Geo-Fencing in Urban Fashion Retailing

ABSTRACTMobile marketing is on a roll right now. Geo-fencing as an essential part of the mobile marketing exploits the potential of the urban fashion industry.

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Table of Contents

Technology 3What’s Geo-Fencing? 3How it works? 4Why Geo-Fencing (Overall Perspective)? 5Why Geo-Fencing (Organizational Perspective)?6How Can We Apply This Technology? 7Current Applications In General 8

Industry 9Characteristics of Urban Fashion Industry 9Brand 10Targeted Customers 10Future Trend of Urban Fashion Brand 12Current Applications In Urban Fashion Industry 13

Future ..14What’s the Next? 14

Exhibit 16

References 21

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Technology

What’s Geo-Fencing ?

“A Geofence is a virtual perimeter on a geographic area using a location-

based service, so that when the geofencing device enters or exits the area a

notification is generated. The notification can contain information about the

location of the device and might be sent to a mobile telephone or an email

account.”1

Geo-fencing is a feature in a software program that uses the global positioning system

(GPS) or radio frequency identification (RFID) to define geographical boundaries.

Geo-fence programs allow an administrator to set up triggers so when a device

crosses a geo-fence and enters or exits the boundaries defined by the administrator, an

SMS or email alert is sent. (Exhibit 1)

The “mother of all geo-fencing patents”, Where. Patent No. 7848765, also defines a

geo-fence as possibly being “associated with a moving location that is associated with

a portable electronic device.” In this case, the geo-fence is placed around individual

users and moves with them. The patent describes practically every mobile app with

any kind of geo-trigger, from simple “location-based alerts” to “verifying transactions

and tailoring information to the behavior of a user. ” (Exhibit 2) The full abstract

reads:

“Provided herein are methods and systems relating to location-based services

such as social networking, providing demographic information, tracking

mobile devices, providing business information, providing an adaptable user

interface, remotely effecting a change on a portable electronic device,

providing a geofence, outputting location-based information on a mobile

device, varying transmissions to and from a mobile device, providing location-

based alerts, verifying transactions and tailoring information to the behavior

of a user”2

1 Wikipedia. "Geofence." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 17 Jan. 2011. Web. 5 Apr. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geofence>.2 Schonfeld, Erick. "Where Is Awarded The “Mother Of All Geofencing Patents”." TechCrunch. 21 Dec. 2010. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. <http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/21/where-geofencing-patent/>.

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Overall, geo-fencing can be defined as the creation of boundaries that trigger an

action or notification when a person enters or exits the area, or as a predefined place

around individual users and move around with them. In this paper, the focus is on the

geo-fencing technology and applications from the retailer’s perspectives; which

means that we define a geo-fencing as a virtual boundary that triggers an action or

notification when a person enters or exits the area.

How it works?

Geo-fencing can rely either directly on GPS tracking technology or on the carrier’s

network to establish a subscriber’s location. A smart phone or GPS enabled phone is

not a requirement.

On the basis of GPS tracking technology, the GPS receiver’s location is recorded and

transmitted through a wireless network. (Exhibit 3) The placement of a

boundary-“fence”- can be set by entering a center point and length of radius on a

street image; a square made by dragging over an area of a map with a mouse; or, with

some GPS tracking devices, several exact coordinates can be input, and the area will

be defined by connecting the points in a polygon shape. When the vehicle or the

person enters or exits the boundary, it is recorded and the notification including email

or SMS text messages will be delivered to the user. In the situation in which geo-

fencing relies on the carrier’s network to establish a subscriber’s location, instead of

locating mobile users by GPS tracking technology, the carrier’s network adopts the

network-based tracking techniques that utilize the service provider’s network

infrastructure to identify the location of the handset.3 (Exhibit 4)

Whether geo-fencing works on the basis of GPS tracking technology or via the

carrier’s network, these two applications have their advantages and disadvantages.

While the carrier’s network enables geo-fencing to work for the regular cell phone,

broadening the base of potential users, geo-fencing loses the opportunity to be further

integrated with other mobile marketing application such as Augmented Reality or

Location- Based Service. While a GPS enabled smart phone has applications, it limits

3 Tracking a suspect by mobile phone: Tracking SIM and handset". BBC News. 2005-08-03. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4738219.stm. Retrieved 2010-01-02.

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the audience, given that only 21% of American wireless subscribers were using a

smart phone in 2009.4

Why Geo-Fencing (Overall Perspective)?

Why markets and retailers should adopt the geofencing? What are its advantages and

disadvantages? According to Alistair Goodman, CEO with Placecast:

“Consumers can opt in to engage with a brand they care about and we create

geo-fences to areas which are relevant to the brand. When a consumer crosses

a geo-fence, they get a message relevant to the brand and to the area they are

in.”5

Geo-fencing enables retailers or marketers to deliver a message to the consumers at a

certain place and time, including location relevant information, in an environment

friendly way and at low cost6. The message sent to the consumers would not only to

drive traffic to the stores but also to acknowledge them about what they can do to

engage with the brand. And, the location relevant information such as weather or

traffic headlines would remind customers of the existence of the stores, increasing the

brand awareness, as well as the brand attitude. Furthermore, the coupon or promotion

inside the message also would increase the purchasing intention of potentials

customers.

Beyond the message, geo-fencing doesn’t require users to have a smart phone or to

open up specific apps all the time. Delivering information through notifications/ text,

geo-fencing frees its users to manage hundreds of different apps on the control panel

of their smart phones, and doesn’t eat up their batteries. In a landscape where

smartphones don’t yet represent the majority of mobile phones (as of the fourth

quarter 2009, Nielsen estimates 21 % of American wireless subscribers were using a

4 Vazquez, Paloma. "Geo-Fencing: A Location-Based Service Alternative - PSFK." PSFK - the Go-to Source for New Ideas and Inspiration for Creative Professionals. 18 Oct. 2010. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. <http://www.psfk.com/2010/10/geo-fencing-a-location-based-service-alternative.html>.5 Knight, Kristina. "Geo-fencing Gives Message Options to Brands - Advertising - BizReport." BizReport - News & Insight for Online Marketers. 14 Sept. 2010. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. <http://www.bizreport.com/2010/09/geo-fencing-gives-message-options-to-brands.html>.6 "GPS Cell Phone Tracking - I Know Where You Are." Maps and GPS Info - Useful Information on Maps and GPS. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. <http://www.maps-gps-info.com/gps-cell-phone-tracking.html>.

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smartphone), geo-fencing may represent an effective means of capturing a broader

consumer base with location-based offers.7

While geo-fencing brings in retailers and marketers various benefits, it also raises

privacy and safety concerns, and may erode the brand image of retailers or brands by

bombarding and pushing customers.

Privacy Concern – In order to locate the customers inside and outside the geo-fence,

geo-fencing technology would need to locate the customers constantly. And that

would incur the privacy concern. According to Tasso Roumeliotis, CEO of

WaveMarket, the key to geo-fencing is being transparent to users and providing ways

to opt in and out of the services, which means explicitly telling users that a certain

application is accessing their location and reminding them periodically that it is still

active.8

Safety Concern – Because that most of the geo-fencing applications will send the

target customers notifications or text messages, it may distract them from driving and

therefore raise the safety concern.

Erode the Brand Image – The adoption of geo-fencing technology may not benefit the

retailers or marketers. According to Roumeliotis, the last thing people want is

somebody calling them, trying to sell something, and the second-to-last thing is

getting a text message trying to sell them something. Geo-fencing should always

provide a service, not an ad. Bombarding and pushing sales would not drive people in

the stores but would keep them aways and erode the brand image.

Why Geo-Fencing (Organizational Perspective)?

From the organization’s (the retailer’s) perspective, geo-fencing benefits various

departments in various ways:

7 Vazquez, Paloma. "Geo-Fencing: A Location-Based Service Alternative - PSFK." PSFK - the Go-to Source for New Ideas and Inspiration for Creative Professionals. 18 Oct. 2010. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. <http://www.psfk.com/2010/10/geo-fencing-a-location-based-service-alternative.html>.8 Manninen, JP. "“Geofencing” Enables New Location-based Apps, Raises Privacy Concerns | VentureBeat." Tech News | Innovation News | Money News | VentureBeat. 23 Apr. 2010. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. <http://venturebeat.com/2010/04/23/geofencing-pushes-services-to-phones/>.

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Marketing & Communication Department – Geo-Fencing enabled the retailers to

promote their product, especially for the launch of new or modified products, to

collect the response of consumer for sales projection and demand forecasting, to

personalize the message delivered to the targeted customers, and to increase the brand

awareness, brand purchasing intention and brand attitude.

Sales department – Geo-fencing would drive traffic in stores, therefore would assist to

increase sales volume and the cross selling opportunities.

Warehouse – Geo-fencing enables the retailers to do more promotions targeted at

different groups of customer, therefore, can reduce the slow inventory.

Store – Geo-fencing would drive traffic in specific stores, exposing the local retailer

to broader customer base.

How Can We Apply This Technology?

Currently, there are several third party geo-fencing services providers that are

enabling the retailers to carry no fixed cost for the infrastructure and at a low cost to

access the service. Take an example from AT&T ShopAlerts (Exhibit 5):

AT&T ShopAlerts – AT&T has become the first American carrier to throw its weight

behind location-based ads by teaming up with Placecast to launch the so-called AT&T

ShopAlerts service in four markets: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San

Francisco. For the retailers, ShopAlerts provides scalable soultions, messaging to the

widest audience, mindset messaging, proven best practices, consumer preferences,

and location-based analytics.

Scalable Solutions – ShopAlerts is licensed and deployed by operators, digital

marketing agencies, large retailers, and resellers around the world. The exposure of

this service broader the potential customer base for the retailers.

Messaging to The Widest Audience – ShopAlerts is not tied to any one app, operating

platform, carrier, or device, so it is scalable and can reach a mass audience.

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Mindset Messaging – Each message can be tailored dynamically based on place, day,

time, and CRM or loyalty data in order to deliver the most relevant messages to the

customers in the optimal mindset to take action.

Proven Best Practice – Placecast would assist the retailers to create and manage the

programs with customized geo-fences and messaging based on the marketing needs

and promotional calendars.

Consumer Preferences – The customers of retailers can manage their messaging

frequency and content preferences, which gives them much-appreciated control.

Location-Based Analytics – Quantitative and qualitative measurements are tacked in

order to support the retailers’ marketing strategy.

And for the potential customers of the retailers, what they have to do to enable the

geo-fencing is simply fill out some basic information such as phone number, e-mail,

age, gender, and zip code, in the AT&T website. (Exhibit 6)

Current Applications In General

Some companies such as Starbucks and North Face were already using geo-fencing in

order to attract their customers.

Starbucks – Starbucks used geo-fencing to send a coupon to customers through O2

More when they were near a Starbucks chain store. If you're passing a Starbucks and

you get a message alerting you to a discount on coffee, then you're much more likely

to make an impulse decision to buy a cup of coffee.9

The North Face – The North Face, which sells outdoor apparel and gear, launched a

new campaign using geo-fencing to send customers text messages as soon as they get

near a store in order to lure shoppers into its stores (Exhibit 7). A text message would

say, for example, “TNF: The new spring running apparel has hit the stores! Check it

out @ TNF Downtown Seattle.” When someone steps into the geo-fenced area, a text

message is sent, but only if consumers have opted in to receive messages.

9 Heine, Christopher. "Starbucks, L'Oreal Will Test Geo-Fencing for Six Months | ClickZ." ClickZ | Marketing News & Expert Advice. 14 Oct. 2010. Web. 5 Apr. 2011. <http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/1745856/starbucks-loreal-test-geo-fencing-months>.

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Industry

Characteristic of Urban Fashion Industry

Urban Fashion is also known as ‘City fashion’. The urban fashion wearing is not something

that is very new in the society. It is inspired by the street culture and is considered to be the

extension of the hip-hop culture and extreme sports. More than big baggy jeans, oversized

shirted, or fitted caps, urban fashion wearing includes a wide variety of styles and colors. The

expressive and bold designs uphold the “I have my own specific issues,” and represent a kind

of lifestyle.

The expressive nature of the urban fashion results in a market overcrowded with an array of

small fashion collections by hip-hop artists and by cities, and a very short product life span.

15 urban areas with the highest concentration multicultural people contribute the various

integrated elements to the styles of urban fashion wearing. This market is highly

fragmented10. In the realm of urban and hip-hop fashion, it is obvious that there are scores of

lifestyle brands that promote the hip hop and urban image, but there is no one brand that has

achieved the status of symbolizing hip hop, or urban fashion style more than the others11.

The urban fashion market is also a niche market. The highly fragmented market structure, the

short product life cycle, and hundreds of small fashion collections by artists and cities force

out national retailer and exclude the possibilities to build up the economic of scale. Moreover,

currently, most of the players in this industry focus their effort on the young customers aged

from 14 to 2412. With limited audiences, retailers have to really stand out from the others to

survive.

Even though the expressive nature of the urban fashion industry resulted in highly

fragmented and niche market structure, 2009 marked a new chapter for this market. While the

apparel industry suffered from the recession, the urban fashion market fueled by a more

sophisticated consumer with ready access to fashion news and information via the Internet13.

10 Kampe, Christopher, and Jonathon Cooper. Urban Fashion Retailing. Rep. Grant Thornton11 Breinholt, Jacob. "Lifestyle Brands: What Are They, and Why Do We Want Them so Badly?" Urban Clothing and Hip Hop Clothing. 19 June 2009. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. <http://www.sojones.com/news/1095-lifestyle-brands-what-are-they-and-why-do-we-want-them-so-badly/>.12 "The U.S Urban Youth Market : Tarketing The Trendsetters." (2001).13 Crawford, Caletha. "Gambling On Urban Fashion's New Mature Vibe (TAP) | The Atlanta Post | African-American News, Business News & Black Politics." African-American News, Business & Black Politics | Career & Small Business Advice For Entrepreneurs | The Atlanta Post. 03 Mar. 2010. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. <http://atlantapost.com/2010/03/03/gambling-on-urban-fashions-new-mature-vibe/

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Brand

To have better understanding of the urban fashion industry, we will introduce several famous

brands:

Ecko – This brand is primarily associated and identified to carry a particular urban

style and culture. Marc Ecko is the creative force behind Ecko Clothing brand.

Vokal – This brand is relatively new. It tries to ensure expansion of the urban clothing

culture that is to include the high-end velour, fleece loungewear and denims along

with the athletic jerseys of vivid color.

Baby Phat – It’s the world’ top brand for female urban hip-hop clothing. Having all its

aims centering the creation of a real blend of hip-hop style along with the more

sophisticated metropolitan fashion that would create a refined urban look for the

people who chooses their product in the mark, and its sexy and stylish designs, Baby

Phat has become the most happening brand amongst women all over the world.

Rocawear – This brand symbolizes a lifestyle that was launched off the astounding

sensation of Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter.

Akademiks – It s one of the most well know brands in the urban clothing market and is

extremely popular among youngsters.

Apple Bottoms – The undertaking of Apple Bottom jeans is to exhibit and accentuate

the natural curves of a woman. The jeans are perfectly crafted to fit different women’s

body shapes. This brand is one of the top urban fashion lines.

Sean John – Founding by Sean Diddy Combs, Sean John Clothing has grown to an

international empire. The company is certainly going to be viewed as the future of

urban fashion.

Overall, in the realm of the urban fashion, there is no one brand that can represent the urban

style alone. Various brands not only account for different products but distinct lifestyles.

Targeted Customers

Urban is a mindset. Although the targeted customers of the urban fashion brand all share

certain characteristics – they devote a significantly higher proportion of their expenditures in

clothing, apparel, and footwear; they derive great satisfaction from having the right brands;

they like to try new products before others try them and feel the need to keep up with the

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latest style – they have distinct lifestyles that differ from urban areas to urban areas and can

be segmented into seven categories: Core Urban, Tertiary Urban, Contemporary Urban,

Sub-Urban, Alternative Urban, Organic Urban, and Vintage Urban14 (Exhibit 8).

Core Urban – Aged 14-25; African-American, Acculturated Hispanic; Inner-city dwellers:

Northeast Corridor (NYC, Philadelphia, DC, Baltimore, Boston); Innovator/Alpha consumer

who defines trends first; Heavy gamers; Urban culture software developers and content

creators; Brand creators who stimulate mass appeal and adoption by general market youth.

Tertiary Urban – Aged 14-25; African-American, Caucasian, Acculturated Hispanic; Atlanta

(Georgia), Houston, Dallas, Memphis, St. Louis; Make it cool to be country and use country

grammar; Project unique expression of urban culture based on southern experience; Currently

driving urban culture and popular culture influence; Boast strong regional preferences and

tastes.

Contemporary Urban – Aged 21-40; African-American, Acculturated Hispanic; New Jersey,

Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, LA Chicago; Upscale and affluent; Product of urban environment

overcame obstacles on path to American Dream; Self-made moguls; Architects of modern

urban culture; Identify with and influence urban trends downstream while preferences have

moved upstream; Leading migration to new south.

Sub-Urban – Aged 14-25; Caucasian, African-American; Iowa, Michigan, Dallas, Cleveland;

Aspires to replicate lifestyle of core urban and tertiary urban consumers; Drawn toward

realism, rebellion and authenticity of Hip-Hop; Heavy gamers; Instant access to culture via

media and internet; Disposable income to buy into trends; African-American suburban teens

act as transporters of urban culture via exposure to inner-city relatives.

Alternative Urban – Aged 14-30; Caucasian, African-American; Same geography as Sub-

Urban segment’ Fusion of Rock, skate culture and Hip-Hop; Cultural transporters

comfortable blending in rock or Hip-Hop environment; Product of suburban environment

who maintains simplistic self-expression and doesn’t aspire to replicate core urban lifestyle

wholesale; “Mashed” style.

Organic Urban – Aged 21-39; African-American, Caucasian; NYC (Brooklyn), Philadelphia,

Chicago; Urban intelligentsia; Preference to live in redeveloped urban environments;

College-educated, primarily at Historical Black Colleges and Universities; Resist

14 7 Ciphers™Segmentation “Cracking The Code On The Urban Market”. Rep. Connecting Communities, 2007.

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commercialization in urban culture, especially music; Preference for classic soul and Satellite

Radio format; Authenticity and being “true to self” is paramount.

Vintage Urban – Aged 21-39; Asian-American, Caucasian, African-American; San

Francisco/ Bay Area, Maryland; Represent vintage/retro elements of urban culture;

Innovators and early adopters from Asia who were influenced early by Hip-Hop and urban

culture and are now creating urban trend in fashion; Reinforces originality by holding fast to

classical elements of culture with contemporary twist.

Overall, the targeted customers of the urban fashion brand range from age 14 to 40. Most of

them live on the east coast area of the U.S, concentrating in 15 urban areas. They devote a

significant amount of their income to clothing, apparel and accessory, and derive great

satisfaction from owning the right brands. They like to try new products before others try

them and feel the need to keep up with the latest style. Their preferences for the urban fashion

are influenced not only by different hip-hop artists but also by the urban areas where they

live. Urban is a mindset that transcends the racial boundaries, and different urban areas can

represent different lifestyles and distinct urban fashion. The various styles of each segment

actually represent the influence of the combination of styles of different artists and cultures of

different cities.

Future Trend of Urban Fashion Brand

Currently, most of players in this industry concentrate their efforts on targeted customers

aged from 14 to 24. The highly fragmented market structure and the short product life span

creates hundreds of small distinct fashion collections, excluding the possibility for the urban

fashion brand to go mainstream. However, according to the Wall Street Journal, the urban

fashion brands are trying to get rid of this situation, and in the nearly future, three trends can

be expected: Broader Audience, Consolidation, Cross-Over Appeal15.

Broader Audience – Some urban fashion brands such as Rocawear attempt to reach an older,

broader audience by redesign the product line in order to increase the sustainability. By

staying relevant to the young customers and simultaneously go mainstream, urban fashion

15 Crawford, Caletha. "Gambling On Urban Fashion's New Mature Vibe (TAP) | The Atlanta Post | African-American News,

Business News & Black Politics." African-American News, Business & Black Politics | Career & Small Business Advice For Entrepreneurs | The Atlanta Post. 03 Mar. 2010. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. <http://atlantapost.com/2010/03/03/gambling-on-urban-fashions-new-mature-vibe/.

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brands will be able to increase profit and the sustainability, and increase competitiveness in

the market overcrowded by competitors and evolutions.

Consolidation – The fragmented market structure although excludes the large national

retailers, leaves the opportunities to consolidation. By consolidating, urban fashion brands

can build up the economic scale in term of resource usages.

Cross-Over Appeal – Gaining new consumers is the best route to grow in urban fashion.

Some urban fashion brands attempted to design apparel with a wider appeal to cater the need

of outside customers, while some fashion brands believe in the promising future of the urban

fashion industry and try to step in this industry. Although on some level, brands might lose

some credibility and the images might be eroded, the upside is bigger in terms of market

share and penetration and gaining credibility in different arenas.

While the apparel industry suffered from the recession in 2009, the urban fashion industry

was thriving. Then, most of brands were trying to increase their customer base and the

sustainability by broadening audience, consolidating and looking for cross-over appeal

opportunities, even though on some level, brands might lose the credibility and the images.

Current Applications in Urban Fashion Industry

Currently, there are some applications ongoing and in process:

Lustr - Lustr, which was launched in 2009, is considered the first urban fashion application in

geo-fencing. This application, available for iPhone in teh New York area, really appears to be

the first geo-fencing shopping mobile application to the fashion world. Lustr has collected a

database of 2,000 stores and 3,500 brands to partake in this application. The application is

another geo-social tool that aims to use its personalized technology to drive traffic to stores,

as well as strengthen the communication between shopper and retailer (Exhibit 9). The Lustr

application is built on a geo-fencing technology, offering automatic deals and updates based

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on the user’s location that they’ve selected to receive notifications16.

Ecko - Ecko is a real urban fashion brand, with revenue over $1.5 b and 1300 employees

worldwide. Since 2010, it has been discussing his mobile strategies to evaluate and to apply

the Location-Based Marketing in the best way. Ecko plans to share with its attendees how he

overcomes the inherent boundaries presented with technology, as well as his intended usage

of a mobile strategy, including the use of location-based services and advertising17.

Baby Phat - Considered as the top brand in the world for female urban hip-hop clothing,

Baby Phat is contemplating to use geo –location in its babyphat.com store in order to attract

customers to their stores. Baby Path has expressed its desires of continuing the search of geo-

location solutions and how to exploit emerging social application.

Future

What’s the Next?

“Geo-fencing location offer brand markets the opportunity to reach

consumers when they’re in the right mindset for making a purchase or

interacting with brands. In other words, the days, hours, and times in which

consumers are in a mind set to interact or shop.” Alistair Goodman.18

According to Alistair Goodman, geo-fencing should not be isolated as an individual

tool to drive traffic to stores or burst the sales volume through promotion. Instead,

geo-fencing should be considered as a part of a overall market strategy. Therefore,

how to integrate other marketing tools, especially mobile marketing applications, into

16 Wright, Macala. "Fashion, Social Media Mobile Marketing Blog » Lustr Mobile Fashion App Gains Momentum." Fashion, Social Media Mobile Marketing Blog. 29 June 2010. Web. 25 Apr. 2011. <http://fashionablymarketing.me/2010/06/lustr-mobile-fashion-app-gains-momentum/>.17 "Marc Ecko To Discuss Location, Mobile Marketing Strategy At LBM Summit | Mobile Marketing Watch." Mobile Marketing Watch | The Pulse Of The Mobile Marketing Community. 16 Sept. 2010. Web. 25 Apr. 2011. http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com/marc-ecko-to-discuss-location-mobile-marketing-strategy-at-lbm-summit-9555/.18 Knight, Kristina. "Geo-fencing Gives Message Options to Brands - Advertising - BizReport." BizReport - News & Insight for Online Marketers. 14 Sept. 2010. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. <http://www.bizreport.com/2010/09/geo-fencing-gives-message-options-to-brands.html>.

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the marketing strategy for the urban fashion brand would be the major challenges in

the near future.

The desired features of integrated mobile marketing applications include 1) Social

Media. 2) Message Content. 3) Locating System. 4) 3D-Augmented reality. (Exhibt)

Social Media - Geo-fencing application may be connected to social media such as

Facebook and Twitter. Customers should be able to make recommendations of

retailers, search and invite friends to the retailers. Moreover, customers, by checking

in the future geo-fencing apps, can share how they dress up by buying the clothes,

wears, or accessories in the retailers. It’s imperative for the urban fashion brands to

survive.

Message Content – In order to attract the potential users, the urban fashion brands

should differentiate themselves in terms of the message delivered. The message or

notification delivered may not be coupon or promotion reminder. Instead, the urban

fashion brands can make the potential customers to vote their personal “Top 10 styles

in stores” and reward the winners. Moreover, given that most of urban fashion brands

associate with pop culture such as hip-hop, rap music or extreme sports, the brands

may update the latest urban fashion style of celebrities that related to the stores in

order to drive traffic and increase brand awareness.

Locating System – By integrating the geo-fencing and the location based service, the

urban fashion brands would provide customers the information about the distance and

directions to the stores as well as other information. Moreover, the integration might

also connect the geo-fencing applications to the location-based service such as Yelp,

Facebook Place, and FourSquare, exposing the brand to the broader public and

spreading the positive comments via words of mouth (Exhibit 10).

3D-Augmented Reality – Currently, there are lots of technologies with augmented

reality ongoing or in process. In the nearly future, we are expected to see the

integration of geo-fencing and 3D-Augmented Reality (Exhibit). This potential

technology makes the message delivered by the urban fashion brand to jump out on

table, enabling the targeted customers to review the products or images from different

angles. That’s very imperative feature for the urban fashion industry (Exhibit 11).

.

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Exhibit

Exhibit 1

Exhibit 2

16

Exhibit 3

Exhibit 4

17

Exhibit 5

Exhibit 6

18

Exhibit 7

Exhibit 8

19

Exhibit 9

Exhibit 10

Exhibit 11

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<http://www.sojones.com/news/1095-lifestyle-brands-what-are-they-and-why-do-we-

want-them-so-badly/>.

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American News, Business & Black Politics | Career & Small Business Advice For

Entrepreneurs | The Atlanta Post. 03 Mar. 2010. Web. 23 Apr. 2011.

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<http://www.maps-gps-info.com/gps-cell-phone-tracking.html>.

6. Heine, Christopher. "Starbucks, L'Oreal Will Test Geo-Fencing for Six Months | ClickZ."

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<http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/1745856/starbucks-loreal-test-geo-fencing-months>.

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Thornton

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