Market overview
To provide product and marketing recommendations for Jacquard we looked into the smart wearables market in Russia.
As we can see from the chart, the market for smart devices, which includes smart watches, smart bands, different wearable devices and, of course, smart clothing. The market is skyrocketing thanks to the growing selection and affordability and rising popularity of active lifestyle. The significant part of the market, 27%, is accounted for the 3 biggest cities in Russia: Moscow, Saint Peterburg and Novosibirsk.
Smart clothing in Russia is still the choice of tech geeks and enthusiasts, as in the rest of the world, however, the interest starts to rise. In such way the Xiaomi smart jacket got lots of attention in Russia. Moreover, several fashion tech startups has recently emerged in Russia, such as Cybersuits (neurointerface costume), HeartIn (cardio t-shirt), CyberX (smart jackets). However, they are not focused on the local, but on the global market.
Interesting to mention that in Russia certain As could be seen from the picture, the specific type of smart clothing has interest from Russian residents, which is heated clothing
Thus, market analysis shows that smart wearables market is on a rise right now, that a significant part of sales is accounted for 3 biggest cities, and that in Russia there is a demand for a specific function of smart clothing.
Climate and cities context
Levi's® Commuter X Jacquard By Google hitted stores in October 2017 in US. A lot of people bought all around the country from East to West coast. Among clients, who left their reviews on the Levi’s web-page, there are also people who tried the jacket around the world: Japan, Tel-Aviv and London. Even though the main competitive advantage of the product is smart technologies, we can’t miss the fact that it is also a jacket. That’s why it is important to highlight how Levi’s X Jacquard jacket may meet customer expectations from the perspective of clothing.
As it is mentioned before people buy the jacket around the world, but still mostly in top-rank countries with developed economy, meaning that environment, expectations and use cases for Russia are quite different. First of all, big cities in Russia are lagging behind in developing welcoming infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists. Marketing campaign and advertisement of the Live’s made an emphasis on convenience of usage for navigations and music controls during walks and bike rides. In Russian conditions target audience that can relate to such pain points would significantly shrink.
Second, the climate is different. A denim jacket is everyday clothes for the whole year in most part of the US, South UK and majority of European Countries. In Russia there is a challenge for promotion because of four seasons and high temperature amplitude during the year on larger part of the territory of the country. If Russian people buy outwear, they do not expect to wear for 365 days a year. In perception of Russian consumers there are basically three seasons for outwear: summer, winter and demi-season, which is something in between: it not snowing, but still it’s cold outside. So, it is a matter of high importance to define and associate an outwear with some particular season.
Moreover, approach “different clothes for different seasons” means that customers have to buy many outwear and shoes, which affects disposable income. As a result, climate and environment influence purchase power of potential customers, meaning that there is a necessity to design pricing policy respectively.