MARKETING MAGAZINE REPORTS - NUM stays in-house as Asian expansion starts

Regional - NewUrbanMale.com (NUM) will continue to keep its marketing operations in-house but will take its strategy in a different direction as the Singaporean fashion brand expands across Asia.

With a store in Vietnam having opened in December and plans to move into Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Taipei and Shanghai, NUM director Shenzi Chua says it will continue to keep and build its marketing strategy internally. NUM currently has 15 stores in Singapore.

"We've been doing everything in-house because we feel it's hard for people to understand the direction we are moving in," he said.

"We're niche but yet not - we want to reach out to various groups of people and to integrate all of them together isn't easy. We feel it's hard to find people who understand what we really want so we build upon it within the company."

Chua says NUM will continue to develop its online marketing strategies, as well as building partnerships with brands in the cities it hopes to launch in. An opening launch fashion show party for the Vietnam store is planned for the end of February, potentially in collaboration with the Fashion TV bar in Ho Chi Minh City, while talks are also being held with Yamaha over the possibility of a limited edition clothing line to be released in Vietnam.

"This year we'll probably have less print advertising but more lifestyle partnerships and collaborations both within and outside Singapore," Chua said.

"There will be a lot of consolidation due to the economy. At the moment we won't cut from the marketing budget, we'll continue to at least maintain what we have spent for the last year but the media will probably be quite a bit different in 2009."

By: Ben Burrowes, Singapore