News
Fashion Rules Survey 2009 findings
IP Australia partnered with The Australian Fashion Council and The Fashion Group International to distribute a follow up survey from the 2008 intellectual property awareness survey.
The survey served two purposes. Firstly to see if there had been any changes in the awareness levels of intellectual property (IP) over the past year and secondly, to see the impact of recent marketing and promotional activity undertaken with this sector.
This survey also served to help refine and improve IP Australia’s services to this sector. This year 149 people responded to the survey compared to the 79 last year.
The sample
The majority of respondents (30%) were designers while 28% were classified in the ‘Other’ which included teachers / lecturers / trainers in the fashion industry; production managers and business owners. 16% were marketing professionals working in or with this industry.
The Methodology
The 2009 survey and was emailed to our Fashion Rules (226 members) and news databases (1,385). The Fashion Group International (160) and The Australian Fashion Council (120) also distributed the survey to their databases.
Six multiple choice questions were asked relating to awareness levels and different types of intellectual property. An additional two questions asking respondents if they had seen IP Australia’s Fashion Rules resource and where they had discovered the industry guide were added in the 2009 survey.
Key findings
Overall the most significant change was in the level of intellectual property awareness. 75% of the respondents were ‘very aware’ of intellectual property – a 24% increase from the previous survey; 23% were ‘somewhat aware’ and only 3% were ‘not aware’.
Trade marks was the specific form of IP right with the highest awareness level with 93% of respondents aware, followed by Copyright 86%, Patents 82% and Design protection last at 75%.
In the last survey general information about intellectual property topped the list at 73% while this year it was 56%. In response to the question ‘What information would be of most help in your field of work’, strategies on protecting designs was rated the highest priority by 63%.
One of the key areas of interest was to ascertain how successfully the Fashion Rules resource had penetrated the TCF market. 30% of respondents had seen the resource with the majority of participants viewing it online (43%). Exposure via a Ragtrader magazine promotion came in second with 33%, followed by Fashion Week promotions (17%). 23% of respondents specified ‘other’ which included Design Victoria events, a Fashion Group International workshop and a TAFE conference.
This year we also had 38 respondents seeking more information and expressing interest in receiving updates from IP Australia, adding to the growing Fashion Rules database. This is a similar response to last year.
Overall the results indicated growth in levels of IP amongst the Australian TCF Industry.
IP Australia has been actively promoting the Fashion Rules resource. It has also been promoted up by industry spokespeople such as Jo Kellock – Executive Director of The Council of Textile and Fashion Industries Australia ltd who urge designers to understand Australian IP laws. Recently The Sydney Morning Herald published an article stating the availability and value of Fashion Rules.
These findings assist the future promotional activities for the TCF sector. IP Australia continues to strive towards providing relevant, useful and helpful information to the Australian fashion community. The information collected in the survey has provided some valuable insights and IP Australia would like to thank all the participants.
If you have any questions or comments regarding Fashion Rules, please contact marketing@ipaustralia.gov.au or 1300 65 1010.
