Monday 28 October 2013

ASOS Male App - Primary Research

Over the last couple weeks I have begun to plan my primary research.

I have initially created a questionnaire to be posted out via social media and hopefully completed by Males to give me a better insight to what content they would most like to read on the app. I will be collating all the results and creating tables to be included in the report.

The Questionaire

Menswear App Survey

*Required

    Are you Male or Female? *


    How old are you?


    Do you have a smart phone and or a tablet?


    Do you use apps?


    Do you have an IOS or Android supported phone/tablet?


    What is your favourite app? *

    If ASOS had a free dedicated Menswear app would you download it? *


    What content would you be interested in on an ASOS Menswear app? (Select as many as you wish)

    To try and get at much response as possible I have posted the link to the questionaire on my Facebook and Twitter pages. This was really useful and the majority of the responses were obtained in this way!

    I also put the questionnaire on a Mens section of a style fourm to see if there was any feedback around it. At the moment there has been no feedback at all but I shall keep an eye on it!


    Interviews

    Below shows the 3 interview with the 3 ASOS staff members.

    From the interviews the main things to come out of them were that the 3 ASOS staff members were positive about the idea of the Menswear app being launched. The brand personality and tone of voice were highlighted as key things to be considered when launching the app. The content suggestion and musical start 'James Blake' interview were really helpful too and something that I will look to carry through for the content plan.

    LOGO FOCUS GROUP

    Today I held a mini focus group around my desk at work to help narrow down the logos from the final ones shown in the presentation slides. Luke, Jack and DJ were really helpful and had lots of feedback around the Logos. The initial ones they voiced weren't stand out enough and may get lost amongst any background designs. We ran wit the typewriter effect in some of the earlier logo designs and then after some quick amendments and developments came up with the final logo used. With vintage and old school text being used more in culture at the moment such a 'Broadwalk Empire' and the 'Great Gatsby' it seems fitting, current and relevant. Whilst at the same time being subtle.

    Strategy Meeting - Nick R and Domonic

    This week we had our end of year strategy meeting with presentations and details for next years plans. 
    ASOS PLC (2013) The Fashion Destination [Online] Available athttp://www.asosplc.com/~/media/Files/A/ASOS/results-archive/pdf/fy-2013-presentation.pdf (Accessed 20/11/13)
    Main themes to come out of the strategy meeting that I noted and are worth bearing in mind for the project are 
  • The Magazine has 500,000 readers a month
  • Fashion Up had 820,000 downloads in it's first year!
  • 48 million units were sold last year alone - 138 thousand a day!
  • 800 brands on ASOS at the moment.
  • Men are more likely to use Youtube than women.
At the end of the strategy I was able to ask Nick Robertson (CEO) Dominic (Head of Strategy) and Ben Piears (Head of Menswear Content) a couple of questions quickly. I asked: 

If they felt that more focus was directed at Womenswear marketing and would Menswear be a focus for next year?

They agreed it was in years gone by and that the menswear marketing budget would be increased next year due to the large marketing budget. - This was a positive response and encouraging that there is budget available for LOWDOWN.

If they felt Men were at a disadvantage where ASOS Premier was concerned as there is no magazine or App available for men?

The disagreed with this as they believe a traditional print magazine would not be viable or relevant to the ASOS Male. They did however agree Premier was more sided with female customers in terms of benefits.


Would they consider launching and ASOS Blog/digital content app?

Nick said this is something Head of Menswear Stefano has been keen to do for a while, however it would need to be 100% right for the brand and customer and not just for the sake of it. It's not something they're against but the proposal would need to be spot on.

What is Menswears vision?

The same as womenswear - to be the number 1 online shopping destination for 20 somethings.

Describe the Menswear Brand in 4 words?

Accessible, Credible, Simple and Relevant

What is the ASOS Menswear Tone of voice?

Youthful, humorous, informative, masculine, credible, energetic, honest and relevant

Overall I feel the strategy meeting provided valuable insight into the brand and Menswear specifically. The fact that YouTube is popular amongst their male consumer will be noted when planning content as videos are clearly more appealing. The fact their vision is the same as womenswear is also key and LOWDOWN will need to full fill this vision and as Nick said it will need to be relevant and right and not just done for the sake of it!

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ASOS Male App - Secondary Research from ASOS Material

I've been doing lots of research over the last couple of weeks and have found some really useful articles and information. I have posted the majority of what I have collated so far and will keep adding to it regularly. I'm going to focus on academic sources this week such as Mintel etc and then specifically look into the Menswear market.

 The below caption was taken from the ASOS website and I found it to be a really good basis that I can refer back to when planning details of the Menswear app to ensure I have their core beliefs and aims at the heart of everything I'm doing.
The ASOS target customer as noted on their site:

http://www.asosplc.com/how-we-do-it.aspx - accessed 22/10/13

Overview

Our core customer is the twenty-something fashion-lover: an avid consumer and communicator who is inspired by friends, celebrities and the media.
We are obsessive about understanding them so we can join their conversation and offer them the fashion they want.

Who they are

Setting trends or following them, most twenty-somethings are engaged with fashion.
For them, their clothing – and beyond that, their style – expresses their identity and helps them assert their individuality.
Twenty-something consumers lead digital lives: they have instant access to information, communicate constantly with friends and broadcast their daily lives and thoughts across the social networks. For them this level of communication and interaction is what they’ve grown up with.
And fashion matters to them: 67% of under-25s believe how they look is important with almost three quarters of all young women saying they enjoy shopping for clothes*.
That’s because fashion is also entertainment. These young consumers don’t just like to shop online. They follow and often comment on celebrity trends; they blog their own “fashion editorial”; they broadcast their thoughts on style in soundbites on social networks and via YouTube.
How do they like to shop?
Two thirds of those aged 19-25 shop online because it’s faster and easier**. And they are responding in different ways to the financial squeeze – for example, in the UK we’ve found that the 18-21-year-old group is the most likely to shop according to discounts compared to those in their mid or late twenties*.
* Mintel Young Fashion Report December 2011 ** ASOS Finance analysis by age bracket February 2012

http://www.asosplc.com/how-we-do-it.aspx - accessed 28/10/2013

App Potential Postings


http://www.asosplc.com/how-we-do-it.aspx#section2 accessed 19/10/13

‘We talk style, beauty, celebrities, music, and television and we do it through high quality editorial, on our blogs, through our Magazine and in our daily edits and updates.’ 
These are really useful subjects to bear in mind when thinking about the content of the Menswear app.

Future Plans



This screen grab above from the ASOS website is really interesting. As stated they are ‘concentrating more then ever on appealing to men’ And in the 2012 menswear sales jumped by 24%. The launch of the low down app should hopefully further this growth and assist with appealing to the wider male market.

http://www.asosplc.com/how-we-do-it.aspx#section2 accessed 19/10/13


This is a really positive article that I came across on The Drum website. It shows that ASOS has 7.1 million active users and that their focus for the next year is to develop apps – good news for the proposed Lowdown app!

http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/10/23/asos-continue-mobile-app-development-strategic-markets-it-reveals-growth-71-million accessed 14/10/2013 accessed 24/10/13

Current Focus



As we can see from the above screen grab from the ASOS site the ASOS Magazine is purely focused on Women. All 12 cover stars from the last year have been women and there is not Menswear editorial included. The Magazine is part of the ASOS Premier Subscription offer so to alienate this benefit from males could potentially discourage men from joining.

http://www.asosplc.com/how-we-do-it.aspx#section2 accessed 19/10/13



As you can see from this page in the ASOS Magazine from May 2013 ASOS currently has 3 apps, the scan to shop app (for the magazine) the Fashion Up app and the general ASOS shopping app. Out of all 3 there is no specific app direct at the Male customer in the Same was the Fashion Up is for the Females. Bearing in mind the Magazine is just womenswear the Scan to shop app would be redundant on the Male customer base.

Ambition 





The launch of ‘low down’ perfectly fits in line with ASOS’ ambition as shown below on their website

http://www.asosplc.com/our-ambition-and-strategy.aspx - accessed 19/10/2013
Men's Editorial From The Site

Back in September ASOS launched the ‘Daily Edit’ feature on their site. The Menswear page on average has 1 post a day including funny news storys, tv/film edits and product features. This is the key kind of editorial that could be featured in the Low Down App and shows that ASOS Menswear has not been totally missed out of ASOS’ Marketing and Social plans.
Germany's Winter Olympics Team – Josh Woodfin 22/10/13

http://www.asos.com/men/fashion-news/2013/october/wc_21st/style-icon-winter-olympics/?WT.ac=ED|MW|dest|list||1022GERM accessed 22/10/13
This shows a more humours and witty side to the ASOS Menswear Tone of Voice. It shows they’re not afraid to be more risqué than the women’s side of ASOS and this is key when planning features for the app to stay true to the ASOS Menswear brand tone.
Fifty shades casting takeover Alistair Mulhall 17/10/13
http://www.asos.com/men/fashion-news/2013/october/wc_14th/50-shades-casting-takeover/?WT.ac=ED|MW|dest|list||1017FIFT  accessed 22/10/13

https://twitter.com/ASOS_Menswear - accessed 22/10/13

This screen grab from the @ASOS_Menswear twitter really shows the ASOS Menswear direction and the language they use emphasises the laid back and witty style they have. The top tweet Today, Apple is announcing the new iPad. Yesterday, bought the existing iPad at full price. Loving life!’ is a really great example of possible content that could be extended to create a full feature on the Low Down App. The imagery used in their twitter background is also worth noting, it shows informal and casual looking males perhaps a representation of their target customer. This again is something that should be continued through to the app to create fluidity and ensure the app is following the ASOS Menswear branding across all platforms.



http://fashionfinder.asos.com/fashion-trends/mens-aw13/style-tribes/day-off-860?ffcta6-131010 accessed 22/10/2013
Men’s fashion does lightly feature in the ASOS Fashion Finder section with ‘Which weekend styles are you’ features and users uploading their own street style looks. It shows the ASOS Male is a conscious consumer and is keen to actively get involved. Hopefully these users will benefit from the launch of the Low Down app and actively read the content on their mobiles when they’re out and about, travelling or at a lecture!

ASOS 2012/13 Financial Report

The ASOS 2012/13 financial report was released this week. I have read through it and watched all the presentations that are available. We also had a meeting with the Exec Board with plans for the future financial year. Key things I took from the end of year report are shown below:




 The Fashion Destination – desktop and mobile  -Source – google analytics and web trends http://www.asosplc.com/~/media/Files/A/ASOS/results-archive/pdf/fy-2013-presentation.pdf - accessed 20/11/13

  • Enhanced mobile phone and tablet sites – these now account for 30% of visits
  •  Rebuilding of key IT and web platforms to handle our future volumes
•         We constantly enhance our websites
 to ensure we offer the most engaging customer experience, with particular focus on developing and improving our mobile sites and apps as these represent an ever- increasing proportion of our traffic and sales. 
      The above statements and figures are really useful when looking at my business proposal as ASOS are already aware of the importance of apps and mobile sites.
The below shows their risks assessment for the forthcoming year taken again from the annual report

 http://www.asosplc.com/~/media/Files/A/ASOS/results-archive/pdf/annual-report-2013.pdf - 16/11/13
      Outlook
•         We have started the new financial year positively. Our £1 billion sales target is now firmly in our sights and we have stepped up our investment in people, technology, logistics and marketing to support the significant global
The above shows that ASOS are in a good financial position to invest due a really strong year that they have had and that technology and marketing will be a key focus next year!
 Technological Risks
Failure or interruption of or denial of access
to information technology systems and infrastructure
The Group is dependent on its IT infrastructure and any system performance issues (for example system or infrastructure failure, damage or denial of access) could seriously affect our ability to trade.
To combat that
Ongoing investment made in IT systems to ensure that they are able to continue to respond to the needs of the business and do not become obsolete.
• Back-up facilities in place to ensure that business interruptions are minimised and internal and customer data is protected from corruption or unauthorised use.
• Business recovery plans in place to minimise effects of damage or denial of access to infrastructure or systems.
Technology Risk
Failure to adopt technological innovations
Internet retailing is based on rapidly changing technologies and failure to adopt new technological platforms to reach its target market could impact ASOS’s performance.
Combat        
Proactive approach to adopting technological developments to retain appeal within core customer market.
• Proactive approach to collecting and analysing data from customer spend and site usage habits to try to establish any important trends.
The above risks and combat strategies show that I need to consider any risks within my project as they are clearly important to ASOS.
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Wednesday 23 October 2013

New Approach



So I've been racking my brains after the last few weeks and have felt a little stressed by everything to be honest. Having to start over kind of put me back to square one and I felt overwhelmed and daunted all over again.

I started to look back at my previous work and came across an idea I came up with on another subject. After a branding module we had to conclude and make a suggestion based on the brand we had looked at. Working at ASOS I decided to do my branding project on them and the end suggestion was to introduce a male magazine or app as I felt the Menswear side of the site was lacking when compared to the female section and their competitors. The suggestions were never developed however I really enjoyed the project and still firmly stand by my suggestion and think it would be a great avenue for ASOS to explore. I therefor decided at the end of last week to go ahead with the ASOS Menswear digital App/Magazine.

I'm going to start some secondary research again this week to allow me to develop the idea and assist with my primary research that I will start shortly.

I feel much calmer now that I have set an idea and having completed research on this area before I feel confident that no major issuers will occur that prevent me proceeding with it. I also spoke to Frances about the idea in your last lecture and she seemed really positive and was happy for me to go ahead.

I'm actually quite excited now to get my teeth into this and really get it started! There's a light at the end of the tunnel some might say...


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Friday 18 October 2013

Disaster Strikes

So over summer after contacting 6 app agencies it seems that 'browse' isn't going to be a possibility. I'm super sad about this and I'm feeling slightly disheartened about the whole thing as it really was something I was passionate about and thought would work! 
This responses below from 2 of the app development agencies pretty much sums up all the reply's that I got

THE APP DEVELOPERS


Interesting one this, our main issue is where would we get this information from? For example if I want to buy a "yellow dress" there would need to be a database in place which holds this information. You would need every fashion retailer to buy into the App idea… or you would to create your own search engine to rival that of Google..this is looking pretty huge. These a lot of algorithm search coding required and whilst a very good idea, I can't even begin to put a price on how much it would cost to develop it. We're talking of a £6 figure some i'm afraid.
The thought process that goes into developing an app which looks & works beautifully, when we take into account the above mentioned UI, design, features, testing, webservers, user management/ friend lists, features & functions; app development costs more than what you may think, we are not a cheap get the App's in, get them out oversea based agency, but we are not an expensive London based App development agency either! We will come forward with all our creativity & talent and it depends on how much work you require us to do. I.e fashion designer buy in to categorise the clothes, whether you could provide us with pictures of each (unlikely?!)…thats before we get down to creating the bare bones of the App! 
This is simply huge! A lot of back ground work needs to be done to make the App work, the App has to go and get this information from somewhere…i'm afraid this particular idea, at this present time is a bit of a non-starter. :(
All the best,

Jack

Jack Sheehan
I Organise Things


THE APP DEVELOPERS
MOBILE APPLICATION & GAME DEVELOPMENT  

GEEK HQ  01234 834 822  
jack@the-app-developers.co.uk  |  www.the-app-developers.co.uk
The Innovation Centre, Priory Business Park, Stannard Way, Bedford, MK44 3RZ


On 31 May 2013, at 09:31, Sarah Jones <s.lou.jones@btinternet.com> wrote:
Hey Jack,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, been a bit hectic with work.
Perfect, I can't talk on the phone right now as I'm at work but basically it's an app to simplify the process of online shopping through launching a dedicated personalised app to browse your favorite selected brands; an easier, bespoke way to shop the brands you love on your mobile.
 
My idea is to launch a new app called 'browse' to ease shopping online. Everyone has their favourite 'go to brands' whose web pages/apps they visit regularly or daily in my case. Typing in each web address, going to each app and searching for a specific style item ie 'yellow dress' on each site can be laborious and time consuming. Browse is a dedicated app which you personalise to search all your favourite brands for you. Want to check the new in of your top brands; browse will pull all the items into one page for you, creating your own unique online high street. You can then click through to purchase from the brands web page. The plan is for it to also feature your personal online wardrobe remembering everything you have purchased online so you can plan outfits, upload pictures, tag the brand and up load them to your social media pages.
I'm thinking the app could be free as there are a few similar concepts and mainly they are free or like £0.99. 
I've attached the signed NDA for you.
Thanks!
Sarah


THE CONNECTED SET


It's a nice idea Sarah - although probably quite a tough one to make any money from.
One of the issues that immediately springs to mind is the information about each item - so for example when I search on topshop's website I can use filters to say I'm looking for, let's say a pair of trainers that are new this season, yellow, size 11 and under £50.  All of this information (called 'metadata') is stored by the retailer in their own website but isn't openly available to external companies/apps/etc.  What you would have to do to make this a success is speak to the individual retailers and let them access their metadata - this would be really time consuming.  There are ways you could cheat it, for example 'screen-scraping' where your app tries to figure out what's new/yellow/under £50 etc by automatically searching retailers website (like google searches webpages) but this would be expensive and possibly unreliable.
I think generally something like this could be very expensive just because of the huge amount of information that needs to be collected from retailers.  Also - the referral fees you'd likely get would be low.  I used to work with the Telegraph Fashion pages who link to retailers through their 'handpicked' section and the affiliate fees retailers would pay for referrals was so tiny it was hardly worth it - and that's a huge brand like The Telegraph!
I don't want to put you off your idea as it's good but probably not one you'd earn anything from - but I could be completely wrong!

Good luck with it,
Jason

Jason Mitchell
Creative Director, The Connected Set
mobile: 07747 035149
office: 020 8617 1744
address: UGLI Campus, 56 Wood Lane, London W12 7SB
twitter: @theconnectedset | @jasemitch
web: http://theconnectedset.com

On 28 May 2013 16:25, Sarah Jones <s.lou.jones@btinternet.com> wrote:
Hey Jason,

Perfect, I can't talk on the phone right now as I'm at work but basically it's an app to simplify the process of online shopping through launching a dedicated personalised app to browse your favorite selected brands; an easier, bespoke way to shop the brands you love on your mobile.
 
My idea is to launch a new app called 'browse' to ease shopping online. Everyone has their favourite 'go to brands' whose web pages/apps they visit regularly or daily in my case. Typing in each web address, going to each app and searching for a specific style item ie 'yellow dress' on each site can be laborious and time consuming. Browse is a dedicated app which you personalise to search all your favourite brands for you. Want to check the new in of your top brands; browse will pull all the items into one page for you, creating your own unique online high street. You can then click through to purchase from the brands web page. The plan is for it to also feature your personal online wardrobe remembering everything you have purchased online so you can plan outfits, upload pictures, tag the brand and up load them to your social media pages.
I'm thinking the app could be free as there are a few similar concepts and mainly they are free or like £0.99.

Thoughts?
Thanks
Sarah



 So looks like it's back to the drawing board for now!



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