Category: Uncategorized

Case Study by India Nobles

In the year of 2018, I cannot think of a brand that has a bigger social media presence than the clothing brand, Fashion Nova. This clothing company, targeted primarily towards 20 something year old women, is taking social media outlets like Instagram by storm. Not only has the brand had a large influence on Instagram, but also has a Twitter, Facebook and go live on SnapChat as well. On top of having social media platforms covered, they also offer an easy to use Fashion Nova app which closely resembles their website. As a young woman in her 20’s, the company is almost impossible to escape while scrolling through my news feed, which is why I chose to dissect this company in particular  over so many others that infiltrate the social media sphere. 

Fashion Nova started out as a small store inside of Panorama Mall in Panorama City, California back in 2006. Owner and CEO of the company, Richard Saghian, started to post pictures of the most popular pieces sold onto Instagram, eventually starting a buzz, as he explains in an interview with WWD. After garnering hundreds and thousands of followers, in 2013, he finally opened fashionnova.com which was an instant success following the popularity it garnered on social media. Now, Fashion Nova is a full fledged business, with a wide assortment of celebrities, reality stars, and social media influencers, promoting the business. 

BuzzFeed has donned Fashion Nova the company “who built an entire fashion company completely on Instagram” in an article just last year. Although it was a store first (and still have a few stores now, still) it is easy to contribute the real success of the company to Instagram. Today, Fashion Nova’s main account sits on 13.9 million followers. Fashion Nova Curve, for plus sized women’s apparel, has 2.2 million followers. And last but not least, Fashion Nova Men, its mens line, has 1 million followers. On top of having so many followers, whenever a a celebrity or influencer post on behalf of Fashion Nova for an ad, the company is “tagged” and/or mentioned in the photo, which allows the brand to reach even more people each day. A couple big name celebrities on Fashion Nova’s payroll (and there are a lot) are reality star turned billionaire (per Forbes) business woman Kylie Jenner who has 120 million Instagram followers, and rapper Cardi B, a record breaking recording artist who recently partnered with the brand for her own Fashion Nova collection; with an Instagram following of 36.2 million followers. Additionally, the Fashion Nova staff is also very good at maintaining and developing a good rapport with their customers. They not only comment and “like” post from their most famous celebrity endorsers, but they also do the some for their regular every day customers as well. They also have a hashtag “#novababe” for their customers and supporters, whom they call “Nova Babes”. The hashtag has been used a total of 552,400 times as of today, as well as many other hashtags that are similar (some having emojis, or extra words, etc). These are ways Fashion Nova really immerses  themselves into Instagrams “ecosystem” and remain relevant and active. 

It’s easy to see that Fashion Nova’s bread and butter is Instagram, but they also use other social sites as mentioned before. Their main Twitter page, which was started in 2012, has 101k followers. Their Facebook page has an even bigger following of 2,171,840 followers, as well as 2,146,059 likes on their page. Both sites advertise new pieces, sales, and endorsements. Like most companies with social sites, the company also post funny memes as well to engage with followers as well and keep up with what’s trending. 

Fashion Nova also has their own site as well. The models featured on the site are very diverse, from curvaceous body types, to very slim, to plus size. There’s also an option to shop their social where you can view social media post and get that particular look via a description from FN of each item worn. The Fashion Nova app, which is free, closely mimics the site but in an even simpler format. Customers, or Nova Babes, are also able to subscribe to Fashion Nova on Snapchat as well. 

Fashion Nova is a company that thrives off of social media.. The company which was once a small store in California, has evolved into a real competitor in the clothing industry with the help of social media. The company is practically unescapable due to its large follower base on Instagram, as well as their brilliant use of celebrity and influencer endorsements. The company also does a good job of connecting with customers and staying active on social media. Although their biggest following, without a doubt, is Instagram, the clothing company also utilizes Facebook, SnapChat and Twitter as platforms as well. They also have a site, fashionnova.com, which is where most shoppers (from all over the world) shop, unless they have the luxury of living close to headquarters. Fashion Nova also has an app that closely resembles their website for easy use. If any company knows how to monetize the social media game, it’s them. It is easy to dismiss the popular brand as a “social media brand” given it’s prevalence on social media. However, the company has certainly made a name for themselves, and has used social media to its fullest potential.