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Final major project/dissertation - The Millennial consumer behavioural changes in the Romanian streetwear culture

  1. THE BEGINNING: INTRODUCTION
This final major marketing project will analyse the streetwear culture in relationship to its development in the European market. From there, research will show why Romania, out of all the European states, has an undeveloped streetwear culture, especially because of its reputation and former allegiance to the Marxist political structure. The project will find that Millennials are the appropriate, most successful cohort of consumers that are able to expand streetwear in Romania and help it thrive in the future. The necessary means through which the culture will become available to the masses are mainly visual, with people retaining 80% of what they see, contrasting with 20% of what they read (Gillett, 2014). The visuals will be part of a magazine, called FOLKLORE, which is going to be targeting specifically, to great extent, Millennials in order help them stay true to their values, while embracing the zeitgeist.
The magazine also acts as this project’s creative output and will feature several photo shoots and articles about the Romanian culture, Millennials’ attitudes on specific aspects of their lives and the country’s openness towards streetwear.

  1. THE CONTEXT: EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE ON THE STREETWEAR CULTURE

  • What is streetwear?
Streetwear started as a skateboarding, surfing and hip hop culture, in the 1970s (Poetic Gangster, 2017). It was heavily influenced by heavy metal, punk rock and new wave cultures, thus borrowing features from their aesthetic (Simpson, 2018). Some still argue (Simpson, 2018) that streetwear started as a rebellion towards mass produced clothes, by people who wanted to stand out.
Chronologically, by the middle of 1980s, Nike was number one on the sneaker market and brands like Timberland and Champion started being associated with the streetwear culture. Then, Shawn Stussy, the man believed to have originated this entire movement (Block, 2017), started making T-shirts with the now iconic logo - his signature.
Streetwear reached its peak in the 90s with hip hop and rock stars adopting this movement and moreover, starting their own clothing lines, which provided the public with original street fashion items (So Wht, 2017). Then, as now, influencers and celebrities were, to some extent, responsible for the rise of streetwear (De Vera, 2016), with celebrity endorsements being at an all time high these days (Espinoza, 2016). However, as consumers nowadays are marketing savvy and need authenticity, Haj-Najafi asks in an interview for The Guardian (Elan, 2016) why Kanye West designing clothes is seen like a joke, which shows that Millennials’ trust in influencers and celebrities only goes so far.
After the 90s, more brands launched, with the same ideas and aesthetic, like Bape, Supreme, Heron Preston, ALYX, and more recently Off-White and Vetements, with other luxury brands trying to keep up with their streetwear approach, which has been most successful over time (Menendez and Gill, 2018). Bain (2018) argues that while Stussy may have started the movement in Southern California, it was ultimately transformed and properly adopted in New York.
Design-wise, streetwear means “baseball caps, sneakers, hoodies and most of all, tees” for Hundreds (2017), “casual clothing style, typically worn by urban youths in a variety of subcultures” for Fearless Summer (2017) and “anything that doesn’t belong to the fashion system” for Jauregui (2017). Culturally-wise, it means “surf culture, skateboarding, sportswear, and a whole plethora of informal, luxury and non-luxury menswear” for Eror (2016), “skate and hip-hop, but it’s not exclusively any one of these” for Hundreds (2017) and “a sense of community, leveraging a grasp on authenticity” for Menendez and Gill (2018).
Even though people have different opinions on what streetwear is and means to Millennials nowadays, they all agree that it is a market segment to be recognised and it drives massive consumption (Eror, 2016), that it doesn’t adhere to a set of rules (Fearless Summer, 2017), which makes it fun, authentic, something unique Millennials can use for self-expression, ready to provide the cool factor and help with self-actualisation. Moreover, this group of consumers all believe that streetwear is here to stay, even if trends tend to come and go (Poetic Gangster, 2017).

  • Why is it important to Millennials?
Because Millennials are as ever changing as the fashion industry, and are the more courageous cohort of consumers, ready to try new innovations and styles (Law et al, 2004), streetwear is a culture that serves all of their immediate values, such as self-actualisation, providing the cool factor and helping them have fun.
They are so disruptive (Morgan, 2017) that ever since they started adopting streetwear - because younger generations tend to be more innovative and open to newness (Williams and Mather, 1995) - it became a huge up-and-coming trend.
With Millennials being more and more expressive, they want the right type of attention shifted towards them, because of the kind of fashion they’re adopting and the specific brands or clothes they’re wearing or aspiring to wear (De Vera, 2016). And as they’re getting more politically correct every day - with Millennials being the most sensitive generation (literally (Larson, 2016)) towards censorship and inclusiveness yet (Jones, 2017) - streetwear is a powerful movement to adopt, mainly because of its relationship with social norms, conformity and approach towards inclusivity (Menendez and Gill, 2018). Furthermore, as Millennials’ level of disposable income rises, brands are looking to “woo younger consumers” (TFL, 2017) and giving streetwear’s strong following of youths that want change, this culture is in a favourable position to reforming things for the better, altering the overall power of speech (Menendez and Gill, 2018).

  • How does it help them in self-actualisation, providing the cool factor and having fun?

  • SELF-ACTUALISATION
As streetwear provides a way through which consumers can differentiate themselves from one another, it helps Millennials, which are always going to look for ways to make themselves unique (De Vera, 2016). Kyle Ng stated in an interview for Complex (Hundreds, 2017) that he was interested in presenting a lifestyle, a story, rather than the clothes, which is what Millennials need to do nowadays to distinguish themselves.
Further, as streetwear is about self-expression and culture, Millennials will much rather want to earn it, than learn it (Hundreds, 2015), which nonetheless is the difference between the real consumers and the posers: they’re either interested or want to seem interesting.
To conclude, since streetwear helped and allowed countless people to express their artistic differences through the use of clothes (De Vera, 2016), it will continue to do so for Millennials, as well, thus helping them develop a cool, unique personality.

  • PROVIDING THE COOL FACTOR
Because of streetwear’s signature touch points, such as “casual clothes like hoodies and tees, graphic logos, that seem made for the Instagram age, a fixation on sneakers, ties to hip hop, and a shared sense of culture” (Bain, 2018) and how they align with Millennials’ social values, they help provide a cool factor. Bain (2016) sees ‘cool’ as breaking the rules (or looking like you’re doing it) and since streetwear is seen as “outside of the traditional fashion system” (Lorenzo cited by Hundreds, 2017), it helps with Millennials’ need to be cool. Further to that, Millennials also need to be spoken to, regardless of their place on the social ladder or marketplace (Hundreds, 2015), and streetwear helps start that dialogue and continue the communication throughout the buying and post-buying processes.
Lastly, whereas streetwear isn’t actually that aspirational, the culture’s currency is “more a form of cultural capital, or cool” (Bain, 2018), which make Millennials the perfect target for adopting it, as they value experiences and feelings more than tangible products (Fromm, 2017).

  • HAVE FUN
It goes without saying that the streetwear culture is a fun, lively one. Especially because it doesn’t contradict mainstream societal norms in any way, so there’s not guilt (Eror, 2016) in wearing the items or adopting the movement as a lifestyle. Additionally, the heart of streetwear - hoodies and tees - are unavoidably unisex (Menendez and Gill, 2018), which gives so much more options and ways to have fun with clothing. Even so, streetwear has given men the opportunity to have fun with their outfits, enabling them to express themselves through clothes, which wasn’t fitting before (Menendez and Gill, 2018).
Further, many brands draw inspiration from sportswear brands - which shouldn’t be identified as streetwear (So Wht, 2017) - thus driving the rise in sales for sneakers and sweatshirts, which provide much more comfort and coolness to Millennials’ outfits (Bain, 2018).
To summarise, streetwear has become a culture adopted by different generations across the globe, helping numerous people to express themselves (Jauregui, 2017). And it isn’t just about clothing, it’s about stories, and how people choose to tell them through clothes (Hundreds, 2017).

  • How did it start in Europe?
Because streetwear rose so high in the US, especially during the 90s and 2000s, it trickled down (Easey, 2009) to Europe (see appendix 1). From there, as consumers chase fashion trends and the differences in the fashion industry (Law et al, 2004), they started to adopt and accept this shift to casualness, appealing the most to innovators (Rogers, 2003 - see appendix 2). Moreover, this cultural shift helped the global economy, because cultural movements tend to move closer to the centre of the country’s economy (Hesmondhalgh, 2013).
After the fall of communism, there were more than 400 million people in the Eastern bloc ready to be westernised, through the teaching of different cultures (Hesmondhalgh, 2013), which prompted several brands to open stores in eastern Europe, especially since “it is culture that really affects the way that brands need to be developed and marketed” (Hollis, 2008). Many things are underdeveloped in Eastern Europe because of different political, economical, cultural and social factors, especially when it comes to fashion and the arts (Pogátsa, 2014). Thus, in Romania, a post-soviet Eastern European country, one of the fashion issues emerging in recent years is not only the undeveloped streetwear culture, but the lack thereof.

  1. THE MAIN ISSUE: UNDEVELOPED STREETWEAR CULTURE IN ROMANIA

  • Why is it an issue? Is there a signification in the location of the country?
Ever since the communist rule invaded Eastern Europe, the countries forming the Marxist bloc have been demonised, with people making comparisons between the West and East, or as Pike states it, “between the present and the past, between socialism and capitalism, and last, but not least, between the good and the bad” (2011). Because of this, fashion has always been generally viewed as frivolous, without any nods to the economical branch (Okonkwo, 2007). All these meant that, while the 1960s were a revelation for the Western fashion and society strived for the liberation of women’s rights (Okonkwo, 2007), the Eastern population didn’t even have access to Western media (Manrai et al, 2001), thus the need and understanding for fashion in Romania didn’t come until the beginning of the 21st century, after the revolution.
Even though Romania was part of the Soviet bloc, its overall market sits at high standards and values, according to Go and Govers’ (2011) country brand index (see appendix 3), which helps illustrate Romania’s high value systems, medium tourist footprint, particularly high heritage and culture, high business values - especially when it comes to the women-men pay gap, Romania stands with the lowest rate in Europe, 5.2% (Eurostat, 2018) - and a high quality of life, thus creating an excellent country performance. Conversely, Romania has always been an ill perceived country (Jaffe and Nebenzahl, 2006) because of its history with revolutions, corruption and, as of late, youth protests (BBC, 2017). The trends that shape the Western fashion market aren’t present yet, including streetwear and the culture it brings with it.
Westernisation, as a geo-political factor, means the country’s proximity to the West - which Romania obviously doesn’t have - and as a historical factor, it looks at the country’s openness to the West, which, because of communism and the people’s reluctance to change, Romania lacked in (Manrai et al, 2001).

  • What are the emerging issues in Romania?
As a country’s image is a mix of cultures, economics, political factors and technology (Jaffe and Nebenzahl, 2006), this report will conduct a PEST analysis on Romania’s market. Through changes in the political, economical, social and technological sectors, and according to Jaffe and Nebenzahl’s theory (2006), Romania’s image (see appendix 4) can be revised for the better, this way influencing both local consumers and tourists’ purchase decisions and attitudes towards the country. The revitalisation of the country will help with the adoption of new trends, a higher degree of Westernisation and the overall perception of the country’s people.
According to Go and Govers’ decision model (2011 - see appendix 5), some of Romania’s issues with tourists and outsiders are familiarity - because they don’t know much about the country, and if they do, it’s mostly negative information - and preference - people would much rather visit other European capitals they know more about. The negative press comes from protests like the one in Bucharest’s Victory Square, in 2017, when more than 500,000 people gathered outside the government offices to challenge a corrupt political decree (Johnson, 2017). In addition, BBC (2013) stated that many Western people identify abandoned Soviet orphanages with Romania, which further shows the negative public image of the country.
Furthermore, looking at Romania with the help of the three levels of organisational cultures (see appendix 6), from architecture, dress codes, behaviours to values, provided services and principles, the nature of relationships and human structure (Campeanu-Sonea et al, 2010), it is clear that Romania’s open now to fun fashion trends and the implementation of new young cultures, especially the streetwear culture.

  • How can streetwear brands adapt to the Romanian market?
Hundreds (2015) says that streetwear always shined brightest in the recess of the underground, which is why there’s high hopes it will work in Romania, focusing on the Millennial consumers.
The streetwear culture didn’t yet come to Romania because it’s a country where products from certain brands, with certain logos are perceived as very important and represent a status symbol of wealth and sophistication (Darin, 2007). Thus, people will much rather spend money on visible-logo items than streetwear. Conversely, this could as well be because when adidas first opened a store in Romania, the consumers received it well, although, after a while, the clothes started to be perceived as chavy and not appropriate to wear outside, thus starting a brand avoidance feeling, with consumers turning their back on adidas (Hegner, 2017).
Now, however, with the Millennial consumers front and centre, they started wearing tracksuits and sports logos ironically (Eror, 2016), or because it makes them feel and look like teenagers again, thus waking up to the streetwear Westernisation of Romania.
For brands to enter the Romanian market now, first they must understand and align themselves (see appendix 7) with the country’s fashion consciousness and conformity (Manrai et al, 2001), which are the result of the degree of Westernisation (medium to high), the country’s economic and market developments (see PEST) and the individualistic values according to gender and age (see PEST). Then, brands need to take into account that, in Eastern Europe, brands are “performative media of modernisation” (Pike, 2011), which means that they represent visible symbols and are perceived as status symbols.
In the hypothesis that streetwear brands enter the Romanian market, their future and performance can be measured using the BAV power grid (Young and Rubicam, n.d.), that shows their leadership potential and market share growth (see appendix 8).
For example, a streetwear store - The Urbanist - in the centre of Romania’s capital, Bucharest, is doing really well, with Danforth (2014) saying it’s a must to go see it. Moreover, because the store is managed locally and has its own clientele, it secured a high customer loyalty (Darin, 2007) with streetwear Romanian lovers.

  • If they did, would they have an audience?
Many firms have introduced branches in the Eastern European markets, but the consumers don’t view the brands in the same way as Western Europeans do; nonetheless, consumers still evaluate and think of a brand in comparison to its competitors (Williams and Mather, 1995) - competitors which, when it comes to streetwear, are not many in Romania; however, because of the highly compact market, the small brands that do exist, want to build each other up, rather than compete. Conversely, the Romanian market doesn’t have a well established brand culture, which is bad for brick and mortar stores, but good for online stores, because the consumers value the channel more, especially for its entertainment potential (Rodrigues, 2012). And even though Romanians were reluctant to spend money on the internet in 2012 (Rodrigues, 2012), in 2015 the country’s e-commerce platforms were worth 1.4 billion Euros (Ecommerce News, 2016).
Moreover, the Westernisation of some Romanian societies and practices caused the consumers’ values to shift from traditional to individualistic (Manrai et al, 2001) and while Darin and Absher (2007) found that the best way to market to a country’s people is through location specific marketing practices??, the most relevant way streetwear culture can trickle down (Law et al, 2005) from other cultures is through Millennial consumers. Millennials are a big influence in the European market, especially because they are influenced by the macro-environment changes, thus adopting a specific consumption behaviour (Gurau, 2012), prone to be cosmopolitans (see appendix 9), rather than traitors, patriots or hostiles (Jaffe and Nebenzahl, 2006).
Also, because they’re young and more prone to challenge the systems (KPMG, 2017), they are looking for something different, of a bigger purpose (Morgan, 2017), and half of the Romanian business leaders are part of the generation (Stanca, 2016) - meaning they will approve and further the message of the streetwear culture, Millennials are the best choice for streetwear adoption in Romania.

  1. THE TARGET: THE ROMANIAN MILLENNIAL CONSUMER

  • Who are they?
Romanian Millennials are the cohort of people born between 1980 and 2000 (Goldman Sachs, n.d.). The number of both young and middle youths declined by 12%, respectively 11% between 2011-2016 (Euromonitor, 2017). According to the VALS framework (SRI Consulting, n.d.), Romanian Millennials are strivers (see appendix 10) - because they have little income, with 57% still receiving money from their parents (Euromonitor, 2017) - also, most have the feeling that while more products are available to purchase, the affordability has decreased (Manrai et al, 2001) - love having fun and favour stylish products, especially symbol creators (Hesmendhalgh, 2013), that replicate more wealth. Conversely, they are also experiencers, with an inclination towards impulsiveness and risks; experiencers spend higher amounts of money on fashion and entertaining activities and while this is more true to the middle youth, who have the most gross income out of all age groups in 2016 (Euromonitor, 2017), it is still true to young youths, with socialising and dining out as high priorities for them (Euromonitor, 2017). Extensive research on the subject shows that Romanian Millennials share a lot of similar values with Millennials in other European countries (Pinzaru et al, 2016).
Because the Millennials’ defining theme is ‘conflict’ and they were born and raised in a world of tragic events - a post Communist environment for work and leisure, as well as natural disasters: recurrent earthquakes, landslides (Ipsos MORI, 2017), they remain cost conscious (Euromonitor, 2017) and the older Millennials tend to look for Romanian products (Euromonitor, 2017). Consequently, as it was stated before, Romanian Millennials are cosmopolitans, but according to Jaffe and Nebenzahl’s segmentation model (2006), they are mostly indifferent towards Romanian products (see appendix 11), with a strong liking to imports (74.4 billion dollars in imports (OEC, 2017)).
Because the Eastern European marketplace is so diverse and its consumer groups’ consumption patterns and responses to marketing vary (Cui and Choudhury, 2002), Romanian Millennials have different values than others, but stand in the same lines of technology and openness: influencers, authenticity and digital media. As the other European Millennials, Romanians are happy with their lives, optimistic about the future and in control of their lives (Iris, 2015) - contrarily, they hate being bored or undervalued, especially in the workplace (Business Review, 2017). Further, because Romania is so much alike Bulgaria, both their people look at social norms and imagery as highly important traits in the society (Petrovici et al, 2007).

  • What are their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
STRENTGHS

  • Romanian Millennials are extremely marketing savvy, demanding that campaigns should be more inclusive and advertising in general needs to be more positive - and should avoid promoting undesirable products (Petrovici et al, 2007).
  • They are capable of extremely great passion in whatever area of expertise they are exerting themselves in (David, 2015), which means they can provide a great deal of enthusiasm for doing work.
  • Because Romanian Millennials are so prone to making friends, they highly prioritise socialising and dining out, and obviously because of that, they are more willing than Czechs and Pols to spend money on clothes (Euromonitor, 2017), thus showing an increase in personal care.
WEAKNESSES

  • As stated before, Romanian Millennials’ values and traits are the same as Millennials’ everywhere (Pinzaru et al, 2016), so they can easily be seen as “narcissistic, selfish and easily distracted” (Ipsos MORI, 2017) because of their work ethics, values and overall needs.
  • With 56% people in 2018 losing trust in their governmental leaders (Edelman, 2018), Romanian follow suit with Millennials boycotting the corrupt national political parties (Thorpe, 2017).
  • Moreover, Romanian Millennials’ obedience to authority is seen as a need (64%), only with France having a higher score (67%) in all of Europe (Iris, 2015), which can be seen as a weakness because the interest in politics is declining - 10% (FEPS, 2016).
OPPORTUNITIES

  • Romanian Millennials are mostly satisfied with their lives, especially when it comes to health and optimism about the future (Iris, 2015), which will further develop into opportunities in different areas of expertise.
  • Because of their lack of trust in politics, as stated above, Romanian Millennials will much rather follow entrepreneurial career paths - 35% (FEPS, 2016), which gives way for a lot of business ownership opportunities for the future.
  • Romanian Millennials are seen as the ‘informed public’, so they trust media in a 53% proportion (Edelman, 2018), which opens up a world of possibilities in the way that they are extremely educated on worldwide events and happenings that might ultimately affect their generation.
THREATS

  • Romanian Millennials refuse to engage in creative, innovative activities (Mitan, 2014), and because of that they will lack certain skills in the future, including lack of vision and desire.
  • Because they are so very close with their families and friends, Romanian Millennials will find leaving home is a struggle (David, 2015), thus keeping them from doing so, resulting in them not being able to experience new cultures and ultimately learn new things.
  • Lastly, most of them don’t plan for the future and only buy products that would make them feel like they belong to a higher social class (Mitan, 2014), which will result in a decline in trust between one another and, as stated above, a complete lack of vision.

  • Why do they value digital more than print?
As all Millennials, the Romanians primarily value and rely on digital, making them “digital lovers”, according to Rodrigues’ new segmentation of digital consumers (2012), mainly because they are highly connected worldwide, always on multiple devices and social media channels (Barsh, Brown and Kian, 2016).
Even though Millennials, globally, have different behaviours, because of the technological changes and the disruptive economy (Goldman Sachs, n.d.) and 64% of them feel like they’re always looking at a device’s screen (Mindshare, 2016), the Romanians don’t use digital technology just as much as other countries, but still follow digital media notably more than print (Pinzaru et al, 2016). Contrarily, a digital revolution is taking place with the changes in social networks and the way them and Millennials consume data (Mindshare, 2016), so Romanians will catch onto that with the help of influencers and digital marketing.
Nonetheless, there are two types of Romanian digital natives (see appendix 12), who further show the digital preference in consumers’ attitudes and behaviours: the revolutionaries - hedonists, prepared to work, distance themselves from their roots, want to create a desirable public image; and the guardians - focus on the community they’re coming from, search beauty in everything they can, open-minded, they believe that belonging to a hive is the best way to live (Pinzaru et al, 2016). Clearly, Millennials are a mix of both, because they are hedonists and want to become ‘cosmopolitans’, as stated above, but they still have a patriotic bond to their country. And because of this openness and want to have as much information as possible, they started following influencers so they can see other places and ideas, and draw inspiration for their own lives.

  • Why and how do the value and look up to influencers?
Because there are so many fashion blogs, especially in Romania, they aspire to be as authentic and genuine as possible, with bloggers heavily posting on Instagram stories behind the scenes content and more quirky information about their personalities (Lungeanu, 2017). This way, bloggers not only raise their following, but differentiate themselves from the companies they represent, through personal branding, showing consumers that they are normal people, just like them (Lungeanu, 2017).
There’s a blog/YouTube channel for everything in Romania, especially since content can be accessed anytime from any device and can be interacted with in any way through social media channels (Mindshare, 2016). Watching influencers online is a way to escape for Romanian Millennials and it helps them understand social and ethical norms (Davis, 2013).
Jaffe and Nebenzahl (2006) state that consumers care more about the images and symbols products create in the people’s minds than the actual attributes of the products, which is mostly true for Romanian Millennials as they try to emulate being wealthier through different uses of logos and brand symbols (Euromonitor, 2017). So, influencers’ opinions on products and services heavily effect Romanian Millennials’ attitudes towards them.
Further, a study shows that video marketing is the second biggest trend to adopt in 2018 for Romanian, while influencer marketing is the fifth biggest trend (Grozavescu, 2017), which clearly shows why Romanian Millennials follow YouTubers so confidently.
As Morgan (2017) found that influencer marketing is a highly successful way to communicate with a Millennial audience, that wants authenticity, by tapping into the most trusted voices they listen to, brands in Romania have figured it out and started using this strategy when the bloggers/vloggers/influencers were a niche subgroup of people. Ever since, with the help of brands adopting this marketing technique, Romania’s most famous influencers have gained large amounts of followers: @alinaceusan - 362k, @grebenisancarmen - 191k, @ioanagrama - 215k, @fabmusediana - 127k, @fabmusealina - 114k, @lauragiurcanu - 455k, @bromania - 745k, @sanziananegru- 175k, @selly - 456k, @mnt_vlad - 412k, @maximilianioan - 362k, @blogulluiotrava - 66,6k and @deliric - 95,5k. Conversely, as influencers became more and more famous, they have also become less accessible (Morgan, 2017), which hurts their credibility and authentic feel, which brings the report to the next section:

  • Why do they crave authenticity?
With so much media content on the internet and digital channels being implemented, Millennials’ ability to work across multiple screens simultaneously becomes an everyday job (Mindshare, 2016), which is why they stopped trusting media altogether, with Edelman naming 2018 the year of “The Battle for Truth” (2018).
When it comes to relationships with brands or celebrities, Romanian Millennials want a genuine dialogue, and if it builds towards something impactful on society, the better (Business Review, 2017) and they want brands to engage with them on a personal level and listen to their demands as closely as possible, without straying from the brand’s values (Dyson, 2017). And further, Romanian Millennials will start demanding that brands respond to their requests in a more authentic, culturally relevant and competently way possible, in order to establish and hold communications between the two (Cui and Choudhury, 2002). Conversely, as the relationships between businesses and consumers has been heavily prompted by social media, they became much more transparent lately (Dyson, 2017). Furthermore, as for the trust and genuineness between influencers and consumers, the latter believe it is more authentic in relation to products, as an influencer will never merchandise products they don’t believe in, so there’s some trust left (Morgan, 2017).
Because of all reasons stated above, especially the history of Millennials in Romania, they don’t have confidence in advertising claims and techniques, but nevertheless accept its influence on economy (Petrovici et al, 2007). Because the technologies through which they adopt digitalisation and the online communication environment changes have changed the way consumers interact with brands nowadays (Rodrigues, 2012), Millennials trust online advertising more and rely on it unlike any other generation before (Millennial Marketing, 2010). Moreover, more than half of Romanian consumers consider advertising informative and fulfilling its own special role (Petrovici et al, 2007), which includes Millennials, making this a specificity in this cohort of consumers.
Even if they value digital media more than print media, there is a 5% raise in people who trust printed journalism, whereas trust in digital platforms is down by 2% (Edelman, 2018), which is why the solution to bringing streetwear in Romania is a magazine. Conversely, 63% of people don’t know how to recognise genuine journalism from rumours (Edelman, 2018), so the magazine will tap into value alignment with Millennials, as it’s most important they understand the magazine’s purpose and genuineness as a printed media outlet.
Further, Millennials are a good choice not only because they are different, but because they ask relevant questions about why hasn’t more progress been made (Barsh, Brown and Kian, 2016), and they’re asking about streetwear. Loghin (2017) states that one of the main reasons streetwear caught on a little in Romania is because of the “squatting slavs” saying, with Millennials nowadays dressing ironically as one. Also, with the help of events such as Sneakers & Burgers and Bazar Urban in Bucharest, and Kickin’ it and CoolUrban in Cluj, a sub-group of Romanian Millennials started seeing and adopting, step-by-step, a streetwear culture of their own. This way, in an interview with Loghin, Silvana from Sneaker Industry said that she believes there’s a streetwear culture ready to be developed (2017). In time, the brand and the logo and the aesthetic, as well as the experience they bring, will form a single entity, which will materialise in a streetwear culture in Romania. This culture adoption will happen faster with the help of a magazine, which will have an excellent social media presence, as well as authentic and fun content. It will further communicate the ‘cool’ factor, because it is still a social phenomenon that has to do with streetwear, and it is a more subtle rebellion (Bain, 2016), a thing Romanian Millennials clearly show the inclination for. Thus, the magazine will also tap into the zeitgeist of Romania, one of the most powerful ways to get Millennials’ attention (Gladdis et al, 2015).
Given that they follow both digital and print media, a magazine with an excellent social media presence is one of the ways through which the Romanian Millennial consumers can adopt or even develop a streetwear culture.

  1. THE SOLUTION: FOLKLORE MAGAZINE
“There are some seriously talented people out there, disrupting and inventing new and alternative concepts” (Mindshare, 2016).
FOLKLORE will be a magazine strictly aimed at Romanian Millennials, with content from both Romanian and foreign collaborator, this way making the Westernisation faster and the adoption of streetwear easier to kick-start. It will feature a balanced volume of visuals and text, as well as quizzes, jokes and lyrics for the consumers to have fun with. The aim of the magazine is to exploit the already high degree of openness in Romania, with the end result being a seamless and overall adoption of streetwear, thus the visuals and text used.

  • What do the Millennials require?
Because the target market are Millennials, the magazine needs to be affordable, to align with their personal values and to have a particularly strong social media presence. And, for the reasons stated above, FOLKLORE meets the criteria for a highly appropriate printed media outlet that would appeal to the Romanian Millennial consumer.

  • Alignment: market—consumer—magazine.
MAGAZINE: authentic, cool, has fun content, features real articles about real people, features creative people’s work, has real content.
CONSUMER: wants to have fun, be cool, be authentic, entertainment through text and visuals, strong, inspiring pictures.
MARKET: lacks any kind of authentic, fun printed media, it can help kick-start different culture adoptions, it is undersaturated.

  1. THE END: CONCLUSIONS
As stated at the beginning, the report looked at the streetwear culture, its opportunity to develop in Romania and how that didn’t happen yet because of external and internal issues, but can develop and expand in the future. It found that Millennials are the best choice to take this culture further and that a magazine is necessary for this cohort of consumers to adopt and further streetwear in Romania.
Streetwear in Romania, in the future, will show a more prompt openness to the West and towards this shift in consumers that leads to being cool and fun, while also being true to yourself and the culture you’re adhering to.
All in all, these “narcissistic, selfish and easily distracted” Millennials (Ipsos MORI, 2017) will successfully take both the magazine and culture further, with the location of the country not being a signifier for non-Westernisation anymore, and political, economical and social factors aside.
Report

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