Topshop, you're on to something.

I think I've found my dream job.


At the new Topshop on Broadway in New York City that opened on April 2nd, the masses have lined up and signed up to be a part of the latest retail phenomenon. The NYC Topshop location is offering a handful of what they call "style advisers" to their customers. The advisers are young, trendy, confident and of course charismatic enough to make sales of at least several hundred dollars per transaction. Most of the advisers are students or recent graduates trying to get their foot in the door in the fashion industry. To seek the counsel of these personal stylists, customers have to make an appointment in advance, and they usually last two hours.

This is an amazing thing that Topshop is doing. I realize they are not the first; Neiman Marcus has been doing following a similiar system for years, but Topshop is offering personal assistance with the most trendy merchandise out there. Their clothing is more affordable, more fun, and caters to the most experimental target market there is. They're smart to add something to their retail recipe that makes them stand out against the rest. I hope they can keep this going and continue using style advisers in the rest of the stores they (hopefully!) open across the United States.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/fashion/09TOPSHOP.html

Thinking about advertising on social networking sites? Think again.

According to this article on time.com (http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1888796,00.html) the use of social networking sites as an advertising avenue may not be as effective as we consumer, apparel and retail students may have thought. The article highlights the issue that although social networking sites such as Facebook, Google and Youtube have millions upon millions of users and viewers, their ability to make money is lacking a great deal. It sites the reasoning for this lack of profits to the nontraditional model of social networking sites. They don't follow the same rules that engaged so many mareketers to the internet. Advertising on the internet consists of targeting specific groups, but that is not easy to achieve on websites like Facebook. Facebook is filled with millions of users who may or may not be exactly who they say they are, and although different advertisements may appear on your homepage depending on what you have listed as interests and activities on your profile, overall the website is far too unorderly. Why waste your time advertising to a group you can't identify when you could go directly to them from another website? It makes sense, and is something we should all think about when discussing marketing trends. The internet can be so ambigious, you never really know exactly what or who you're targeting or talking to, and for big time ad agencies and companies, this is a risk not worth taking.