Kykloss (cycle in greek) is a contemporary women’s wear label that is built around the issue of waste. Kykloss not only offers high-quality clothes but also repair services to fix our own damaged garments, and once a garment has finally reached the end of its life cycle, Kykloss upcycles it into a brand new product, giving it a second lease of life. 

 

Kykloss predominantly target the Gen Z female consumer who sees sustainability as a way of life and understands that the circular economy is a sustainable way of using the earth’s limited resources. In today’s context, sustainable products are still shunned and are considered second grade as compared to new, unsustainable products. Kykloss also strives to be the platform and a key opinion leader in the sustainable movement for the world.

 

Based on the fact that we are a sustainable brand and our brand ethos revolves entirely around combating the issue of waste, we are able to conclude that our consumers are Hobbesian. The Hobbes model refers to politically or organisationally-conscious consumers. Our consumers' behaviours reconcile individual desires with social organisational change. Kykloss aims to target consumers who are advocates of sustainability and environmental consciousness.

 

Our business in terms of branding and business model is heavily based on sustainability hence why we target Hobbesians consumers. Kykloss as a brand focuses on the circular economy business model, eliminating the traditional model of 'take, make and dispose'. Our business heavily relates to the Hobbesian consumer as we both share an organizational conscious towards the environment.

 

Kykloss offers a sustainable business model to protect the environment and the people surrounding the ecosystem. We aim to get rid of the conventional linear economy system by replacing it with the circular economy system. Gen Z is our primary target audience as we aim to introduce them to the circular economy dynamics and sustainability as a new way of living. Kykloss strives to be a pioneer in this area of field so as to have higher profitability, greater market share and longer business life. We offer a lifetime guarantee on repair services and we also make a commitment to upcycling all unwanted Kykloss products so as to minimize waste production. The upcycled product will have an equal or if not, a higher value as compared to its original product state.

 

In macroeconomy, different factors play a role which is unpredictable and can affect consumer behaviour. One of these is economic factors, which have a major impact on our consumer group. In economic boom periods, people tend to buy more expensive clothes because their income is more disposable. The same effect has regression periods but in a negative way, which can show in significantly lower sales. This can lead the company to have too much inventory, which can not be sold. A solution for this could be to produce the clothes on demand like for example Misha Nonoo does. She eliminates the problem of unsold inventory by producing every order on demand. This makes good business sense and brings environmental benefits because there are no unsold products ending up in landfills. When consumers have less disposable income, they tend to buy at cheaper brands, which would be a problem for our higher priced brand.

 

In Singapore, there are few companies found practising circular economy, which can be an edge for us to stand out amongst the masses of local fashion businesses. For our customer group who is interested in sustainability and wants to contribute to society, this is an additional point apart from the design to choose Kykloss instead of other brands. This is called Impact marketing, with our sustainable business idea we increase brand affinity with the growing number of consumers who prefer brands that contribute to the environmental problems of our planet, to brands which do not. We have thus identified four main challenges which Kykloss is currently facing - high price point, poor or no brand awareness, no brand loyalty and high competition in the saturated bags and accessories market, with the lack of brand awareness being our main challenge. Essentially, we aim to position Kykloss to be the leading label in sustainability with our marketing strategies which will be further elaborated in this integrated marketing report to counter one of the biggest issues in society today - Waste.