Fashion Law Journal
Within the era of rising use of social media where full fledged businesses are born over instagram, communities are build on facebook groups and business opportunities are found on linkedin. A new group categorised as influencers are proving to be the modern generation marketers. The marketing can be regarding anything, it might include products, campaigns, awareness specific messages or even brand endorsements. Due to the rise of high competitiveness within the fashion industry there is a high rise within the patterns of influencer endorsements too. The reason behind their popularity is that it is seen as an unconventional method where rather than conventional advertising, simple method of word of mouth is used through influencers which has proven to be immensely successful.
With any kind of rise in popularity of any concept the technicalities involved in it also increases which is true for the concept of influencers as well. Through the time there are various types of influencer agreements are being developed which give this marketing arrangement a form of a contract so that none of the parties involved face any kind of exploitation. These agreements contain wide number of clauses which include the considerations which needs to be exchanged, the time period for which the influencers need to endorse the product, and even the procedure through which the termination of the contract would be exhibited. Thus through these medium there can be seen a direct applicability of legal knowledge which helps the fashion industry in a streamlined manner.
A lot of times these influencers include celebrities too due to which in case of any breach of terms leads to losses in form of huge compensatory amounts from either sides of the parties. The crucial need for these contracts to flexible and well formatted comes from the fact that any kind of mishap can lead to huge goodwill and reputational losses for the brand as well as the influencer as the consequence of which not only the reliability of the influencer decreases but also the brand sales get affected. As for example on January the 7th of 2019, Proactiv made a public announcement that Kendall Jenner was the new face of their brand. There would be nothing wrong with this collaboration if there weren’t the opinions of many that Kendall didn’t use their products. In the video published on Proactive’s YouTube channel, she shared how Proactive products helped her to treat her skin. Her followers didn’t support her statements claiming that before this sponsorship, Kendall talked about how her dermatologist helped her with skin problems. While Kendall may be a powerful influencer that can bring Proactive new customers, the result could be much better if they opted for an influencer who truly has experience with their products. Authenticity is the problem of many sponsored posts, and Proactive-Jenner collaboration proved that. Therefore, it is important for fashion brands to choose the influencers they work with proper care since any kind of endorsement made have a direct affect upon their goodwill.
Author: Muskan Madaan
Muskan Madaan is a third year Bcom.llb student at Panjab University. She has a keen interest towards public policy making, human rights and commercial law. Currently she is exploring her way through various branches of law. Other than that she enjoys writing articles on social issues and commercial changes. She also a fellow at a NGO by the name of Make a Difference where she helps underprivileged children to map their careers. She has internship experience from diverse commissions, legal firms and organisations and she aspires for more exposure and enriching experiences in the future.
