Most consumers are quite familiar with the various ways apparel companies market and promote their products. Commercials on television, advertisements in magazines, discounted sales and promotions, as well as events like fashion shows are just some of the ways companies try to improve their sales and earn profits.
However, in more recent years, some apparel companies have been experimenting with a whole different approach that consumers probably haven't heard of.
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Apparel companies all over the world from Singapore to Australia, and Brazil, among others are using a technology called "RFID music technology," also known as Radio Frequency Identification to increase their sales.
These companies are creating what are known as music dressing rooms, in which clothing tags are embedded with the Radio Frequency Identification music chips and once in the dressing room, RFID readers begin to play specific songs assigned to each garment depending on what the garment looks like. Basically, retailers have discovered that if the music played in their stores matches consumer preferences and interests, it can make customers more likely to purchase merchandise.
In one experimental trial, an assortment of approximately 10,000 songs from 16 different genres including pop, rap, rock, country, and more, played as specified by which item of clothing was being tried on. Whatever the garment was would have a song directed towards the demographic that would most likely wear it, such as male or female, younger or older, more fashion-oriented or more utilitarian, and so on. For example, the song associated with a leather jacket would most likely be from the punk or rock genre.
Furthermore, in this same trial, while the person is trying on the clothing, the company would then send a proximity-based text message to the customer which includes the title and artist of the song being played, and allows the user to instantly download the track to their phone if they so wish. Eighty-four percent of these text messages sent resulted in completed downloads, with a total of 47,000 song downloads during this trial. Therefore, not only have these RFID readers been increasing apparel sales, they have been increasing music sales as well.
Let's hope this technology starts popping up in more and more retailers because it definitely sounds like it's the future of both the fashion and music industries. For more information, check out this video about RFID technology and the apparel and music industries.
