can make an impression
and they are prepared to invest in that”
(Geoghegan and Johnstone, 2014).
With our student consumer edging closer
to their career debut, they too will want
to impress future employers, spending
more on their style and appearance.
The future for the student cohort could
mean swapping their cars for the latest
man-bag and a pair of tweezers. After
all, nothing screams ‘HIRE ME’ like a
freshly plucked set of brows.
Men’s magazine
Eqsuire Style Rule No.
164 clearly states:
Nothing starts the week
better than a good
shoe shine. Except a
promotion.
S U R V I V A L
O F
T H E
F I T T E S T
( L I T E R A L L Y )

10. 18 19
i t ’ s a
w o m a n s
w o r l d
Despite our male consumers increasing
interest in fashion, the industry is
still heavily female orientated. The
abundance of information accessible to
women is incomparable to that available
for men. Through primary research
talking to our student consumer, they
all agreed the industry was focused
on females with one consumer stating
how the high street is dominated with
women’s stores causing them resort to
the Internet to buy their clothes (see
Appendix 3).
Regardless to this, men’s spend on
clothing is actually expected to be a
long-term trend, with analyst Verdict
Retail predicting the total market value
will rise 25.7% by 2019, compared to
23.7% for womenswear (Geoghegan
and Johnstone, 2014). This statistic
demonstrates that they are spending
more money than the opposite sex on
shopping, proving that there is a strong
fashion-conscious consumer therefore
supporting our proposed idea.

11. 20 21
T H E D E A T H O F
T H E C L O N E
In the past, looking good was perceived as
being vain however popular culture has shaped
the perception how males portray themselves.
Celebrity role models have impacted on our student
consumer, with thanks to reality television shows
such as Geordie Shore and The Only Way is Essex.
From our own intuition and being members of
the millennial cohort, we’ve seen males our age
imitating roles models such as Joey Essex or the
Geordie Shore boys, wearing jeans tighter than
most girls we know with show-stopping smiles that
rival Simon Cowells’. From our perspective, stealing
celeb style seems to way the most popular way that
this cohort gets inspiration and there are only so
many ‘budgie-smugglers’ us girls can put up with.
“THERE NEEDS TO BE
MORE ADVICE OUT THERE
FOR US. EVERYBODY
JUST LOOKS THE SAME”

12. 22 23
w e ‘ r e
h e r e
t o
h e l p

13. 24 25
menswear market
m e n s w e a r m a r k
e
t
men. Last summer, for example, the British
Fashion Council (BFC) launched its first
menswear-only event as an accompaniment
to the female-focused London Fashion
Week (Bacon, 2013).
Despite the growing market and the
consumer awareness, there is still
opportunity to offer men advice on upcoming
trends and brands as our consumer have
expressed how they buy from the same
stores again and again just because they do
not have the knowledge of what is out there
(see Appendix 3).
By doing primary research on the platforms
already offering style advice for men we
were able to determine that the student/
graduate consumer was yet to be targeted
(see page 61). Mr Porter, Esquire and GQ
are all platforms that are solely aimed at the
male consumer however they are hitting the
older gentlemen with a larger disposable
income whereas there is very little targeting
the younger demographic.
The UK menswear market has grown by 12
per cent in the past five years and is worth
£10.4bn, according to the study by Mintel.
Tamara Sender, senior clothing analyst at
Mintel, says that although men are under-
serviced with fashion options compared to
women, numerous brands have identified
“considerable growth potential” in the men’s
sector. This includes brands such as H&M,
who launched a campaign in 2013 involving
David Beckham, one of our consumer’s most
prominent role models. Tamara explains
how due to their being more focus on
women within the industry, male sections in
shops seem to be pushed in the background
in a secondary space however she believes
that “men’s fashion seems to be undergoing
a revival as a number of unisex retailers
start to devote more attention to menswear”
(Bacon, 2013).
The industry is starting to recognize the
demand from the millennial male in regards
to buying fashion. Fashions industry-
leaders are also starting to look at how they
can better target and communicate with

14. 26 27
D I G I T A L
M A R K E T
We’re living in a world
where smartphones are about
to outnumber PCs
The day is soon coming when using
a desktop computer, tangled amongst
wires, will be the domain of the
laggards of the technology lifecycle
whilst everyone else is using their
smartphone and nothing else. Evans’
admittedly “rough estimate numbers”
reveal that, as of December 2013, there
are slightly more than 1.6 billion PCs
still ‘hanging out,’ around 1.3 billion
smartphones and about 200 million
tablets (Lowery, 2014). This statistic
only proves what the future holds for
shopping experience developments
for the millennial male.
Today’s users are accustomed to
constantly being online and mobile
phones have amazing potential
development for the future. uSwitch
states that they are being touted as the
ultimate multifunctional devices with
experts predicting they will become
“remote controls for our whole lives”.
Advertisers now have an extremely
robust palette of mobile tools to choose
from to connect their messages
and experiences with their desired
audiences thanks to advancements in
mobile ad units, mobile search, mobile
apps, mobile websites, and SMS.
Advertisers to drive brand awareness,
consideration, purchases, and loyalty
are now successfully embracing each
of these mobile tactics.
Near Field Communication (NFC) has
taken our purses, bus passes and
loyalty cards. We’ve been the victims
not of theft, but of the future. NFC is a
contactless, Wi-Fi style technology that
could already be in our smartphones.
It is a short-range, low power wireless
link that can transfer small amounts
of data between two devices. It aided
towards the ‘contactless payments’ in-
store through many of the high-streets
stores in which the smartphone is held
over the payment machine allowing the
customer to pay, no PIN required, all
through a specific mobile application.
This technology demonstrates the
innovations of how the mobile can be
utilised all for ease for the consumer.
In 2013 Apple introduced their new
‘iBeacons’ feature which implements
a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) profile
to target consumers within certain
proximities. These proved to be
an innovative development for app
developers using the new geofencing
capabilities. Geofencing uses the
global positioning system (GPS) or
radio frequency identification (RFID)
to define geographical boundaries.
This can be quite expensive and
drain battery life on the smartphone
therefore Apple have developed their
iBeacons using BLE as it can enable
a mobile user to navigate and interact
with specific regions geofenced by low
cost signal emitters that can be placed
anywhere, including indoors, and even
on moving targets.

15. 28 29
B O Y S
A N D
T H E I R
T O Y S
The men’s fashion market is enjoying
strong growth thanks to online
channels and better brand marketing.
Ecommerce is helping to drive a
boom in this market, with one third
of men shopping online for clothes,
new research shows. These digital
platforms are contributing to the rise
in menswear sales. A Mintel report
notes that while fashion has been
slower than other industries to move
online, men are increasingly browsing
and buying using the Internet (Bacon,
2013).
Men are known to love their toys. It’s
all about the novelty, the idea of having
it first or the pride of ‘sussing out’ a new
gadget. They buy into technology that
most women would not even dream
of having, sometimes at a large cost.
We’re not sure they would admit it but
convenience is usually a big factor in
these big spends.
Brands and companies have used
this gender trait to their advantage,
directing advertising or applications
through technology to engage this
consumer and have seen great results.
Fashion etailer, SecretSales, are one
example of this. Their chief marketing
officer, Robert Moss states how the
convenience of the experience is
important to men, “Everyone is time-
poor but digitally savvy.” They analysed
gender splits in terms of channel
performance to then decide on online
marketing initiatives to target just their
male consumer. Moss explains “we
understood that we could reach out to
male bloggers who were specifically
targeted at men’s trends or men’s
interests” and since has seen an 80%
growth each year in the menswear
sales (Bacon, 2013).

16. 30 31
According to WGSN (2014), John
Lewis’ Coby noted that that 12%
of online visits to the retailer’s
website are from mobile devices,
double the level of last year, and
said that future trends would include
harnessing their popularity in-store
for direct communications with
consumers. “Customer devices
are really important. Everyone is
checking prices and this presents
lots of opportunities for providing
information,” he said. They aim to
create future plans to engage their
male consumer in-store via their
smartphone in order to create an
easy, hassle-free experience for the
busy male.
Through primary research
observing and in conversation with
our consumer, we concluded that
they like to have a quick experience
when in-store with no hassle or no/
little conversation. The majority of
the males who we interviewed said
that they would not ask the assistant
for advice and would always buy
what they personally believe to look
good (See Appendix 3). Learning
about their shopping habits helped
us to see a gap in the market for
our new service offering advice
at their fingertips in a hassle-free
way, ultimately educating them
on what they could wear without
the intimidation of asking the shop
assistant.

17. 32 33
T H E C O N S U M E R
ACRONYM GLOSSARY:
YUPPIE – ‘Young urban professional’
HENRYs – ‘High-earning not rich yet’
individuals
DINKs – ‘Dual-income, no kids’ couples
YUMMY – ‘Young urban male’
IWWIWWIWI – ‘I want what I want when I
want it’
The consumer demographic that we have decided to
target is the 18-25 year old fashion-conscious male
consumer. We looked into the psychographic of this
consumer, as we wanted to focus on their personality,
interests and lifestyles. The most fitting consumers were
the ‘Yummies’, ‘Yuppies’ and ‘IWWIWWIWI’s’.

18. 34 35
Our consumer is either doing his
degree or fresh out of education,
either way he does not have too much
money to waste on magazines or posh
restaurants. He is extremely conscious
of his appearance and with the little
money that he does have (or generous
grant from Student Finance) he is
happy to spend on clothing or things
to aid his looks. He is most likely single
with a priority to impress the ladies
however, yet to have his own style due
to the lack of information and diversity,
he can sometimes look like a clone of
his friendship group.
In the case of a student, he will have
the sleep all day; party all night
mentality with the pressure of looking
good on big nights out or social events.
Despite wanting to look good he does
not go out of his way to find blogs or
read men’s fashion magazines, as he
is too busy studying or partying. He
will either buy straight from what the
high-street stores are offering or take
inspiration from celebrities. He has the
desire to learn about cool up-coming
brands as the competition of ‘who wore
it first’ is inevitable.
He will be very
in touch with the
latest technologies
and social platforms
and even see himself
as a BNOC (Big Name
On Campus).

19. 36 37
STREETSTYLE

20. 38 39
STREETSTYLE

21. 40 41

22. 42 43
SOCIAL MEDIA BRANDS ONLINE LOOKBOOKSBLOGSMAGAZINES
INSTAGRAM -
GENTLEMENWEAR
MENS FASHION TRENDS
DESIGNER PAGES
MEN WITH CLASS
TWITTER -
MENS RUNWAY
GENTLEMENWEAR
RICK EDWARDS
JAMIE CAMPBELL
BOWER
TRES BIEN
ACNE
WEBSITES
ASOS STYLE GUIDE
ZARA
FLANNELS
TOPMAN
ALL SAINTS
RIVER ISLAND
RISK COUTURE
OKI-MI
HYPE BEAST
HIGHSNOBIETY
FOUR PINS
FASHION BEANS
FUCKING YOUNG
COMPLEX
NORSE PROJECT
ALL SAINTS
BUCKET AND SPADES
MONOPOLIST
SELECTISM
I AM GALLA
EDWARDS HAIR
STREET ETIQUETTE
ART COMES FIRST
GQ
MENS HEALTH
LADS MAG - ZOO/NUTS
JOCKS AND NERDS
MR PORTER
t h e i r C U R R E N T
I N S P I R A T I O N
SEE APPENDIX 3
FOR FULL RESULTS

23. 44
C O N S U M E R
P R O F I L E S
ALEX BILLINGTON
20/STUDENT
FAVOURITE:
SHOP? URBAN OUTFITTERS
HANGOUT? STUDENTS UNION
FOOD? BURGERS
HOBBIE? GIRLS
TIME OF DAY? NIGHTTIME
CITY? NEW YORK
“THERE IS TOO
MUCH SHIT ON
INSTAGRAM!”

24. 47
FRANKLIN ANUCHA
21/STUDENT
FAVOURITE:
SHOP? REISS
HANGOUT? COOL BAR
FOOD? JAPANESE
HOBBIE? TWEETING
TIME OF DAY? NIGHTTIME
CITY? BERLIN
“IF YOU LOOK
GOOD, YOU FEEL
GOOD”

25. 48 49
T H E E X P E R I M E N T
In order to understand how our male
consumer shops in-store we created
an experiment that would measure
how much they appreciate advice. By
arranging casual shopping trips with 2
males that fit into our consumer group,
we were able to observe their actions
such as whether they looked at the
mannequins for inspiration, asked the
sales assistants for advice and how
they responded to our opinions on
items. This research was done without
the participants knowing that we were
analysing their behaviour in order to
show a true reaction from them. (See
Appendix 7 for full results)
BOTH OF THE BOYS
WANTED GUIDANCE
WHEN SHOPPING,
TAKING NOTE OF
OUR OPINIONS AND
BUYING WHAT WE
TOLD THEM LOOKED
GOOD

26. 50 51
I N
C O N V E R S A T I O N
W I T H
Visiting the Reiss store in
Nottingham, we initially
entered the store to observe
male consumers however we
were presented with the
opportunity to interview a
member of staff. While the
interview was unprepared
for, we already had the aim
of discovering how males
interact in-store so the
questions did have structure.
Q In the time you’ve worked at
Reiss, have you noticed any distinct
differences between the way men
shop compared to women?
A Yes, definitely. Men are
surprisingly more prepared when they
come into the store. They’ve looked
online and come inside to try it on.
Whereas women like to browse and try
on different looks.
Q So would you say that they are
confident in choosing items or do they
seek advice?
A I think they definitely come in
with an idea of what they like, what
they’ve seen on a celebrity or on TV,
but the majority of men who are trying
clothes on ask for my advice and want
some guidance. One thing that our
male customers do that females don’t,
is bring an item in, like a tie, and ask
what will go with it. I’ve also noticed
that if we don’t stock a particular
product they had in mind, they’ll ask
my opinion on where’s best to find it.
Q With Reiss appealing to both
the young and mature male consumer,
who more regularly asks for your
advice?
A The maturer guy is more
confident in chatting to me and asking
for general advice but the younger
student won’t have a problem asking
for help if they need it.
Q Do they buy complete outfits
or individual items?
A I’d say they are more likely to
buy the full outfit, something they’ve
seen in our lookbook or an outfit we
created in-store. Definitely more so
than women.
JAMES O’SULLIVAN
REISS NOTTINGHAM

27. 52 53
W H A T D O
T H E Y W A N T ?
THEY WANT SIMPLICITY.
THEY WANT VISUALS.
THEY WANT CURATION.
THEY WANT NO HASSLE.
THEY WANT ANSWERS.
THEY WANT CHOICES.
THEY WANT INSPIRATION.
THEY WANT DISCOUNT.
THEY WANT TO IMPRESS!

28. 54 55
T H E B I G
M A R K E T I N G
I D E A
When first discussing the best way to
engage the target consumer we were
certain that we were going to create an
online environment of some sort as initial
research suggested that the student
cohort would respond well to it growing up
in a generation where everything is mobile.
We were debating over an online website/
blog style page or go solely mobile in the
form of an app. After researching about
what is already being offered within the
market we decided on the development of
a mobile application, as it is the best way
to stand out against the fast-approaching
advances within the menswear market.
According to VC Bill Gurley, “we are in
the midst of a critical platform transition,”
from browsers to mobile apps (Taylor,
2013). This latest transition is a shift away
from the browsers that ruled the 1990s
and 2000s, but this time towards discrete
mobile apps. No one takes out their phone
and enters ‘http://www.facebook.com’ into
the address bar of their mobile browser;
instead they use the Facebook app, as
well as Snapchat, Instagram, and other
social apps that have come to dominate
our devices and our collective psyche.
The first thing we did was to ask our
millennial consumer about what apps they
currently use in order to understand what
style of app they like, how often they use it
and what the function of it is (see Appendix
5). These results would factor towards
and influence our app development later
on in the process.
TYPICAL MOBILE
USERS CHECK
THEIR PHONES
150 TIMES PER
DAY

29. 56 57
W H A T A P P S D O
T H E Y U S E ?
From this research we could immediately
see that our consumer often use mobile
applications, providing us assurance that
this is the best way to target them, as they
are actively seeking to download more.
Despite their frequent use of apps, we
noticed that there were not many mobile
applications offering style advice to our
consumer, displaying a gap in the market.
From primary research we could conclude
that our consumer appreciate lots of
visuals, as they do not take too much time
or energy to look at (see Appendix 3).
INSTAGRAM
TWITTER
FACEBOOK MESSENGER
LINKEDIN
SNAPCHATWHATSAPP
GOOGLE MAPS
HOOT SUITE
SKY SPORTS
YOUTUBE
NATWEST
DAILY MAIL SKYBET
WILLIAM HILLASOS
MR PORTER EBAY
INSTASIZE DOMINOS
SOUNDCLOUD SHAZAM
ZARA
TED
THE USUAL SUSPECTS
SUPREME LYST
GOOGLE EARTH
VODAFONE PICSITCH
IMDB
SUBWAY BLACKBOARD
UEFA FOOTBALLITUBE

30. 58 59
t h e f a s h i o n
a p p l a n d s c a p e
We made a perceptual map in order to
determine where the gap in the market for
our app would be. As you can see (right)
there is a limited selection for men, both
for fashion and culture. The selection that
is available are up market selling products
from the premium market, appealing
to an older man. We aim to target the
student consumer who would be looking
for clothes cheaper therefore there is a
gap in the market for our app. We aim to
fit more towards the fashion end of the
axis, however we will be including cultural
information.

31. 60 61
C A S E S T U D Y
Using the App:
1. Open the App, quick summary of what
features the App has.
2. First time - asks you to sign in via the
App or FB.
3. Suggests followers to start by following.
4. Option to invite friends onto the App
(Good point - brings in new users)
5. Taken onto the homepage screen
- shows your followers recent ‘ASAPs’
and their suggestions. Option to Like or
Comment.(Bad point - it’s not very exciting
to look through other peoples ASAPs. Can
be quite boring)
6. When ‘ASAP’ing, you take a photo of
a swatch of fabric/item of clothing, select
out of the categories what item you’re
interested in finding, then instantly it
comes up with a screen of suggestions.
ASAP54 is a new app that integrates image
recognition technology, crowdsourcing
and a team of stylists to help users find
and buy items they like, offering a new
way of searching and shopping for fashion
online. There is a growing trend for this
type of visual search.
Its visual recognition app that matches
images of clothing and accessories to
identical or similar products stored in its
database, then directs users to retailers’
ecommerce sites to purchase them.
ASAP54
BRIDGING THE
GAP BETWEEN
INSPIRATION AND
TRANSACTION
Bad point - people have complained that
the results come back too expensive as
they partner with high-end sites such as
Net-a-Porter, Neiman Marcus, Harrods,
Lane Crawford, Barneys and The Outnet.
They created the app to find items based
on colour and texture, rather than price.

32. 62 63
C A S E S T U D Y
PULSE
Pulse is a news app made by LinkedIn.
It organises your favourite feeds into a
grid-style interface. It is customisable,
tailored to your personal interests. You
can discover what is trending among
professionals worldwide.
Using the App:
1. Open the App, option to sign in with
LinkedIn.
2. First time - asked to choose initial
news/business/companies that you wish
to follow. Bad point - there is no description
of what each company is. Could be clearer.
Good point - easy interface to start you off
on the App. Helping hand to push you in
the right direction.
3. Next page - The news groups/channels
that you follow are sectioned separately,
showing images of each news story with
a brief headline. It’s up to the consumer if
they wish to find more information about
it. By clicking on the image, it opens up
the full article in a clear interface with the
option of saving and sharing it.
4. Find more to follow button - opens up a
long-list category section to choose which
news channels/companies to follow.
Bites of
professional
content and
insights that
matter
WHAT WE LIKED
The app is clear and easy to use. It’s
customisable, the reader has control of
what they read and how much information
they receive. The share features allows
readers to pass on articles to friends easily.
The thumbnails of visuals is appealing to
the reader rather than just a headline.

33. 64 65
m a r k e t i n g m i x
THE FOUR P’S
Product – A style app for the 18-25
fashion-conscious male. The app will
include a wide image database in which is
mostly visual, a decision influenced from
primary research on what our consumers
like in an app. The app will allow the male
to explore the content of new brands,
style guides and other cultural information
within the food, film or leisure sector. An
incentive to use the app will be the feature
of the exclusive vouchers offered which the
student consumer have expressed to be
important (See Appendix 5).
As we have discovered that the millennial
male likes things accessible without hassle,
there will be a tailored element per consumer
decided by their initial login, providing
content that best suits them. This will cut
down on unnecessary browsing time and
keep their interest within the app ultimately
making them spend more time on it.
The app will also aim to help the consumer
source items of clothing/apparel at the ease
of clicking a button. The Point, Shoot & Ask
feature, demonstrated first by the ASAP54
app (See page 65) will be used on our app
also, offering direct links to the retailers of
the products. Within this feature we will
offer them the exact item they searched
along with high-street cheaper alternatives.
After all who doesn’t love a bargain. The
app is ultimately trying to solve the problem
of a never-ending, vague Google search
offering a more direct, quick and accessible
outcome.
Price – It is a free app however we aim
to tie up with brands that would want us to
feature their products or advertise as a way
to make a profit.
Place – As the main consumer is the
student, the ideal geography to start the
brand awareness would be in major student
cities such as Nottingham, Manchester,
Sheffield and London.As our implementation
idea is mobile we aim to utilise social media
in the form of a campaign or competition
within these cities after the launch of the
app to create attention from this cohort. We
need to think of the best way to engage our
consumer, paying close attention to their
lifestyle and pastimes.As these geographies
are highly populated with students, there is
more of a chance that the app will grow from
word of mouth however we aim to create
posters that can be placed around the
Universities, within the SU’s or within stores
we advertise within the app.
Promotion – With thousands of apps
running around on various sites and
application stores, it can be difficult for a
new start-up application to be discovered.
Even managing a day on the ‘featured’
page, yes may bump up a few downloads,
but not enough to create momentum to
keep the ball rolling. Nobody knows exactly
how or why apps rise and fall inside Apple’s
In order to meet our
consumer’s needs
most effectively, we
need to consider the
marketing mix in the
form of the 4 P’s
(Product, Promotion,
Price and Place).

34. 66 67
App Store and Google Play and a new
development from Mark Zuckerberg, CEO
of Facebook, has provided a glisten of hope
for new start-up app developers (Edwards,
2014).
through Facebook, as it has driven 350
million mobile app “installs” or downloads
thus far.
Another reason why this is such an
interesting development is because of the
new anonymous Facebook login, which
lets the public try out new apps without
broadcasting to the world their taste in
mobile content. They believe that this will
open up a whole new audience of “nervous-
nelly downloaders” (Edwards, 2014). This
is a definite advantage for our app due
to the consumer stating previously how
they would prefer a “discreet way” to get
fashion advice, making it less intimidating
(Kingsland, 2014).
In terms of promotion, social media will be
our prior route to the consumer. We will have
a Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter
that will all be cohesive. Facebook, YouTube
and Vimeo will advertise a teaser video for
the app. A press pack will be created in order
to create a buzz through the media. We also
aim to create a launch event involving our
consumer’s key interests and pastimes to
ensure they are targeted memorably.
All new app makers are
faced with a Catch-22:
people will download apps
if they’re near the top
of the app store. But you
can’t get to the top of
the app store until after
people have downloaded
your apps. You could have
the best new app in the
world ... but no one will
know unless you get lucky.
Facebook is looking to take over the mobile
app business, benefitting them yet also
Apple and Google will gain advantages.
Facebook owns a company called Parse,
which provides back-end services for app
developers. Any company can use some or
all of Parse’s services and tools, which are
stored in the cloud — so companies don’t
need to run their own servers to maintain
their apps. They can just let Facebook and
Parse do it. We aim to utilise this new feature

35. 68 69
That first impression on someone is
sometimes all you have. Does it convey
how amazing your product is? Is it easy
to pronounce? These are questions we
debated when trying to think of a selection
of names for our app. The name is important
in those split-second moments when
someone’s browsing the App Store or some
other marketplace therefore needs to catch
our consumers’ eye.
As opposed to all the feminine fashion apps,
we wanted to create a name that instantly
connotes males therefore we looked at their
interests and stereotypes in order to find a
perfect name. Within our focus group with
our consumer we showed a selection of
different names and asked them which they
preferred. They decided on the name ‘RAW’
that we also thought could stand for ‘Ready
And Waiting’. We felt that this statement also
portrayed the function of the app perfectly
too, as our consumer likes things handed
to them, our app will be constantly updated
and ‘ready and waiting’ for them.
THE NAME
T H E M A K I N G O F

36. 70 71
the branding
B R A N D I N G
The branding of your app is the visual look
and feel, and tone-of-voice that combine to
give your app its own personality. For our
app we wanted to it to be simple, masculine
yet intriguing with a graphic element.
We collaborated with an expert graphic
designer to come up with our logo in order
for it to look professional and realistic. The
logo encompasses solid block letters, with a
graphic middle letter in a different colour for
contrast. We thought that this was a simple
way to engage the consumer, playing with
shapes to act as letters. We have taken
inspiration for this from the graphic trends
we have researched (See Appendix).
For the overall aesthetic of the app we
wanted it to be clean, easy to navigate and
a maximum of 3 colours. Through research
on what our consumer is used to seeing in
regards of imagery and colours, we found
that things are produced in a very corporate
way using navy, blue and grey therefore we
started to think on how to challenge this. We
opted for a clean white background, with an
accent colour of yellow.

37. 72 73
LOGIN PAGE SIGN UP PAGE

38. 74 75
FIRST TIMERS
START-UP PAGE
FIRST TIMERS
START-UP PAGE

39. 76 77
FIRST TIMERS
START-UP PAGE
PERSONALISED
SET-UP PAGE

40. 78 79
DISCOVER
PAGE
HOVER OVER TO
SEE MORE

41. 80 81
YOUR SAVED
ARTICLES/ITEMS
HOVER OVER TO
GO TO RETAILER

42. 82 83
SHOOT & ASK
START-UP PAGE
SHOOT & ASK
OPTIONS

43. 84 85
SHOOT & ASK
RESULTS
When the app is first opened, the user
is presented with the option to sign up,
either through their email or through
Facebook.
After a quick registration, they will be
shown a quick sum-up of the app and its
features, including instructions on how
to use it. These will be very basic as
the buttons are pretty self-explanatory
and millennial users can catch on to an
apps interface quickly.
In order for the user to have their own
curated homepage, they are produced
with an array of images and told to
choose 5. This will give RAW an idea
of what the consumer likes therefore
personalises their homepage around
this. This would cut down on browsing
unecessarily through items they may
not like.
We made the homepage visual, like
what our consumer expressed to be
important. They can hover over the
image to see if they wish to see more of
the article or double tap to save straight
into their own page.
The Shoot & Ask feature, as previously
mentioned, is a development on from
the ASAP54 App. This feature enables
the user to take or upload an image of
an item they wish to source. The image
recognition technology will display a
match, where it is being sold and any
cheaper alternatives.
Aswell as just source the item, there
is an option of ‘What goes with this?”
which would display a few different
ways to wear it.

44. 86 87
R O U T E T O
C O N S U M E R
According to So Creative (Online) “a press
kit (also referred to as a press pack or media
kit) is a key weapon in your brand’s armoury.
Done well it will make all the difference to
a journalist looking for their next exciting
feature, done badly it will likely finish up in
the wastepaper basket!” We aim to send out
a press kit that grabs the medias attention,
as write ups in magazines or on blogs would
be a secondary route to consumer after
utilising social media.
Who wouldn’t want to receive a shoebox
containing a mini football stadium that made
the sound of a cheering crowd when opened
(Nike), a pair of gold knuckle dusters in a
wooden box (to promote Godfather II) or a
heavy USB stick in the shape of a silver ingot
(Tiffany)? Brands that create stand-out kits
ensure that their launch or event spreads by
word of mouth.
We decided that, as the tone of voice is
quite humorous and light-hearted, we
would include items that may be functional
or may just be to grab their attention. We
will be sending these press kits within the
industry i.e. bloggers, journalists, magazine
press teams a week before Mens Fashion
Week 2015. Our idea behind the press kit is
going to be a ‘survival kit for MFW’ including
a press release, information card, CD with
teaser video on and witty items that reflects
our brand personality.
We are going to call the kit ‘RAW: the
essentials’ and include a ‘little black book’
with a pen, providing them a place to write
down all the models numbers they may
scout over the week. A compass with the
brand logo on, so they can track down the
destinations of the shows, what guy doesn’t
love a bit of orienteering. Finally a packet of
our branded ‘pro plus’ style caffeine tablets
to keep them awake and refreshed for the
after parties.

45. 88 89
route to consumer
The millennial male is lazy therefore we
have to target them in a way that does not
take too much effort or time away from
their busy schedule of chatting up girls,
eating kebabs and everything else typically
associated with student boys.
As a way to advertise the app to our male
consumer we will create a teaser video
that they will be able to view/share over
Facebook, YouTube and Vimeo amongst
other social networking platforms. From
conversations with the guys, they explained
how they would more likely share a video
that was cool and fun rather than a video
explaining the app, therefore we decided
that we would create a video that involves
typical male culture in order to grab their
attention. Due to it being a teaser video, we
aim to leave the audience wondering what
the apps features are, creating an enigma
effect.
For the video, we will take inspiration from
the Paper app advert and Duke Dumonts
music video and do a similar birds eye view
shot of a guy walking. He will be spotting
items on clothing/footwear that he likes
in his surroundings and on other people
yet he doesn’t know where to get them.
Due to it being a teaser video, we will not
be explaining the app in it, yet just have
the RAW logo at the end for initial brand
awareness.
T E A S E R
V I D E O
PAPER APP ADVERT
DUKE DUMONT - I GOT U MUSIC VIDEO

46. 90 91
L A U N C H
We aim to take advantage of the student
nightlife scene, our consumers’ most popular
pastime, by joining up with an existing club
event to create brand awareness for the app.
Sponsoring a night that has already built up a
good reputation has advantages as they will
already have a large following eliminating
the risk of no-one turning up if we were to
run our own launch event. Awareness of the
event will be easier as they will already have
a solid, tested promotional strategy.
We chose ‘Gold Teeth’ the student night as
they attract the most diverse range of our
millennial male consumer and one that our
consumer expressed to like (see Appendix
5). They also travel round cities renowned
for a high volume of students (Manchester,
Nottingham, Sheffield and London) therefore
makes it easier to promote with just one
event host.
Whilst the students queue up outside the
venue, we will utilise iBeacon technology
(see page ?) to transmit a message to the
boys phones offering for them to download
the app. This would give them a nudge to
find out more about the app that has been
advertised with the night out.
To add on an extra incentive to come to
the club, during the event there will be a
promotion team for RAW scouting around
the club and smoking areas in the hunt for
the most stylish males. If photographed
these males could be in the chance of
winning tickets to Dimensions Festival in
Croatia, our consumers top rated festival
(see Appendix 5). In order to see if they
were in the running, the males would have
to ‘Like’ RAW’s Facebook page the following
day and see whether they have been
chosen. If so, all they need to do is share the
image to their friends and the winner will be
chosen based on the number of ‘likes’ the
images gain within the timeframe of a week.
The most likes wins. This will RAW act as a
‘self-esteem team’ for these boys, ultimately
giving them a helping hand with the ladies
but gain brand awareness with more males
becoming intrigued on how they could of
won tickets.
Along with this competition we decided
we wanted to give them something to take
away with them that would remind them of
the RAW brand. A photobooth will be placed
within the clubs where anyone (girls or boys)
can use to get free images developed. The
Where there’ll
be girls,
there’ll be
boys.

47. 92
photo strip will have our logo on the bottom
with a digital copy of the entire nights library
uploaded into an album on RAW’s Facebook
page. This would again direct the consumer
to the page, creating a bigger following.
After the four nights in the different cities are
over and RAW has gained enough attention,
there will be the chance for one more ticket
giveaway. This will be advertised over all of
RAWs platforms (App, Facebook, Twitter
and Instagram) yet Instagram will be where
the competition takes place. It is open to
any male, who went to the event or not, in
order to give them a second chance to dress
to impress. The participant would have to
upload a street style photo of themselves
with the caption #dressingfordimensions
then the RAW team will pick their favourite.

48. 94
T H E
F I V E
C ’ S
route to consumer
5 C’s
COHESION
Wewillbeconnectingwithourconsumer
over a variety of different platforms.
Through the app predominantly
however with the option to share
via other social media platforms.
Our Facebook page will be utilised
for conversation with the consumer
such as competitions. Twitter will be
utilised to emphasise the tone of voice,
conversing with them like ‘mates’. Our
instagram page will be for extra visual
inspiration outside of the app.
COMMUNITY
We will aim to create a community
through our Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram page. Due to the app being
aimed at males, it creates a community
in itself as they will like having something
just for their sex. Think of it like a mobile
gents club. Although we don’t expect all
the users to dare to upload images of
themselves, we hope that the app will
change the way they talk about fashion.
CONTENT
The content is extremeley important
as it could make or break the app. As
the content provided is tailored around
their individual taste, they could feel a
sense of exclusivity as not one person
would be the same. As the social
media pages are viewed by all, they will
also get to see content they may not
normally choose yet find interesting to
learn about. We will not just be posting
fashion, lifestyle and cultural posts will
be made showing interviews, music
and food.
CONTINUITY
As we are a start-up brand we do
not have the big budgets for a big
bang campaign. We would use
unconventional marketing to target our
consumer, building up excitement in
different ways. As there is an in-house
style team behind RAW, giving the outfit
suggestions, the brand could not be
overwhelmed with users therefore this
unconventional marketing would allow
the brand to grow at a slower pace.
CONTEXT
The theme of the app is the guru. The
helping hand, big brother, answer the
their prayers, the cupid. The idea that
RAW always has a solution for them,
whether it is a physical ‘Wear this!’
solution or to cure boredom, the app is
there to help and advise.

49. 96 97
K E E P I N G T H E M
E N G A G E D
We’d hope to leave a lasting impression on our
consumer once they see how amazing the app
is, however they might need a little kick up the
bum every once in a while.
On the app we will give them the option to sign
up on the mailing list. This will mean they get
sent a monthly newsletter, a sum-up of the
month showing the most viewed items, products
they might of missed and what the expect the
following month. These newsletters may have
exclusive vouchers on, or even a heads up of
when the sales are coming.
Another way to remind our consumer to use the
app will be using the iBeacon technology. If they
allow the push notifications, everytime they walk
passed a store that they have saved onto their
profile they will get a notification reminding them
the product they searched for was from that
store, or even to give them an exclusive ‘on the
day’ voucher.

50. 98 99
C O N C L U S I O N
“Oh so you’re a
fashion girl, what
do you think of my
outfit? Be honest!”
It started with one, then turned into
plenty. As soon as we mentioned
we studied fashion, the boy would
change asking us our opinions
on whether they look good. They
cared about what we thought.
After talking to females about it we
were getting “My boyfriend would
definitely use that!” or “My friend is
forever complaing that every male
looks the same.” This is where our
idea came from, we wanted to help
our fellow students (and possible
future husbands) to ditch their
womens jeans and electric smiles
(Joey Essex) and change the way
they talk about fashion.

51. 100 101
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54. 106 107
A P P E N D I X 1
ONLINE SURVEY
66 Participants
AGE RANGE 18-24
How interested in fashion are you?
Very- 22 (33.33%)
Moderately- 34 (51.51%)
Not interested- 10 (15.15%)
Do you think men come secondary to women in retail? i.e. is there more
focus on women’s style?
Yes- 42 (63.63%)
No- 9 (13.6%)
Unsure- 15 (22.72%)
Which of the following provides you with the most fashion related content?
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram - 32 (15.51%)
Magazines- 7 (10.60%)
Blogs- 3 (4.54%)
E-commerce (i.e ASOS, Mr porter)- 24 (36.36%)
Apps-0 (0%)
Do you think there should be a more convenient way to find out all the latest
menswear styles?
Yes 44 (66.66%)
No 11 (16.66%)
Unsure 10 (15.15%)
A P P E N D I X 2
EMAIL TO BRANDS
Hi there. We are students at Nottingham Trent University UK, studying Fashion
Communication and Promotion. For our dissertation we’re looking at popular
environments for males seeking fashion advice. Valet is one of the leaders in this
field and we would really appreciate if you answered a few questions for us. 1.
Which generates the most traffic, your online website or mobile application? 2.
Do men really want fashion advice? 3. Who is Valet’s target consumer?
Kind regards, Emily Baron & Rosie Buckland
07885351594
Hi guys, Your email was passed along to me and I wanted to thank you for
reaching out and for thinking of us. Below are some simple answers and do let
me know if you need anything else. 1. Which generates the most traffic, your
online website or mobile application? Our traffic now breaks down to about 65%
website and 35% mobile (both from their smartphone’s browser and our own
app). But in the evening hours, we see it start to level out and we’ll get nearly a
50/50 split between desktop website traffic and the app. 2. Do men really want
fashion advice? We’ve found that men, much more than women, are looking for
advice and assurances when it comes to dressing. They’re not as interested in
trends, exactly, but they want to make sure that they look and feel good—and
that’s exactly what we’re here to do for them. They also write in with questions
on how they might fix something or where to go for a good tailor, shoe repair,
etc. 3. Who is Valet’s target consumer? Our guy is typically age 18 to 34 and is
looking to live with style and understands that it’s about more than just clothes.
We provide the information, the tools, the resources and then the audience then
makes it their own, shares it and there’s something of a ripple effect to it.
Hope that helps, Cory Ohlendorf
Co-Founder / Editor in Chief Valet

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A P P E N D I X 3
EMAILS TO MILLENNIAL MALES
QUESTIONS
It’s basically just about how you get style inspiration.
So how important is your wardrobe to you?
Do you follow trends? If so how..
How do you keep up to date?
Do you read magazines (general or fashion related)?
Which ones?
Do you look at any mens online websites?
Style sections?
Do you follow any bloggers?
Do you think their is enough advice for men on what to wear/explaining
trends?
Do you prefer in-store or online shopping?
Why?
Do you think it’s intimidating for males to ask for fashion advice?
ALEX BILLINGTON
I don’t read magazines, they seem to old for me and I don’t have the money
to spend on them. I follow mens brands on Twitter and I likes to look at Mens
runway images from twitter at a glance.
I get inspired by what I see my friends wearing. I like to experiment with
pieces of clothing, mix’n’match.
I look at the ‘New In’ section to see what new products they are stocking. I
base my trend knowledge off that, but I do understand that they are ultimately
just trying to sell their products therefore I don’t always trust what they say.
I prefer in-store shopping because then I know if I definitely like it. I don’t
mind online either when I know there is ‘Free Returns’ offers.
I think that the high street is dominated by womens’ shops and mainstream
stores. I think Twitter could be utilised more, it’s good to see things in short
and then have the option to click to find more details. You choose how much
information you see. I think there is too much shit on Instagram.
I don’t know how to wear some things, but I’d only ask friends that I know
work in the fashion industry for advice.
CAM BRYAN
I don’t follow trends. I read GQ magazine. No I don’t think there is enough
advice for men. I rely on word of mouth or if I hear or see it on social media.
I prefer in-store shopping so I can see what I want and try things on.
I do like online shopping though because there is more variety. There are
online exclusives which I really like because I like to be the first out of my
friends to have something.
FRANKIE KELLY
Fashion is very important to me. I don’t follow trends as such, I just wear
what I like at the time.
I follow Gentlemenwear on Twitter. I don’t think there is enough advice, it’s
all focused on women.
I prefer in-store shopping as I like to see and feel the garment. I wouldn’t ask
for advice because I find it intimidating.
HARRY ANTHONY
Fashion is too important to me. I follow selected trends, the ones that I like.
I read some magazines like Mens Health, GQ and lad mags like Zoo and
Nuts. I don’t look at mens websites or blogs as a source of inspiration.
There isn’t enough advice for explaining trends. There is enough magazines
however not general awareness.
I prefer in-store shopping because sometimes online you never know what
you’re going to get back. I think confident males would ask friends or shop
assistants for advice but the less confident boys could be intimidated.
EMAILS TO MILLENNIAL MALES

56. 110 111
JOE ROBOTHAM
My wardrobe is very important to me. I like to add as many items as regularly
as possible. I don’t really follow trends. I prefer good fabrics and the fit of a
product. Brands like APC, minimalistic. I like to buy items that don’t go out of
fashion. Timeless pieces.
I read some magazines like Jocks and Nerds for a wider style focus. I look
at menswear blogs - Bucket and Spades as that shows latest releases from
small independent stockists.
I like the style section of Four Pins and I look at tumblr pages like ‘Monopolist’’.
I feel the fashion industry is female focused but the right blogs are usually
well linked, it’s just finding them. I read brands lookbooks like Norse Project.
BEN DUFFIELD
My wardrobe is very important to me. I don’t read magazines but I will always
look on my favourites brands online style sections such as Flannels and
Zara. I don’t follow any bloggers, it’s too hard to find them.
I follow brands and online stores on social media platforms as I like to look at
their collections online. I don’t think their is enough advice for men.
I prefer in-store shopping although I wouldn’t ask for advice in there as I find
it intimidating.
BEN COX
My wardrobe is very important to me. I don’t tend to keep up to date with
every trend, I suit buy what I like and thinks suits me.
I don’t read magazines, I look online like ASOS but only when I know I have
money to spend. I prefer shopping in-store so I can try on the items.
JAMES KENYON
My wardrobe is quite important to me. I buy what I think will suit me on a
reasonable budget as I am a student. I get inspiration from what other people
are wearing and what I see in the high-street shops. I like to update my
wardrobe every few months.
I read Mens Healths however they only advertise high end retailers that are
out of my budget. I struggle to find high street alternatives.
I look at Mens Health online. I’ve tried to find bloggers in the past but I feel they
only show high-end products too. I don’t think there is enough information for
men to do with fashion, even the ASOS suggestion pages sometimes are
weird and stuff I wouldn’t ever wear.
I prefer online shopping as it’s quicker to look through a range of different
brands and styles. I find it hard to find clothes I like but I wouldn’t ask for
advice either as it is intimidating.
JAY SMEDLEY
My wardrobe is very important to me. I like to see what’s in trend from
Instagram pages such as Mens Fashion Trends and I also follow designers
instagram pages. I read Mr Porter magazine but no others, I prefer looking at
online sites such as Fashion Beans.
I don’t think there is much advice out there for us guys but sometimes that is
a good thing so then everyone doesn’t look the same.
I prefer shopping instore so I can feel the material of the fabrics and find the
right sizing. It could be intimidating for some boys to ask for advice, I think
men would prefer inspiration in visuals for them to replicate.
EMAILS TO MILLENNIAL MALES EMAILS TO MILLENNIAL MALES

57. 112 113
COREY KINGSLAND
My wardrobe is pretty important to me, I’d like to update it weekly if I could
but I can’t afford to, being a student. I like to read the All Saints lookbook and
I look at Topman online section.
I don’t like to read magazines however I get style inspiration from Instagram
pages such as Men with Class although that is more about appreciating good
clothes/items rather than giving style tips.
I don’t think there is enough advice for men. We would feel too feminine to
read mens fashion magazines or reading blogs.If there was a discreet way
to give men fashion advice it would be really successful.
I prefer in-store shopping as online can sometimes be a bit hit and miss.I
would shop online if I was buying for someone else or if I wanted something
quick unbothered about the quality. I’d feel embarrassed and emasculated
to ask for advice myself. Most men care about how they look but they don’t
want others (mainly other guys) knowing how much.
ANDY WILKINSON
My wardobe is pretty important to me, I don’t feel good in myself if I don’t
have something nice to wear. I like to buy clothes regularly.
I read Mens Health and browse online shopping sites such as ASOS, Zara,
Topman, Risk Couture and River Island. I’d only look at online blogs if it was
about fitness.
I wear whatever I believe to look good or I’d ask my friends/girlfriend for their
opinions. I prefer in-store shopping as it’s easier to get a perfect fit. It’s easier
to find new brands online but the hassle of getting the right size puts me off.I
would always ask the opinions of others before buying online.
MATT BIRULS
My wardrobe is extremeley important to me.I think I subconsciously keep up
to date with trends, not intentionally. I really like to look at magazine editorials
as inspiration. I read the Journal section on Mr Porter as the articles are short,
readable and accessible. I also look at Fucking Young online for inspiration.
In the past I have looked at websites such as Fashion Beans although now
I prefer looking at retailers that do content on their site like Oki-Mi. I like not
looking too hard for things, I like things that are easy to find.
I think there is a gap for something visual that shows men new brands,
clothes, hairstyles and artists etc. I follow Rick Edwards and Jamie Campbell
Bower on twitter. I look at at Tres Bien, Acne, Highsnobiety, HypeBeast and
Selectism blog.
I prefer online shopping as it’s easier to look at trends. It is also easier to
see what things can be worn with as online sites tend to have a ‘suggestion’
page. I like to see what it looks like on someone before I buy it. I really like
customisation, like Nike I.D. It promotes diversity so everyone doesn’t look
the same.
ALEX HART
I see my wardrobe as very important, as I work in the music industry I feel
pressured to constantly look good. I try to keep up to date although I don’t
like to read magazines. Instead I will get inspiration from the artists I work
with. I prefer in-store shopping as it is a chance to try things on.
SURIL PATEL
My wardrobe represents me as a person.I don’t tend to follow trends, I
wear a hand-picked selection of the trends I like at that time. I look online at
Highsnobiety, Four Pins, Hypebeast and Complex. There is enough advice if
you know where to look.
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58. 114 115
FRANKLIN ANUCHA
My wardrobe is very important to me. If you look good, you feel good! I prefer
to look at blogs instead of magazines. I am Galla, Edwards Hair, Fashion
Beans and Street Etiquette are my favourites.
I think that Instagram is a good source for the latest trends. Less-conscious
tend to re-buy items they previously bought, just in different colours. I feel
that mens fashion is picking up a lot and it’s just a matter of taking the time
out to look at what’s out there. I can imagine some boys feeling embarrassed
to ask for advice, especially to other boys.
MANNY APRAKU
I like to stand out therefore I will wear what I think others guys won’t wear.
I will try out old styles again, I see myself to have an avant-garde mentality.
My wardrobe is very important to me, I like to keep it organised. I stay away
from current trends, especially when everyone else is wearing it. I try to be
an early adopter of a trend.
I sometimes look online at blogs however I feel that a lot of them are the
same. All a load of visuals with nothing explaining how to wear things and
what to wear it with. Street Etiquette and Art Comes First are two of my
favourites. I don’t think there is enough advice for men that they could trust
to be authentic.
I don’t like online shopping as it’s simply not accurate enough on sizes.
Some men find it intimidating asking for advice. Each man thinks they know
what’s best for them not thinking about how it might look. I would find it
embarrassing asking a girl to help me with my style.
A P P E N D I X 4
STREETSTYLE
NOTTINGHAM &
MANCHESTER
EMAILS TO MILLENNIAL MALES

59. 116 117
STREETSTYLE STREETSTYLE

60. 118 119
A P P E N D I X 5
FOCUS GROUP
5 Participants
AGE RANGE 18-24
James Kenyon, 24
Mark Willow, 21
Tom Price, 21
Jack McKenna, 20
Chris Jameson, 22
After explaining our app concept, the promotional event
and involvement with social media. We asked the following;
Would you be interested in using this app? If so, what feature appeals
to you most?
JK: Yes, the point, shoot, ask part seems pretty cool. I’d try it out
MK: Yeah I like that (point,shoot,ask) and also the discover part
TP: I’d use it, probably to get the vouchers
JM: Yeah I’m keen to find new brands that aren’t mainstream yet. At the
moment I find them through blogs.
CJ: I’d download it to try out the recognition technology thing.
Which of the following names do you prefer? CollectiV, Cuff or RAW
(ALL) RAW
Have you heard of the club promoters Gold Teeth and do you ever go
to their nights?
JK: Yeah I’ve been a couple of times
MW: My mate did some promotional work for them so first year we went a
fair bit
TP: Yeah sometimes I go, Bodega is cool
JM: I’ve never been but I want to, meant to be a good night
CJ: I follow them on Facebook, always do good posts. I go when I can, one
of the better nights in Notts
FOCUS GROUP
If the app were to sponsor a Gold Teeth night and throw a competition
to win tickets to a festival, would you go?
JK: Depends if a lot of other people were going
MW: If I liked the festival then yeah
TP: The competition wouldn’t make any difference to me, just depends on
what other nights are on
JM: If I was going out then I would probably go there, if the flyer intrigued me
enough to remember
CJ: Yeah
If your outfit was deemed stylish, would you participate and allow your
photograph to be involved with the national competition on Facebook?
JK: Yeah
MW: I’d doubt I’d get chosen but yeah I would enter
TP: I would
JM: If I think my outfit was on point, if not I’d save myself the embarrassment
of losing
CJ: Yeah
What’s your favourite festival? (you don’t have to have attended)
JK: Dimensions
MW: Lovebox
TP: Gotta be Glasto (Glastonbury)
JM: Dimensions
CJ: Creamfields
Would you ever use the ‘sharing’ option on the app and post an image
to one of your social network sites?
JK: Maybe, if I thought it was needed to be shared
MW: No, I can’t stand it when my Facebook feed is full of things like ‘Sam like
three pics on Instagram’
TP: I probably would
JM: Probably not, unless it was funny or something
CJ: Yeah I wouldn’t rule it out

61. 120 121
FOCUS GROUP
Would you allow the app to have access to your information on
Facebook?
JK: If it meant it was easier to create an account yeah
MW: No, I wouldn’t want the app to come up on my Facebook wall before I
tried it out
TP: Yeah
JM: If it was quicker then yeah
CJ: I wouldn’t mind but rather not
What would make you follow RAW on social media?
JK: Funny banter
MW: Maybe if they posted when the app has a new voucher ready
TP: If they posted stuff I found interesting
JM: Useful info about fashion
CJ: Competitions and vouchers
A P P E N D I X 6
MARKET RESEARCH
URBAN OUTFITTERS
& TOPMAN

62. 123
MARKET RESEARCH MARKET RESEARCH

63. 124 125
MARKET RESEARCH MARKET RESEARCH

64. 126 127
A P P E N D I X 7
THE EXPERIMENT
2 Participants
AGE RANGE 18-24
NOTES ON LOCATION
1. Diego Baynes/21/Size & Topman
Participant seemed anxious at first to shop around the opposite sex.
Looked as though he felt under pressure to choose the right items.
He was left for 5 minutes to shop on his own in which he spoke to the male
shop assistant for advice on trainers. Conversation about the latest styles,
colours etc.
Participant then asked us what we thought of his choices. After we gave
our opinion he then acted upon what we said e.g. put down the ones we
didn’t like, asked for sizes in the ones we did. He really appreciated our
opinion as we disagreed with the shop assistant a few times yet he valued
a females advice more.
We suggested styles that he had yet to choose in which he also tried on.
Our suggestions were appreciated, resulting in him buying them.
In conversation we told him that we really liked to see boys wearing the
colours grey and black.
As we got into Topman, with our opinion fresh in his mind, we sat for 5
minutes again and observed his behaviour. He went on to pick up three
items of clothing, all either grey or black. This proved that he had took note
on what we said and liked our advice.
THE EXPERIMENT
NOTES ON LOCATION
2. Matt Fox/20/Zara
Participant said he preferred to shop with females as boys usually like an
‘in and out’ job whereas he wanted to experiment with different items.
He was left for 5 minutes to shop on his own. We observed that he payed
attention to the mannequins, picking up a whole outfit displayed on one of
them.
When trying on the outfits he asked the opinion of the male sale assistant
and had a conversation about new products that were yet to come out,
discussing other shops too.
He seemed more confident to choose outfits however he appreciated our
opinion and discarded anything we said we didn’t like. He would try on
our suggestions with a bit of hesitance and ended up to really like them.
Especially when we suggested what to wear each item with etc.
In conversation we again told him we like to see boys wearing grey and
black. We then noticed him picking up items which were either of those two
colours proving that girls advice can impact on what they buy.

65. 128 129
A P P E N D I X 8
DEVELOPMENT DEVELOPMENT

66. 131
LOGO DEVELOPMENT LOGO DEVELOPMENT
A P P E N D I X 9

67. A P P E N D I X 10
CREATIVE RESEARCH/GRAPHIC TRENDS CREATIVE RESEARCH/GRAPHIC TRENDS

68. 134 135
A P P E N D I X 11
SWOT OF THE UK MENSWEAR MARKET
Strengths
London Collections: Men (LC:M) had great success since being established
in 2012.
Predicted to be long term trend.
An increasing consensus among men to invest in higher quality clothes
Male celebrities are encouraging increase of individual style.
More brands are upgrading their marketing to the male consumer
Weaknesses
Recession has made it hard for the 18-24 to buy materialistic goods
Still reluctancy of males to show an interest in fashion, thinking it makes
them look feminine.
Opportunities
Going digital, men prefer to shop online
Educating and engaging this new-interest in fashion
Threats
Market will become saturated quickly, brands will have to be innovative to
stand out
Cultural trends may shift and it reverts to being unmasculine to care about
fashion.
D E C L A R A T I O N
F O R M

69. 136 137
t u t o r i a l
r e c o r d s h e e t s

70. 138 139