A Challenge to Be Met: Defining the audience of an ethical fashion media start-up
There is a major step between the theoretical part of every project and its actual implementation. Every aspiring creator needs to make a stop and define their audience. Who are they addressing? Why? How will they do it? This is crucial for two reasons. The first one, is that this process allows one to know the people that will or won’t be receiving the product, knowledge which will prove helpful in creating a business strategy. The second reason, is that these very people are individuals whose view should be taken into account during the creation process.
Our team, A Challenge to Be Met, didn’t neglect making that stop. Being a media start-up with the goal of promoting the concept of ethical fashion, as well as ethical small businesses, we focused on some very particular groups of people. We distinguished between people who will be fans of the project (which we need on our side) and sceptics.
Possible allies:
- College students
Young people in college are one of the main groups that shop ethically, support second-hand shops and other ethical businesses and are informed of the implications of ethical fashion on the environment, the workers and the animals. Our audience, we speculated, will consist mostly of college students, therefore we need to give them a product that will bring them on our side. Them, as well as their immediate social sphere, such as friends and relatives.
- Young people below 20
Generally, anyone in or out of college, below this age, is prone to be aware or willing to learn about social innovation and social issues, therefore they consist of an important group to be considered.
- Models, photographers and other workers in the fashion industry
Anyone involved and the fashion industry, more so in the advertising part of it, should be part of our target group. They are the people who have the power to create new trends, and, if the conditions are right, popularise ethical fashion itself. That makes them a force to be reckoned with, in a positive way!
Some conversation starters
After a brainstorming and the defining of our audience, we started thinking about possible interviews. Who would we choose to interview, from these groups? Or, more importantly, as far as this part of our journey is concerned, what would we ask them? A Challenge to Be Met gathered a list of conversation starters; important topics that are at the core of our project and values, on which we want feedback and opinions. They are the following:
- Fast fashion: What is it? How does it affect us? Does the interviewee support it? Why, or why not? How do they think we can combat it?
- Environmental impact of fast fashion: What are its aspects? How can it be minimised? Are there actions we can take, in order to do that?
- Working conditions & human rights in the fashion industry: Are they violated? When, where, under what conditions? How can we find businesses that don’t violate them?
- Conscious consumerim: How can it be achieved? How can we, as a project, support and promote it? What will it take? Who can help us?
- Slow fashion movement: What is it? How can we be part of it? How can we be recognised as a part of it, by the audience?
After having defined both our audience and our topics of discussion, we virtually stepped out in the field and asked both allies and sceptics from the aforementioned groups of people. It was extremely useful to get opinions not only of supporters, but also of people reluctant or even against ethical fashion, in order to shape our content accordingly. But that’s a story for another time!
An extra ally in the process
It is worth noting that the team worked on Miro, a platform that allows multi-user brainstorming and provides a variety of boards with post-it notes, drawing templates, diagrams and the likes, in order to make the creation/ organising process easier! A truly practical solution for team work in the Covid-19 era of distance-working.
Where you can find us:
The rest of the team: Glykeria Demetra Savvaidi, Ioanna Poliou
