Audiences

Bloggers have seemed to capture the hearts of those consumer audiences by being consumers themselves (McQuarrie, Miller, & Phillips, 2012). When bloggers post outfits, they advertise brands and pieces that they enjoy, and almost always are “in trend” and “in season”. Bloggers depend on the size of their audience. Naturally, the larger the number of readers, the more popular a blog gets. However, the type of viewers a blog receives depends on the content of their posts (e.g. specific “style” of the blogger). This theory could then be summarized as “Fashion blogs would then draw their audience from among consumers pursuing related identity projects, and the clothing and accessories most likely to be displayed on the blog would be those that send a strong signal about the particular community and subculture to which the blogger belongs” (McQuarrie et al., 2012). On the other hand, some blogs tend to be a little more obvious when targeting their audience. For example: Bebe Zeva of ftbh.blogspot.ca features an all black background with white font on her blog. She features outfit posts of eccentric articles, as well as detailed descriptions above it or a summery of a little piece of her insight. 

Bebe Zeva. (2013). [photograph]. Retrieved from ftbh.blogspot.ca

A minimalist consumer, interested in classic clean-cut clothing would not likely stumble upon her posts. 

In this article by McQuarrie et al. (2012), it links this idea of audiences to sociologist Goffman’s theories (1959). It was stated “participants in social encounters could be parsed into actors and audience, with actors striving to put on a front and convey a certain persona, and audiences accepting successful actors seeming as they wish to be seen” (McQuarrie et al., 2012). This concept ties back into the specified audience of each blog. Bloggers tend to stick to one style of blogging in order to capture and keep audiences of the same interests. “…believable taste in clothing requires that the blog follower, an ordinary consumer, be able to see herself in the taste displays she encounters on the web” (McQuarrie et al., 2012). This would seem to be the key to building a large mass audience. Interests build as the reader sees that he/she has something in common (most of the time same sense of style) with the blogger, and uses that as a motive for inspiration in their own wardrobes. This then creates a small community of people who are linked through their interests, in this case the "type" of style the blogger has and the content of the posts, whether it is the specific designers they are covering or the brands that happened to stand out in their closet that day.