Amidst a surfeit of young, emerging, female would-be entrepreneurs marketing fashion across Guyana, a handful appear to strive to be different, their advertising ‘pitch’ seemingly reflecting an enduring eagerness to ‘arrest’ the attention of the potential buyer. This, it seems, is the objective of Melissa Ochoa, a 27 year-old clothing vendor who has altogether persuaded herself that she is a standout in the ‘maddening crowd.’
Fashion has done much to transform the entrepreneurial landscape in Guyana. Time was when boutiques were owned/run almost entirely by ‘youngish’ women, sporting a ‘pretty penny,’ parading a personal sense of fashion, offering not just garments, (mostly dresses,) but, as well, modest ‘doses’ of style advice.
The contemporary transformation has been profound, even startling. Like so many other business pursuits in contemporary Guyana, fashion has ‘stepped out’ from inside ‘posh’ looking tasteful stores, rendering itself more accessible on corners, inside cavernous Malls and on pavements,
Not that the traditional boutique of a few moons ago has been wiped out.
What is closer to the truth is, first, that ‘dressing up’ has seemingly become more accessible to women who might be considered decidedly working class. At the same time, the existing boutiques have raised their own game too, using the barrier of exorbitant pricing to retain a measure of control over customer selection. It is this expansion of the market, this increased appetite for ‘nice things’ among Guyanese women of every social strata that appears to have created a significantly extended market for fashion.
At 27, Melissa Ochoa falls into the category of the contemporary ‘hustler.’ What is now a thriving business enterprise is, in fact, a change of lane from an academic course in Business Management to an excursion into a business plan.
Nor is Melissa indifferent to the role that contemporary technology plays in fashion marketing. She understands the nexus between the modern woman and contemporary communication technology. Accordingly, she is located a million miles away from the era in which marketing relied almost exclusively on timely buyer/seller physical encounters or when loud-mouthed vocal advertising caught the ear of passers-by in congested trading spaces. Across her various social media accounts Melissa now boasts around 20,000 customers.
For Melissa, there is more to marketing fashion than meets the eye. Time was when the process had been confined, almost entirely, to frenetic face to face engagements with ‘customers’ arising out of which may come a ‘god-send’ sale. These days the advent of information technology has removed much of the drudgery associated with conventional marketing. Indeed, some of Melissa’s earliest customers came courtesy of Facebook.
Keen to grow her enterprise, Melissa has become increasingly aware of the role that information technology can play in enhancing the scope of her marketing reach. Going forward her mind appears firmly fixed on optimizing the marketing openings to be derived from the continually expanding world of information technology.
