5 key facts about the interaction between fashion industry and social media and the impact on e-commerce. A conversation with the students of the Advanced Marketing course at the Cattolica University in Milan

2. Who’s Gianandrea?

3. Who’s Gianandrea?
24 years in Communication industry
10 years in Digital and Web & Social Media listening
2 years runner (4 x Marathon, 4 x HM)
14 years proud dogs owner
Gianandrea Facchini @Gianandrea @Gianandrea59Gianandrea Facchini

4. Who’s Buzzdetector?
Buzzdetector is a Digital Intelligence
Strategic Business Insights firm
We were born with Web Listening, we are growing with Intelligence

5. Who’s Buzzdetector?

6. Fashion & Digital

7. Foreword
• This research started two years ago with the 2014 FW season
• The idea behind was that every industry touched by digital was going, or would have gone,
under a remarkable transformation
• Wide usage of smartphone and digital channels to share pictures and video had quite
abruptly impacted the entire system

8. Key facts
Today I wish to highlight five key facts emerging from our research and match them with the
evolution of the digital environment both from a technologic point of view as well as from users’
perspective

9. Key fact #1
Discovered by a British math whiz and published in Nature magazine in 1906, this untraditional method
is “the mathematically perfect way of cutting a round cake,” the author says gleefully. “It’s breaking all
the rules of cake etiquette!”
Alex Bellos first makes a vertical slice through the center of the cake from one side to the other (“the
prime steak of that cake, the T-bone cut,” he jokes), then makes a parallel slice. After plating it (it’s a
large piece!), he pushes the sides of the remaining cake together and secures it with a rubber band so
none of the interior cake is left exposed.
(Alex Bellos The Grapes of Math: How Life Reflects Numbers and Numbers Reflect Life, 2015)

10. Let’s play

11. Let’s play
You have 14.000.000 of records. Yes, big data!
From where do you begin to slice them?
How do you approach the database to turn it into a dataset?

12. Let’s play
• Some as 14.000.000 records from Twitter and Instagram were parsed by terminology and
contributors:
74 color definitions
84 fabrics and materials
69 different types of accessories
102 types of garment
110 adjectives
75 brands
97 fashion bloggers
116 celebrities
49 editors
58 magazines
38 models
34 stores

13. Let’s play
A multilayered cake in which any layer answers to a given set of questions and to these
questions only.
Any additional question is transferred to the following layer avoiding to slow down or mess up
the delivery process.
Keeping under control the flows of questions and the answers arising from the database
dissection, these are the main goals we achieve with this model.

14. Key facts
#1 - The perfect cake cutting technique

15. Key fact #2
In the Delfi temple dedicated to Apollo, there is this remark.
It may sounds naïve but more often than you can think, organizations do not know accurately
their market nor themselves
Too much focus on products and productions may kill the knowledge and the quest for innovation

16. Let’s play

17. Key facts
#1 - The perfect cake cutting technique
#2 - Looking from outside into your offices, hitting the streets to understand people

18. Key fact #3
"We find ourselves at home in the language that we speak and share. And I don't simply mean
English or Arabic. It's the other language I'm talking about, the one we use to express what is
worth doing, knowing, and looking for. This is the language we speak to say where we really
belong."
Paul Chan wrote this as foreword to an impressive book by the great art curator Hans Ulrich
Obrist (Sharp tongues, loose lips, open eyes, ears to ground - Sternberg Press, 2014)

19. Let’s play
You are a shop assistant and within your goal there is
the task to sell this dress
Look at it, try to catch details to the point and
describe them in few spoken words

20. Let’s play
You work on a e-commerce platform and within your
goal there is the task to sell this dress
Look at it, try to catch details to the point and
describe them in few written words

21. How it was described online
Embellished shift boasts scenic Portofino print, roundneck, sleeveless, embellished
detail, concealed back zip with button embellishment, lined, about 36" from shoulder to
hem, silk, contrast: Rayon/silk/nylon/crystal/brass, dry clean, made in Italy
(Saksfifthavenue)
Italy's famed tourist destinations inspired Dolce & Gabbana's Spring '16 collection -
this 'Portofino' dress was part of the postcard-print parade that ended the show. It's
cut from a slightly stiff woven silk that holds the neat shift shape perfectly in place.
Embroidery, lace and crystal-encrusted florals give it an eclectic elegance.(Net-a-Porter)
Multicoloured silk blend postcard print dress from Dolce & Gabbana featuring a
round neck, a sleeveless design, a back button fastening, crystal embellishments,
a knee length, a shift silhouette and a Portofino postcard print. (Farfetch)
Dolce & Gabbana sateen Portofino postcard-print shift dress; solid-color back,
high round neckline with jeweled detail, sleeveless; wide shoulder coverage, a-line
silhouette, straight hem, jeweled button back, silk, made in Italy. (NeymanMarcus)

22. How to find it
Collection name is Italia is love
The dress is part of a group of dress called Postcard
Google it and look at the results

23. How to find it
If you don’t know the exact name of the collection there’s no way to get to the dress
If you google Dolce & Gabbana Portofino, results are about the dolce vita in the small elitarian
village and about a collection of some seasons ago dedicated to Portofino which has nothing to
do with this dress
The keyword here is POSTCARD not PORTOFINO
But how can you know about it?

24. Key facts
#1 - The perfect cake cutting technique
#2 - Looking from outside into your offices, hitting the streets to understand people
#3 - The greatest effort we have to accomplish in complex environment such as social
media is not getting lost in translation

25. Key fact #4
A sound strategy for a Social Media presence should take into consideration all the possibilities
offered by a vibrant environment, yet it has to avoid to be mislead by hypes
Sometimes jumping on the bandwagon it’s easier than to take the point and to articulate a
strategic reason to stay out of the crowd
Clutter is an issue in advertising as well as it is in Social Media

26. Let’s play
Which is the most trending Social Network now? State the first three in your opinion
Which SN is delivering the best conversion rate towards e-commerce platforms?
Where does people search for information before purchasing a good?
What do you think about Twitter? State a three words description of the SN

27. Let’s play
What can we learn from these graphs?

28. Let’s play
Audience still matters

29. Let’s play
Keep the panel wider to get the big picture

30. Let’s play
Search is still, and it will probably remain dominant when searching and in
delivering traffic toward e-commerce platforms

31. Let’s play
Most active audiences are not necessarily where they are supposed to be

32. Key facts
#1 - The perfect cake cutting technique
#2 - Looking from outside into your offices, hitting the streets to understand people
#3 - The greatest effort we have to accomplish in complex environment such as social
media is not getting lost in translation
#4 - Do not follow the hype for the sake of it

33. Key fact #5
There are a lot of details a customer may catch by herself, some will be suggested by people
she is shopping with, others will be stressed by the sales person. Words and gestures to bring
to her attention element contributing to build the inner value of the dress and its monetary value,
the price she is going to pay for it.
Now, think being at home, or commuting or in a bar looking online for a dress saw during the
Fashion Shows. It was posted by a famous brand or by an influencer on their proprietary
channels. While the sales assistant may play the role of the physical translator, online this
resources is lost.

34. Let’s play
How many of you have purchased clothing goods online?
How was your experience? How much money did you
spend?

35. Let’s play

36. Key facts
#1 - The perfect cake cutting technique
#2 - Looking from outside into your offices, hitting the streets to understand people
#3 - The greatest effort we have to accomplish in complex environment such as social
media is not getting lost in translation
#4 - Do not follow the hype for the sake of it
#5 - The commercial comfort zone