Sass and Bide have recently become more involved in technology when it comes to

marketing and promotion; their Spring/Summer 2012 collection was streamed online on the

London Fashion Week website, and they also have a Facebook page, as well as a blog.

However they do not have Twitter and Tumblr, like Topshop do.

Sass and Bide’s website is accessible worldwide, however their e-boutique is only available to

shop from in Australia. They are also involved in celebrity seeding – they would send a

covering letter to fashion editors in New York and London (to start with) asking them to ‘try

their jeans’, 6 out of 12 editors wrote back declaring their love for the jeans, which would

then result in celebrities endorsing them.

Sass and Bide have claimed in the past to have ‘a policy of no advertising’, focusing instead

on word-of-mouth through friends, celebrities and fashion editors, as they are ‘more

interested in an intimate marketing campaign’. However, when marketing overseas, e.g. The

United States, they chose ‘a few celebrities’ who would represent the label, and also did/do

instore appearances in New York and Los Angeles, with stylists and editors of US magazines,

as they felt they had to work harder with promotion in the US. The brand could improve pro-

motion in the UK market, by making appearances at their concessions

in department stores e.g. Harvey Nichols, as this could potentially

create more hype for the brand in the UK.

Topshop, like Sass and Bide, have a mailing list where you can sign

up to receive the latest news, looks, and style notes. Topshop have

also used celebrity endorsement with Kate Moss, when the collection

first launched in 2007, thousands of people crowded around

Topshop’s flagship store (Oxford Street, London) as she made a

personal appearance alongside her designs. Recently, the Kate Iconic

collection was launched, which features ten of the most popular sell-

out pieces from the whole fourteen collections she has designed.

Topshop also do menswear and babywear (as well as womenswear),

something that Sass and Bide could look at developing into, to

increase sales and popularity, and both brands could develop further

into childrenswear or homeware. Topshop announced they will be live

streaming their catwalk show at LFW for September’s S/S ‘12, which

Sass and Bide also did, giving customer’s exclusive catwalk action,

online from home.

Strengths

Sass and Bide first made an appearance on the catwalk in

2001, at Mercedes-Benz Australian Fashion Week, which

gained them an invitation to show at LFW in 2002. From 2003,

they appeared on New York’s Fashion Week for eight

consecutive seasons, and when back on LFW in 2011, they live

streamed their collection online on LFW’s website. The brand’s

technology is not only online but also instore, showing catwalk

shows of their latest collection on television screens. Other

technology strengths of Sass and Bide include their Facebook

page and their online mailing list.

Weaknesses

However, the designer duo currently only have their e-boutique available for

customers in Australia, therefore losing out on potential sales with every

international customer that visits their website, who is unaware of their

country’s online stockists for the brand. Another disadvantage of Sass and Bide

is that they currently only cater for women.

Opportunities

The opportunities currently available to Sass and Bide are opening a store in

London, something which they are currently looking into. They would also

become more popular if they were more involved with social networking sites,

such as Twitter .And if their online e-boutique could expand to an international

online shopping site, the brand would be much more accessible to customers

worldwide.

Threats

Threats to Sass and Bide include the lack of promotion

worldwide; making appearances in department stores and

introducing familiar celebrity icons to other countries, would

create a larger profile for the brand, and also still keeping to

their ‘no advertising policy’, and repeating past international

promotion. Competitor brands, like Emilio Pucci, are available

off their own site, internationally, and promotes worldwide, with

the use of Magazine advertisement and Billboards. The designer

duo could invest in other departments other than womenswear,

to give them a competitive advantage over rival brands, such

as Pucci.

Blogs

Ftape, 2011. Matthew Williamson To Launch ‘Escape’ Line. http://www.ftape.com/media/?p=10668 [blog] Available at: http://www.ftape.com/media/?p=10668

Books

Posner, Harriet. 2011, Marketing Fashion, London, England, Laurence King Publishing Ltd

Bradley, Frank. 2005, International Marketing Strategy Fifth Edition, Essex, England, Pearson Educated Limited.

Images

Matthew Williamson Packaging. [image online] Available at: http://www.seadesign.co.uk/Work/Fashion/MatthewWilliamson.html

Photo by Stuart Wilson/Getty Images Europe, 2011. Celebrities On The Front Row at London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2012. [image online] Available at: http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/GxGba0HBukG/Celebrities+Front+Row+London+Fashion+Week/1_76IUce_5Y/Poppy+Delevigne [Assessed September 15th 2011]

Phil OH, 2011. Natalie Joos, Sass & Bide London. [image online] Available at: http://streetpeeper.com/fashion/natalie-joos-sass-

bide-london Vanessa Jackman, 2010. Melbourne Street Style...A little bit Sass & Bide. [image online] Available at:

http://vanessajackman.blogspot.com/2010/05/melbourne-street-stylea-little-bit-sass.html Beyonce wears Sass & Bide to MTV awards. [image online] Available at: http://superette-store.blogspot.com/2009/12/beyonce-

wears-sass-bide-to.html [Assessed December 16th 2009] Fresh faced & fancy free… [image online] Available at: http://blog.sassandbide.com/ [Assessed November 30th 2011] Bag love… x [image online] Available at: http://blog.sassandbide.com/ [Assessed November 21st 2011] SJP reunion! [image online] Available at: http://blog.sassandbide.com/ [Assessed November 7th 2011]

From the archives… Sass loves Bide [image online] Available at: http://blog.sassandbide.com/ [Assessed November 1st 2011] Backstage pass x [image online] Available at: http://blog.sassandbide.com/ [Assessed September 29th 2011] Seekerstate – Sass & Bide at LFW September 2011 [image online] September 19th 2011. Available at:

http://blog.sassandbide.com/ Lily braves the elements x [blog] September 12th 2011. Available at: http://blog.sassandbide.com/

Behind ‘King of plenty’… [image online] Available at: http://blog.sassandbide.com/ [Assessed September 7th 2011] Sass and Bide love instyle…x [image online] Available at: http://blog.sassandbide.com/ [Assessed June 27th 2011] We’re on sale….. Enjoy! x [image online] Available at: http://blog.sassandbide.com/ [Assessed June 8th 2011]

Magazines

Vogue Italia, Swimwear 2011

Vogue Australia, May 2011

Websites

TORfx, 2011. Foreign Currency Market Update – GBP / AUD Update. [online] Available at: http://www.torfx.com/blog/topics/gbp-aud-update/ [Assessed November 15th 2011]

Facebook, 2011. Sass and Bide. [online] Available at: http://www.facebook.com/sassandbide

Tumblr, 2011. Topshop Tumblr. [online] Available at: http://topshop.tumblr.com/ Harvey Nichols, 2011. Harvey Nichols. [online] Available at: www.harveynichols.com, then search ‘Sass and Bide’ Harrods, 2011. Harrods. [online] Available at: http://www.harrods.com/brand/sass-and-bide Net-a-porter, 2011. Net-a-porter.com. [online] Available at: http://www.net-a-porter.com/Shop/Designers/Sass_and_bide

Survey Monkey, 2011. Survey Monkey. [online] Available at: www.surveymonkey.com Erdem, 2011. Erdem: Press. [online] Available at: http://www.erdem.co.uk/press.php Emilio Pucci, 2011. Emilio Pucci Timeline. [online] Available at: http://home.emiliopucci.com/pucci-then-now/timeline Sassy Bella, 2011. Sassy Bella. [online] Available at: http://www.sassybella.com/

Matthew Williamson, 2011. Matthew Williamson Escape. [online] Available at: http://www.matthewwilliamson.com/shop/uk/autumn-winter-collection/escape-spring-2011.html

Australian Magazine Subscriptions, 2011. Australian Fashion Magazines. [online] Available at: http://magazinesubscriptionsaustralia.net/australian-fashion/

Oyster, 2011. Oyster. [online] Available at: http://oystermag.com/

Zimbio, 2011. Sass + Bide Launch Sunglasses: Australian Designing Friends Do King of Plenty Shades. [online] Available at: http://www.zimbio.com/Heidi+Middleton/articles/DM1Tf8Sulbo/Sass+Bide+Launch+Sunglasses+Australian+Designing

London Fashion Week, 2011. LFW TV. [online] Available at: http://www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/lfw_tv_home.aspx Vogue, 2010. Australian Invasion. [online] Available at: http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2010/07/13/sass-and-bide-target-london-

market HM Revenue & Customs, 2011. Increase in the standard rate of VAT to 20 per cent. [online] Available at:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/forms-rates/rates/rate-increase.htm Financial Review, 2003. Doing it for themselves: the young entrepreneurs. [online] Available at:

http://www.afrboss.com/events/transcript.asp?eventid=387

Direct Gov, 2011. The National Minimum Wage rates. [online] Available at: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/TheNationalMinimumWage/DG_10027201

Australian Government Fair Work, 2011. National minimum wage. [online] Available at: http://www.fairwork.gov.au/pay/national-minimum-wage/pages/default.aspx

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